SOUTH AFRICA: ZIMBABWE: My Second Thanksgiving Safari

Hello All,


I’ve just returned from an 18 day combo trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe and would like to share with you guys. As you can imagine, I’m still buried with work after being gone for that long, but will try to post some every day.


Like my last few safaris, this trip was planned as something completely different than what it eventually turned into.

The planning for this trip started in late February of 2018. I was on AH and saw a deal from Wayne @Nyamazana Safaris on a hyena/nocturnal animal hunt in Zim that really perked my interest…..especially because there was a chance(if still on quota), that I could also hunt leopard for just the trophy fee. After exchanging several emails with Wayne, I had pretty much decided this was the trip for me and we tentatively set a date for late October. Well, a few weeks went by and Wayne posted another great deal…..elephant…..I couldn’t pass this up! A few more emails to Wayne and it was changed to an elephant/hyena hunt.


Sometime in April, a good friend and hunting/fishing buddy (Justin) called me and during our conversation, I told him about this trip. He said he was really interested in going along and said if there was another tag available and if we could move it to November; he would like to go as well. I was a little apprehensive about going in November because of rain, but decided to chance it. I emailed Wayne again and there was an additional tag and the new dates worked for him, so we booked it.


Another few weeks went by and Justin called me again and asked if I knew of any good deals on lion hunts in SA. Well, I contacted a few people and was able to find him a great price. So, we decided to fly into SA a few days early for him to get a cat before heading to Zim. Then, Justin mentioned our trip to a mutual friend of ours (Wood) and now he wants to tag along and bring his daughter to hunt lion and possibly some animals in Zim. So, I contact the lion outfitter and Wayne and it was all set.


After getting our firm dates figured out, I contacted Lori @Travel Express in mid-June and she got us some great prices on our flights. The one thing I wasn’t crazy about was that she had us flying through JFK(with guns), but she assured me that it wouldn’t be a problem. I forwarded that info to everyone to double check that the dates looked correct and got the okay to book. The next day, Lori booked everything and I sent the confirmations to all….this is where the problems started for Wood……


He had obviously never looked at a calendar when we sent him the dates….but his daughter did…after we booked. She pointed out that we were going to be gone over Thanksgiving and that would not work for them. So, he contacted Justin who contacted Lori to see what could be done. As I knew, the flights were not refundable, so they made a plan to shorten their stay and just do the SA portion of the trip with us and add on some plainsgame after the lion.


The next few months flew by and before I knew it, it was time to fly out. Justin and I would be flying from Dallas and Wood and his daughter would be flying from Michigan and we’d meet up in New York and spend the night and all fly out the following day.


We all arrived about the same time and grabbed an Uber to the hotel and got checked in to our rooms. This is when Wood’s bad luck showed up again….he had packed a bottle of vodka and tonic in his checked back and the tonic had busted and soaked everything in his bag…poor guy. Later that evening, we met a friend of ours for dinner in NY and then headed back to the hotel for a few hours’ sleep.


We arrive at the airport around 7:30am the next morning and head to the SAA ticket counters. Justin and I are checking in at one counter and Wood and his daughter at the next. The SAA folks call the Port Authority to check our rifles and they show up pretty quick and the process was pretty painless. As we’re dealing with them, I was oblivious as to what was going on with Wood at the next counter……it was only after we dropped our rifles off at TSA that I heard what was happening. Apparently, he didn’t have any blank pages left in his passport and they told him that the only thing he could do was to go to Manhattan to the passport office to get a new one and fly out the next day. We met back up with him and discussed with him what he wanted to do. He seriously contemplated not going at all and catching a flight home, but finally decided that he would try to get his passport squared away and then fly out the next day. He asked if we’d keep an eye on his daughter, which we were happy to do, and off we went to catch our flight. The flight was uneventful but the planes that SAA use for this route could use some serious updating. My seat was extremely hard and uncomfortable for a 15 hour flight and my video screen only worked about half the time. However, the food and service was very good.


We arrived in Jo’burg at 8:30am on Friday Nov 16th. After clearing customs, we were collecting our luggage and my checked bag never came out. I was getting pretty concerned and happen to glance to my left and saw it sitting on a luggage cart on top of mine and Justin’s rifle cases and there was an airport employee standing next to them. I walked over to see what was going on and he said he noticed that the bag had the same name on it as one of the rifle cases and decided to grab it for me…phew! Now, on every other trip to SA, my rifles have always gone directly to SAPS and I would pick them up there. However, the airport employee told us this time they would need to verify our serial numbers first and then he would take us and our rifles to SAPS to get our permits?? Maybe this is because we arrived on SAA instead of another carrier?? I’m not sure, but they took us to a small room opposite the baggage carousel to inspect the guns. As we got outside, the outfitter was there to meet us and we got our rifle permits and were on the road by 9:30 to the NW Province. We also explained Wood’s situation to the outfitter and he said he would have someone pick him up at the airport on Saturday morning and bring him to camp.

After a few stops for fuel and lunch, we arrived in camp around 5:00pm. We got our stuff unpacked and ran to the range to shoot in the rifles. After that, we had dinner and then had a few drinks around the fire before going to bed.


The next morning, we were up by 5:00 and hunting by 5:30. It was decided that Wood’s daughter would tag along with us on the hunt and she would hunt her lion after her dad arrived the next day. We drove around for about an hour before we found some fresh tracks and we drove the block to make sure the lion was still there and then got on the tracks. We started the stalk at about 7:00 and it was already getting pretty hot. We figured that the cat would be looking for cover from the heat and shouldn’t be too far away. The tracker was out front, followed by the PH, Justin, Wood’s daughter, me and then the videographer. We slowly made our way and would glass every bush ahead of us before continuing on. About 45 minutes in, the tracker and PH are following the tracks when the videographer signals me that he’s spotted the cat under a bush about 50 yards to our right! I signal Justin who then signals the PH and we all freeze and wait to see what the cat is going to do. He’s not happy that we’re there at all….he’s crouched down and growling at us, but doesn’t seem to want to move from the bush he’s under. We slowly approach a little closer with guns ready. We get to about 30 yards and have no clear shot. So, we move around to the right to try to get a better angle but as we moved, he would turn with us, so we still couldn’t get a clear shot. We backed off a little and made a new plan….we would approach him again and then Justin and the PH would slowly ease around to the right and hope the cat stayed focused on the rest of us. The plan worked and he was able to get a clear shot. The cat jumped and flipped and was biting at his side where the bullet hit. As he was doing this, Justin was able to get a second shot in which ended it. I’ll tell you, even though I was just a backup shooter/spectator on this hunt, it was just as exciting as my cat hunt last year and well worth the price of admission.



After the photo session, we returned to camp for breakfast and a nap. We also got word that Wood had been picked up at the airport and was in route to camp. About 1:00, we decided to head back out so Wood’s daughter could try to get some plainsgame. She had been to SA once before when she was younger and had only shot a few animals, so pretty much anything we came across was huntable.

We drove for about an hour and spotted a heard of springbok that had a few good rams in it. They bailed off the truck and headed after them. I opted to stay in the truck under a shade tree since it was blistering hot! About 30 minutes later, we hear a shot but it doesn’t sound like a hit. We get a call on the radio that she had missed and a location to pick them up. She was pretty bummed when she got back to the truck, be we assured her that it happens to everyone and she’d get another chance. We continue to drive around for the next few hours not seeing much because of the heat. Finally around 5:00 it started cooling down a bit and we spotted a lone gemsbok that was huge. Again, they got off the truck and I stayed in the shade. They were gone about an hour and called us on the radio to pick them up. When we got to them, they tell us that the gemsbok had given them the slip, but they had bumped into 3 big eland bulls and had been chasing them but could never get a shot before they vanished. Again, she was pretty bummed. After a few bottles of water, it’s almost dark so we decide to head back to camp. We don’t get 100 yards down the road before we get a rapid tap on the roof of the truck and we slow down so they can jump off. Me and the driver continue down the road for about 30 seconds and then hear a shot. You can definitely tell that this one was a hit. We reverse back to where they were standing and everyone was excited at what she had shot….me and the driver still had no clue as to what it was. I get out and follow them about 60 yards into the bush and see a huge eland lying on its side.




This is the first time I’ve been this close to a mature eland. It’s hard to comprehend how big they really are until you see them in person!


As we’re taking pics, we get a call from the driver that had picked Wood up. He was supposed to be in a 4x4 truck, but for some reason he had brought a small car instead and they were stuck in the sand somewhere between the tar road and camp (which is about 80km). He just can't catch a break!! So, we call back to camp to send another truck to pick up me, the tracker and the eland up and the rest of the crew head out to rescue Wood and his driver.


They arrive back at camp around 8:00 and we have a late dinner, a few drinks and then off to bed.


To be continued.

Jason - thanks for posting, look forward to hearing the rest of the story.............

Great so far....

Been looking forward to this!! Good start

Part 2

We all get up @ 5:00 AM and are back on the truck at 5:30 looking for lion tracks. It takes a little longer this morning, but finally find some around 8:30. Just like yesterday, we make the block and the cat appears to still there. So, everyone gets out and gets ready for the stalk and since Wood had not brought a rifle, I offer him mine so he can back up his daughter. I also opted to sit this one out since there were already several people in the group. Me and the driver found a shade tree to park under and waited. It was about an hour later that we heard the first shot and then about 15 seconds later, we hear two more shots in quick succession. About 5 minutes later, the PH called us on the radio and told us where to find them. Since I wasn’t on the hunt, I’m not sure of the exact details, but I know she shot first and the lion ran into some thick stuff and then came out and she and Wood put two more into it. All three shots were spot on.



After pictures, we head back to camp and drop off the cat and then right back out again to see if we can find anything else before it gets too hot. About 30 minutes into this drive, we spot a nice steenbok in the brush and she puts a good shot on it.



It’s now getting pretty warm so we head back to camp for lunch and a few cold drinks. While we’re waiting for lunch to be prepared, the outfitter/owner comes out to say hello to everyone and he has a surprise offer for us. He said he had an old buffalo that needed to go and asked if anyone was interested. He describes the bull and then throws out a price…..it’s a damn good price too. Justin and I both look at Wood and he drops his head and we knew he was in….it looks like his daughter is going to get to hunt a buffalo too! So, after lunch, we all take a nap to let it cool down a bit before we head out around 3:30 to look for the bull. We have to drive to the property next door which takes us about 30 minutes and start driving the roads to see if we can find him. It takes us a little while but we spot him shading under a tree about 200 yards out and we make a plan. Since I had loaded and brought some 300 grain Barnes softs for this trip, I gave here my 375 for this hunt and off we went. We moved around and got the wind and then slowly started making our way towards where we had last seen the bull. We finally spot him again about 90-100 yards out and jumped from bush to bush until we were about 40 yards away and he was facing directly away from us. She and the PH eased out to the right and she got on the sticks….it was then that the bull spotted us and spun around to face us. She immediately put one in his chest and he tried to turn and run, but fell after taking 2 steps and never moved again.




He measured 42’’ with 17’’ bosses! What a bull!




Shortly after finishing taking pictures, another truck showed up to load the animal and it was all hands on deck to get him loaded.

We headed back to camp as started the celebration which ran late into the night. Justin and I have to leave early tomorrow morning to head to Johannesburg to get ready for our flight to Zim, while Wood and his daughter are going to hunt another day here before heading home.
I'll write more tomorrow.......

Nice trophies.....

Eland is a corker!

That looks like an exceptional eland. Wood may have not caught a break, but his daughter did well for herself! Congrats
Bruce

Enjoying the report!

You guys had one hell of a hunt, thanks for sharing. Looking forward to the rest of the story and photos.

Some great trophies. Great Eland. Congrats

Jason
U and Justin heading to Dallas? I’ll buy a round. Great start to hunt— keep it coming

jacques smith said:

Jason
U and Justin heading to Dallas? I’ll buy a round. Great start to hunt— keep it coming

Click to expand...

Yes sir and thanks! See you there!!

Can’t wait to see more, great job and hope Zim turns out swell!

I may have missed it, but who was the SA outfitter?

Outstanding hunt and trophies so far! Keep it coming!

Always great to see women hunting !

Congrats !

Part 3


I get up at 4:30 this morning to finish packing for the trip to Jo’burg. We all meet up for a quick breakfast, settle our bill and then say our goodbyes around 6:00. We should hopefully get to town around 2:00 and checked into the Afton Safari Lodge and then we have dinner planned at 6:00 with a few friends. Well, after a few stops for lunch and fuel we’re about an hour from our destination and we hit a police road block on a major highway….this is where the wheels fell off! We finally make it up to the police officers and they ask for the PH’s drivers licenses. They took it over to a mobile office they had set up in the median and we sat there about 15 minutes waiting and finally the officer brings back his license and we take off. About 2 miles down the road, the PH grabs his wallet to put his license away and it’s then that he notices that the officer had given him someone else’s driver’s license!!! He’s obviously pissed and we cut across the median and head back to the road block. The officer sees us pull(slide) up and comes to see what was going on and that’s when the yelling and finger pointing started. Finally, after about 10 minutes of this, the officer’s supervisor came over to see what was going on. He asked the PH to come with him to see if they could get ahold of the person whose license we had, to see if he had our PH’s license. What a mess! After about an hour of waiting, they were finally able to get in contact with the other person and he did have our PH’s license. So, they exchanged phone numbers and he gave us the location of where he was. Since he had over an hour’s head start on us, he was quite away ahead of us and with all the traffic; it took us another two hours to get to him….what a cluster!! I call my friends that we’re supposed to have dinner with and move it to 7:00 and we finally arrive at Afton and 6:30 and get checked in and head out to meet my friends. We get back around 9:00, have a few beers and off to bed.


Even though we don’t have to be at the airport until 8:00, I’m up at 5:30 and head to breakfast. There are two other guests there heading out for hunts, so we visit about that and then I met the new owners of Afton and talked to them for a while. Before I knew it, our driver arrived and he dropped us at the airport where Mr. X met us at the curb. Like always, he gets us and our rifles checked in quickly and dropped us at security. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again he is absolutely indispensable when it comes to navigating all the procedures at the airport!!


The flight to Bulawayo is uneventful and we visit with several Zimbabweans who are curious about our hunt and happy we’re there to do it. We arrived around noon and got in line to get our visas. This took quite a while because they normally have several desks processing visitors and returning residents, but only one computer was working today, so we all had to go through the same line….TIA! After about an hour of standing in line, we had our visas and went to grab our luggage. There was an airport employee there that had our stuff on a cart and said he needed to inspect our rifles. He took us to a desk and we opened our cases and he wrote down the rifle info in a book and had us sign. Then he took us to customs officer that did the exact same thing, but they also counted our ammo and every US dollar we had on us. After another 45 minutes, we were the last two people left in the airport and finally able to exit. Wayne and Johnathan (Justin’s PH) was there to meet us.


After we exchanged pleasantries, we headed to Wayne’s house to pick up some supplies and our trackers. While on the way, one thing that I immediately noticed was the long lines at the gas stations. I had read about the fuel shortage in Zim and had been in a similar situation in Venezuela a few years ago, but nothing like this.





All the cars on the left side of the road are waiting for fuel.



The lines stretch on forever, but I was unable to take a picture that showed how long they really are!



After a quick stop at Wayne’s to meet his wife and get our supplies/trackers, we pick up our game scouts and then get on the road. It’s a short 3 hour ride to camp and we do stop one time in Lupane for fuel. Surprisingly, they do have fuel but no lines…bonus! We arrive at Wayne’s Gwayi River camp around 4:30PM and get everything offloaded and then run down to the river to shoot our rifles. They all made the flight just fine with no adjustments needed. After dinner and a few beers, we discuss our plans for tomorrow. Wayne tells us that he has 3 elephant left on quota, one at Gwayi and two at Malindi(about an hour’s drive and different camp). He said that the hunt at Gwayi would be the traditional tracking type elephant hunt and Malindi would most likely be night hunt. In the months leading up to this hunt, Justin had mentioned that he’d really prefer the traditional hunt, so I told Wayne that he could hunt ele at Gwayi and I’d be fine with going to Malindi. I had also seen a few AH member’s reports on the camp at Malindi and I was really interested in staying there. After that was decided, Wayne suggested that he and I hunt bushbuck(the #2 animal on my list) in the morning and then change camps tomorrow afternoon.





Accommodations at Gwayi Camp

Wednesday 11/21


This was my first real day to hunt and I was up early and ready to go! We had a few cups of coffee and then headed out to a different part of the concession where the local game scout told us that he’d seen several nice bushbuck. We arrive about 20 minutes later and start walking the river and see a very nice ram but he doesn’t stick around long. We continue down the river and there’s a small pool of water that has a lot of tracks around it and we decide that if we don’t have any luck stalking, we’ll come back and build a blind to try to ambush one a day or two later. Well, after lots of walking and jumping quite a few BB in the thick stuff, we decided to go with plan B. We head back to the small pool in the river and the guys quickly throw up a blind.



After that was done, it was time to return to camp for lunch and pack up to move camps. Jonathan and Justin arrived right before lunch and that had not found any fresh tracks yet. So, Wayne suggested that they come to Malindi with us this afternoon to see if the hunting might be better there. Wayne also got a phone call from one of the scouts there that they had a huge elephant (he said 60lbs!!!) coming into water every night. He also said they had as many as 40-50 (including cows/calves) come in at one time!! That got everyone pretty damn excited!!


We get on the road a little after 3 and turned off the tar road onto a sand road about 10 minutes later. We almost immediately ran into fallen trees across the road. We had to stop several times for the guys to move, cut or drag trees and in one case, the tree was too big and we had to cut a new road around it.



The guys moving a fallen tree with the Land Cruiser.



As we continued to camp, Wayne spotted some big tracks on the road and we stopped to check them out. This is the first real elephant track that I’ve ever seen!! It gets me pretty excited!

A few minutes later, we pull into camp.




I’m sure that a lot of you guys have seen pics of this camp before, but for those that haven’t, they have taken four 1950’s passenger rail cars from the Rhodesian Railroad and converted them into rooms(2 per car). My room had two bedrooms (1 with a full bed and 1 with two bunkbeds) and a full bath.


Anyway, we get everything off loaded and put away and then discussed how the hunt should happen. According to the local game scout, the elephants had been showing up about an hour or so after dark. So, we would go watch a few particular waterholes to see what came in. Also, since Justin was in camp too, I told him we needed to decide who got the first chance at an ele. I offered to flip a coin, but he said that since it was actually my trip first, I should get first crack. I still can’t get that 60lb’er out of my mind!!!


So, about 8:00 or so, we’re watching a few water holes and we see our first big shadow emerge from the bush about a 100 yards from the waterhole. It was a full moon and clear, so we had no trouble seeing him even though it was about 200 yards away! Well, he slowly made his way towards us and we’re all checking out his ivory with binoculars….not the 60lb’er, but definitely worth taking a closer look at!! We get together and go over the plan one more time…..Wayne would be out front, followed by a tracker carrying his 458. Then, it was me, Justin and then I’m not sure how many scouts/trackers with lights behind us…The plan was to ease up single file(with no lights) to as close as we could get and then fan out and when I was ready, the trackers would hit the lights and I’d have just a few seconds to shoot. One thing I want to mention, I’m not a proud person and I told Wayne and Justin that as soon as I shoot, I would like them to shoot follow up shots.


Here we go….I’m going on my first stalk on an elephant at night….needless to say, my heart is pounding. For the first 20 yards or so, we had to walk over/through some old fallen reeds on some sort. It was impossible to get through them quietly but it didn’t seem to bother the elephant. Maybe he thought we were another heard approaching the water….because that’s what we sounded like! After we got through the reeds, Wayne stopped the group for a little while and then we slowly continued on for another 20 yards or so and stopped again. We’re about 60 yards now and when we start easing up closer, my heart really starts pounding!! Next stop is about 40 yards out and the elephant senses something and stops drinking….he doesn’t move or make a sound, he just stands there listening….all I could hear was my heart pounding in my ears. After what seemed like an eternity, he went back to drinking and we slowly eased up a little closer and stop at about 25 yards. We’re so close, I’m now having to look up at him. It’s now that Wayne whispers to me that we’re going to shoot this elephant! He said that when the bull finishes drinking and moved away from the waterhole, we’d take our shot. As per the plan, everyone fanned out and prepared to wait. It was just a few seconds later that the ele heard or sensed something again and turned towards us with his ears flared. My heart is about to blow out of my chest now!! He then turns to the right and takes a few steps and stops. Wayne whispers for me to get on him with the scope and even though I can’t see my crosshairs, I can clearly see the silhouette of the body and centered the scope on the heart/lung area. All the sudden the lights come on and when the bright white lights hit the grey body of the elephant, it was hard for me to tell what was what for a second or two. Finally, I guess my eyes adjusted and I found the shoulder and placed my first shot. Then Wayne, standing to my left shot and then Justin and by this time I was reloaded and shot again. We repeated this sequence twice more (I think) and then we lost sight of him in the bush. Damn that was intense!!!!


After the shooting stopped, Wayne gave me a smile and patted me on the back. He asked how I felt about the first shot and I was sure it was okay. We stood there for a minute or two and none of the trackers seemed excited about tracking a wounded elephant in the dark, so Wayne suggested that we come back in the morning to follow up. I’m not going to lie, I was not excited about this plan but I definitely understood. We stood there a few more minutes discussing the hunt and we heard a loud crack and pop. Even though this was my first ele hunt, I instantly knew what it was….he had obviously fallen and broken a tree or two on the way down. Wayne looked at me and said “Let’s go see your elephant!”.


We walked to the area where he had entered the bush and fanned out with rifles ready. We waked in about 75 yards a there he was…..what a massive animal….he looked even bigger on the ground! Wayne had me put one more in him to make sure he was down and then I checked to make sure he was done. As I touched him for the first time, it was hard to fight back the emotions. Hunting elephant had been a (seemingly unattainable) dream of mine since I was a kid and now I had done it!

After all the hugs/handshakes and the adrenaline subsided, I cut off the tail and we snapped a few pics and then Wayne suggested that we go back to camp for dinner and return tomorrow morning for proper pictures.


After dinner, we had a few celebratory drinks and then a shower and bed. It seemed like my head had just hit the pillow before the alarm went off. I guess I was more tired than I thought! We all met up for coffee and then headed out to take pictures!




I would like to thank Wayne again for making this dream come true!



After pictures, Wayne caught a ride with Jonathan and Justin (they were going back to Gwayi to hunt ele for the day) so he could grab a second Land Cruiser to help haul all the meat, panels and ivory. I stayed with the rest of the guys to help out with the skinning and butchering.


To be continued……

Congratulations on a nice bull!

Enjoying your report.

This is such a grand hunt! Congratulations on a fine elephant and such an exciting hunt! Oh am I jealous!