ZAMBIA: Zambian Adventure At Takeri Game Reserve

[Wheels]

, one minute he is spikeT, next he is captain mike .( he wont let me drive the bloody boat either )
l

 

[Tinus G]

So glad you experienced Takeri as the best trip every Bluey ! It was a pleasure having you here and well done to you !! Great report and hope for you to return soon for that Eland and maybe some more. Take care !

 

[bluey]

thanks mate , when we come back ,another sable will be on the menu , forsure .....
wish I could've doubled up this time .
.you nearly had me a couple of times , tinnus ....... thanks for all you done to ensure that this was the best experience , possible ,mate

 

[Rob404]

Patsy, Tinus and crew, thanks for taking care of our dear friend Bluey

 

[bluey]

woke at 0300 its dead still and smoking hot ....laying here listening to the night sounds , it like a music l never hear ......
can hear animals moving around outside , as l sit up and reach for the little fenix torch a bush buck starts barking and moving away , from the grass right out side my cabin , or as they say chalet (fancy name for a cabin)
l drink another bottle of water , and listen to the hippos arguing down stream .
at dawn the temperature rises again with the sun ,
im waiting for the bird song , which is plenty good , but sadly doesn't even rate with the birds at tekeri......
maybe the freshening wind has put a damper on their music?
0730 breaky , its really relaxing , with just me and spike in the camp, after we ate
we tackled up , and tafilia the fishing guru .leads us out .....
we stop at the zawa office . a little green sign on the river bank ,and pay our dues and fishing licences ......

after that we were good to go for the duration of this fishing adventure ,
we stopped up stream in the park and tossed in a lne .
first cast ,bang ,bang ,l hooked and lost a tigerfish.....
thought this is pretty easy .........................................
after that mike hooked and played out a nice tiger landed quite easily, got a photo and released it back into the zambessi
after that we both had multiple hook ups for the loss of a bit of gear......
on the way back to kingfisher ,or dinner , we seen plenty of crocs, capebuffalos , these are first truly wild one ive seen , plenty of baboons , and lots of bush buck .
its pretty swish , when only after a day or two , it feels normal , to seeing them dail;y................
after another awesome feed , we relaxed around camp till 1530 , then went fishing ...

we sand banked the boat , and with in minutes were into tigers I landed my first one ,a nice 3 kilo model ,then mike released him ,
and lost another , almost instantly .once it went a tad quiet we moved again , and l caught a Cornish jack , this one went 9 kilos

I don't have any pictures of the fish I caught , ,there in the mail , we were going to pool all the photos and all take a copy of the hunt and fishing , but we played up on the last night , and by the time we had all our faculitiies together , the power was out in Lusaka for the day ...so we couldn't put them all on a stick for each of us ..............
spike ,patsy or peteg , feel free to put some up .................


if not I will after the courier arrives ,,,,,,,,


,(heres a smart play if your going to buy tackle , at home for something like this , DONT ....
I bought stuff that you could wind in a cow with , and lures that l give to sturat , that he uses in Mozambique to marlin fish with . no bull
the idiots at BCF sounded like he knew ,what I needed .....
the stuff we bought locally was everything we needed , and heaps cheaper .
and if you are from a police state , like taxstralia, what ever tackle you use over seas , cant be brought back into Australia .....)

after that we flicked lures til dark
while this was going on in the magic hour before dark
we had hippos bouncing of the bottom , heading up stream ,just right of the boat ,a couple of metres ,crocs on the banks (zim side)
and somewhere , on the Zimbabwe side elephants fighting about something
all I could think of was' what a place " don't actually know how many times ive said this since arriving in Zambia , but im far from sick of thinking it !!!!
spike said its like this every day here.............. its unlike any day ive ever experienced .............
but hey, what a day !!!!

back at kingfisher for a shower and some beers......
im having the showers as hot as I can handle them , so when l get out it feels cool , atleast for a wee while .....

had some rump steak for tea and some tigerfish patties , (one of the tigers ,couldn't be revived )
the tigerfish was pretty ordinary , not offensive but really fishy tasting , its the first fresh water fish that ive tasted that was real fishy tasting ,
its not something I would eat regularly
after tea we are watching a young croc ,trying to eat dragonflies ,sipping some beers in the traquility
when bugger me dead
some locl , is shooting illegal nets right out the front of this fishing camp .mike gets the head guy to give them a spray, which he half heartedly does . and explains to mike ,some lame excuse .
turned in pretty early tonight ,
woke at 0200 listening to the night sounds
so bloody hot ,tonight , listening to sugar land on the ipod , drinking water and chewing sable biltong as the locals say .....
while I type my memories in order ,so I don't stuff it up
waiting to get drowsy and nod off again for a spell .

for toady mike , got one tiger
bluey , 2 tigers and one Cornish jack

 

[PeteG]

I don't have any pictures of the fish I caught

Yep, heard that one before bluey... ha ha ha

 

[bluey]

ha ha ha .the only fish photos I got is one of mike with the first of the trip and that nice one you got when we went right up into the park

did you end up with any pictures of all the ones ,pats caught ?

 

[PeteG]

yeah, that one weighed about 40Kg if i remember correctly...

did you end up with any pictures of all the ones ,pats caught ?

ha ha ha...
I'm still looking for those pics...

 

[gillettehunter]

What a trip Bluey. Some wonderful animals and great friends to hunt with. Love the Bushbuck. They are one of my favorite animals. The fishing sounds interesting. Good thing to include on a trip. Bruce

 

[spike.t]

as the memory stick is hopefully winging its way to oz, here is a selection of photos from blueys time at kingfisher. a really fantastic time spent with a great guy to your return bluey.

his cornish jack

a selection of blueys tigerfish

at kingfisher

relaxing on a sandbank in the middle of the zambezi

having a good time

on the deck at kingfisher

fishing from a sandbank in the mpata gorge

 

[spike.t]

.........photos of the fish patsy caught.............. ...........now what fish were they??????? seem to recall these were the only fish she caught and consumed.........

 

[Wheels]

Mike,

Do you keep your eyes open and your head on a swivel when you "relax on a submerged sandbar"?

 

[bluey]

ha ha ha ha

 

[spike.t]

Mike,

Do you keep your eyes open and your head on a swivel when you "relax on a submerged sandbar"?

it was shallow so you can see , but you should have seen when bluey decided to swim around from the bank to the rear of the boat in deep shelving water......he got to the swim ladder to find it folded up and tied . after trying to climb up and realising he couldnt he shot around to the bank at a rate of knots . made good video footage, but he wouldnt do it again for some reason..........

 

[bluey]

geez that little camera of yours takes a wicked photo mike ....
thanks for posting them ,mate

by the way hows that camera going after you float tested it .....???

and return we will , just have to stop loosing gear , and start painting this boat with scales , for while

 

[spike.t]

"by the way hows that camera going after you float tested it .....???"

buggered........

 

[bluey]

it was shallow so you can see , but you should have seen when bluey decided to swim around from the bank to the rear of the boat in deep shelving water......he got to the swim ladder to find it folded up and tied . after trying to climb up and realising he couldnt he shot around to the bank at a rate of knots . made good video footage, but he wouldnt do it again for some reason..........

mate , I would've loved to photos , of that moment ..
one of me when l worked out l couldn't get out of the water by the ladder
and one of tafialia, when l swam back to the bank

 

[bluey]

woke at dawn
as the wind started picking up
just after that l got a whiff of petrol , as the boys ,fuelled the boats for the days fishing .
had a shower , as the temps headed up for the day
quick breakfast and on to the zambessi , for a quick fish , around nine am I lost my best tiger for the trip busted me off right at the boat ......
elevenish we scooted back to the village to pick up the guest for the week ends AH get together in paradise .
and fishing comp
when we got to the village , , I got to meet peteG after all this time .and of course patsyzambis was there aswell , just to show us how to catch these tigers
we went to kingfisher for a feed and chin wag , except the lady , she went to bed , until we were going fishing , as she had ,had a big one in town ,with some friends .
when we were going fishing she bounced out of bed and was into it .....
we had a fun day stirring each other up , and catching a few fish
pete snagged three , I got five and the professional hunter managed naught.
we got back to kingfisher as the sun was plummeting out of the sky ,
straight to the showers and then the bar , for a few cleansing ales ........after yet another fantasic feed , (im going on a diet when l get home )
patsy run out of legs early this night , and caught up on some sleep .
today we seen kudu ,ele hippo ,water buck and bush buck , along with plenty of crocs .......
sat off the bar sipping beers and watching the two resident juvinille crocs catching dragon flies for a while
tonight is so bloody hot ..........since I landed in Zambia , ive slept ontop of the bed every night , im glad about peacefull sleep ,bug spray ..............


heres patsy showing us boys everything ,we need to know about catching these tigers

view form my cabin , not bad at all waking up and lifting your head off the pillow to see this every day , you think , yep another shitty day in paradise ......god its a hard life ......

coolest place ive ever been to , except for the heat ,,,certainly somewhere that you always want to come back to , specially when you get to share it with this company of friends .......

 

[BRICKBURN]

That sounds like video to be posted!

 

[shaft55]

What a trip, and what a storyteller. That Sable is top notch. Totally jealous of this entire trip.