As I sit here at OR Tambo awaiting my flight home, which is four hours from now, I can’t help but think what a better place to write the review of the epic safari I just experienced. This trip truly began about ten years ago when I first began to have thoughts about hunting in Africa. I research things to death and contacted a lot of outfitters, but I could not pull the trigger. There was too much unknown and apprehension that as I sit here now thinking about it was unfounded. Two years ago I contacted Limcroma safaris because I again got the itch to hunt Africa. I talked to Hannes Els on multiple occasions and sent a lot of emails. I probably sent so many then Hannes began expecting them. Despite being very busy, Hannes always took the time to answer my questions, arrange and rearrange the safari, and was just a great person to deal with. After I sent in my deposit I was beyond excited and got in contact with Dan Leahy who is also a tremendous resource and a very valuable asset for Limcroma. He answered all my questions and gave me advice whenever needed. I really could not have planned and been prepared for this hunt without the help of Dan.
The two years since sending in my deposit seemed to go by very slow. There was never a day that I awoke and did not think about Africa. I read all the African safari books that I could and spent countless hours going over gear and shooting my rifle and bow in preparation. I will just say now that I packed very lightly for what I thought I needed and I still packed way to much stuff for this safari. I thought everything was set and just was waiting for the time to pass by. However, as things often occur that are unforeseen two days prior to departure I was shooting my bow and hurt my back. This was not just some strain that you could shoot through but rather one of those injuries that puts you on your knees and takes your breath away. I worked through it but the back injury plagued my whole safari. The thing is that no matter what happened I was going to Africa and I was going to hunt.
I arrived in Johannesburg and can say that even though the flight from Atlanta was long, it really was not that bad. I was then greeted at the airport by Mr. X with the Afton house and cleared the gun effortlessly. We then went to the Afton house, which has a great steak dinner, and the rooms were really nice. I cannot recommend the Afton house enough. After a good nights rest I met my PH Ivan and we were off to the concessions. I can just say that if you hunt with Limcroma and get to hunt with Ivan you will be in for a great hunt. I am sure all the PH’s Hannes employs are great but Ivan went far above and beyond everything that I expected of a PH. I explained my back injury to him and he made sure that every step of the way I was fine and able to hunt. He put me on great animals, but more importantly his work ethic is the best that I have ever seen. I will say now that I did wound two animals and Ivan really put in the effort and because of this we were able to find the animals and recover them. He is exactly what I pictured a PH being and yet far exceeded what I was expecting. I just cannot wait for the next time I am able to make it back to Limcroma and hunt with Ivan.
Day 1 – Day 2
We arrived at camp a little after one and I got my bow and gun sighted in. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to shoot my bow as my back was still hurting, maybe it was the rush of being in camp, but everything seemed to go well. I was set and ready to go. We headed to the hide and as we were pulling in a great waterbuck was already in the area. This was not on my list and I was a little disappointed. We got in the hide and Ivan began telling me how good the waterbuck was and that I really should consider taking it if I got the chance. We went back and forth for a while and low and behold the waterbuck reappeared. I began to think that maybe I should take it and the fact that I could see Ivan was excited about this animal made me excited. We decided to take the animal and I was shaking so bad that I was finally going to harvest my first African animal. I pulled back the bow and got on my landmark and squeezed the trigger. Thwack, The sound that you never want to hear when bow hunting. I had pulled the shot and hit the animal forward in the shoulder. He took off and we instantly called the tracker. Steven came and got on the track. This would be a track that steven worked for the next two days until the animal finally went to water and it was decided to let the animal rest and trail cameras would be put out to see when the waterbuck reappeared. It so happened that this would not occur for 6 days when he showed up to a waterhole that another hunter was sitting in. The animal was visibly hurt and lost a lot of weight. They asked what they should do and I said shoot it, which I thought, was the only ethical thing to do. They put a good shot on the animal and we went to recover it. When we got there and hour after the shot the waterbuck got up and took off again covering almost 1.5 miles before Steven was able to catch up to it and Jonathan, another ph, was able to put a rifle round into it. This was one of the hardest animals for me that I have ever shot. I hate wounding animals and I know that this happens, but the folks at Limcroma went far above and beyond and because of them we were able to get the waterbuck.
Day 3
Day 3 began with us tracking for the waterbuck that I just wrote about. About 11 Ivan decided to let Steven stay on the track until he found something and we would hunt a near by blind. We got set up and I was just looking forward to getting going on some successful hunts, but the waterbuck haunted me on every shot this trip and plagued my thoughts until we finally recovered him. We were not even set up for an hour when three Nyala came in. There was one that might have been an inch longer but his horn configuration was not as good as the second bull coming in. I grabbed my bow as silently as possible and Ivan talked me through the shot placement. Once we were in agreement I pulled back the bow and placed the pin on the agreed to upon spot and let an arrow fly. It was a perfect hit and we saw the nyala take off and crash no further then 75 yards from the blind. I felt great to have confidence back in my shooting and to take such a great animal. We recovered the animal and sat for the rest of the afternoon at another blind, but nothing else came in.
Day 4
Steven on day three had tracked the waterbuck to a waterhole and felt that he would return so on day 4 we set up at the waterhole all day that the waterbuck had went to drink. We never did see the waterbuck, but a few cape buffalo came in to drink. I can honestly say that until you see one of the behemoths in person you cannot tell how tough they really look. As Rourke said in his writings “a cape buffalo looks at you like you owe him money” and I now truly understand this concept. The cape Buffalo hung around most of the day milling about back in the woods then coming in for a drink. I then noticed that one of the buffalo kept looking to his left and told Ivan. We could not see anything but The buffalo kept snapping his head that way. About 40 minutes later a small group of gemsbok came in. One of them was a really old baren female with great length. Ivan said that we should take her and I put another great shot on the gemsbok. She took off and we had a mark on were she entered the bush. We called Steven and he got on the track instantly. All the gemsbok took off together and we walked 100 yards from the blind when Steven stopped and did not like the track. I have no idea what he saw but he wanted to go back to the last spot that he marked and start again. He walked 25 yards from us and whistled. The Gemsbok was down in a bush and had veered off after only going 75 yards from the blind.
Day 5
What a day this was going to be. We set up at a waterhole and as soon as we got in the impala were all around us. For those of you that have hunted the impala rut you know what I am talking about, but hearing that guttural grunts and snorts and the chasing that goes on it is a sight to be hold. The problem is that they never came in. We heard them all morning running here and they’re always around us. We had a huge ram run ten paces away from us and into the fracas that was going on behind us. This was exciting to see these impala act this way but it was nothing compared to what we experienced later. But back to the hunt. We did not think it was going to happen this morning. Things calmed down and there was no much more movement. I decided that if I was going to be sitting there I was going to read my book. I read one page when Ivan looked up and said there is an old impala drinking. We need to shoot him. When impala drink they don’t drink long and then they are gone. We have no idea how long he had been there and we hurried up. Ivan said put it at the corner of the white and I put it right there. Complete pass thru the Impala jumped high in the air and kicked his back legs. When he got back on the ground he ran as fast as I’ve ever seen an animal run straight into a tree. He ran up into the tree and toppled over. DRT. The arrow went twenty yards further then the impala did. We were then stuck in the blind contemplating what to do until we recovered the impala. I have always wanted a zebra and we decided to do a rifle hunt. We got out of the blind and into the bakki. We drove around for awhile and saw a lot of sign but no zebra. We then turned the corner and there they were. Two magnificent stallions and two mares. The wind was terrible though. We jumped out of the bakki and Ivan grabbed the sticks. The stalk was on. We approached to within 75 yards of them and did not have a shot. They busted us and were off. We jumped back in the bakki and went another few thousand yards when we thought the hunt was over. The decision was made to head back to camp. We were driving back and I look over to my right and yell zebra. Ivan slams on the brakes and the hunt was on. We jumped out and went after them. After a quick 100 yard stalk Ivan dropped to his knees. I instantly grabbed my gun off the shoulder and put it on his. Shoot the 2nd one to the left. I got on the big zebra and pow. The shot was off. I thought I missed but Steven said we had a hit. We ran up to where the zebra was and got on sign and the stalk was on. We walked for 150 yards and Steven waved his hand. Ivan looked and the zebra was down. It was a magnificent mare that was very long and had a unique spot in the v where we are supposed to shoot. After a few pictures we headed back to camp and had a hot lunch. The first hot lunch of the safari. I missed the bush lunch.
Day 6
This was the day that I realized Ivan hunted hard. I am happy because I paid money to hunt and not sit in camp. We actually were only in camp for lunch 3 days which was fine by me. You cant shoot things if your sitting on the couch. I actually began to get fond of the meals we had in the blind. By the end of the trip it actually began to become a joke that we actually were at camp. I would not have it any other way. We began day 5 on a hunt that has now ruined all other hunting for me. I got to experience the bushbuck. This crafty little creature is the most exciting, fun filled, adrenaline filled hunt that I went on. I am sure a cape buffalo hunt will have more adrenalin, and I will find that out someday, but the bushbuck is something that I will hunt on every safari I go on from here on out. This fantastic animal lives in the thick brush along the rivers where we were hunting. We began stalking and found bushbuck bathing in the son, a sight to behold. However, there were no bucks to be seen. We stalked another two miles looking over the bush and not finding any males, but saw plenty of females. We came around a corner and up over a little hill and I was looking at a pile of brush. I stared there for a good minute or two and we began walking again and then out of nowhere a bushbuck jumped out of that very cover that I was staring at. My favorite hunting used to be coues deer hunting, and I believe I have a pretty good eye, but when that animal busted out of the brush that I looked over for all that time I was frustrated. He bound to 35 yards, but there was too much brush in front of me for a shot since I could not see through the scope. By the time I got the shooting sticks where I needed them he turned and was out of there. That is the thing I learned about bushbuck hunting. They are the most frustrating animals I ever hunted and that just drive you even more. We began to walk out when we called Steven and Steven said that he had a bushbuck male in the open and we need to hurry. We walked very briskly back the mile and half of river and Steven said that it had moved into a small depression between us and the other side. We kept moving down the riverbank and finally got set up when Ivan said he is in the shadow, shoot him. I tried. I tried my hardest to find that animal in the scope. I looked all over the shadow that Ivan was looking in and never could find him. Ivan said he is right in the shadow. I looked and I looked. Ivan said he is about to bust. I then found him standing right there. Clear as day. I flipped the safety and he was gone. Maybe my eye is not as good as I thought.
After the bushbuck hunt we went and set in a blind. There was not much movement. We actually had a really good feeling about the night but they did not pan out. This was actually the toughest hunt that we had in my opinion. After the excitement of a bushbuck hunt, sitting in a blind and not seeing anything just can’t compare. If I wanted to just kill animals I would have booked on a game farm. Limcroma is anything but. They have self-sustaining herds of some of the wariest animals I have ever seen. I never once felt like this was a game farm as I have seen some proclaim about hunting South Africa. These are wild animals, and tough animals that will test your wits and drive you nuts at times. For me the animal that drove me nuts was the warthog, but that is for a later day. And if you want proof just ask Donny about the giraffe that almost got him. Great story, but that’s a side not. It’s a Proper story though.
to be continued...
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My sentiments exactly! Part 2 of the report was worth the wait
