Umbabat
6/15/2026
After listening to Hyenas through my screen doors during the night, I am up early. Today feels different to me. With both sons tagged out on amazing old Klaserie Buffalo bulls, I am no longer observer. I am behind the gun today.
We are loading the Land Cruisers for the hour long drive to Umbabat. Umbabat is much smaller and less populated than Klaserie. There are no commercial lodges. There are private homes but most are well hidden. It feels much quieter and more remote than Klaserie.
It is also thick. Very thick. Mopané thickets are everywhere. A Buffalo rodeo can happen in the bat of an eye. As you will soon see.
Throughout the day we saw 4-5 beautiful Bull Elephants. The ever present Zebra, Giraffe, Impala and Wildebeest. Two Warthogs and the not so common, Rhino, Hippo, Puff Adder and Reedbuck.
Around 9:00AM we found a large herd of Buffalo at one of the many waterholes.
The perfect bull was among them. A short sneak later I was on the sticks looking through the scope at the rump of a Cape Buffalo bull. As the herd began to sense something and move away, my bull turned to his right slightly quartering. I touched off the shot just behind the front leg without feeling the recoil or hearing the shot.
I believed the shot to be good.
The herd erupted up the hill through the Mopané, my wounded bull among them. Ernest quickly led me on a sprint around the lower end of the waterhole and into a clearing. There were Buffalo everywhere. While Ernest and the reserve representative glassed the hill trying to pick out the bull, I saw one bull turn back down the hill into the thicket. We determined it must be him. Over the next few minutes, we pursued him through and along the thicket fully expecting a charge. But, he was sick. Very sick. Over those next few minutes, five shots were fired, each as he would stop in the thicket long enough for us to catch up and add to his weight 300 grains at a time. The 4th being a Barnes solid just under the right eye. Not ideal but you take the shot you have at that point. He dropped and the 5th was insurance in the spine. Game over.
As the dust settled, I realized I had my first African animal. A beautiful, old, heavily bossed, proper Cape Buffalo bull.
This tops off an unbelievable three days of Buffalo hunting in Greater Kruger with Ernest Dyason of Spear Safaris.
After a dry riverside lunch, we decided that we would spend the balance of the day looking for lions. As tourists do.
On route back to camp from Umbabat, Ernest heard from another Klaserie Ranger that there were lions around the remains from the hunter harvested Elephant we had seen on Saturday afternoon. We quickly dropped off our things at camp, loaded back into the bland Cruiser and set out hopeful that this might be our best opportunity to see lions.
After the 40 minute drive, we approached the site slowly. Vultures were in trees by the dozens. This seemed like a good sign. Something was keeping them from being actually on the remains.
As the view opened up, there was only one lion. But, what a lion he was! He was spectacular and lazy from a full belly.
We watched him from the vehicle at less than 20 yards for nearly 30 minutes before he stood and trotted off into the cover adjacent to the kill site.
He is an absolutely magnificent creature. His kind has held a special place in the primal part of me since childhood. To see him up close in person stirred things deep inside of me that I can’t actually explain.
Let me share him with you.
I cannot imagine having a better day afield than today. A successful first Buffalo hunt and actually seeing 4 of the Big 5 in the same day. Amazing.
The past three days have been among the best in my adult life. To share this trip with my two sons is a blessing beyond belief.
Tomorrow we depart the camp in Klaserie that has been so good to us to travel to Ernest’s North Limpopo concession for plains game.
One chapter must end for the next to begin.
