Steve Ausband
AH member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2015
- Messages
- 23
- Reaction score
- 24
- Location
- North Carolina and Virginia (USA)
- Member of
- NRA, Ducks Unlimited, NWTF, Black River Hunt Club.
- Hunted
- South Africa and Zimbabwe
My wife and I went to Zimbabwe and Botswana on the "vacation of a lifetime" in May and June, and while I called it the vacation of a lifetime in May, when the plane landed in Raleigh in June I was already thinking of how I might go back again.
I had hunted Africa only once previously. That was eleven years ago in South Africa, mostly in Limpopo in the low veldt. It was a great trip, and I worked hard for a nice buffalo and several heads of plains game. This time we decided to go to Zimbabwe, hunting with Barry Style of Buffalo Range Safaris in a couple of huge concessions (Kazuma and Pandamasuie) near the Botswana border, about three hours by bad roads from Victoria Falls. I was anxious to get another very old cape buffalo, and I really wanted a kudu. Highlights of the trip included getting these two, but also just seeing the wildlife, being in an area that was completely wild, getting chased by elephants (three times; we ran into a cow elephant and her small herd that really didn't like the looks of our toyota truck), enjoying the conversation around the fire and the meals in the bona, getting to know the camp staff, and just knowing that I was walking around with a rifle in the middle of miles and miles of true wilderness. The plan was for us to spend a couple of days doing touristy stuffy at the falls, staying in a very nice lodge (Ilala Lodge), go on the ten-day safari, then return to the lodge and have a brief tour of Chobe NP in Botswana. The whole trip was wonderful--well, except for the long flights across the Atlantic.
I am posting some pictures along with brief comments, and I hope I'm not over-burdening the forum with photos and too much information. Here goes:
It's just about impossible to overstate the power and majesty of the falls. Ilala Lodge was within easy walking distance of the falls, and we shot a lot of film in the area.
Ilala was as nice as any place one might want to stay anywhere, and there was the added attraction of looking right outside the ground-floor window of the room and seeing wart hogs on the manicured lawn. Late the evening a few elephants wandered through as well. You don't get this at the Holiday Inn. Anywhere!
Camp staff at Kazuma Hunting Camp. Barry Style (PH) is third from the right. Third from the left is Henry, the camp manager and also a licensed PH. The guy on the far left is Kennedy, Barry's head tracker, who I think could follow the trail of an ant across an eight-lane highway. All these folks were wonderful and helped make our safari the success it was.
The boma and fire-pit area at Kazuma. The big trees are teak trees. Hunting days began and ended around the fire. Very nice place.
Our quarters for 10 days at Kazuma. We had electricity (by generator) for a couple of hours in the evening, hot water for showers, en suite bathroom, mosquito netting, and a nice thatched rood and half-walls. What more could one ask for?
Melinda pointing to leopard track five feet from the door of our chalet. The leopard had waked me up at 4:00 AM with that great, sawing, raspy noise they make--like a dull saw in heart pine. We also had hyenas in camp one night, and there were always tracks of lions and elephants nearby.
Me with buffalo. We saw the tracks where one herd had left the area and wandered across to Botswana, followed by the lions. Another herd had gone north. Barry said the lions would pressure the buffalo, and they would return, but meanwhile we got very luck and found this solitary old bull hanging out near a water hole. Kennedy and Steven (the trackers) followed him through impossibly thick brush until we finally came up on him. I shot him at about 20 yards. Very nice old bull, with lots of character.
Kennedy (head tracker), Steven (tracker), and Torzan (game scout), along with an old white guy and a very old buffalo.
Barry glassing from a hill top. The next six days were taken up with my efforts to find a good kudu. We walked a lot, glassed a lot, waited by water holes a lot, and saw plenty of kudu cows, immature bulls, and assorted other game, but I was dead set on a good kudu bull. Immature kudus, by the way, still look awfully big to a guy who usually hunts whitetail deer in the southern US.
Finally! This one represented a lot of walking, several "almost got a chance for a shot" moments, and a great deal of patience. The reason I look very tired in this photo is because I was very tired. But what a nice reward! Lovemore, the cook at Kazuma, did wonderful things with kudu fillets one evening.
You never know what you'll see in a place like this. We rounded a curve and saw these zebras with a giraffe munching on a thorny dinner. Zebras are usually very spooky (this is lion country, after all), but we surprised these guys in our stealthy toyota, I guess.
Waiting in a makeshift blind near a muddy water hole while hunting kudu allowed for some interesting game viewing. This wart hog looks pretty comical with his snout caked with mud.
Some young male lions with a buffalo they had killed the night before. This was in Chobe. We counted nine lions in this group, including some females and young ones. There was another very large male in the scrub brush nearby, but he never posed for a picture.
Lions watching a crocodile watch their buffalo kill. Nobody wanted to share.
Elephants fascinate me, and I love watching them. Sometimes, though, they make me nervous. This one did. We were chased by a cow elephant with a small herd three times within a half hour at Kazuma. I guess she resented our presence in her million-acre paradise. "Adrenaline rush" is such an inadequate term! We saw elephants every day, both while we were hunting at Kazuma and when we toured Chobe later.
Elephants drinking at Chobe River, Botswana. We also some them swimming across the river, and we were able to see plenty of babies with the herds. Also lots of plains game, crocodiles, more buffalo, etc. Chobe was beautiful, but for me the truly wild hunting area in Kazuma was more enjoyable. Having the privilege of wandering around with a rifle for miles in true wilderness country, accompanied by a great PH who quickly became a good friend, amid elephants, lions, kudu, leopards, and all the other wonderful animals one associates with Africa, and getting to know some fine folks on the staff at camp--all that made for a perfect trip. Taking a very old buffalo and a fine kudu just added frosting to the cake. But for the little matter of finances, I'd do it again tomorrow if I could.
I had hunted Africa only once previously. That was eleven years ago in South Africa, mostly in Limpopo in the low veldt. It was a great trip, and I worked hard for a nice buffalo and several heads of plains game. This time we decided to go to Zimbabwe, hunting with Barry Style of Buffalo Range Safaris in a couple of huge concessions (Kazuma and Pandamasuie) near the Botswana border, about three hours by bad roads from Victoria Falls. I was anxious to get another very old cape buffalo, and I really wanted a kudu. Highlights of the trip included getting these two, but also just seeing the wildlife, being in an area that was completely wild, getting chased by elephants (three times; we ran into a cow elephant and her small herd that really didn't like the looks of our toyota truck), enjoying the conversation around the fire and the meals in the bona, getting to know the camp staff, and just knowing that I was walking around with a rifle in the middle of miles and miles of true wilderness. The plan was for us to spend a couple of days doing touristy stuffy at the falls, staying in a very nice lodge (Ilala Lodge), go on the ten-day safari, then return to the lodge and have a brief tour of Chobe NP in Botswana. The whole trip was wonderful--well, except for the long flights across the Atlantic.
I am posting some pictures along with brief comments, and I hope I'm not over-burdening the forum with photos and too much information. Here goes:
It's just about impossible to overstate the power and majesty of the falls. Ilala Lodge was within easy walking distance of the falls, and we shot a lot of film in the area.
Ilala was as nice as any place one might want to stay anywhere, and there was the added attraction of looking right outside the ground-floor window of the room and seeing wart hogs on the manicured lawn. Late the evening a few elephants wandered through as well. You don't get this at the Holiday Inn. Anywhere!
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