ZAMBIA: Zambia With Strang Middleton: From Livingstone To The Luangwa Valley

[MAdcox]

I’ve got some hours to kill before my flight leaves JoBerg headed back Stateside, so I thought I would make a start. I didn’t bring my laptop, so excuse my bad thumb typing on my phone.

Due to the great friends I have made on this forum- @cpr0312 introduced me to Strang Middleton at an AH Dinner at Gilley’s 5 or 6 years ago. Then I looked up and read Charles and Michael Maynor’s hunt reports, and thought, man if I ever get to hunt buffalo it would be fun to do it in the Luangwa Valley with Strang.
Fast forward to Christmas 2024, my amazing wife gave me one present. A handwritten “gift certificate” to quit talking about it and just go to DSC Convention in Atlanta and get a buffalo hunt booked!
As most will recall, just getting to Atlanta became an adventure in itself that year. I was supposed to land in Atlanta at noon for some meetings then on to the floor. But after 4 flight cancellations, 3 delays, a terminal change and two hours of de-icing on the runway in Dallas - I made it to Atlanta about 9pm.
As I was standing in line to check in, a big hand hit my shoulder and a grinning Strang said “howzit bud? You just getting here?” I told him the quick details and he said he and his friend Wayne had a table at a sports bar down the hall, go throw your bags in the room and I’ll have you a beer and burger ready. I then showed him my “coupon” Christmas gift and he smiled from ear to ear and said “oh we’re going to have some fun.”
As terribly slow as that show was for all, it gave Strang and I plenty of time to make our plan. We discussed animals, locations, firearms, everything and decided on a July 2026 hunt to start in the Valley for Buffalo and some plains game, then finish with a few days on Strang’s ranch north of Livingstone for a couple of other antelope. He called a few months later and had an opening to be the first in the Valley for the year with some May dates. I jumped on it and we reversed the order- starting at Strang’s then heading to the Valley.
My main goal was Buffalo and Sable. I really wanted a waterbuck and Chobe Bushbuck as well and how can you go to Zambia and not chase a Puku? I would use Strang’s 375 H&H, a near match to my own rifle and tons easier traveling alone to use his.

 

[MAdcox]

Darrin @TRAVEL EXPRESS made all the travel super easy as usual with a stop over at Africa Sky and on to Livingston. I was with Strang by 2:30 in the afternoon and hunting by 4.
Strang has a great tent camp set up on the banks of a small lake (dam). Comfortable bed, good hot showers, and a perfect front porch view.
*well can’t get any pictures to attach, may have to wait til I’m States Side in the morning *

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Looking forward to this one, have a great trip back.

 

[Rumrunner]

That is one amazing wife.

 

[Mekaniks]

Awesome! Can’t wait hear the rest

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

Looking forward to hearing the story to go with the photos. Sitting at DSC this year with you and Strang I could see how excited you were and knew Strang would give you every bit of adventure you were looking for

 

[Hunt anything]

Can’t wait for the details!

 

[MAdcox]

Strang’s camp and the view you step out to each morning! I also watched sitatunga browse around the lake two separate occasions.

In that first afternoon’s drive we saw Livingston Eland, Zebra, Impala, Lichtenstein Hartebeest, and several Sable bulls- our target for the time at Strang’s. Two of the bulls were very nice, definitely takable bulls, but we had two days and it didn’t seem right to shoot 2 hours off the plane.

I would find out that Zambia had record rainfall this wet season and everywhere we went there were oceans of grass. Even with limited visibility we were seeing lots of animals.

Over the next day and half we saw lots of nice but not quite old, Sable bulls. But the two bulls we had seen in night one had vanished. We did see a huge Livingstone Eland bull that has already got me planning my return trip. He even got Strang’s heart pumping!

As time was wearing on the last evening before we had to drive to the Valley, we had spotted an old herd bull with 5 or 6 cows that was our fall back bull. He was definitely older and heavily worn but not as heavy as the bull we had seen the first night. Just as we had decided we better head back into his area before sundown, we made one more pass through the little grassy vlei where we had see him first. We had already checked it two times that day, but just like magic, he was feeding out of the forest into the grass. With just a quick check with the glass we confirmed it was the heavy bull from day 1 and the stall was on. So many of the Sable we were seeing were standing in grass over their heads but as Strang took us back into the area we had seen this bull feeding we caught him on the edge of a little stand of trees in knee deep grass. At 60 yards, I fired one shot and he went down 30 yards from where I hit him.
I had never hunted Sable or really even been very close to the mature bulls. They are an incredible, impressive animal! This bull will be one of my favorite animals I have taken any where.

 

[MAdcox]

The next day was a hard travel day with no hunting, but it was a very eye-opening, interesting, and even enjoyable day for me. We left Strang’s ranch north of Livingstone early- around 5. Went into Lasaka, then out the Great East Road to cross the Luangwa and into Nyimba, then onto camp at Mbizi right after dark. About 14 hours of hard driving across Zambia. I have never seen the mass of humanity as I saw that day. For all those hours, in all that rural and urban Zambia we were never out of sight of people. Walking, riding motor bikes 3 at a time, driving ox carts. Wood cutters pushing wheel barrows full of firewood, selling charcoal in sacks, little kids as young as 5 or 6 in school uniforms just out there on the highway walking. It was not something I had ever seen. Then we would hit the little villages and I had never seen so many people packed into one place. Just people stacked from the edge of the road to the edge of the store fronts or stands. Selling everything from dried fish, bananas to dresses.
I also saw some beautiful country. From fertile farm land and sugar cane fields to mountains, baobabs, and crossing the Luangwa River just above the gorge where the mountains come right down to the river.

 

[MAdcox]

At Mbizi, I got to meet Mr. Michael the owner. He has set up the most beautiful and comfortable camp right on a high bank of the Luangwa River. Every area he has set up was used during the day and it worked together perfectly. The dining and bar area is very comfortable and great place to eat breakfast or start to wind down after the day. Then the braai was right out side where we would have anything from grilled prawns to Sable backstrap on skewers while they prepared whatever excellent meal we would eat that night. We might eat dinner back in the dining area or maybe on the big deck built right out over the river under the shade of a big sausage tree. During the week, we heard lions roar, leopards saw, baboons scream at leopards and always the hippos were just below us in the river talking.

I have to admit that I took most of that in a blur that first night after the driving, but the camp just kept getting better all week and Mr. Michael was a great host and we hit it off very well all week long.

 

[MAdcox]

That is one amazing wife.

Yes sir, I am aware. It gets even better. Because the date change to May actually put me in Zambia on our 29th Anniversary and her only response was. Better have something special on our 30th!

 

[MAdcox]

Our first morning of hunting buffalo started with a long drive through some of the densest, jungley, mountain terrain I have ever seen looking for fresh tracks. I was blown away at how dense the country was but didn’t know what to expect. Judging from Strang’s reactions though this was not normal. What is always rugged country that goes from the jungle thickets along the river where the elephant hang out to the Mopane Forest that can at times be relatively open to the Jess thickets and the rocky timbered ridges, this year the country was extra thick, with 7-12 feet of elephant grass covering almost every valley. And the other irregularity was there was still water in every valley and run off. I also got my first introduction to Buffalo Beans- something I had never heard of- luckily just from Strang and Obvi pointing them out to me. These fuzzy bean pods were hanging in clusters from every spot of dense vegetation we came across. The guys name for them translated to something along the lines of “all the troubles of the world” or something close to that. Apparently they itch and burn like everything and too much exposure can land you in hospital. Strang seemed very disturbed by the number and density of them we were seeing. I really didn’t get any pictures that do justice to just a what a green hell we were in most of the time because I’m bad at remembering a camera when we’re hunting.
We did see a nice Puku ram but it was close to one of Strang’s good Buffalo valleys so we didn’t want to shoot much until the Buffalo was done. We also saw kudu, Impala, and hyena and leopard tracks as well as tons of fresh elephant sign. But by lunch we had not seen any remotely fresh buffalo sign. They just were not having to move around much with all the food, water and cover they could ever want in each valley.

We set some fires on our way out to lunch to clear some of the dead grass on the ridges, give some better visibility and create fire breaks for when the real burning starts.
Back at camp I ate lunch on the deck hoping to see the elephants they said watered at the river most weeks. They showed up! My fist wild Elephants! 4 young bulls came down to the river near the hippos and two crocs I was watching. They played around in the river for 20 minutes or so then headed back into the thickets at the river banks. It was amazing how they just disappeared as soon as they hit the brush line. Just vanished.

We headed back out for the evening hunt. We saw very little until right at sundown. In one of the thickest, wettest valleys we actually bumped a decent sized herd. The guys spotted them just as they spotted us. I just saw the tops of several backs going away but they hadn’t spooked badly and we had a place to start for the morning!

 

[AZDAVE]

Enjoying the report

 

[MAdcox]

We headed out around 5am to be near yesterday’s tracks at first light. We actually spotted buffalo while looking for the tracks and started following the fresh sign immediately. We followed for almost 5 miles though some of the prettiest country yet. Somewhat open hillsides and ridges where visibility was at least 50 to 200 yards most of the time. But of course we never caught them in these areas. We were getting very close when we dropped into another green valley. For over an hour we were in the kind of elephant grass that could give a guy nightmares. We could hear them, we could smell them, and we could hear the ox peckers getting up and down with them. But we were literally walking in a green cave. The grass was so thick and tall we were stalking through a tunnel of grass. I could see Strang 4 feet in front of me but not Darius 4 feet in front of Strang. I have to admit to some nerves in this stuff where we could step on buffalo before either side knew the other was there. At some point a stray breeze busted us and we just heard them thunder off through the grass. We were within 40 yards of them and never saw one. Just the tops of the grass moving. We got out of that stuff and gave them a bit then followed the trails. They had climbed out of the bottom and up a small ridge and as we topped the ridge on the trail, the guys immediately squatted down and went to motioning below us in a little brushy ravine. Strang grabbed the sticks and he and I went uphill a little and got behind a big old mopane stump. We could hear Buffalo but even with my binos I just couldn’t make them out. Then I followed Strang’s line of sight and realized I was looking too far out. They were 25 yards right below us. But even realizing that, all I could find was a tail, then an ear or a horn. I had no idea how many buffalo were there, let alone if one was an old bull, young bull, or cow. This went on for 15 or 20 minutes when I felt a slight puff of air on the sweat of neck and off they went. Thunder and breaking branches for hundreds of yards up the opposite ridge. There had been a lot of buffalo there!

We backed out not wanting to bump them plumb out of the country and headed back to camp for lunch. We did a bit more burning on the way out and half way back to camp Strang and I were discussing the fact that waterbuck and bushbuck might be really difficult with the places they hang out almost impenetrable right now. He suggested an alternative that sounded fun. So almost back to camp we spotted a little bachelor group of impala rams and I busted a non trophy ram for a hyena bait.

Almost back to camp we spotted some tracks in the road over our tracks from the morning. The big male stayed on the side of the road and I couldn’t find a good clean track but the lioness was walking right down the road toward camp. Definitely not in Oklahoma anymore!

We hung the impala near a machan on the way out after lunch and didn’t get into Buffalo or any fresh tracks that afternoon. But there were no fresh tracks leaving the area either so we were hopeful for the morning hunt.

At the fire circle that night we heard the baboons start going crazy then heard the leopard sawing away in the trees just behind our chalets. Then we finished dinner and headed towards our beds. Something we never do without good lights. Good thing. There was 3 tons of bull hippo between the dining hall and my bedroom! That is my chalet in the picture. After Harry the Hippo moved off a 100 yards or so we made it to bed with early wake up calls to be back in the high valleys after buffalo.

 

[MAdcox]

About to board my last flight to DFW. Been traveling almost 36 hours now and have about 5 more to see my family. I’ll try and finish up tomorrow

 

[BRICKBURN]

Safe travels. Very enjoyable read thus far.

 

[Wheels]

Been looking forward to hearing about this hunt. Wild Africa is always special. What make and model was Strangs 375 you were using.

I will vouch for M’s wife. She is indeed a sweetheart and the type of girl you want your son to marry.

 

[Safari1]

Great report so far.

Did you get any idea how Strang does on elephant in his Luangwa area?

 

[MAdcox]

He does very well, especially fore elephant with a bow. It’s in another area a few hours from where I was but still in the Luangwa area I believe. I would definitely reach out to him.

 

[MAdcox]

The next morning was cool and cloudy. We saw little game heading in and no fresh sign to follow in the upper valleys. We found one lone bull track from the night before, but a lone bull in that kind of cover was very low odds of finding him. On the way to check the hyena bait we saw a nice Puku ram with some females. We planned our stalk and just as we came into the area we had spotted him a small group of impala came bounding up the hill right into us. We all froze, but at 20 yards we were busted and they snorted and bounded down the hill alerting everything within hearing.
But the hyena bait was already being hammered so we were in business there.
After lunch we touched up the hyena bait and headed back to the high valleys. We made a several mile hike along the ridges above the elephant grass but saw no buffalo or fresh sign to follow.