SOUTH AFRICA: The First Foray w/ Matwetwe Safaris

It Begins
This will be a journal of my first trip to Africa, and reflects on my experiences hunting with Matwetwe Safaris in the Limpopo Region of RSA. For those of you who prefer a shorter read I'm going to provide a set of cliff notes, but as is my preference, I'll provide a more detailed report.

Summary:
A summary of what happens when a transplant Australian decides to hunt Africa, buys an auction hunt (had met the outfitter), second guesses himself and eventually decides to go ahead despite work doing its best to interfere with the trip timing.

Day -1:
Its a day before I fly to Johannesburg, so thought I'd lay down some preliminary thoughts. I wasn’t an early onset hunter, though fished throughout my childhood and had the occasional hunt back in Australia (rabbits and pigs mostly). I’ve dreamed of hunting in Africa since I was a lad, reading Wilbur Smith and later many of the classic safari authors, and was closing quickly on booking a hunt in early 2025 for 2026. I was split over the thought of taking the easier route in RSA, or going a little more ambitious with somewhere like Namibia, inspired by the journals of WMU05 among others (as I'd been reading this site), but I have a tendency to overthink my decisions, so makes me slow to move.

Attempting to do my due diligence and wanting to meet a PH in person to discuss potential concerns I visited an SCI Convention which is held close – I researched each of the outfits that were going to be there and noted there would be an auction but was reluctant to take that route. There I talked with several companies, and immediately got along with two of them (and definitely didn’t with 3 others), and one of them was Matwetwe Safaris. Harm, the PH (and son of the owner) was fantastic, and helped walk me through the basics, and was able to answer a bunch of more challenging questions I had as my wife has dietary limitations and needs the right type of guide, which it turned out Harm actually fit nicely (learned from experience on prior North American adventures). I talked about an interest going for a Kudu, talked through the package pricing, and knew what the trophy fee looked like, which while somewhat on the higher side was consistent with what else I was seeing.

I walked away with an information packet, and with the plan to contact them after the convention after I’d done some more research to start making comparisons. Their prices were slightly on the higher side, but still within the bounds of reasonable (2025 pricing). Then came the auction, and so I watched curiously as they worked through the list, noting which outfits had packages that went unsold (no surprises the ones I didn’t gel with weren’t popular), and seeing one of the other Matwetwe hunts raise a good amount of money along with the other outfitter I was looking at. Then an item came up that attracted no bids, a hunt from Matwetwe for night critters, something that my wife had expressed interest in our prior discussions. At $500 I felt that it wasn’t reasonable for someone not to make at least a bid at the donated hunt, and while I got bid up a few hundred more, I walked away with a week hunt for two, a few included animals that my wife had expressed interest in and having made a decent donation to SCI, which would offset the higher trophy fees in balance. Harm excitedly came to me afterward and we sorted out the required deposit, and I felt good about it all. A brief email exchange and we had dates for August 2026.

I then afterwards had a slight panic that maybe I had made a mistake and read horror stories of auctions (not recommended to look at after auction purchases). I looked up everything about Matwetwe that I could find, contacted references, and read widely including prior posts here by toyotatundra and MarkinMI and felt somewhat reassured that I'd picked a good outfitter until I started to plan last August about what I might be interested in taking and posted here. It was then that I ran down the slippery slope of comparing to other companies prices, and comparing the 2026 prices to outfitters here on AH, I got quite the sticker shock as they had risen substantively. I reached out to the outfitter to discuss potentially working something out for my species of interest, but the reply left me thinking that a Kudu had slipped off to a future trip. In some ways I prefer that, as I'd like that hunt to be more focused and a challenge, and I'm working with some of the outfitters here on AH to plan that next year.

Eventually, after a lot of umming and ahhing, I decided to go ahead with the trip, and just curtailing my plans to some of the reasonably priced animals while balancing the donated hunt price (as I understand the PHs position). And then we had someone in the family be diagnosed with cancer, and it looked like I’d be traveling alone…fortunately that resolved for the best, and the wife is able to join me for the trip. We’ve decided to the trip will be a ‘first taste of Africa’ and put a lot less pressure on the hunting aspect of the trip, do a couple of side trips and enjoy ourselves staying at some really nice accommodation. For me the hunt has a lot to do with the environment and experience, so moving away from focusing solely on the hunt will make the trip more enjoyable.

Work of course then decided to schedule a conference that I can't avoid right smack bang at the start of my trip, and thereby shortened my plans by a couple of days (while also adding some crazy flight logistics), and with no way to push the trip backwards (outfitter conflict) and another work trip cropping up, it meant that we'd be in RSA for a week. Flights for this summer were somewhat painful, but we managed to land some decent premium economy seats via United and secured the business upgrade on points. Inbound is GRR-EWR-JNB and we leave tomorrow!

Species that we will be targeting include a Steenbuck, Common Duiker, Genet, Jackal, Impala, but beyond that I've got a priority list - a Bushbuck or Nyala, Wilderbeest or a Springbok might be potential targets - we'll see what the bush provides.

Looking forward to the whole report.

Groundhog Day
Day -1
I'm leaving tomorrow? This will be short as I am feeling rather thrown following a lot of preparation at this trip. After working my backside off this week, and organizing an ornate schedule with two flights (and waking at 3:30am) and multi-suitcase logistics to get back from the work trip ready to travel for this hunt, my plans have come crashing down due to my domestic connection to Newark being cancelled early this afternoon due to thunderstorms being expected to influence capacity (which is a load of crap, but that is another story). Despite my best efforts there is no way to meet my international connection, and so departure is delayed to either tomorrow, or a complete cancellation with no available seats until early next week (at which point the duration is too short to be worth the effort). The Schrödinger situation around a flight tomorrow is that there the flight seems to be sold out, but supposedly we have two seats booked, but the system cannot tell us where in the aircraft for the international leg. As much as I'd love to go, I draw the line at getting stuck in a regular economy seat (not having at least extra legroom) as I simply don't fit and my knees end up several inches into the seat in front of me (very long legs). I'm hoping some sort of clarity will emerge in the morning regarding seating - otherwise, this might be a very brief journal.

Actual Departure
With a little luck, it looks like we might actually get to go, a day late, but glad to get to go at all. Seats are assigned, and we have made it to Newark, despite a slight delay. Flight looks to be on time so hopefully, next post will be on the flip side from Limpopo, after arriving at the lodge.

Fingers crossed for you. Good report so far, add photos when you can. I want to see how this turns out.

Safe travels!
Shoot straight, stay down wind , take in everything Africa provides and come home safe!

WiFi is down at camp, first day is in the books. Teaser only, but after 8 miles of walking, the first animal for me is in the salt - a magnificent stud of a blue wilderbeest.

Hunted with Hendrik twice. Great family.

Arrival

Summary:
A comfortable flight, a 2.5 hour drive to the property and a surprise new lodge and we arrived.

Arrival
We got lucky with the flights, and so ended up with a lovely lie flat experience for the flight to JNB. In terms of duration, it certainly wasn't long by our standards (other trips to the SH on a regular basis), and after a few hours sleep we had the long grind of the African day.


Upon arrival (half an hour early to my shock), and collecting a necessary checked bag (multi-purpose trip), we made our way through passport control and out the exit, there encountering Gian, who was giving us a ride up to camp. Unexpectedly, we also ran into the owner Hendrik, who was there to pick up another group who'd been delayed getting in by two days - we were a little confused, until we were told that we'd be staying in their brand new lodge, that we knew nothing about. We packed the vehicle and hit the road, my wife grabbing some Zs while Gian and I chatted in the front. Our trip involved spotting a few duiker, a genet and a jackal, along with a quick gas station stop for supplies given there would not be food for the arrival night.

Arriving at the lodge we were suitably impressed - the new property abuts the old, and doubles the huntable acreage, though they are not hunting it in the short term to allow the animals to recover from the previous owner. While sparsely decorated thus far, we are only the 3rd clients to stay here, so that has been pretty cool. The new lodge is proximal to a water hole, and we actually got to see young Nyala bulls as we arrived. While I know its not quite along the timeline, I'll share here the lodge photos and the room, as its been really nicely done.







Room is also very nice, chalet style a pleasant little walk away from the main dining/bar/fire pit area.


The only downside - unfortunately the wifi was down due to a service issue. We turned in around 9:00pm, and decided to wake at 5am to see the sunrise and get ourselves ready to meet the PH at 6:30am.

Good luck!

Day 1 - The First Foray:


Summary: Met the PH, grabbed a bite, the obligatory sight in, seeing a few animals on the drive, and then long stalks through the bush. A chance sighting of a springbok, a close met stalk followed by an animal ghosting away. Lunch break followed by my wife deciding to sit out the afternoon hunt. A phenomenal afternoon as clouds moved in chasing blue wildebeest, with a long botched impala stalk followed by getting on to a heck of a blue wildebeest, with a tree supported 120 yard shot to the lungs, an inch back of the perfect line, but more than enough to drop him without a follow up after a short run. Several subsequent stalks on Impala ran into too many eyes, and the day ended with a fantastic sunset, thunderstorms and unexpected rain.

The Morning Dawns:

Laying awake at the wee hours of the morning after 5 hours sleep, I stared into the cavernous roof the chalet. My anticipation was like a kid on Christmas morning, wondering what the day might bring. We managed to scrabble a little more sleep before finally giving up at 5:00am to get ourselves organized and pack our day bags. The African dawn broke over camp and was greeted by regular bird calls - the sunrises here are as spectacular as described by all the authors, I don't know what it is, but it hits different when it is like the stars are suddenly confronted with an off switch. Even the smell as we opened the door was amazing, an earthy fragrance that I’ve not encountered before.



We went to grab a bite in the lodge before meeting the PH at 6:30am (post travel hunger), and were excited to see the Nyala from the prior night walking back to the water as we drank our tea inside the lodge. Harm arrived, and we caught up on things since our last conversation back in Michigan, and discussed the mornings plan as we drove across to the shooting range closer to the other camp. Matwetwe have a policy to only have one group in camp, and so have two separate lodges now to accommodate this. The goal of course being the usual proof of shooting and that we had what it takes. Along the way, Harm pointed out parts of the property, and we saw both a steenbuck and a common duiker.

I don’t know about anyone else, but the shooting range prior to a hunt always gets me a little performance anxiety, no matter how much I practice. Setting up on the bench I aligned on the 100-yard target and did a dry pull just to judge the trigger (a habit when shooting guns I don’t know) – moderate-light and not too bad at all. Loading an ELD-x, the first shot I took up the trigger but jerked it a touch as it required more force that I typically have my triggers set to – a good hit an inch high and left. Deciding to take a second, I neatly popped it about ¾ of an inch away but now squarely just above the bull. My wife was up next, and performed well as always, with a pair of shots well within the target zones. And with that – it was off for a drive on their properties surrounding the lodge that total some 5-6000 acres, looking for an impala or springbok to get us started.



I felt like a newborn babe the way the morning started – while the wind seemed to keep them in cover, we saw Blesbok, Waterbuck, Duiker, Warthog, but not a single Impala, despite Harm’s assurances that they did exist (which became the running joke of the trip). Being so wide eyed, my ability to spot the animals was sub-par and was pretty much totally on the PHs guidance, and we didn’t even have a reason to set the sticks across most of the morning. Instead, I was focused on the plethora of sharp and pointies that seemed to augment every tree, and weird things like the giant piles of leavings from Impala and Blesbok. My preference going into this hunt was for longer walk and stalks rather than staying close to the bakkie, and so we covered some serious country in the morning, doing a lot of long walks through the scrub and seeing what the bush might provide. It proved a fantastic antidote to jetlag. Coming from Australia I’m somewhat used to the hostile bush, but this was a step up, the thorns here are something else, and I was glad for the thick canvas shirt and tough pants I was wearing.

We did start on a stalk toward the blesbok in the hopes that there were impala with them, and ended up pushing a large blesbok herd into the open with several shooter bulls, but at this stage nothing really grabbed my fancy and blesbok weren’t on my menu. Finally, as we were beginning to head out for lunch, we saw three springbok make a break in front of us, and then proceeded to track them quickly and doubled over – we had a few efforts where we almost got to shooting and set up on the sticks following a crawl, but they were skittish with the relatively high winds (as were most animals, and they were bedded close to cover). We kept following until they entered a large clearing with a strip of trees, and watched as a single ram disappeared into the other side of the tree line, tracking, thinking we could pop to the edge of the trees and get a shot, only for the ram to disappear. After that we drove back to the lodge. While my legs felt good for the longer stalks, my wife didn’t cope as well in addition to the jetlag, and this led to her deciding to sit out the afternoon hunt (and promptly sleeping for several hours).

To be Continued…

Day 1 - The First Foray (Continued):

We returned to the lodge for a nice lunch, with bacon, eggs, sausages and wedges on the menu along with a fruit salad. Suitably vittled, we then took it easy in our room for a while, until it was time to meeting up again for the afternoon hunt. We headed to a different concession which had Blue Wildebeest and Impala, as they ranch cattle at the home property and hence don’t have them locally to avoid diseases.

The first daytime experience of South Africa took us through a local town (Roedtan), and onto a beautiful concession consisting of larger open areas and dense scrub sections. With the wind and overhead cirrus making animals funny, we weren’t sure the degree we’d see movement, and so we approached cautiously, deciding to jump from the bakkie (continuing the trackie not bakkie mandate) to take up another long stalk of about half a mile. From the edge of the tree line, we spotted a really nice blue wildebeest bull (very obviously wide, thick bossed, glowing anthracite black and the sole bull with a bunch of cows laying down), and shooter impala either side of them in the next tree line several hundred yards away, and wondered how the heck we could pull off a stalk across this completely open ground with a few scatted trees, and all the animals blocking approaching through the brush. We went with the doubled over walk, and reached the halfway mark, with at least an option of a few skinny trees within a couple of hundred yards of the tree line and within reach if we could get out there.


Harm the PH looking at the impala on the far tree line, and contemplating whether we can someone make a play.

We held for a long period glassing, evaluating our options and seeing if the impala would either feed toward us or away – we had the wind very much in our favor and so the only thing that would cause us trouble was movement – though the intermittent shadows from clouds kept moving through leaving us occasionally illuminated. Eventually we reached the point of risking it for the biscuit, and began a long doubled-over walk out to those few trees. We reached the closest thorny tree mostly undetected (except for one old broken off and wise impala), about 140 yards from the impala. Setting up we propped the sticks against the tree for an angled rest, and I dropped to a knee to line up on the rightmost of 3 impala who was a really cool looking ram – not the traditional wide flare but actually with a curve back in at the back. And promptly, the knee down on the ground got reminded of the thorny nature of Africa’s plant life, and it took most my concentration not to howl as it sank deep. Unfortunately, the old impala on the left blew at the movement of setting the gun in place, and they ran off, thereby busting the wildebeest and other impala in the area – so we felt our chances were slim.

Except apparently the wildebeest didn’t read the script, and ended up going nowhere, eventually laying down again. We used this calmer demeanor to push further forward, keeping as low as we could, bouncing from tree to tree, beginning about 250 yards away and ending up 120 yards from the bull. After the long set of walks, I realized that my preparations had failed to account for doubled walking and the time we’d spent doing it, as it really puts a stretch through the hamstrings – new addition to my future training routine, though it’ll probably look funny. We managed to get a tree between us and them and in file got into position. Dodging thorns again, I set up braced to the tree and settled ready to shoot. With them laying down, there wasn’t a clear ethical shot, but I got a good look at the bull through the binoculars and scope, he was a shooter any day of the week, and looked magnificent as his horns shone in the sun and his body with gorgeous brindling half visible through the long grass. So, we then waited and eventually the cows started to get fretful due to all the movement, and every animal stood up, including the bull, though the cows milled in a pile separate from him. He turned to follow the herd to the right, stopped once, spun then twice and the third he gave a very close to broadside shooting opportunity. That third stop was his downfall, I’d had long enough to get very steady, I placed a little tension on my finger to take the slack and bloke the trigger, and the suppressed 30-06 barked. And then the calm bush broke into animals sprinting in every which direction. Harm calmly stated ‘hit’ but it was obvious from a mule kick that he was hit hard, and the herd broke into bedlam, with the male charging off into the scrub behind him with the remainder of cows. Racking a second (a little awkward as a right-handed rifle that I was using as a leftie), there was no shot option. Shot felt really good, and I was feeling a little trepidation that he had gone a ways and we could no longer see him.

We began to move quickly to follow, making sure to leave a marker at the impact point, and to see if a follow up was needed to avoid any trouble. Cutting through some thick stuff, we circling into the thick bush, we saw the cows reluctant to move away, but then break out into open ground to our left and pursued, only to see a distinct lack of a bull. A little more searching along the tree line and we caught sight of him laying, but with his body vertical like he was sitting, about 100 yards from the shot. Approaching closer, it was clear that he was no longer among the living, and he had fallen in a sitting pose. Harm gave me a high five and we embraced. I could not help the feeling of wonder, perhaps an hour or so into the afternoon… and my first African animal. He was a gorgeous blue wildebeest – the cracked surface of his thick bosses, beautiful wide horns with a lovely drop, extremely pronounced brindling (that I’d never even realized with these animals prior to seeing these) and a fighting marks all over his skin – while not overly old, this dude was clearly a brawler and the dominant local bull. Harm called for the bakkie over the radio and went to retrieve his cap (our erstwhile hit marker), while I sat down and acknowledged the animals sacrifice in my own way. Every animal I have taken I always go through this step, as I believe that a lot of respect should go into taking an animal, and it is on us to appreciate their beauty. For me you could have stopped the trip then and there – it had fulfilled every dream I have had about hunting in Africa since a boy, and we had done it through a long spot and stalk and put it all together.






The shot was about 1 inch back of the ideal hit point, but perfect height, and had rattled through both lungs, doing what was needed to drop him quickly. And then it was picture time. I was really impressed as to the degree of effort put into preparing the trophy shot, a fair bit of panga work, and setting the animal to showcase his best (not pictures shown here, these are a few snaps I took). We then took a whole bunch of photos, a typical sitting shot, a behind the horns for scale, and a couple of the animal itself. I decided not to follow local south african tradition (biting into one of the jigglies after your first animal - would've been a whole meal and strongly influenced my first animal shot choice). We then cutting a path to get it close enough to the bakkie for a winch. We had to do a little dragging, and I was surprised how big these animals are. Harm has a very cool winch system on his truck, with a front mounted brace, and a detachable arm to lift the dynema cable over the cab, and the back gate comes down with bars angled to help the animal roll in. With recovery complete, we saw darker clouds on the horizon, and decided that it would probably be a good idea to continue hunting, as we weren’t sure the weather for the next day would be great, and it seemed the animals were moving.



To be continued…

I have been to Hedrick and Harm several times, and going again in "27.

Id' say you're going to be there for about a day or two, and already be thinking of a booking another trip.

Day 1 - The First Foray (Continued):

We hopped back in the bakkie, and shifted our focus to impala again. We began to wind around the property seeing a range of animals, along with numerous wildebeest (always seems to be the way, once an animal isn’t a target, you can bet you’ll see plenty). Along the way Harm and I discuss how blue wildebeest bull sizes could be evaluated on the hoof, and we compared a few lesser bulls that we saw to the one taken. While there were several furtive stalks upon seeing small groups of impala, I’ll focus here on a couple of the more notable.

We came along a road where we saw impala crossing far ahead, dismounted and began to work our way up to the crossing, setting up once on the sticks, but the impala never stopped. We then continued to walk forward, spotting a few waterbuck females, and eventually coming to a wide plains opening – we circled through the thick brush to our left, as we could see a large (~150-200 animals) herd of impala, well out into the open. Seeing several desirable looking males, we pushed out into the opening toward the solitary tree available to us as scant cover. As we emerged from the scrub and bent double we caught glimpses of Sable, many more wildebeest, red hartebeest, a big dark bull giraffe, along with a few buffalo in the distance. The problem we faced was the all too common one of too many eyes, a poor wind direction (from behind us directly toward the impala) and with only shallow grass cover remaining to close the distance. Discussing our options, we decided to push our luck and circle right to a lower grass area where a prone shot would be an option, given we couldn’t close to roughly less than 220 yards, which is more than I felt comfortable with off the two prong sticks we were using. We got almost to the point where we wanted, and one stronger puff reached the impala – it was rather spectacular to see that many animals burst into flight, which of course triggered movement among many of the other species. We decided to call up the bakkie and move forward, as there was little point trying to pressure the issue and the impala were already a long way off and heading for cover. At this point we got a close approach to the bull and female giraffe along with a couple of young ones which hadn’t been visible, which was amazing (much to my absent wife’s disappointment), and checked out the various other species as we moved toward another stalk that Harm figured would be worthwhile in the wind. The clouds now were starting to look decidedly stormy, and rain was visible toward the horizon, so we decided one last stalk in the later afternoon light was in order.



We began a long stalk along the sandy, dusty road in single file, and kept close watch on the surrounding bush. While several groups of impala were seen, none really provided opportunity, nor a suitable ram, and so we kept pushing along the road. We saw a few female waterbuck to our right, and eventually bumped another group of them to parallel us for much of the stalk, as they clearly wanted to cross the road. Passing the waterbuck, we came across an enormous sable bull in thick cover, a stunning animal and one that will no doubt be a target in the future if the piggy bank allows. We spotted a group of impala crossing perhaps 150 yards ahead and set just in case a ram gave us a shot, and one did stop – but unfortunately his vitals were obscured but intervening brush and with no time to reposition he was passed. Oh if I knew how many times this was going to happen over the coming days. Numerous female warthog and piglets were to be seen in the more open areas to the left of the road, with the sun sinking behind us and to the left, casting a pinkish glow across the terrain. A nice shooter warthog appeared within 30 yards, and was fascinating to watch as he trotted across an opening, but was not something I was really interested in taking. Finally, we reached the end of the long stalk as the sun began to sink behind the trees, with the thundery clouds offering a spectacular sky. Little were we to know what would follow.



On the drive back a flash of light caught my attention – lightning? At this time of year? It began to increase in regularity, growing closer, and as we arrived back at the lodge, rain began to fall. Heavy, soaking rain, accompanied by close lightning and thunder. Certainly not suitable for night hunting and putting somewhat of a fly in the ointment as to our plans and expectations for the following day. I’ll note here that while Harm is an excellent PH who is incredibly knowledgeable, his weather forecasts should be interpreted as the opposite, I believe a clear statement to my wife Rose at lunch went along the lines of ‘we don’t get rain at this time of year’. Boy, were we in for a surprise.

A brief shower to clean up, a much needed brandy and coke, and then it was dinner, joined by Harm, his lovely wife Jana, Gian, and AJ, who runs the meat processing and skinning operations here. A kudu kebab appetizer followed by slow-cooked short ribs and rice made for a delectable meal. We discussed plans for the morrow, with a longer drive to a concession in the mountains to the southeast for the morning, targeting Nyala and Bushbuck the plan, with the afternoon returning for a trip up to Entabeni. As the jet lag, and fatigue from a long hunting day began to set in, we retired early, falling to deep slumber listening to the heavy rain beating down on the grass thatched roof accompanied by regular thunder.

Day 2 Morning - Storm Skies, and New Horizons

A crack of thunder shook the Earth and split the night asunder, followed by another, and another, rendering the early morning hours into a cacophony. The sound of rain on a thatched roof is different, almost echoing as the drops splatter across the grassy surface. Rain had been off and on with distant thunder through the night, but these conditions were to be the story of the day. Sleep for a jetlagged mind after such an awakening proved elusive, and as the plan had been to make an early departure at 5:30am to travel down to the concession in the hills of southeast Limpopo near the border with Mpumalanga, we were ready early to see what the day held. Even walking to the main lodge from our chalet to break our fast proved a challenge with the heavy clay soil quickly turning into a quagmire of mud from the just over an inch of rainfall in the night. The morning was cool, damp and windy. A cup of tea and a rusk, and the morning began to better coalesce, with intermittent rain continuing.

Shortly after Harm arrived, and we had an interesting time getting out the access road, with several points of the vehicle slipping and sliding through the mud. To borrow an expression my dad always used in such circumstances, keep the throttle wide and never fear the slide. Jova, the tracker declined our invitation to sit in the dry cabin given the cool and wet conditions, preferring to ride in the back of the bakkie. We headed down southeast, past Marble Hall toward the concession, passing the plethora of cultivated citrus orchards and grape vines. The clouds were low and misty, with pockets of rainfall as we traveled. Eventually the heavily cultivated areas turned toward increasingly rocky and thickly vegetated hills and narrow valleys. Roadwork threw off our plans a little, with a 15-minute delay due to road resurfacing, but eventually we arrive at the concession and went to open the gate, only for the gate to freeze up a quarter open. A quick diagnosis revealed solar power to be the culprit – the heavy cloud cover of the previous day and morning, together with the narrow window of sunlight in such a valley left the gate unpowered. A quick call to the property manager, and the gate was manually opened, and we were ready to get hunting.




We drove in some distance to get to a point to start a stalk, seeing a few nyala ewes, blue wildebeest and impala which seemed promising. We then jumped out and began a long multi-mile stalk over the rolling hills and into the valley where Harm believed we’d have the best shot at a Bushbuck or Nyala. Our stalk took us down a two-track punctuated by fresh sign following the rain, with the tracks of impala, kudu and nyala ubiquitous, further driving our excitement. The foliage here was extremely thick – a shot at 40 yards would be considered long, and so we quietly drifted along the road. We caught glimpse of several more groups of Nyala ewes, however, none of them had a male with them. A pair of ostriches then appeared, and ran away down the two track, much to Harm’s annoyance (not a fan of ostriches, and they blew a lot of stalks this trip, reinforcing that reputation). Then a crack of thunder over the mountain, and it began to blow hard from over the hills and before we knew it we were stalking in heavy rain. The stronger winds had the animals in the thick stuff, and so while we saw a few more Nyala ewes and lambs, there was nothing huntable thus far. Continuing our stalk, we walked the north side of the river valley, seeing no further animals, but bumping the ostriches again from a corner. The change in terrain from the prior day was a welcome intrigue, so stark to be in these almost rainforest like valleys in the clouding morning compared to the open plains or flat grassy country with thick acacia scrub.

While normally we would be able to walk across the relatively shallow river, the overnight rains had swelled it to a torrent, and so vehicular intervention was necessary. Following the crossing, my wife elected to stay back with the truck to recover for future stalks, while we headed on another long walk. A couple of hundred yards in…movement close, at about 30 yards – a bushbuck, and a shooter male. We readied on the sticks, but he did not stop, and Harm told me he wouldn’t have let me shoot him anyway, as we could do better. The stalk continued, spotting further Nyala ewes and lambs, and we came around a bend to look across a swampy opening, with long grass giving way to thick and tall reeds, as we moved around suddenly a crash growing louder….and a huge group of impala bounded from the flat area where we were into this reed filled area, triggered other animals hidden in the reeds to also move. And then we caught sight of two Nyala bulls. Moving quickly, we got ourselves into a position to glass and potentially shoot about 140 yards out. Both bulls looked solid, but they moved quickly into a thicket on the opposite side of the river, giving us no real option to pursue. We continued to follow the trail round, disturbing a fish eagle who screamed at our presence – they are an amazing looking bird and huge. We circled further and eventually came to where we decided to walk along another track toward the truck. With a radio call, we planned to bring the truck toward us, however that was suddenly belayed as two bushbuck males broke from cover – a younger ram likely the one seen earlier, and a second much taller and wider. While we were set on the sticks they moved liked greased lightning, never giving us an opportunity and so we continued toward the truck, only to be stopped in our tracks by movement to our right. A glimpse of another bushbuck, a big old male with a beautiful dark coat, who started running through the thick stuff never giving us a chance. We tried multiple setups on him, racing to various positions and getting him in the sights, but he would never stop and eventually he dashed across the trail and into the thick stuff with his two colleagues – we looked closely but they were in the deep reeds, and so our target eluded us again.

We re-positioned to drive along the other portion of the valley, resting our legs after a lot of walking over the past two days. This section was relatively uneventful, seeing a few blue wildebeest, and yet another road runner ostrich. We then circled to run several other sections, but it was largely quiet on the western front. We decided to circle up onto one of the hill routes to see if we could work out an approach vector to the two Nyala bulls we had seen in the thicket, and drove up the steep hillside, seeing further Nyala ewes with no sign of a bull, Kudu cows and the first two young bulls I’d ever seen. If I wasn’t convinced to hunt a Kudu on a future trip already, I certainly was now. We continued to see animals dotted around the hillside, including a couple of young bushbuck males, and eventually came to an overlook of a small lake surrounded by thick reeds. As we made this turn we saw a huge Nyala bull with ewes, bedded near the water. Unfortunately, he was on the only area of the property not open to hunting, as it was too near to the property managers residence. Damn beautiful bull though and a welcome reassurance of the quality of animals on this property. We then circled to another trail and saw a bushbuck standing in the trail. We quickly dismounted and stalked up into position about 30 yards out – a bushbuck female could be just seen, but we’d seen the ram on the road as well and so watched closely in the thick reeds, and off the sticks could only see his horns. They broke with that characteristic piercing bark from the female and dashed into the reeds. We backtracked with them, watching the reeds move and positioned over an opening, only for the horns to be the only thing visible once again...and then they were gone like ghosts. As we walked back to our left (over the boundary on another concession they have) we saw a huge ram at about 100 yards, but there was no way to switch concessions, so seeing him was the best we could do. Five shooter bushbuck rams, and 3 of those being big rams made for a heck of a lucky morning.

We then continued to work along the trails with short stalks and taking the bakkie, before we decided to use the bathroom and head back to the lodge. Normally, they bring a lunch box and stay down here for the day, but our afternoon booking at Entabeni meaning we were pushing our time window as it was, and so we needed to go. And as we drove out along the trails, I spotted a bull Nyala 50 yards to the left of the road and got really excited…Harm said my reaction was a little porky pig like ‘b…b.b..b…bull’. We drove on, dismounted, and stalked back, observing another younger bull, and moved into position on the big one, getting up onto the sticks – a ewe was behind him, but worse, a thick branch blocked his vitals, so even when she stepped away, there was no viable shot, and they bounded off. Given the time crunch, we called the morning, and began the drive back. Discussing, we planned to return the next day with a lunchbox and see if we could get a little lucky. As we reached reception we received a call – Entabeni was recommending we shift our booking, as heavy rain had put the animals into cover, and the roads were not in great condition. So frustratingly, we could’ve stayed the rest of the day, but the cool and windy conditions probably would’ve made life hard. A new plan was hatched to chase Springbok and Impala on a different property for the afternoon, shift Entabeni to Thursday, while we also scrabbled to see if the fields we had planned to night hunt would be passable after all this rain.

Author's Note: My only frustration with this morning hunt was that I neglected to obtain many photographs, with my apologies to the readers, so engrossed I was in the terrain and hunting.

Day 2 Afternoon – Plan, Replan, Plan

After a late lunch we decided to stick closer to the lodge for the afternoon, with plans to hit a concession where springbok and impala could be potential targets. My wife again elected to give the afternoon hunt a miss to rest, as she wanted to be ready for the night session, and the frenetic pace after the untoward shortening of our trip by flights meant that she was still jetlagged. Harm arrived to pick me up with a twinkle in his eye, and instructions that he’d seen a springbok bedded driving over from the other lodge, and it looked like a really nice one. We readied quickly, drove a short distance and then jumped out to stalk. We spotted the springbok still bedded, and moved into position at about 120 yards. Both of us quickly realized that something was very wrong and while his head was still up, he wasn’t going anywhere fast. Harm asked me if I’d be ok with taking him, as he prefers client have opportunities at healthy animals, and I quickly reassured him that a merciful end for a sick animal was something I’d be fine with – there will be many more hunts. We lined up the sticks, settle and the shot rang out, the springbok dropped on the spot and never rose.

Closing in on him to ensure a follow up wasn’t needed, it quickly became evident the issue. He had injured his leg, was quite old and thin, and likely would not have seen out the last month. While we couldn’t support it with direct evidence, we suspected that a cold and damp night had done little to benefit his health, and he had fallen behind the other rams. In my view, a good animal to take. A high five and embrace, followed by my quiet ritual as we set up again for picture time. The clearing skies gave some dramatic backdrops, and we of course saw the flaring of the hair along the springboks back, and the obligatory smelling of the cotton candy scent gland (Harm did so first, just to prove it wasn’t a send up).








After the springbok, we continued to drive around the property, sticking with not changing to the original planned concession. We sought to prove that impala could be found on their home property and while elusive, were happily rewarded with the sight of a good ram. We dismounted to begin what became a series of long stalks on a couple of different groups, and as the first was uneventful as the impala disappeared, I’ll focus on the second. Dismounting, we began to track the impala, getting close, but just elusively out of range, with the larger rams leading the group. Through thorn, thicket and grass, we continued, accessorizing various parts of us with scratches, and after a couple of setups on sticks, ready to take the shot, eventually came close to a pan where it seemed we’d finally have our opportunity as the ram walked past the opening at 140 yards. And then the dulcet tones of flatulence ripped through the air as the animals broke into flight. No, it wasn’t us, a group of zebra had been hanging around the pan and ended up spooking before the impala, and then a merry chase ensued, with the zebra bumping the impala who bumped the zebra and eventually ended up with the zebra in two groups calling to each other. At this point it was hopeless and so called up and jumped back into the bakkie, and continued our drive.

The next encounter was one that I’d been looking forward to but wasn’t sure it would happen while hunting. Turning a corner, we moved up the trail to see large black shapes…a herd of cape buffalo staring towards us. I was dumbstruck by the size of these beasts (for those of you chasing a buffalo above 40 inches, I salute you, but I think I’ll stick to the smaller models). Harm pointed out the differences between a soft and a hard bossed bull, identifying two in this herd that were hard bossed. They first eyed us like we had no right to be there, the old adage of a look like we owed them money being appropriate, before they became uncomfortable and charged across the trail off into the bush, echoes of trees and brush crackling in their wake. Later as we continued we saw a giant bull they have on the property, a monster above the 50 inch mark, with deep curls and a harem of females. I can see why so many on the forum and in the hunting community view these animals with both awe and respect. I may have thereafter had a conversation with Harm about buffalo hunting on a future trip, and the various areas where buffalo can be hunted and the different hunting methods. One day.





Given we planned to hunt the night, and the grey skies were again setting in, we decided to call the evening hunt a little early, and returned to the lodging, to find waterbuck cows at the waterhole. Another eventual and successful day, with more potentially to come, as we delved into the darkness.

Day 2 – The Night is for Hunting

After a hearty dinner of game shepherd’s pie we rugged up and loaded into the bakkie. The original auction hunt we had bought including a set of night critters, and given there were several on our list, the adverse weather conditions up until this point had us concerned as whether the opportunities would be there to pursue these animals. Given the cool day and night, we weren’t sure of our prospects for success, and while one place we had planned to hunt was impassable due to heavy rain, another nearby was an option as they’d had far less from the somewhat isolated storms. My wife was the batter up for the night hunt, as these were some of the animals she’d been interested in targeting (largely the reason for purchasing the hunt), and it would enable her to shoot from the bakkie as she was less confident off sticks. She hasn’t taken many animals, so this was a big step for her. For me this felt like a return to childhood, spotlighting hogs and rabbits from the back of a truck in western New South Wales. We arranged ourselves and a plan for the steps to be taken if an animal were to be spotted, with both a shotgun for cats/genet, and the 30-06 for antelope and jackals. Gian drove, Harm, my wife and I occupying the high seats, with Harm running the spotlight and me acting as gun boy/spotlight assist for keeping light on the antelope so that Harm could ensure we were targeting suitable males.

Sweeping arcs of the spotlight illuminated the former sunflower field, plowed now to a mixture of mud and crackling stalks. As we meandered into the field the spotlight swept, and eventually green eyes flashed back, Steenbuck, Harm whispered. Suddenly I was handed the spotlight and a second source while Harm checked for horns, but as it was a female we moved on. This was closely followed by spotting a large porcupine. While we had porcupine available in our package, we elected not to take one, as we really didn’t see the point nor have the interest…cool animal to see though. Driving further along the boundary, we came across a couple of female common duiker and repeated our dancing spotlight routine, and spotted a pair of steenbuck with including small male far out on another field we’d hunt later. As we rounded the next corner – a jackal popped up at 100 yards, and my wife was quick to get into position, however, he never stopped and disappeared over a hill. A short drive forward, and again, a jackal way out near the boundary, who paused for a moment to a call, but she wasn’t quick enough. We continued round, spotting several more female duiker and steenbuck, and had almost completed the first part of our loop, when eyes flashed from a tall sweet thorn tree. Getting close, I passed my wife the shotgun and the genet sat in the highest branch, Harm gave the go ahead to shoot – she made a perfect shot, and she had her first African animal.



Only, the damn thing didn’t fall from the tree. The more we looked, the more we realized this tree was as thorny as all get out, with long daggers in every which direction. We looked at shaking from the base, but the genet was too high and the tree too substantive. And then Harm went above and beyond, donned a canvas suit and was boosted into the tree, ending up with his feet some 10 feet of the ground. Some dicey panga tossing and work ensued, eventually requiring a large number of strokes to fell the branch, as no amount of shaking, kicking or otherwise was displace the genet. I can’t say I wasn’t laughing pretty hard at the absurdity of the sight as you’ll see below, illuminated by the lights of both Harm and Gian. Eventually, the genet fell, and shortly thereafter Harm came down as well – the dismount rated a 7 by a passing Romanian judge, but Harm fortunately no worse for wear. Photo time ensued.



We then continued our drive, seeing bush babies, and several more female antelope before the spotlight wandered across a steenbuck with very obvious horns. A short chase ensured before we could line him up, and my wife put a perfect shot into him in the forward part of the midriff, yielding a beautiful male with thick horns of about 3.5-4 inches. She was pleased as punch and had a daily double to boot. Picture time again, and then it was off to see if we could snag a duiker before it got too much later.



On the last pass, we spotted one…a very large duiker in the brush edge and we set up, but while trying to ensure we had a good look at him, he broke and headed for the open field. A rodeo ensued and the duiker proved the meaning of fair chase – he was old for a reason, and never gave you more than a second to make the shot – the only real opportunity being that first sighting. Eventually, he made his way into deeper cover, and that was that.

Continuing on the circuit toward exiting the field, and starting to get increasingly cold, we saw several smaller male steenbuck, but no duikers, and also spotted a black footed cat, which is the smallest wild cat in Africa – they have very squat and small body and are extremely rare and endangered. After that we decided to call it a night – two of the four target night species in the bag, and the end of a very long day, with all of us being extremely tired.

One decision that is relevant as it explains the next day, given the late hour, the fatigue arising from repeated tough hunts and my hopes to get my wife opportunities at some other animals in the daytime, Harm and I discussed abandoning the plan to return to the mountains for the next day in favor of looking for Nyala somewhere closer. While I would have preferred to return to that property or another in the hills, the less than favorable weather we were having, the long drive to get down there, jetlag and time crunch of our trip was getting to me and especially my wife and putting undue stress on Harm and so I felt this was the best option to allow the trip to proceed at a more relaxed pace. We agreed to have a slightly later start given it was close to midnight, and I’ll foreshadow that the decision played out rather nicely on day 3…

Day 3 Morning – Sometimes it is Your Day

The dawn awoke to clear air and stars once more. While the ground remaining somewhat muddy and soft on the walk to the lodge, it was pleasant not to have to deal with the rain. Sitting in the lodge that morning I did a little writing as I drank my tea and ate the rusk and watched as the young nyala came into water. We met for a 7:30 departure, and traveled about twenty or thirty minutes, picking up another PH along the way who works for Matwetwe, Hermann.



We arrived at the property and met the manager Emil, and we all piled into the Bakkie to check out the property. While flat compared to the previous day, the property was extremely thick in places but slightly more open in others, punctuated with thorn scrub and tall aloe. It wasn’t long before Hermann and I immediately pointed out a Nyala bull to our left, the bright light of the morning sun filtering through the hackle along his back like an angelic aura. Harm didn’t see it, but we decided to position for the wind, and see if we could get a closer look at this bull.

Harm and I dismounted while the others remained with the bakkie. Approaching from about 150 yards, we at first could not see the bull. As we closed to under a hundred yards Harm caught sight of the bull and gave a sharp intake of breath…’it’s a good one’. Unfortunately, the bull pretty much had his back to us, with no viable shot especially given the thick timber. We kept low almost crawling and circled to around 70 yards, and managed to get set on the sticks without the bull being disturbed. We were aware of another bull in the area from the initial sighting, but neither of us had seen him.

Taking one look through the scope off the sticks, I knew this was a shooter Nyala – there was something oddly asymmetrical about him, with a huge bell and long horns – he was everything I could have dreamed of. He stayed stubbornly angled at such a sharp line that we had no shot, and so the minutes ticked by until he opened himself up. And then that moment came, and he opened with a hard quartering to. I slid my finger to the trigger, released the safety with my thumb, and gently depressed the trigger, threading the bullet through the brush until it connected with a solid whap in a good quartering double lung shot. We then raced toward the Nyala as I jacked another round into the chamber just in case, but he wasn’t going anywhere. I did manage to wail my arm into a fair substantial thorn bush during that run, which was less than pleasant and revealed why I should have been wearing a thick cotton shirt, rather than the light version I was wearing that morning. Reflecting on the shot, the line was good, though I think a slight deflection put it higher than it was aiming – there was a branch that I think I failed to navigate. Either way, the deed was done and the ‘big’ trophy of the trip was on the ground.



What I didn’t know at the time was that my wife and the team at the bakkie got to watch the whole stalk and could see the animal as we pursued it – a cool shared experience that added to the shared memory. This was the first animal I had taken that she had got to see the hunt for, as it she had been back at the lodge when I’d taken my previous two. A quiet thanks, and then it was photo time – and what a bull he was. This is one of those Nyala where you forget the typical rule of a good bell and tips that twist outwards. While his left horn followed this script with an immense bell and hard ridging along it, his right horn was something else, long, more curved with less of a twist. He had also been rubbing his horns in the mud after the rain. Measurements after the fact yielded that long horn at 27 7/8” a heck of a Nyala by anyone’s stretch of the imagination (the other was 27”). I couldn’t believe how beautiful the patterning on the body of an adult bull is – he will make a stunning flat skin rug, and I plan to do a skull mount as I can’t justify the space for the half body mount an animal like this deserves if I were to do otherwise.





We also came across some ostrich eggs near the kill, and Harm gave my wife some insight into the dangers of ostrich edges kicked from the nest, but they were cool to see. Five of us then carried the bull out, and he was sure hefty. Hermann may have copped a little bit of jibing related to the effort being contributed, given he normally works for the government. Eventually, we were able to get the animal loaded, and be on the road. We arrived back at the property to a frantic phone call – apparently the other group at the other camp (Gary and Jay) had wounded a Kudu, with the shot considerably back and asking Harm if he could bring the thermal drone, which is specifically for recovery work (side note, if only this would be allowed in the states, we’d see so many fewer animals lost).

We rode with Harm so as not to delay the recovery efforts and out of curiosity to help if needed and see this bull, and arrived to find the others waiting to know whether to track. Just as well as they didn’t as the bull was close and bedded down – once they had a clear idea that carefully stepped up, and were eventually able to get finishing shots into him. Then we traipsed through the thorny scrub to see Jay’s bull…and what a bull, all 52 inches of him. He had a broken right tip, but was wide and deep – adding to my mental kudu archive of how much I’ll enjoy this hunt in the future. The recovery team arrived, and a ten guys assisted in carrying out this big bull about 220 meters..it was a slog.



We headed back to the lodge for lunch with a plan for the afternoon to chase Impala for me, and maybe a Blesbok or Hartebeest for the wife.

Congratulations! That is one beautiful Nyala. All your trophies are just wonderful, but that Nyala…

Day 3 – Afternoon – Should’ve Hunted a Hartebeest:

Breaking the pattern so far, my wife joined us for the afternoon hunt. However, she hunts on her own terms, and she didn’t feel inclined to shoot anything this afternoon, and so I was batter up on the trigger, with Impala being the primary goal, given it was the last animal on my original list. As we had time, I wanted to go after a nice one.

We headed to another concession which was in somewhat hilly terrain dominated by thick scrub, with open areas that the animals were likely to frequent in the later afternoon. We began with driving in to a first stalking off point. On the way in we saw two different groups of red hartebeest, much to my wife’s excitement – it is her dream animal, which is apparently not common (maybe now I know why she chose me). The first group was a couple of really nice bulls, and the second a larger group of cows. Beginning our stalk, we saw a golden wildebeest at the top of the hill and moved to about 100 yards before busting him – while not a species that I had in mind this time, they do look like one I might go after in time. We saw a couple of groups of impala, again setting on the sticks, again only having the male stopping without a valid shooting option, or the group busting deeper into the thick scrub. Rejoining the bakkie, we saw a nice young kudu bull, and then a huge red hartebeest bull who stood for what seemed like 5 minutes, perfectly broadside at the top of the hill…should’ve hunted a hartebeest for all the shot opportunities they gave us, as we rounded a corner, Harm and I quickly dismounted for a group of impala crossing at 50 yards, unfortunately, the shooter males had crossed too quickly, and we bumped the back of the group trying to position. Who would’ve thought Impala would have been my kryptonite. At this point, I suggested to harm we may need a three-legged, blind in one eye impala for us to have a chance.

We kept bumping hartebeest, but the real story was that the animals really didn’t seem to want to come into the open with the wind the way it was, cool and moderately strong, continuing the theme of the previous day. We saw an amazing lilac-breasted roller at close range which was one of the prettiest birds I’ve seen. Circling again to another stalking location we bumped a group of cape buffalo and turned off the vehicle to listen to them crashing through the scrub, branches and trees snapped with their momentum. Finally, as we made our move to dismount, we saw a large group of blesbok and golden wildebeest at the bottom of a hollow. We moved into the trees in hopes there would be impala with them and were rewarded with seeing a single large male on the other side of the tree line, about 180 yards – maybe, just maybe the lack of eyes would mean we got our shot. I set on the sticks in a hurry, calmed my breathing for the shot, took the rifle off safety with the animal broadside, and holding 2 inches high for the distance, squeezed the trigger, only for the poor grip on the sticks to let the left one slide out as I took the shot, skewing it. The impala reacted as one would expect, hitting a dead run, but seeming no worse for wear, looping around us and into the bush. Concerned it may have been a bad hit, Harm turned to the drone, revealing that this beautiful male impala was uninjured. I’ve got to say that was a jolt to my confidence. I’ve shot around 20 deer or larger animals as a hunter, and I’ve never missed with a rifle – the shots I’ve made might not of been perfect, but that in my experience is a chip shot. Thinking back on it I realized I’d tried to side grip the sticks, rather than from below, which I think is what allowed that additional degree of freedom. A learning experience and an important one for future hunts...but not a great thing to get in one’s head after you’ve been chasing impala for 3 days, had numerous set ups on the sticks and missed your opportunity on a nice animal. The positive side is that it was a clean miss, and no animal was injured – that I take as a blessing.





Continuing to move around the property we also saw a group of younger giraffes, which made the wife extremely happy, a bull and two cows at relatively close range. Such a cool looking animal. As we came around the open areas again it was very clear that nothing was moving this evening, and so as the sun sunk toward the horizon, we called the hunt and headed back to the lodge, seeing one shooter warthog along the way who was in high gear.





As the weather and night hunting had thus far curtailed our ability to do so, we made sure to enjoy a fire back at the lodge. We took the night off from hunting to allow the ground to dry and all of us to get some much-needed rest. Dinner was a fantastic sampling of game – sable carpaccio, followed by wildebeest steaks with mushroom sauce. A damn fine meal capped off by a couple of local B&C and an Amarula nightcap. A plan was made for the morning to hit a new place for impala – as it was time to get serious.