MOZAMBIQUE: Fantastic Hunt With Legadema Hunting & Safaris

[Safari Dave]

Chapter 10 – Day 9 of the trip (Day 6 of hunting)



If my son would come as originally planned, we may have gone croc hunting for a day, but he was much more interested in Tigerfish than anything that walked on the ground. I too, am probably a little more a fisherman than I am a hunter, but I’m good with either. (My last big trip was for peacock bass in Brazil with Unicoi Outfitters of Helen, GA and Nomadic Waters, headquartered near Atlanta, in 2018 – it was a great trip too)

Since I still had a hyena tag to fill and hyenas are hunted at night over bait, like leopards and lions, Reinhardt had arranged a half-day tigerfishing trip on Cahora Bassa by renting a boat and operator from the fishing village that was nearby.

“Nonny”, the camp mechanic and handyman became the fishing guide for the day. He was into fishing and knew how to catch tigerfish according to everyone in camp.

You can’t have sunshine all the time, so mother nature decided to mess with us on the tigerfishing expedition. The morning of the August 23 was overcast, windy, and much cooler than any other morning that we were in Mozambique.

Nonny had explained to me that he liked to try to catch tigerfish by casting lures when they were feeding on schools of baitfish on the surface, which tended to happen more on sunny days than overcast days.

The better tigerfishing spots were near the northern shore of the lake, because there was less gillnetting pressure on the other side of the lake.

The boat showed up at our camp at 7:00 AM with plans to fish until noon. We were in a long cove where a river entered Cahora Bassa. The northern shoreline was 5 miles away. As we trolled our way towards the open water of the main lake, the wind kept getting stronger and the waves kept getting larger.

The destination was the far side of the lake, near those mountains that can be seen in the distance.

The original plan was to throw surface or subsurface lures at breaking fish, the contingency was trolling diving plugs.

The helmsman from the fishing village in the back, Wellington on the left and Nonny on the right. At this point, most of us had decided we just might need a life jacket.



When we got close to the open water, both Reinhardt and I had came to the conclusion that we didn’t want to be swimming with the hippos and crocodiles. Reinhardt gave the signal to turn around. We did and opted to troll lures around in the cove for a while.

We found a poacher’s boat on the concession and while he was running for the bushes, the Legadema staff confiscated the 3 or 4 fish he had caught that morning.

Poacher’s dugout canoe with gillnet inside.

If the fishing’s not good, sometimes you just need to enjoy the boat ride!

Back at camp. The tent on the right is the one we slept in. (Hippos and crocodiles are not supposed to be able to climb the wall, by the way)

We were back at camp by 9:30 AM.

My fishing itch had not been completely scratched, so I cast from shore with Nonny for the rest of the day. I even managed to catch a tigerfish! (he was about 9” long, but I got a tigerfish!)

*Sorry, no picture - we haven't downloaded anything but iPhone pictures at this point. The 1,500 photos on the SLR camera that we borrowed from my daughter are going to have to wait a few more days*

(It’s possible that I could come back here to fish for tigerfish at some point in the future. I might have to sneak over to the Legadema Camp to chat with friends and squeeze in a little hunting, however)

After I caught the tigerfish, I decided to see what I could catch on bottom. I had several strong takes, but I kept breaking off until I started feeling guilty about loosing Legadema’s terminal tackle. As best as I can figure, there must be a rock shelf 10-15 yards offshore, that quickly abrades line into. I switched from #20 mono to #65 braid, and it didn’t make a difference when it came to breaking off.


After lunch, we started preparing for a night of hyena hunting. Reinhardt attached a night vision scope attachment to my Leupold.

I mount my scopes as low as possible, and the 1.5-5X only has a 20 mm objective. The night vision attachment made it impossible to fully open the action, so I would now be hunting with a single-shot that could not be easily reloaded. We thought a well-placed single shot would be superior to a two second window to put the scope on a hyena illuminated with a spotlight, so we decided to go with it.

Reinhardt attaching the night vision adaptor.

We were too hyped-up to wait on dinner, so we broke for the blind at 6:00 PM (Kingsley had packed us up some pizza slices, but Seba and my wife would be dining on much finer cuisine back in camp).

A buffalo foreleg had been hanging low from a tree for 24 hours at this point. The baboon carcass was split open and dragged 100 yards to the bait station, then carried 100 yards in the opposite direction and dragged back to the bait station prior to being hung there.

(I’ll have to admit that the baboon carcass hanging from a tree looked more than just a little macabre, so I won’t post any pictures of that.)

As it was getting dark, we climbed a tree to an elevated stand built among the branches and camouflaged with a wall of grass. Game Scout Bernard and a small crew waited in a Cruiser a few hundred yards away.

Once it got so dark that you had to use the infrared illuminator to see the bait, another problem came to light with my setup. The illuminator reflected IR off of my hooded front sight, creating a very bright “dome” when looking through the scope. I suggested that Reinhardt do the illuminating with his monocular, and that seemed to work just fine.

All of the walking from the past few days must have taken its toll on my right knee (that doesn’t have anything wrong with it, as far as I know). About 3 hours into sitting motionless in a camp chair, it started to feel like someone was pushing an icepick through my kneecap. For the next 3 hours, I was trying pressure points, massage, and holding my knee up with my hands to stay seated. I suffered through it.

We stayed six hours, heard leaves crunching a few times, but nothing came, so we climbed down as we could see the Cruiser’s headlights approaching. After making six steps on the ground, all of the pain subsided.

We got back to camp around 12:45 AM. I didn’t bother to oil down my rifle on this night, just went straight to bed.

 

[Safari Dave]

Chapter 11 – Day 10 of the trip (Day 7 (the last day) of hunting)



Breakfast of pancakes, fried eggs, and buffalo tenderloin broiled with onions and peppers.

With the rest of my remaining hunting now confined to hunting in the dark, I turned my efforts into trying to catch exotic fish from shore without being on the receiving end of a “death roll” by one of the many crocodiles that live in Cahora Bassa and the rivers that flow into it.

I’m no fair-weather fisherman, but Nonny definitely had a knack for catching fish from that lake. He had managed to find some earthworms 5 months into the dry season. I had resigned myself into to throwing artificial for the rest of the day, which is normally what I do anyway, even though that was proving to be longsuffering endeavor.

Nonny caught several “bream” from shore using earthworms. For those familiar with fish, it was some kind of cichlid, probably these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozambique_tilapia

He also caught something he called a “silver fish”, which looked like what we call a “shiner” (A popular baitfish in the US). I couldn’t resist using that thing for bait, so I rigged up a 4/0 hook, with a wire leader, under an oversized makeshift bobber, hooked the “silver fish” through the back and tossed it out. My best bite of the trip happened with 15 minutes. Something big grabbed the “silverfish”, pulled the massive bobber under, but I missed the hookset.

Nonny did manage to catch what I had probably been breaking off the day before. He fished bait on the bottom, not casting out as far as I had and tightening the drag on the rod rigged with #65 braid, to the point where you could hardly pull line from the reel. He caught what appeared to be a 5-pound African Sharptooth Catfish. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarias_gariepinus

(Sorry, the fish pictures, except for the following are still on the SLR)

“Nonny”, myself and the catfish


I tipped all the staff that afternoon, since I we would not be seeing everyone together in one place again. We made a group photo using the SLR (Sorry)

View from the dining hut looking southwest.


Lunch was great as usual, but I didn’t take a picture this time.

I fished, and my wife took bird, flower, animal and fishing pictures for the rest of the evening.



Earlier, I had asked Reinhardt what he liked to do when he wasn’t working (trying to start a conversation about hobbies) and he told me “relax”.

When he worked, he worked HARD, but when it was time to relax, he knew how to relax:

He finally confessed that he did play golf, used to play rugby when he was in school, but didn’t have the patience for fishing. (He did have patience, as demonstrated by his ability to stay in a blind all night long, just not for fishing).

Before we left for the blind, Reinhardt pointed out a bull elephant that had come to the water’s edge for a drink. There was also a large crocodile sunning himself on a beach. Six more elephants joined the first bull and drank water, then returned to the woods.

There is both an elephant and a large crocodile in this picture, but you’ll just have to take my word for it

Reinhardt and I missed another excellent dinner, according to my wife, but Kingsley had packed us some sandwiches to eat in the hyena blind.

It was back to the blind around 6:00. We had decided to stay 5 hours this time. My old friend, the knee pain came back around hour 3. We neither heard nor saw anything this night. Around 11:00, the Land Cruiser came rolling back. We got down from the blind and headed back to camp.

I oiled down the .416 and went to bed.

 

[Safari Dave]

Chapter 12 – Day 11 of the trip (Start of the long journey home)



We were up at 5:00 and started packing all the gear. Reinhardt removed the night vision from my scope, and I unloaded the .416 for the final time.

Breakfast was fried eggs, toast with butter (honey and some other jelly-type condiments were there for the taking) and buffalo with onions and peppers.

Reinhardt drove, Seba rode in the passenger seat, my wife and I took the back seat, Smart, Nonny and Kingsley found seats in the back and we began the hour drive to the river at 7:00.

(The person who rode in the front passenger seat always offered it to me or my wife, but we were content to ride in the back seat of the 4-door trucks). I did ride up front when buffalo hunting while two guys in the back seat held my rifles in soft cases. Reinhardt’s .458 Lott, was typically in a hard case, bouncing around in the bed. (I gave him a bit of a good-hearted hard time about his rifle. The older CZ had been carried “African Style” by the barrel to the point of wearing all the bluing off the 12 inches of the barrel just ahead of the forestock by a previous owner. He told me it’s a “working rifle”.

Not far from camp, we stopped the truck to look at what appeared to be the tracks of a large male leopard that had crossed the road overnight. (Good news for the next client who would be there in the next day to begin a leopard hunt!)

When we arrived at the river, there were many people there (fishing, swimming, getting water, and just hanging around) I think Reinhardt decided to keep his rifle cased this time because there were so many folks around.

On the other side of the river, dozens of children with 5-liter containers were getting water to begin the school day.

The who guys who had ridden in the truck bed took the green cruiser back to camp after we exchanged, handshakes, hugs or fist-bumps. ( From here to Tete, it was just Reinhardt, Seba, and the old married couple from the US).

We tanked up the newest tan Landcruiser from jerry cans at the river’s edge, then proceeded towards back to Tete town.

The trip back to Tete was uneventful. (We did pick up a hitchhiker along the way and shared our lunch with him in one of the few shady spots near the highway).

We made it back to Hotel inter Tete at 4:00 PM. Got checked in, rested up a while, then had dinner in the hotel restaurant, where we met Reinhardt’s next client and another PH who had brought a .375 for the client to use and assist with the leopard hunt.

Seba would be flying back to JNB with us in two days after we had negative Covid test results.

The curfew had everything closed by now, so we just went to back to our room and binged watched “Last Kingdom” on Nextflix for as late as we could stand it to try to start getting our sleep cycle working it’s way back to eastern daylight savings time.

 

[Scott CWO]

You have hunted Africa enough,there is nothing that is more legitimate than the next US dollar. Your last comment about this not being able to happen in the US. C’mon man!!!

I have never seen the Forest Service here take away half of an outfitters permit area and give it to someone else. Only in Africa.

 

[AZDAVE]

Nice report, looks like you had a great hunt and fulfilling a dream is always a rewarding part of the adventure. You also had a proper buffalo hunt, as you were sweating, had sore feet and bleeding from multiple scraches. Job well done.

 

[Safari Dave]

Guys - Please don't hijack this thread. Take that stuff back to my post from May 18, 2019 and have at it!

 

[Safari Dave]

Chapter 13 – Day 12 of the trip (Covid testing and burning time in Tete, MZ)

We had breakfast in the hotel restaurant with Seba at 7:00. It was OK, but didn’t compare to Kingsley’s work back at the Legadema camp.

Our friend John met us at 8:00 for a short tour of the city and then a visit to the Tete hospital for a PCR test.

John was a great tour guide, pointing out government buildings, important politician’s residences, and other landmarks on the way to the hospital.

At the hospital, outside in the parking lot, there was a WHO tent with chairs outside for a waiting area in the hot tropical sun. Two weeks ago, I spat into a tube for a PCR-RT test, here I had the inside of my skull swabbed thoroughly through each nostril for a standard PCR test (by golly, if there was a virus particle up there, they were dang-sure they were going to find it!).

From the hospital, breathing through masks all the way, we visited a very well stocked modern supermarket – apparently, the Covid hasn’t created the supply chain issues in this 3rd world country that it has back in the US.

We were back at the hotel from 11:30 – 2:00PM, when John came back to continue the city tour and for all us to eat and early dinner at Café del rio, on the bank of the Zambezi River.

John and the American couple

To help me remember the name of the place…

Giant prawns, ribs & chips – not that bad!

It was back to the hotel before Covid curfew, another Netflix binge, then off to sleep.

 

[Randy F]

Great report, Very much enjoyed it. Congratulations on your fantastic buff!!

 

[Nyati]

Congrats, that is a very good buff !

Thank you for sharing your adventure with us

 

[Safari Dave]

Chapter 15 – Day 13 of the trip (From TET towards NWK)
(so I wrote 2 Chapter 9’s – good thing I don’t write for a living)


Breakfast in the hotel restaurant with Seba at 8:00 AM and checked out at 10:00 AM, as John arrived with negative Covid test results in hand – Whew!

Off to the airport at least 3 hours prior to departure.

John did the rifle and ammo talking while I just stood there with keys to open the gun case and ammo box for police inspection. I paid Airlink some more money with the Mastercard for the gun case to be loaded onto the plane.

John made sure with Airlink that the luggage wouldn’t be checked through to United.

Wheels up at 1:20 PM in TET.

Wheels down at 3:40 PM in JNB.

First, it was off to the baggage carousel to get the 2 checked bags.

Just as I had expected, Gert & Renita were there as we left baggage claim to assist with all the gun/ammo stuff at the police station. Gert did his thing with the police involving verifying serial numbers, then we loaded the metal ammo box into the checked luggage.

We had a nice little break at a coffee shop in the airport, where we could keep a watchful eye on the guns and luggage.

Then to the United check-in where the 2 bags were tagged and went to be loaded onto the outbound plane. The United staff gave Gert a baggage tag for the gun case and Gert escorts me back to the police station, to go through what seemed like exactly the same thing the police had done 45 minutes ago.

Gert attaches the baggage tag to the gun case, and we take it back to United check-in for the trip back to America.

We say goodbye to Gert & Renita, a lovely couple who are worth more than their weight in South African gold when it comes to travel logistics!

If you get frustrated with going through airports in America, you haven’t seen anything compared to the multiple checkpoints in JNB, where you were constantly showing your passport/Covid test results/and boarding pass to progress through the airport. Here, there at least seems to be a logical progression with security. There, it was showing all your papers to everyone, every step of the way.

Wheels up on United flight 187 at 8:00 PM.

Let the grueling 16-hour flight begin!

 

[Safari Dave]

Chapter 16 – Day 14 of the trip (From somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean to home)

The jet touched down on the runway around 5:45 AM in Newark, NJ.

Off to baggage claim, then to customs, where the gun case was to be opened for the last time. Customs ask for, and I had copies of the 4457 for each rifle.

All baggage was then checked in again for the 11:55 the flight to ATL.

(I had suggested an earlier flight to ATL, but Shawn at Gracy Travel, wisely advised against it, because of Customs. I saw several hunters whose rifles could not possibly make their connecting flight)

We departed NWK at 11:55.

We arrived in ATL a little over two hours later.

My best friend picked us up at the curb at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in my 18-year old GX 470 daily driver (which just happens to be a Land Cruiser Prado in Africa, I might add!)

That about does it.

 

[Randy F]

Great report. Thanks for taking us along.

 

[Safari Dave]

Epilogue

I want to give great thanks to:

Willie Botha – PH and owner of Legadema. He treated me with the utmost professionalism, respect and patience since our first interaction in January 2019. There were absolutely no unpleasant surprises involved in the trip or in the final settlement.

PH Reinhardt Fourie – He is a gifted PH and outdoorsman, with a sense of humor that matched my own. He quickly summed me up and we began interacting with each other almost exactly as I do with my buddies, which involved light-hearted ribbing (I poked fun at his well-used rife, he poked very slightly at my “safe queens”, I made fun of his choice of camp shoes, he “gave me uphill” as they say over there, about a few of my multiple idiosyncrasies, etc.) Perfect.

PH Sebastiaan Leltha – A truly kindhearted, sacrificing gentleman. Seba was very knowledgeable, intelligent, and conversational about a wide variety of subject matter. He knew much about wildlife, of course, but also investing, off-road vehicles, dog breeds, and his insight on the sometimes-taboo subjects of geopolitics and religion was appreciated. I'd let him be my PH next time without a second thought. Reinhardt may have had enough of me anyway!

Minel Korb – Willie’s Administrative Assistant, who I never met face to face (and who turned out to be Reinhardt’s wife), was very helpful with communication and the documentation necessary for the travel.

Gert & Renita Goosen – Very nice people who assisted us immensely with logistics in Johannesburg. The kind of couple we would love to spend time with if they happen to come to the US for an SCI show or for any other reason for that matter.

John – I never got his last name, but he was of utmost help with everything in Tete, MZ. Extremely friendly and knowledgeable. He is trying to start a private school in Tete. If you can spare a dollar or two, find out his address from Legadema and help him out if you can. The ambitious children of Tete will benefit greatly.

Kenuritza (aka “Dennis”) – I don’t think he could speak either English, Afrikaans, or Portuguese, but he could sure track the animals! Through expertise or instinct, he just knew where animals were going. He did all the stuff you would expect from a tracker (reading tracks, droppings, paying attention to the wind) but he would even occasionally taste the remnants of what the animals were feeding on. I’m not sure why, perhaps to become “one-with-the-buffalo”.

Kingsley – An absolutely great chef, who could operate in at least 3 (probably several more) languages. Really interesting to talk to. I believe I picked up that he may have had a degree in Hospitality from an institute of higher learning. I don’t know what Willie has on him to keep him from running a resort in Capetown.

Mr. Smart – The camp manager who always seemed ready with a welcoming greeting and did a whole lot more than oversee camp operations. He jumped on anything that needed doing from walking all day on a buffalo trail, to changing tires, to heavy lifting. Impressive.

“Nonny” – Nonny might be my brother from another color mother. He enjoys fishing as much as I do, and he seemed to be able to repair most anything. (Willie, if you read this you probably don’t need to let him know that he could make much more in the US with his skills, than most people who come out of an American University with a 4-year degree).

Wellington – His dad is the village chief of the closest village. I have no idea about his formal education, but he seemed to be able to function well in English, Portuguese, Afrikaans, and the local tribal language. He is friendly, smart, and not the least bit intimidated by hard work. He hauled at least 4 gallons of water and a bunch of other stuff in a daypack made to hold no more than 20 pounds for more than the 50 miles that the rest of us put in for the buffalo, he also offered to carry the double in addition to his normal load. (I just couldn’t do that to the man).

Alexander – Alexander kept the camp tidy, did all the laundry, made beds every day and served as waiter for every meal. He was very polite and always had a warm greeting.

Andreas – I didn’t communicate with Andreas very much, but he sure knew what he was doing with knives. I once caped out an elk, and it me hours. He did the buffalo in an hour. He skinned it (saved the backskin and the cape). I didn’t see the slightest flaw in his work.

Shawn Kennedy at Gracy Travel – This lady knows international hunting travel! I won’t even think about booking international hunting travel with multiple stops/layovers/etc. by myself ever again.


Sorry, if I butchered the spelling of names. Spelling has never been a strength of mine.

 

[Safari Dave]

Thoughts on equipment:

Rifles - for this hunt, I would do exactly the same thing again even though it could have been a 1-rifle safari with a scoped .375 or something larger.

Ammo - I carried Hornady Dangerous Game factory ammo. I experimented with accuracy using Federal Premium and Barnes ammo, but, in my rifles, the Hornady won out with putting solids and expanding bullets in the same spot. Reinhardt commented that he had been most impressed with the performance of Hornady Dangerous game factory ammo used by his clients.

Knives - My EDC is a swiss Army Knife and a tactical folder. I wore a sheath knife for the first couple of days, but shed it before day 3 to save weight and it also sometimes bumped and made noise against my slung rifle when walking.

Binoculars - I took 2 pair of good binoculars along, One for me and another for my wife. She ended up carrying the SLR with a telephoto lens while buffalo hunting. I didn't take mine out of my pack for two days, so I just left it in camp to look at animals on the other side of the lake for the rest of the trip. Reinhardt, just let me use his every time I needed to look at something. I would bring one pair of full- sized 8-10X next time anyway, because the situation might be a little different.

Head covering - The brimmed hat worked out best for me. I had a baseball cap in the day pack, just in case. I also had a subdued colored Buff that I could turn into a biker style looking "dew-rag" when I rode in the back of the cruiser that wouldn't blow off my head. The police were fine with me using it as a Covid mask also.

Safari Jacket - I needed it for rides on cool mornings, and I didn't mind the ammo loops for extra ammo storage either.

Long Sleeved Shirts - I brought 3 cotton canvas safari shirts. One would have been sufficient.

Short sleeved shirts - I brought 2 light cotton canvas shirts, I would have liked to have had 3.

Shorts - The two pair of cotton cargo shorts I had were fine.

Long Pants - I brought 3 pair of military-type ripstop poplin cargo pants. They worked out well.

(I had some higher-tech solar-flex type shirts, but they would have been picked to pieces by the throny bushes, same with more flexible pants material)

Boots - I wear hiking boots every day on my real job. I liked the Danner Light II's that I wore for the trip. I brought an extra pair of higher topped Danner Pronghorns with softer soles. I put those on just to fish from shore and I thought my feet were going to catch fire due to the dark leather absorbing more of the sunshine. I know some folks like Clark type desert boots, but I don't like dealing with sand, sticks and pebbles that seem to get into the ones I've worn. GI type desert boots with thinner soles, might be a good option.

Socks - I use to be a big Smartwool fan, but I think the quality dropped a few years ago, so I don't buy them anymore. I think Darn-Tough or Farm to Feet is the way to go with merino wool socks. With that being said, it seemed like the merino wool hiking socks got a little too warm for my liking this summer while working in south Georgia. I bought some drab brown cheap Dickies socks that are supposed to be cool at Wal-Mart back in June. I think I've worn them every day since.

Lights - a decent headlamp and a decent Surefire-type LED flashlight that takes 2 - CR123 batteries worked out well. I'd bring one set of extra batteries for both the flashlight and headlamp.

Bugs were not very bad, but I understand that they can be. I used 3M Ultrathon and didn't get a single insect bite. I treated 2 "outfits" each for my wife and I with Permethrin before the trip. I think that stuff works well and it and the Ultrathon was recommended by the travel clinic I used.

Sunscreen - I had to have it. I used an SPF 50 sport stick type. It worked well.

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats on the hunt and thanks for sharing

 

[Quest#1]

Excellent report. Thank you!

 

[Safari Dave]

To follow-up on shipping trophies home:



To export the buffalo cape & skull and the baboon skull and skin to South Africa = $1,000

To dip/pack/crate = $1,115.00

Shipping (including permits, etc.) from South Africa to Atlanta = $1,119.03


So, the total to get the trophies home = $3,234.03 (quotes, not actual)





I also checked with 2 taxidermy studios in South Africa. It will actually be cheaper to have the taxidermy done in the USA, when you look at the bottom line.


(Quite a bit has changed since 2007, when I had 8 shoulder mounts done in South Africa for $1,200 plus another $1,200 to have it all shipped to Atlanta)

 

[superdutch]

Thank you for the very detailed and well written report!

 

[Millsy]

AWESOME WRITE UP! I AM HEADED THERE THIS AUGUST-CAN'T WAIT!

 

[Jesus F. Elizondo]

WOW What an adventure and superbly described and narrated.
Congratulations!