- Reviews
- 2
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2012
- Messages
- 764
- Reaction score
- 1,736
- Location
- Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Website
- www.karoowildsafaris.co.za
- Deals & offers
- 34
- Media
- 819
- Articles
- 3
- Member of
- ECGMA, PHASA
- Hunted
- South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe
The Zambian leg of our 26-day adventure began with a turbulent descent into Lusaka airport in our King Air charter, the downside of flying at midday in a light aircraft. After 10-days on safari, we missed fast food terribly and we murdered half a dozen cheeseburgers before stocking up on some supplies at the mall below our hotel.
DJ's camera had taken a knock and he stayed in Lusaka to source an emergency back-up camera. Rob, myself and PH Peter left at 4:30 am for Kafue to hunt a Kafue Lechwe. We checked in at the ranger station and drove through some light woods to enter the open floodplains. We were soon treated to the most spectacular sight, the Kafue River spills it's banks at Blue Lagoon to create a flood plain 30km by 60km wide, home to quite literally thousands of Kafue Lechwe. It was the most spectacular wildlife sighting, we must've seen 5000 lechwe that day. The most challenging part was staying on the targeted Lechwe bull as he moved between the large herd. We were limited to staying on dry ground and Rob's shot was an incredible 340 meters. What a fantastic Kafue Lechwe Rob had shot!
Early the next morning we flew our charter to Bangweula Swamps en route to South Luangwa. As we approached the grass landing strip our pilot treated us to aerial views of the Bangweulu Swamps with thousands of lechwe grazing on it's fertile lands. Much like Kafue, there were lechwe everywhere and Rob shot a beautiful black lechwe ram. After an early lunch at the airstrip we departed for our GMA on the southern bank of the Luangwa River, one of Africa's true wilderness areas. South Luangwa was to be our home for the next 14 days.
Over the course of our 14-days in South Luangwa, Rob hunted a cape buffalo, puku, waterbuck, warthog and two impala, the meat of which we used for leopard bait. We had 14 leopard baits up over the southern section of the 380 000 acre concession. There was lots of lion activity in the area and we were amazed at how effectively they climbed trees to get at our bait. Admiration soon turned to depair as it proved difficult to get baits up that weren't hit or affected by constant lion attention. A brave and hungry male lion even stole the drag off our tow hitch, rope and all while we were doing a drag along a road one morning. We felt a sharp tug on the cruiser and the drag was gone. The only evidence was lion tracks making off into the thick bush with our drag. And some clearly jaded trackers who had just completed part of the drag on foot! We had 7 females on bait over the course of our hunt, but no male leopard. The lion activity decreased in the latter half of our hunt, fresh tracks became less plentiful and we no longer heard their constant roar in the evening. Despite our best efforts, we ran out of time on our leopard hunt. A day after we departed, two male leopards hit our baits.
Elephant activity also increased in the latter half of the hunt. We saw and stalked in on numerous elephant bulls. We were looking for something special however and passed on some good elephant bulls in the 35 to 45 pounds range. On the 3rd last morning, we tracked a bull elephant that the camp staff had spotted as they came into camp. A few hours and several miles of tracking later, we got onto him. Careful to walk in while he was browsing noisily and pause when he was not, we got Rob to 16 yards from him. He spotted us at the very last, but Rob made a quick frontal shot and he went down. He was an exceptionally old bull, estimated at 50 years old. The longer right tusk weighed 54 pounds and the shorter left tusk was 45 pounds. A truly magnificent specimen for the Luangwa Valley and absolutely the right elephant to hunt. This hunt more than made up for our leopard frustration. No doubt that there is a high density of leopard in the Luangwa. Nature's cycles, ebbs and flows had thwarted our best efforts. Both hunters who came into camp when we were leaving were successful on leopard.
We bid farewell to the magnificent Luangwa Valley.
DJ's camera had taken a knock and he stayed in Lusaka to source an emergency back-up camera. Rob, myself and PH Peter left at 4:30 am for Kafue to hunt a Kafue Lechwe. We checked in at the ranger station and drove through some light woods to enter the open floodplains. We were soon treated to the most spectacular sight, the Kafue River spills it's banks at Blue Lagoon to create a flood plain 30km by 60km wide, home to quite literally thousands of Kafue Lechwe. It was the most spectacular wildlife sighting, we must've seen 5000 lechwe that day. The most challenging part was staying on the targeted Lechwe bull as he moved between the large herd. We were limited to staying on dry ground and Rob's shot was an incredible 340 meters. What a fantastic Kafue Lechwe Rob had shot!
Early the next morning we flew our charter to Bangweula Swamps en route to South Luangwa. As we approached the grass landing strip our pilot treated us to aerial views of the Bangweulu Swamps with thousands of lechwe grazing on it's fertile lands. Much like Kafue, there were lechwe everywhere and Rob shot a beautiful black lechwe ram. After an early lunch at the airstrip we departed for our GMA on the southern bank of the Luangwa River, one of Africa's true wilderness areas. South Luangwa was to be our home for the next 14 days.
Over the course of our 14-days in South Luangwa, Rob hunted a cape buffalo, puku, waterbuck, warthog and two impala, the meat of which we used for leopard bait. We had 14 leopard baits up over the southern section of the 380 000 acre concession. There was lots of lion activity in the area and we were amazed at how effectively they climbed trees to get at our bait. Admiration soon turned to depair as it proved difficult to get baits up that weren't hit or affected by constant lion attention. A brave and hungry male lion even stole the drag off our tow hitch, rope and all while we were doing a drag along a road one morning. We felt a sharp tug on the cruiser and the drag was gone. The only evidence was lion tracks making off into the thick bush with our drag. And some clearly jaded trackers who had just completed part of the drag on foot! We had 7 females on bait over the course of our hunt, but no male leopard. The lion activity decreased in the latter half of our hunt, fresh tracks became less plentiful and we no longer heard their constant roar in the evening. Despite our best efforts, we ran out of time on our leopard hunt. A day after we departed, two male leopards hit our baits.
Elephant activity also increased in the latter half of the hunt. We saw and stalked in on numerous elephant bulls. We were looking for something special however and passed on some good elephant bulls in the 35 to 45 pounds range. On the 3rd last morning, we tracked a bull elephant that the camp staff had spotted as they came into camp. A few hours and several miles of tracking later, we got onto him. Careful to walk in while he was browsing noisily and pause when he was not, we got Rob to 16 yards from him. He spotted us at the very last, but Rob made a quick frontal shot and he went down. He was an exceptionally old bull, estimated at 50 years old. The longer right tusk weighed 54 pounds and the shorter left tusk was 45 pounds. A truly magnificent specimen for the Luangwa Valley and absolutely the right elephant to hunt. This hunt more than made up for our leopard frustration. No doubt that there is a high density of leopard in the Luangwa. Nature's cycles, ebbs and flows had thwarted our best efforts. Both hunters who came into camp when we were leaving were successful on leopard.
We bid farewell to the magnificent Luangwa Valley.
