SOUTH AFRICA: Awesome Buffalo With Bos En Dal

[mdwest]

Day 3 - I should preface the rest of this report by saying the intent of this trip was not to fill a large bag or check a lot of animals off "the list"... I had enough air miles stocked up to purchase tickets.. I've been wanting to chase buff for a couple of years.. and I wanted to spend a few days with my buddy Gerrit.. so while we hunted some long days, put in a lot of miles on foot (roughly 36 I believe based on the pace counter I have on my phone), even more miles by truck (I'd guess 125-150 miles scouting various properties).. I didnt shoot a whole lot of animals..

That doesnt mean there werent TONS of opportunities.. If I wanted good representatives or even true "gold" medal trophy kudu, nyala, impala, eland, etc... I had numerous chances to take them (gold medal opportunities presented themselves all 6 days I hunted).. I have to admit, at one point while hunting warthog over a watering hole when a kudu that Gerrit guessed to be 57" walked out at about 30 meters and just stood there and stared at us for 20 minutes... I was seriously tempted.. but, again, that wasnt the purpose of this trip (maybe next time Mr. Kudu!) and I was trying to maintain a budget.. so we remained extremely selective about what was taken and when throughout the week...

So, with that out of the way... on with Day 3's events..

We slept in a little late and tried to finally catch all the way up on rest after the trip over.. we bid farewell to Francois about 815AM, and headed to the Bos En Dal main lodge and hunting property..

We unpacked in the new digs a few minutes before 9AM and immediately started looking for warthog.. I wanted to check a few more animals off my Africa's Ugliest Slam.. I figured I already picked up a buff this trip.. if I could add a warthog and maybe a Red Hartebeest before I went home, everything would be perfect in the world..

Over the course of the day we saw tons of sable.. most were young bulls.. Gerrit has a nice bachelor herd of young males that sleep fairly close to the lodge every night that you see almost every morning on your initial drive out.. a couple of different times we saw some solid "shooter" sable.. one bull in particular was absolutely majestic, pushing 43" horns... according to Gerrit the 43 isnt even the "big" one.. He's also got a solid 44" running around (although I never caught a glimpse of that one).. sable wasnt on the menu for the day though.. warthog was the quarry.. so we kept looking..

We also ran across two separate herds of buffalo.. each with between 12-15 animals in it.. also viewed were kudu, impala, blesbok, several ostrich (they were everywhere on the property), and a few young nyala.... we also saw LOTs of warthogs.. but everything was either a sow or a youngster.. several times I was advised "we can do better"...

around 1PM we decided to break for lunch.. we had a delicious impala lasagna with a couple of side dishes.. despite walking several miles every day.. I am sure I gained weight while at @Bos en Dal Safaris .. I couldnt control myself at lunch and dinner each day..

The first half of the day we spent more time on foot than we did in the truck, and enjoyed bouncing up game from the thickets.. so we decided to do a lot more walking in the afternoon as well, covering more than 7 miles total on foot on Day 3.. We snuck into several watering holes and ponds and had a good time spying on white blesbok, impala, and a bunch of non-shooter warthogs.. but still didnt find the big tusker we wanted... so we decided to call it a day.. and "make a plan" for Day 5 that should have a high success rate is we still didnt bag a warthog on Day 4 (and what a plan it was!)..

Dinner that night was the best so far.. I cant recall the name of the dish.. but it was some sort of wildebeest stew made with white wine, carrots, and potatoes that was both delicious and super filling after a long day and many miles spent walking in the bush...

A few brandy's by the fire and some nice after hunt chatter... we finished the evening off about 10PM..

 

[mdwest]

Dropping the "daily" format.. my notes get fuzzy from here on out (perhaps too much castle light, amarula, brandy, and cigars )...

After still not bagging a big warthog the following day we decided to change tactics (lots of opportunities on smaller ones.. plus opportunity after opportunity on nyala, kudu, impala, blesbok, and a host of other animals.. but none of them what I was looking for.. I really wanted an old gnarly warthog.. I didnt care if he was missing a tusk, walked with a limp, or could run the 40 in 4 seconds or less.. just give me one thats old, scarred up and nasty.. the uglier, the better...)...

I try to learn something new every trip to Africa I make.. Im not sure why.. but for some reason all of my lessons end up related to shit (literally)

The last trip over I learned that you can burn zebra dung to help cover human scent while sitting in a bow blind or a hide..

This trip I learned that warthogs LOVE to eat chicken shit

Gerrit has a contact that owns a cattle ranch just a very short drive from the main @Bos en Dal Safaris lodge and property. The cattle farmer keeps a large volume of chicken shit to use for a variety of reasons (apparently cows love chicken shit too lol).. The cattle farm is covered up with warthogs that spend all day raiding the chicken shit... So the plan was to lay in ambush over a large pile of chicken shit and see what happens lol..

I'll be damned! It worked!

We literally saw DOZENS upon DOZENS of warthogs.. the vast majority of them were sows with piglets following behind.. but occasionally we would see a boar.. only for the first few hours none of them were really what we were looking for.. they were either too young.. or in one case when we moved to a watering hole during the heat of the day, we caught a glimpse of a couple of old males at about 120 yards away across a large pond.... but both had relatively small tusks (maybe 5" protruding?)..


A little after mid day, after spending an hour or so at the pond mentioned above, we moved back to our large, steaming, odoriferous pile of poo and set up behind a small group of trees and brush about 100 meters away.. just like earlier in the morning, warthogs continued to come and go the entire time we sat and waited on Mr. Tusks.. we even had a female and an adolescent come out of the bush behind us, and walk within 20 feet of our position before they finally got our wind and took off.. I honestly could have sat there all day.. I was having a ball watching pig after pig come in, tool around like warthogs do, and then head back out as another one came in behind them..

And then it happened.. Mr. Tusks finally appeared.. Coming in from the right, at roughly 110 yards away, he stopped maybe 20 feet in front of his dinner and just stood in perfect broadside pose for a good 10-15 seconds.. giving me plenty of time to line up the cross hairs on Gerrits swaro topped, suppressed 7x57 (awesome little gun! and clearly deadly on warthogs)..

This guy was exactly what I had been looking for.. his upper right lip had a good rip in it (obviously a fighter).. very dark patches under the eyes.. and a great set of tusks.. absolutely the ugliest warthog we had seen all day..

Originally I had planned on skull mounting a warthog if I were fortunate enough to get one.. but this guy was so ugly he begged to be shoulder mounted.. so a shoulder mount it will be!

Dinner back at the lodge was a delicious nyala stew.. then straight to bed.. no cigars tonight (the first cigarless night we had).. tomorrow is our last hunting day (the day after that was reserved for excursions.. I really wanted to "see" some more of South Africa.. after multiple trips to the country I honestly hadnt seen much over the years other than some offices in Pretoria (business meetings) and a variety of game farms (hunting)..

 

[Brent in Az]

Poop eating Warthogs. That's good stuff, right there!

 

[Mort Hill]

Reminds me of my hair coverage before I started shaving my head. He’s got me in the tooth department. Too many bridges and crowns. Nice Pig!

 

[Matt_WY]

Very, very nice!

 

[Firebird]

Love the width! Good length and an appropriately lovely old boar-congrats

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

Congrats Dave!! Excellent Buff, jealous of the warthog.

 

[mdwest]

Wake up on the last hunting day without much of a plan.. I really hadnt thought much about what I'd like to hunt prior to coming over.. The buffalo was a given.. and Gerrit and I had been talking warthogs since January at DSC.. but anything/everything else was really up for grabs..

That said.. we had seen a couple of really nice hartebeest bulls over the course of the week.. and hartebeest and I have a long history together, starting back as far as 2009 when a young hartebeest cow decided she want to be the mother of my children, and chased me and a friend of mine all over the plains of southern Kenya for about 20 minutes (it was quite a sight.. 2x grown men.. each 6'4" and pushing 260lbs at the time.. in flip flops, shorts, and t-shirts.. running and screaming and laughing like school girls from a <250lb herbivore with googly eyes)..

I decided in 2009 I'd get my revenge one day... I tried several times on a hunt in 2017 to close the deal.. and stalked several bulls over the course of several days.. but could never make it happen..

So after a quick cup of coffee and just a little bit of thinking.. hartebeest became the plan for the last day of this 2019 hunt..

We quickly found a small herd with 2x calves, 3 cows, and a big bull.. and put in about a 300 meter stalk.. but we got busted.. the path to get to them took us through thick brush and they were already a little wary by the time we got close enough to try to maneuver for a shot.. on a positive side the wind was pretty strong and was making a good bit of noise which helped mask our sound.. but.. on the negative, the wind was swirling and it was impossible to keep it in our faces the entire time.. before we could find a good place for the sticks the wind shifted on us.. and the hartebeest picked up and moved out..

we tried to continue the hunt, and slowly followed them for another 600 meters.. but they were skiddish at that point and never really stopped moving.. every time we got within a few hundred meters and could see them again, we'd only get a glimpse for a few seconds.. and they were gone.. once they moved through a large thicket several hundred meters in front of us we lost complete sight of them.. and decided we'd go back to the bakkie and see if we could find another herd.

It didnt take long.. once we got back to the truck we drove for a few minutes, and then stopped on some high ground to do some glassing... only about 30 minutes passed before Gerrit was able to spot a herd about a kilometer away bedded down in a large field.. At that distance all I could make out was "large animals".. Gerrit however was able to tell me that he saw 6x cows and what he believed was a really nice bull.. so we decided to give it a go...

We drove the bakkie to about 300 meters of where we last saw the hartebeest and then got out on foot.. we stalked through a large field, then into the wood line that bordered the field that we had seen the hartebeest bedded down in..

When we finally got to about 120 meters away, still walking through the thick of the woods, we saw them.. all still in the same place we had originally observed them.. but now standing, looking like they were preparing to move out..

We continued to move to try to get closer.. a 120 meter shot would have been very challenging.. we would have had to thread the proverbial needle and make the shot through a long line of trees..

Thankfully we were able to get to about 60 meters away and found an excellent location just out of view of the big bull.. we set up the sticks and waited for him to come to us..

It only took a couple of minutes, and there he was.. while close, the shot was still a bit difficult.. the bull wouldnt give me a good broadside.. instead the best he would do is provide a very hard quartering away shot.. thankfully the distance wasnt long, and the rifle was a .375 H&H.. because I hit him about 2" further to the rear than I would have liked.. the big bullet ensured that was all that was needed though.. The bull ran about 40 meters one direction, then pivoted a full 180 degrees and ran back about 20 meters toward where he started, and then stopped on super wobbly legs..

I am certain he would have gone down right there in 10-15 more seconds if I left him alone.. but not wanting to take any chances, I put a second shot on him while he was standing, and dropped him in his tracks immediately..

The decade long war with the hartebeest was now won.. while not originally planned before leaving the states.. I couldnt think of a better way to end the trip.. he was a fine addition to my Africa's Ugliest collection (buff, warthog, and hartebeest.. in one trip.. I certainly wasnt going for the most regal or beautiful animals the continent has to offer.. )...

While the hunting was over.. the trip was not.. we planned to visit an acclaimed predator park, do some curio shopping, spend some time at a butchery getting some biltong for the trip back as well as some biltong spices (Im going to attempt to build a biltong box sometime in the next few weeks and give making my own biltong a try).. and I wanted to visit a local taxidermist to see the quality of his work before making a decision on who we would send my trophies to.. tomorrow would be every bit as busy, and every bit as fun as a typical hunting day with @Bos en Dal Safaris

 

[cagkt3]

I dig the "Ugly Slam"!

 

[Edge]

Well done, looks like you had a great time and awesome warthog!

 

[mdwest]

I dig the "Ugly Slam"!

Ive been trying to figure out what all needs to be included in this..

I've got a blue wildebeest, warthog, cape buff, and a red hartebeest so far.. I think they all qualify..

Im thinking add a black wildebeest, bushpig, and a brown hyena... and we could get SCI to designate it a "slam"

 

[Brent in Az]

Not a hooved game species, however, Baboons fall under the ugly category.

 

[mdwest]

Not a hooved game species, however, Baboons fall under the ugly category.

Definitely worth adding to the slam!

 

[mdwest]

The last day of the trip was set aside to do some excursions..

First stop was an excellen butchery in Rustenburg where I picked up 1KG of chili bite spice, 1KG of biltong spice, and about 3KG or biltong to bring home. I make 20-30lbs of jerky every year out of game animals. I figure I might try making whitetail biltong this year and see how that goes. As silly as it might sound, I had a great time at the butchery.. Old style butcher shops in the US are quickly becoming history, whereas the butcher is where everyone goes to get their meats in SA.. It was cool seeing all of the beef hanging/aging in the back, hundreds of pounds of sausages, biltong, etc all on display, etc.. I plan on testing the chili bite and biltong spice on some sirloins before deer season gets here.. but havent had a chance yet.. Im thinking it will be fun to try, even if Im not successful..

next stop was a local taxidermist I was interested in.. I wanted to take a look at his work before making any final decisions.. the guy is masterful with birds.. but I thought only "good" with most of the plains game mounts I say.. Im glad we took the time to stop and look so I could make an informed decision before trusting my mounts to someone..

Even though I decided to go with another option, it was 45 minutes well spent, and I always enjoy time spent in any taxidermy shop.. there were some simply incredible owl and guinea mounts the taxidermist had just finished up.. and there was an ostrich mount in the foyer on display that was very life life.. were I looking for someone to mount african fowl for me.. this would have definitely been my shop of choice..

after the taxidermist we set out to do a little curio shopping.. or.. the intention was to do a LITTLE curio shopping.. that quickly turned into A LOT of curio shopping.. with several pieces of wood art being purchased (literally filled an entire suitcase with nothing but curios).. that included a really nice carved 12" buffalo that I plan on putting on the desk in my office to commemorate the hunt.. I dont recall the name of the curio shopping place we went to.. perhaps Gerrit can advise.. but it was FAR superior to the big curio shop I visited in Jo'berg back in 2017 on my last SA hunt.. This place has probably a hundred or more shops on both sides of the road with everything from leather crafts, wood craft, paintings and other art work, etc.. we could have easily spent hours there.. but thankfully I found everything I wanted in about an hour (maybe a little less).. and we headed out for the primary excursion.. a really well acclaimed predator park called Akwaaba..

I visited another predator park on my 2017 trip.. but to be honest.. it was probably the only disappointment of the entire trip.. it wasnt horrible.. but it wasnt at all what I expected or wanted to see.. the animal enclosures were poorly done.. there were no interactive opportunities.. and probably 1/3 of the animals werent African..

This was something completely different.. Akwaaba is a very nice facility with a great little gift shop, and pristine enclosures. A guide is assigned to every group that tours. Our guide was super knowledgeable about all of the animals in the park, and you could tell he actually had a relationship with every single animal observed.. he would call them by name and they would come to the edge of the enclosure and purr at him.. he had tons of information about each animal and its species.. and you could tell he genuinely loved his job.. he was a pleasure to spend a couple of hours with..

Akwaaba also offers direct interaction with cheetah, lions (mature), striped hyena, lemurs, and baby lions (for very reasonable rates.. I think the cheetah/mature lion interaction opportunity was 200 rand? then there was an additional 200R for the hyena and another 200R for lemurs and the baby lions?.. basically $45 to personally interact with all of the animals on the list)....

Gerrits daughter accompanied me on the visit with the cheetah.. I was amazed how docile and calm the cat was honestly.. there were both a mature male and a mature female (both about 3 years old) in the enclosure.. The male didnt really pay us any attention.. but the female sat on her haunches like a dog next to one of the handlers and just wanted to be rubbed behind the ears..

The mature lions were quite an experience.. Two males, one about 2 1/2 years old, the other about 3 1/2 years old allowed us to sit with them and take photos... They were sunning themselves on some large rocks and werent the slightest bit interested in us being in the enclosure with them.. they were just hanging out.. when we approached one of them he rolled over to sun his belly and begged to have his belly rubbed.. If someone asked me 5 years ago if I would ever get 2 feet from a mature male lion and pet him the answer would have been a clear "no".. but this was a really cool experience.. I could have sat in that pen all day..

Then we were off to spend time with the striped hyena.. there were a male and female hyena in the enclosure.. like the cheetah, the male hyena didnt care that I was in the enclosure with him.. but he really showed no interest in interacting.. the female however was far and away the most playful animal so far.. she wanted to nuzzle my legs, and allowed me to feed her some food (im pretty sure it was just typical store bought dog chow) by hand.. she wanted her ears rubbed and to be petted and stayed within 5 feet of me the whole time I was in the enclosure, curious about everything we were doing..

Lemurs were next.. about a dozen ring tailed lemur was inside an enclosure that was probably 20'x8'x10' in size. Clearly they know anytime a human enters the enclosure, they get treats.. as soon as I showed up they all became visibly excited.. they would use their paws to hold your hand or fingers, crawl on your shoulder, etc.. and would gently take the food pellets from you one by one.. surprisingly patient, allowing one lemur to get a bite, then the next one, then the next one, etc.. never over crowding or getting aggressive with one another..

Last was the baby lions.. Akwaaba had a brand new litter.. and we were allowed to sit and play with a pair of 3 week old cubs for about 15 minutes.. there isnt much I can say about the experience other than it was exactly what you would expect.. like any 3 week old baby animal, they were curious about everything, playful, and wanted to crawl all over you.. the baby lions were lots of fun..

Then the trip was over..

Just a 90 minute drive from Rustenburg back to the airport in Jo'berg, arriving about 2 1/2 hours before my flight home.. we had a quick chat about how next year we will finish up the Ugly Slam.. and then said our goodbyes...


All in all, this was an excellent trip in every possible way.. the hunting was outstanding.. every person we spent time with, without exception, was simply wonderful to be around.. the food was great.. the accommodations comfortable.. the weather was perfect all week.. I couldnt have asked for anything to be improved upon..

Im already counting down the days to a 2020 hunt @Bos en Dal Safaris

 

[rinehart0050]

Petting a lion's belly! Now that takes courage!

Thanks for sharing your trip and congrats on your success.

 

[mdwest]

Petting a lion's belly! Now that takes courage!

there is a fine line between courage and stupidity... Im not sure which one I was exhibiting that day lol... but it was certainly fun! and an experience I never thought I would have before I did it (when I was told the park had animal interaction I figured it was the typical "walk" with lions that are about 6-12 months old... or maybe pet a cub.. etc.. I had no idea that I would be allowed to actually give a mature lion a belly rub and "shake" paws with him like a dog..

 

[AZDAVE]

@mdwest you can never pass up a really big warthog, so way to go. Sounds like you had a great trip, However I need to talk to @Bos en Dal Safaris. Gerrit as he didn't make you track and follow buffalo near enough. Need to walk at least 50 miles

 

[mdwest]

lol... if Im walking 50 miles Im going to have to invite you to come along as a rifle bearer.. a 600 meter stalk was far enough!

agree on the warthog.. if I see another one on the next trip.. he's going down too... you can never hunt enough warthog

 

[jacques smith]

Sounds like a very well rounded trip and i fully agree with the rifle bearer idea. Cheers

 

[AZDAVE]

@mdwest I have no problem being the gun bearer, as long as you are covering my flight and food we are good to go. For reference I was on track for 9 days and walked 125 miles on my buffalo so I will have to challenge Gerrit to see If he can make your second buff at least 126