Vintageguy
AH enthusiast
This was our second trip with Tsala Safaris having hunted with them for buffalo in 2021 during the Covid restrictions. That trip far exceeded all hopes in the entire experience so when we again had the opportunity to go back on our second safari the, "with who", question was already settled, it would be Tsala again.
This trip my wife wanted to hunt an area where we could encounter elephant specifically. So, with that in mind Tsala crafted a package that would take us to Hoedspruit on the Oliphants River bordering Kruger and since she also wanted a sable we would spend time at Tsala's wonderful main property we had hunted before. My focus would be on buffalo and that hunt would take place at the Hoedspruit location.
During our last visit my wife became friends with Jo and they have kept in touch ever since so she also requested if it would be possible for Jo to be along on this trip with us and what a great time we had with Jo and her husband and our PH, Brandon. I had limited time with Brandon the first trip although while he was with me he found the track of the buffalo I ended up getting. I clicked with Brandon and thoroughly enjoyed hunting with him and was very impressed with his abilities and hard working approach.
We arrived in Johannesburg on Sunday evening short one bag of my wife's. The airlines, airports, TSA, and Customs seem to make a special effort at trying to suck the joy out of traveling but enough about that and back to the hunting. We began at the Tsala property due to its closer location to Johannesburg and the late time leaving the airport.
Monday morning was the coldest morning of the trip and we began with looking for Sable for Denise after checking zero on the rifle, which was on despite the extremely harsh handling of it I witnessed in loading it on the plane. We hadn't been out very long when we spotted the first Sable, a large bull, lying in the morning sun in the edge of some thick brush and after a successful stalk and well placed shot Denise had her Sable. I commented that it was like catching a fish on the first cast and hoped it was an omen of good things rather than the opposite. That afternoon we went out for Zebra for her or Wildebeest for me. We saw only one group of Zebra that day a long way up on the side of an extremely rough and rocky mountain so left them be as getting one out would've been a nightmare. After that, we ran into Blue Wildebeest and I managed to get one on the first stalk, something we could not do the last trip with many attempts.
Tuesday morning we hunted at Tsala again for Denise's zebra but with no luck. We then loaded up everything at lunch for the trip to Hoedspruit, about 4 hours away. The drive to Hoedspruit showed us country I never would've expected to see in south Africa. They called it little Italy but it also resembled Austria in many ways.
We arrived a bit before sundown at the Hoedspruit property and immediately saw why everyone at Tsala spoke so highly of it. Where we stayed had a deck overlooking the Oliphants River and the fence for Kruger literally came right to the edge of the deck. The first night there we saw elephant and hippo and heard a lion roaring just across the river, amazing.
The first day hunting at Hoedspruit for buffalo quickly showed me that the task wouldn't be easy. Extremely rough and rocky terrain combined with super thick cover would make tracking or spotting buffalo or much else very difficult. Our tracker for this part was Shadraq and I admit that I initially concluded that he wasn't actually tracking but going more on what he expected the buffalo to do as he had been working at this location a long time and he didn't seem to be concentrating very hard on the track often pointing some fifteen feet away to what was supposed to be the track. My first trip I was able to follow along with the track just fine but this rocky ground combined with thick grass left me at a loss much of the time and the pace at which we moved added to the difficulty. It didn't take long to discover that assumption was wrong as he consistently led us to buffalo and made a believer of me with some of the twisting circling tracks we followed. We were told that there was a herd there with a large soft bossed bull to take care not to shoot but that the herd also had a couple large hard bossed bulls. In addition to that there had been seen two bachelor groups of 4 and 6 and finding them would be our focus. We searched water sources for tracks but could only ever find the tracks of the herd and being the only show in town we followed them and found them each day, managing to see the shooter bulls too but never a shot. The last encounter with the herd was particularly exciting. We crawled a hundred yards past them at one point then sneaked up again making contact with one of the old bulls but it was late in the day and the shot "iffy" so I passed taking it, just too thick. What happened then was extra special as we relocated in a loop around in front of them and over a rise out of sight. When we approached the rise Brandon had put us precisely in front of them and they were only 15 yards over the rise of rocks. I could see limbs shaking but no buffalo so I eased up on a six inch rock and straightening up came eye to eye through my binocs with a monster of a bull buffalo at 15 paces!...the soft one.
That night I was quiet and deep in thought. I take hunting very serious, too serious maybe, and I was trying to decide how much more time to devote to buffalo as we had other things that we wanted to do on this trip and time was ticking away too quickly. If I got bulldog stubborn on the buffalo it could mean my wife missing out on some of those other experiences. Brandon and Shadraq had given their all and how would they feel if I called it? Would they truly understand that the experiences already were worth the trip to me. That night I decided to give it two more days and move on and call it a successful hunt regardless of whether a shot was taken or not. Then word came that the reason we could not find the tracks of the bachelor groups was due to the fact they joined up into one group and had walked through the fence onto a bordering property causing some anxiety there and things were in the works to get us permission to follow them. The next day we started out as before and this morning was the only time we spotted buffalo from the truck. We made a plan and an attempt to get in on them but were fouled by the wind. Lunchtime came with the news that we had been granted permission to pursue the bulls onto the other property so off we went in the heat of the day looking for them and finding them in a dry river bed next to a brushy island. What followed was awe inspiring as after my shot all 9 remaining bulls were amped and looking for the source of the shot and payback. We waited probably a half hour for them to finally abandon their comrade before we approached all the while on alert for their possible return.
We then moved on to a game drive that was unbelievable followed by another morning hunt at Hoedspruit for buchbuck or nyala but no luck. We then relocated back to Tsala for another try for Denise a zebra.
The next morning we were back after zebra and it was a special morning as we saw a huge variety of game on the move but of course zebra were playing shy. We finally encountered a group again in a rough, steep and rocky spot. Brandon and Denise began the stalk and she once again made another perfect shot completing our wish list. Brandon radioed for help and we were ready to call it a safari and headed back in. But, on the way in we had a nice kudu bull cross ahead of us and we decided for a closer look. What we found was he had a buddy that was thick and wide. I had passed on a bull like this last trip and had regretted it ever since so we would try for this one. We ended up with a an opportunity on him at over 200 yards from the sticks and moving with no time to call for elbow support. Fortunately he was hit well enough to only go about 75 yards. The guys that had just had a suffer fest on the zebra got to come right back for the kudu but I told them it was their last trip, Bwana was broke!
Once again Tsala aced this trip for us. We did not feel like we were being hosted as much as spending time with friends. Exceptional people and we truly appreciate what they have shown us these past two trips and are already planning the next trip. Lots of wonderful sights, experiences, and laughs. What great memories are made of.
This trip my wife wanted to hunt an area where we could encounter elephant specifically. So, with that in mind Tsala crafted a package that would take us to Hoedspruit on the Oliphants River bordering Kruger and since she also wanted a sable we would spend time at Tsala's wonderful main property we had hunted before. My focus would be on buffalo and that hunt would take place at the Hoedspruit location.
During our last visit my wife became friends with Jo and they have kept in touch ever since so she also requested if it would be possible for Jo to be along on this trip with us and what a great time we had with Jo and her husband and our PH, Brandon. I had limited time with Brandon the first trip although while he was with me he found the track of the buffalo I ended up getting. I clicked with Brandon and thoroughly enjoyed hunting with him and was very impressed with his abilities and hard working approach.
We arrived in Johannesburg on Sunday evening short one bag of my wife's. The airlines, airports, TSA, and Customs seem to make a special effort at trying to suck the joy out of traveling but enough about that and back to the hunting. We began at the Tsala property due to its closer location to Johannesburg and the late time leaving the airport.
Monday morning was the coldest morning of the trip and we began with looking for Sable for Denise after checking zero on the rifle, which was on despite the extremely harsh handling of it I witnessed in loading it on the plane. We hadn't been out very long when we spotted the first Sable, a large bull, lying in the morning sun in the edge of some thick brush and after a successful stalk and well placed shot Denise had her Sable. I commented that it was like catching a fish on the first cast and hoped it was an omen of good things rather than the opposite. That afternoon we went out for Zebra for her or Wildebeest for me. We saw only one group of Zebra that day a long way up on the side of an extremely rough and rocky mountain so left them be as getting one out would've been a nightmare. After that, we ran into Blue Wildebeest and I managed to get one on the first stalk, something we could not do the last trip with many attempts.
Tuesday morning we hunted at Tsala again for Denise's zebra but with no luck. We then loaded up everything at lunch for the trip to Hoedspruit, about 4 hours away. The drive to Hoedspruit showed us country I never would've expected to see in south Africa. They called it little Italy but it also resembled Austria in many ways.
We arrived a bit before sundown at the Hoedspruit property and immediately saw why everyone at Tsala spoke so highly of it. Where we stayed had a deck overlooking the Oliphants River and the fence for Kruger literally came right to the edge of the deck. The first night there we saw elephant and hippo and heard a lion roaring just across the river, amazing.
The first day hunting at Hoedspruit for buffalo quickly showed me that the task wouldn't be easy. Extremely rough and rocky terrain combined with super thick cover would make tracking or spotting buffalo or much else very difficult. Our tracker for this part was Shadraq and I admit that I initially concluded that he wasn't actually tracking but going more on what he expected the buffalo to do as he had been working at this location a long time and he didn't seem to be concentrating very hard on the track often pointing some fifteen feet away to what was supposed to be the track. My first trip I was able to follow along with the track just fine but this rocky ground combined with thick grass left me at a loss much of the time and the pace at which we moved added to the difficulty. It didn't take long to discover that assumption was wrong as he consistently led us to buffalo and made a believer of me with some of the twisting circling tracks we followed. We were told that there was a herd there with a large soft bossed bull to take care not to shoot but that the herd also had a couple large hard bossed bulls. In addition to that there had been seen two bachelor groups of 4 and 6 and finding them would be our focus. We searched water sources for tracks but could only ever find the tracks of the herd and being the only show in town we followed them and found them each day, managing to see the shooter bulls too but never a shot. The last encounter with the herd was particularly exciting. We crawled a hundred yards past them at one point then sneaked up again making contact with one of the old bulls but it was late in the day and the shot "iffy" so I passed taking it, just too thick. What happened then was extra special as we relocated in a loop around in front of them and over a rise out of sight. When we approached the rise Brandon had put us precisely in front of them and they were only 15 yards over the rise of rocks. I could see limbs shaking but no buffalo so I eased up on a six inch rock and straightening up came eye to eye through my binocs with a monster of a bull buffalo at 15 paces!...the soft one.
That night I was quiet and deep in thought. I take hunting very serious, too serious maybe, and I was trying to decide how much more time to devote to buffalo as we had other things that we wanted to do on this trip and time was ticking away too quickly. If I got bulldog stubborn on the buffalo it could mean my wife missing out on some of those other experiences. Brandon and Shadraq had given their all and how would they feel if I called it? Would they truly understand that the experiences already were worth the trip to me. That night I decided to give it two more days and move on and call it a successful hunt regardless of whether a shot was taken or not. Then word came that the reason we could not find the tracks of the bachelor groups was due to the fact they joined up into one group and had walked through the fence onto a bordering property causing some anxiety there and things were in the works to get us permission to follow them. The next day we started out as before and this morning was the only time we spotted buffalo from the truck. We made a plan and an attempt to get in on them but were fouled by the wind. Lunchtime came with the news that we had been granted permission to pursue the bulls onto the other property so off we went in the heat of the day looking for them and finding them in a dry river bed next to a brushy island. What followed was awe inspiring as after my shot all 9 remaining bulls were amped and looking for the source of the shot and payback. We waited probably a half hour for them to finally abandon their comrade before we approached all the while on alert for their possible return.
We then moved on to a game drive that was unbelievable followed by another morning hunt at Hoedspruit for buchbuck or nyala but no luck. We then relocated back to Tsala for another try for Denise a zebra.
The next morning we were back after zebra and it was a special morning as we saw a huge variety of game on the move but of course zebra were playing shy. We finally encountered a group again in a rough, steep and rocky spot. Brandon and Denise began the stalk and she once again made another perfect shot completing our wish list. Brandon radioed for help and we were ready to call it a safari and headed back in. But, on the way in we had a nice kudu bull cross ahead of us and we decided for a closer look. What we found was he had a buddy that was thick and wide. I had passed on a bull like this last trip and had regretted it ever since so we would try for this one. We ended up with a an opportunity on him at over 200 yards from the sticks and moving with no time to call for elbow support. Fortunately he was hit well enough to only go about 75 yards. The guys that had just had a suffer fest on the zebra got to come right back for the kudu but I told them it was their last trip, Bwana was broke!
Once again Tsala aced this trip for us. We did not feel like we were being hosted as much as spending time with friends. Exceptional people and we truly appreciate what they have shown us these past two trips and are already planning the next trip. Lots of wonderful sights, experiences, and laughs. What great memories are made of.
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