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- Canada, United States, Zimbabwe, South Africa (Eastern Cape; Northern Cape; North West Province, Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo), Namibia, Cameroon, Benin, Ethiopia, Liberia, Mozambique, Argentina
As regular readers may recall, my last hunting trip, if I can dignify it by calling it that, was to Liberia in May of 2022. We were looking for duikers then, and found none. I’ve been a fan of the smaller African antelopes almost from the beginning of my African hunting, when a steenbok, generally a pretty easy target, caused me a little embarrassment and more than a little aggravation. As annoyed as I was at that little guy, it occurred to me that it’s pretty easy to see a kudu, but not so easy to see a klipspringer. And from that realization, a commitment to getting what I view as Africa’s ‘tougher’ game was born.
A few health warnings up front. First, brevity isn’t my strong suit, so this will likely ramble more than your usual hunt report (but not likely more than my hunt reports!). If you find that to be the case, you can just skip it all or go to those parts which are of interest. Secondly, I tend to review pretty much all aspects of the hunt, including the preparation, travel, etc., so again, skip what isn’t relevant to you. Thirdly, I didn’t pose any of the bait pictures, so you will see them as they were found. I apologize in advance if they are more graphic than people wish to see, but the alternative was no pictures at all. Lastly, no ostriches were hurt (or even seen) on this hunt.
That said, to date, I’ve managed to get myself eight of the Tiny Ten, with only the suni and the Sharpe’s grysbok missing. You don’t have to travel the length and breadth of Africa for the Tiny Ten (or for the Big Five for that matter) as you do, for example, for the nine spiral horns, but since the term was coined, I believe, by a South African (Peter Flack, I think?), it’s perhaps not surprising that you can get all of these in southern (but not solely South) Africa (although I think that a few of them - such as the red duiker - count whether they are taken in Natal or west Africa. I took one in both places, just to be sure.)
I tried to hunt the Sharpe’s in Zimbabwe a couple of years ago, but no permits were available. No great harm done there, because we never saw any over the course of two weeks. It’s been my experience that when I want to hunt something which I can’t, I tend to see it everywhere, and when I can hunt it, well, hen’s teeth come to mind. I had also spent three days in the sand forests not far from mKuze in South Africa searching for suni, again to no avail (although I did manage to inflict a fatal wound on the side-view mirror of a game-viewing vehicle in that particular hunt). As an aside, I’m told that suni permits are harder to come by in south Africa than they used to be.
So about a year ago, my hunting agent, Dean Stobbs, who moonlights as a Zimbabwean PH and sometime videographer, and who has booked all of my hunts, suggested we try Mozambique, which offered both the suni and the Sharpe’s, on the same property. I’d never been to Mozambique, so I was game, so to speak, to give it a try. We booked the hunt with Western Safaris, a Zimbabwean safari outfitter, the principals of which Dean knew, giving me additional comfort. The only outfitters I had heard of in Mozambique were Mark Haldane’s Zambezi Delta Safaris (Coutada 11) and one other, but neither could easily offer me both the suni and the Sharpe’s. So the hunt was booked with Western Safaris.
Now, as those who have been to Africa know, getting there can take some time and effort, so once there, it makes sense to look at what Africa has to offer in terms of available game. I’m not trying for the Weatherby award, so this wasn’t a box checking exercise (every person I’ve ever met who is going for that award just wants to get the next one and move on. Apologies to those who don’t think that way) - I enjoy getting the feel for a place and its game, while also gaining an understanding of its people and its history.
In considering what ‘Africa had to offer’ with Dean, we discussed a number of options. One was nyala. I have previously shot a number of nyala, which of course I count towards my spiral horns. But of the nine spiral horns, the nyala is the only one which I hadn’t taken in its natural habitat, strictly speaking. All were taken in fenced areas which, while always large to satisfy myself that I could call them ‘fair chase’, were introduced. So taking a nyala in its natural range had some appeal. So we added nyala to the list.
I then thought about other animals which I’d hunted in areas where they were either introduced or behind high fences, and lion came to mind. I’ve done three captive-bred lion hunts, all in South Africa and all many years ago, two of which I thought were ‘legitimate’ hunts. I won’t go into the third, but I was not pleased with it. Anyway, there was an opportunity to shoot a wild lion in Mozambique, so we added that to the list. And that pretty much settled the list of animals I had to specify in advance.
Firearms
Because I had added the lion to the list, I needed at least a .375 H&H (minimum legal requirement in Mozambique), so I decided that would do for everything I was after. Since I wasn’t looking to do a full mount - or any mount really, other than perhaps skull mounts - on the little guys, and it was unlikely I would go for head shots (!), I wasn’t too worried about the damage a .375 would do. My .375 was made for me in 2011 by Kilimanjaro Rifles, and it’s always served me well. It carries a Swarovski 1.7 - 10x Z6i. I’ve come to rely on the illuminated reticle and I’m not sure I would hunt without one, if I had a choice.
As for ammo, I had a couple of boxes of 300 grain Federal trophy bonded bear claws in the basement, so those came with me, rather than Barnes X’s, which I normally prefer. Having said that, TBBCs have never let me down, and this hunt proved to be no exception.
Coutada 9
Coutada 9 is approximately 200,000 hectares in size (about 500,000 acres, or 780 sq miles!), and is split between four partners. Two own 35% each, or about 80,000 hectares, and the other two split the remaining 30%. Typically, each owner hunts their own area, but there are no internal (or external) fences, and if you’re hunting lion or elephant, you can hunt the entire area. So lots of room.
The area we would be based in was operated by Western Safaris, owned by the Rosenfels family of Zimbabwe. John Rosenfels is one of the old hands of Zimbabwe hunting, and operated the Chewore concession for more than two decades. His two sons, James and Ed, are the professional hunters and James would be taking care of me. The other large operator is Mokore Safaris, owned by the Duckworth family, also of Zimbabwe, with an equally impressive history in the hunting industry.
Departure Day
Departure day came and it wouldn’t be flying today if it didn’t start with a (potential) fiasco. My flight from Calgary to Montreal, where I would pick up Qatar to Doha and JNB was scheduled at 12:20, giving me about a three-hour layover in Montreal before the Qatar flight. I woke up at 4 am, checked online, and the flight was on time. I went back to sleep and woke up again at 6 am and was working on my daily sudoku when my wife woke up, complained about light pollution, and asked if I’d checked the flight. Yup, a couple of hours ago. Do it again, she said, and went back to sleep. Being the dutiful husband I am (or pretend to be), I did as she said, and now the flight was five hours delayed. I would miss my connection. How can a flight lose 5 hours in two hours? Who knows.
I got on the phone to Air Canada, and for once got someone who was helpful. She quickly booked me on a 10 am flight to Montreal. All set. Except that now I didn’t have the hours I thought I did, so after a rushed shower, I finished packing, and was off to the airport.
Air Canada was very good about the firearm and ammo, but there was one issue, which others may run into. Qatar insists that they see the firearm before it goes on their plane. Air Canada generally insists that luggage be checked through to the final destination (which the passenger generally prefers as well, of course) but I told them that I had to pick up the firearm and ammo in Montreal, and re-check it on Qatar. The agent said she couldn’t do that - against the rules (the rules were created to prevent “skip lagging”). Once I explained why this was an issue, the agent checked with her supervisor, and they decided that a firearm was a good enough reason to allow it.
Once I landed in Montreal, I had to collect my luggage and wait a couple of hours for the Qatar desk to open. It was a good thing I was the first in the business class line - it took about 45 minutes to get through the paperwork! They were training someone, so that might have contributed to the time, but listening to the process being explained was interesting. Apparently, the plane’s captain need to personally sign off on every firearm going into the hold. And then only after they have all of the information they need, which is a lot. They wanted my Canadian firearm’s license, the export permit for the firearm and ammo, a copy of the Mozambique firearms permit, and a copy of the South Africa transit permit. And I had to show them the ammo, as well as the rifle.
I’ve flown Qatar with a firearm before, and it didn’t take as long as this process did, but I will say that throughout, the Qatar staff were unfailingly polite.
The next two days (Aug. 20 - Sept. 1) were all travel. The flight from Doha to JNB arrived a bit early at 2.30 am (!). I had arranged my transit permits with AfricaSky, which I’ve used in the past. I was met at the end of the jetway by someone holding a sign with my name, who took me around whatever lines there were at that hour, and we picked up my luggage. At that point he delivered me into the care of Gilbert, who works for AfricaSky and who I have gotten to know over the years. Unfailingly polite and helpful.
A bit to my surprise, the firearms office was open and my rifle was already there. I was the only person and we were done in less than 5 minutes. Gilbert waited with me until the AirLink desks opened at 5 am, helped me check in, took me to the (right) desk to pay for the rifle fee, and then took care of the rifle. All very efficient.
At 12.30 pm after a solid breakfast at Spur in the airport, I boarded the flight to Tete (pronounced Tet, as in the lunar new year).
We arrived at Tete around 2 pm. This isn’t exactly a major metropolis - in fact, it’s pretty much a run-down provincial town, but there is mining activity in the region, so it has a real airport, at least for the area. Real doesn’t mean particularly nice, although the departure area seems a lot newer than the arrivals area.
We were met by a meet and greet person we had set up in advance, which it turns out was a good idea. He met us in the arrivals area while I was trying to figure out the visa forms and told me not to bother. He took our passports and brought them back a few minutes later with the necessary stamps. In speaking to others who arrived a few days after us and who had not arranged for the meet and greet, they waited over two hours for the stamps. They told us they could see their passports on a desk but no one seemed interested in looking at them!
This might be a good time to mention the recent confusion over Mozambique visas. Travelers from Canada or the US need a visa to enter Mozambique. Mozambique has an online site where you can apply for a visa. The first step in the process is to verify that you in fact need a visa. I did that, was told I needed one (which I knew) and then proceeded to fill out the application. Submitted with all required documents (passport, picture, proof of funds, etc.). Refused. I kept trying and kept getting refused.
So I went to VisaHQ, a service which I’ve used for visas in the past with good results. They applied for me. Refused. They finally were able to do what I couldn’t - speak to someone at the embassy to try to figure out what was wrong. Well, there was something wrong. I didn’t need an advance visa, and in fact couldn’t get one. The Mozambique government had eliminated visa requirements for stays of less than 30 days for many of those who used to require them, but hadn’t updated their website, or really anyone, including some of their own officials. So unless that changes, you don’t need a visa to hunt Mozambique. If it does change, it’s not clear they will tell anyone though . . . TIA!
Once the firearm arrived I was taken into an office where it was examined and compared to my permit, arranged in advance by Western Safaris. That took a fair amount of time as there seemed to be a number of forms which the officer had to fill out, all by hand. And then the stamps. Not only did the officer who filled out the forms have to stamp them a number of times, but so did another officer in the office. I had to pay US$70 for the rifle and two boxes of ammo . . . And that required more stamps. I sometimes think that stamps are the most powerful tools in Africa. No ‘extra’ payments though.
Finally out of the airport, we were met by our driver who would take us to camp. A very pleasant young woman named Daisy. So not driving Miss Daisy, but Miss Daisy driving. It’s a bit less than 200 km to camp from the airport, and that takes about 5.5 hours. Tells you something about the state of the roads - and this was mostly on the major north-south highway connecting Maputo in the south with the rest of the country. Once you get off that highway, the roads are actually worse, something I wasn’t sure was possible . . .
It was dark by the time we arrived in camp, but we were expected and I was whisked off to my chalet to clean up before dinner. The chalet was very nice, with plenty of room and storage space for my stuff, as well as a decent bathroom with plenty of hot water. I had a few long showers, and I never ran out of hot water. Hot showers are my lifeline in a hunting camp, and this one ranked highly.
Dinner was delicious and there was plenty of it. Fresh bread (a daily occurrence), salad, meat, roasted potatoes, vegetables. This wasn’t a show for the first night - this was a daily event. The Rosenfels’ cook has been with them for decades, and for good reason.
After dinner and some talking, it was off to bed. We’d be getting up at 5:30 the next day, and start by checking the rifle. That was to be our latest wake-up for the duration - otherwise, it was a 4:30 am wake-up call, breakfast at 5 and out by 5:30.
A few health warnings up front. First, brevity isn’t my strong suit, so this will likely ramble more than your usual hunt report (but not likely more than my hunt reports!). If you find that to be the case, you can just skip it all or go to those parts which are of interest. Secondly, I tend to review pretty much all aspects of the hunt, including the preparation, travel, etc., so again, skip what isn’t relevant to you. Thirdly, I didn’t pose any of the bait pictures, so you will see them as they were found. I apologize in advance if they are more graphic than people wish to see, but the alternative was no pictures at all. Lastly, no ostriches were hurt (or even seen) on this hunt.
That said, to date, I’ve managed to get myself eight of the Tiny Ten, with only the suni and the Sharpe’s grysbok missing. You don’t have to travel the length and breadth of Africa for the Tiny Ten (or for the Big Five for that matter) as you do, for example, for the nine spiral horns, but since the term was coined, I believe, by a South African (Peter Flack, I think?), it’s perhaps not surprising that you can get all of these in southern (but not solely South) Africa (although I think that a few of them - such as the red duiker - count whether they are taken in Natal or west Africa. I took one in both places, just to be sure.)
I tried to hunt the Sharpe’s in Zimbabwe a couple of years ago, but no permits were available. No great harm done there, because we never saw any over the course of two weeks. It’s been my experience that when I want to hunt something which I can’t, I tend to see it everywhere, and when I can hunt it, well, hen’s teeth come to mind. I had also spent three days in the sand forests not far from mKuze in South Africa searching for suni, again to no avail (although I did manage to inflict a fatal wound on the side-view mirror of a game-viewing vehicle in that particular hunt). As an aside, I’m told that suni permits are harder to come by in south Africa than they used to be.
So about a year ago, my hunting agent, Dean Stobbs, who moonlights as a Zimbabwean PH and sometime videographer, and who has booked all of my hunts, suggested we try Mozambique, which offered both the suni and the Sharpe’s, on the same property. I’d never been to Mozambique, so I was game, so to speak, to give it a try. We booked the hunt with Western Safaris, a Zimbabwean safari outfitter, the principals of which Dean knew, giving me additional comfort. The only outfitters I had heard of in Mozambique were Mark Haldane’s Zambezi Delta Safaris (Coutada 11) and one other, but neither could easily offer me both the suni and the Sharpe’s. So the hunt was booked with Western Safaris.
Now, as those who have been to Africa know, getting there can take some time and effort, so once there, it makes sense to look at what Africa has to offer in terms of available game. I’m not trying for the Weatherby award, so this wasn’t a box checking exercise (every person I’ve ever met who is going for that award just wants to get the next one and move on. Apologies to those who don’t think that way) - I enjoy getting the feel for a place and its game, while also gaining an understanding of its people and its history.
In considering what ‘Africa had to offer’ with Dean, we discussed a number of options. One was nyala. I have previously shot a number of nyala, which of course I count towards my spiral horns. But of the nine spiral horns, the nyala is the only one which I hadn’t taken in its natural habitat, strictly speaking. All were taken in fenced areas which, while always large to satisfy myself that I could call them ‘fair chase’, were introduced. So taking a nyala in its natural range had some appeal. So we added nyala to the list.
I then thought about other animals which I’d hunted in areas where they were either introduced or behind high fences, and lion came to mind. I’ve done three captive-bred lion hunts, all in South Africa and all many years ago, two of which I thought were ‘legitimate’ hunts. I won’t go into the third, but I was not pleased with it. Anyway, there was an opportunity to shoot a wild lion in Mozambique, so we added that to the list. And that pretty much settled the list of animals I had to specify in advance.
Firearms
Because I had added the lion to the list, I needed at least a .375 H&H (minimum legal requirement in Mozambique), so I decided that would do for everything I was after. Since I wasn’t looking to do a full mount - or any mount really, other than perhaps skull mounts - on the little guys, and it was unlikely I would go for head shots (!), I wasn’t too worried about the damage a .375 would do. My .375 was made for me in 2011 by Kilimanjaro Rifles, and it’s always served me well. It carries a Swarovski 1.7 - 10x Z6i. I’ve come to rely on the illuminated reticle and I’m not sure I would hunt without one, if I had a choice.
As for ammo, I had a couple of boxes of 300 grain Federal trophy bonded bear claws in the basement, so those came with me, rather than Barnes X’s, which I normally prefer. Having said that, TBBCs have never let me down, and this hunt proved to be no exception.
Coutada 9
Coutada 9 is approximately 200,000 hectares in size (about 500,000 acres, or 780 sq miles!), and is split between four partners. Two own 35% each, or about 80,000 hectares, and the other two split the remaining 30%. Typically, each owner hunts their own area, but there are no internal (or external) fences, and if you’re hunting lion or elephant, you can hunt the entire area. So lots of room.
The area we would be based in was operated by Western Safaris, owned by the Rosenfels family of Zimbabwe. John Rosenfels is one of the old hands of Zimbabwe hunting, and operated the Chewore concession for more than two decades. His two sons, James and Ed, are the professional hunters and James would be taking care of me. The other large operator is Mokore Safaris, owned by the Duckworth family, also of Zimbabwe, with an equally impressive history in the hunting industry.
Departure Day
Departure day came and it wouldn’t be flying today if it didn’t start with a (potential) fiasco. My flight from Calgary to Montreal, where I would pick up Qatar to Doha and JNB was scheduled at 12:20, giving me about a three-hour layover in Montreal before the Qatar flight. I woke up at 4 am, checked online, and the flight was on time. I went back to sleep and woke up again at 6 am and was working on my daily sudoku when my wife woke up, complained about light pollution, and asked if I’d checked the flight. Yup, a couple of hours ago. Do it again, she said, and went back to sleep. Being the dutiful husband I am (or pretend to be), I did as she said, and now the flight was five hours delayed. I would miss my connection. How can a flight lose 5 hours in two hours? Who knows.
I got on the phone to Air Canada, and for once got someone who was helpful. She quickly booked me on a 10 am flight to Montreal. All set. Except that now I didn’t have the hours I thought I did, so after a rushed shower, I finished packing, and was off to the airport.
Air Canada was very good about the firearm and ammo, but there was one issue, which others may run into. Qatar insists that they see the firearm before it goes on their plane. Air Canada generally insists that luggage be checked through to the final destination (which the passenger generally prefers as well, of course) but I told them that I had to pick up the firearm and ammo in Montreal, and re-check it on Qatar. The agent said she couldn’t do that - against the rules (the rules were created to prevent “skip lagging”). Once I explained why this was an issue, the agent checked with her supervisor, and they decided that a firearm was a good enough reason to allow it.
Once I landed in Montreal, I had to collect my luggage and wait a couple of hours for the Qatar desk to open. It was a good thing I was the first in the business class line - it took about 45 minutes to get through the paperwork! They were training someone, so that might have contributed to the time, but listening to the process being explained was interesting. Apparently, the plane’s captain need to personally sign off on every firearm going into the hold. And then only after they have all of the information they need, which is a lot. They wanted my Canadian firearm’s license, the export permit for the firearm and ammo, a copy of the Mozambique firearms permit, and a copy of the South Africa transit permit. And I had to show them the ammo, as well as the rifle.
I’ve flown Qatar with a firearm before, and it didn’t take as long as this process did, but I will say that throughout, the Qatar staff were unfailingly polite.
The next two days (Aug. 20 - Sept. 1) were all travel. The flight from Doha to JNB arrived a bit early at 2.30 am (!). I had arranged my transit permits with AfricaSky, which I’ve used in the past. I was met at the end of the jetway by someone holding a sign with my name, who took me around whatever lines there were at that hour, and we picked up my luggage. At that point he delivered me into the care of Gilbert, who works for AfricaSky and who I have gotten to know over the years. Unfailingly polite and helpful.
A bit to my surprise, the firearms office was open and my rifle was already there. I was the only person and we were done in less than 5 minutes. Gilbert waited with me until the AirLink desks opened at 5 am, helped me check in, took me to the (right) desk to pay for the rifle fee, and then took care of the rifle. All very efficient.
At 12.30 pm after a solid breakfast at Spur in the airport, I boarded the flight to Tete (pronounced Tet, as in the lunar new year).
We arrived at Tete around 2 pm. This isn’t exactly a major metropolis - in fact, it’s pretty much a run-down provincial town, but there is mining activity in the region, so it has a real airport, at least for the area. Real doesn’t mean particularly nice, although the departure area seems a lot newer than the arrivals area.
We were met by a meet and greet person we had set up in advance, which it turns out was a good idea. He met us in the arrivals area while I was trying to figure out the visa forms and told me not to bother. He took our passports and brought them back a few minutes later with the necessary stamps. In speaking to others who arrived a few days after us and who had not arranged for the meet and greet, they waited over two hours for the stamps. They told us they could see their passports on a desk but no one seemed interested in looking at them!
This might be a good time to mention the recent confusion over Mozambique visas. Travelers from Canada or the US need a visa to enter Mozambique. Mozambique has an online site where you can apply for a visa. The first step in the process is to verify that you in fact need a visa. I did that, was told I needed one (which I knew) and then proceeded to fill out the application. Submitted with all required documents (passport, picture, proof of funds, etc.). Refused. I kept trying and kept getting refused.
So I went to VisaHQ, a service which I’ve used for visas in the past with good results. They applied for me. Refused. They finally were able to do what I couldn’t - speak to someone at the embassy to try to figure out what was wrong. Well, there was something wrong. I didn’t need an advance visa, and in fact couldn’t get one. The Mozambique government had eliminated visa requirements for stays of less than 30 days for many of those who used to require them, but hadn’t updated their website, or really anyone, including some of their own officials. So unless that changes, you don’t need a visa to hunt Mozambique. If it does change, it’s not clear they will tell anyone though . . . TIA!
Once the firearm arrived I was taken into an office where it was examined and compared to my permit, arranged in advance by Western Safaris. That took a fair amount of time as there seemed to be a number of forms which the officer had to fill out, all by hand. And then the stamps. Not only did the officer who filled out the forms have to stamp them a number of times, but so did another officer in the office. I had to pay US$70 for the rifle and two boxes of ammo . . . And that required more stamps. I sometimes think that stamps are the most powerful tools in Africa. No ‘extra’ payments though.
Finally out of the airport, we were met by our driver who would take us to camp. A very pleasant young woman named Daisy. So not driving Miss Daisy, but Miss Daisy driving. It’s a bit less than 200 km to camp from the airport, and that takes about 5.5 hours. Tells you something about the state of the roads - and this was mostly on the major north-south highway connecting Maputo in the south with the rest of the country. Once you get off that highway, the roads are actually worse, something I wasn’t sure was possible . . .
It was dark by the time we arrived in camp, but we were expected and I was whisked off to my chalet to clean up before dinner. The chalet was very nice, with plenty of room and storage space for my stuff, as well as a decent bathroom with plenty of hot water. I had a few long showers, and I never ran out of hot water. Hot showers are my lifeline in a hunting camp, and this one ranked highly.
Dinner was delicious and there was plenty of it. Fresh bread (a daily occurrence), salad, meat, roasted potatoes, vegetables. This wasn’t a show for the first night - this was a daily event. The Rosenfels’ cook has been with them for decades, and for good reason.
After dinner and some talking, it was off to bed. We’d be getting up at 5:30 the next day, and start by checking the rifle. That was to be our latest wake-up for the duration - otherwise, it was a 4:30 am wake-up call, breakfast at 5 and out by 5:30.
