ZIMBABWE: 2024 - My First Trip To Africa, Dalton & York

[Philip Glass]

Day 3 - Clean up

The following morning we wake up and head out after breakfast to begin the task of meat recovery, as we get closer I see the two fishermen we told the day before waiting at the bend in the road and they have another 5 men with them, we stop and give them more detailed directions on where to meet us at the carcass and continue on another 2.5mi to the carcass which we find just as we left it the day before.

we arrive at the carcass just before 8am and shortly after arrival both the group of fishermen from the road as well as several other men are ready to go, they start the work of skinning at 8am.

After 8am the crowd of onlookers grows exponentially until we have a full on crowd of people and it just continues to grow and grow as the skinning process continues.

Gentlemen - please bear with me as technical difficulties are preventing me from uploading pics and my bed is calling; I'll proceed in pieces and try again to upload pics tomorrow.

I had trouble with pics as well

 

[revturbo9967]

Was this by chance in Vietnam....?

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats so far! Looking forward to more!

 

[deewayne2003]

Day 4 - On to the Lake; Happy July 4th! or as I like to call it "The original BREXIT!"

Lake Kariba is the worlds largest lake by volume, however it's been drawn down 45' for dam repairs however there is still plenty of water to fish; you can get a glimpse of the water volume from the above pic, I'm standing at the normal water line when the lake is full.

Bruce and Pierre load up the trucks with fishing gear and Todd and I are keen to start the day fishing in Lake Kariba for the elusive Vundu Catfish armed with braided line, buckets of blood from the elephant slaughter the day before and hippo liver for bait.

As we board the pontoon boat and load the buckets of chum/bait on board I can't help but feel the irony of dumping buckets of blood into a lake filled with crocodiles in hopes of attracting catfish.

The fishing is slow and made lively by the fact that our pontoon boat is taking on water and listing to port side which gives an uneasy feeling when crocs are spotted swimming in the distance; we have to take it slow back to shore because if we go to fast the sinking left pontoon grabs into the water and starts to dive like a crank bait.... All is good though, we have plenty of beer and a bad day of fishing will always beat a good day at the office.

Upon returning to camp we learn that Dan has put a good water buck on the ground and we feast that evening on fried hippo courtesy of the large bull hippo that Todd killed earlier in the week.

Spoiler Alert!.... Todd is on a roll with killing a Buff on the first day and Hippo the second; we arrive back at camp and the process of skinning/cleaning the skull of Todd's Buff is complete and beautiful.

 

[deewayne2003]

Day 5 - Good and BAD decisions

Bruce and I start day 5 with a leisurely wake up and breakfast of bacon egg and cheese Jaffles and after distributing the morning rations of Rice Crispy treats to the trackers and ranger we are off to see what the bush has to offer.

I've been told the area is known for bushbuck so that is our quarry for the day and it appears to be an elusive quarry at that, we stalk around looking but to no avail until we are headed back to camp in the late after noon and while descending a steep section of the road Bruce recoils in surprise and frustration....."Shit there goes a great one!" as we watch our striped and spotted adversary dart into the jess from an open area.

We proceed in the Hilux until a suitable parking spot is found and I load the .300win and set the scope to its lowest power of 4X and the stalk is on; all 85ish yards of stalking before the bushbuck reappears as if on que, standing broadside at 60ish yards and Bruce throws up the shooting sticks and gives the direct order "SHOOT!"..... I level the cross hairs and send a 200gr Partition and while working the bolt I notice it's on the ground and Bruce giggles "Game over!"

And like that I have my second African animal in the salt, a Chobe Bushbuck

I'm a novice at African animal scoring and it doesn't sink in how good of an animal this is until I'm told the green score is 41" and I google the sci scores for Bushbuck.
https://www.taxidermyafrica.com/page/sci-rowland-ward-trophy-minimums

That evening as everyone heads to bed I decide to pour myself another whiskey and another until I notice that my bottle is empty and it's nearly 2am.... Bad decision but at the time it felt GREAT!

 

[revturbo9967]

Lovely bushbuck. Certainly looks familiar in size to what i saw.

 

[Backyardsniper]

That is a stud of a bushbuck!

 

[Datchew]

Loving the thread.
And you made me want an old fashioned.

 

[Fatback]

Tremendous bushbuck, congrats.

 

[deewayne2003]

Day 6 - IF LOOKS COULD KILL!

I sluggishly roll out of bed at 7am feeling the effects of changing my blood type to Jamison the night before and we eat breakfast and head out looking for an Impala.

We had seen a large male in the river bed outside camp the day before while loading up the bushbuck and we go back looking for him.

I'm moving slow in the heat and sweating out the consequences of the previous evenings celebration when Bruce spots the Impala we have been looking for, we stalk up the side of a steep hill looking over the flat ground the Impala are feeding on.

We make the silent approach to the edge of the jess and Bruce puts the sticks up and I'm on the Impala at 100yards and flick the safety off and take aim...... then a loud CRASH WHACK THUMP sound echo's from behind us.

I turn around to see that the tribal scout had taken position, standing on the log of a dead tree to get a better view of the action, only to have the dead log roll out from under him and dump him ass first on the ground...... I look over and Bruce is glaring furiously at the tribal ranger and if looks could kill that ranger would have been dead on the spot!

Personally I think it's hilarious and have to cover my mouth to keep from laughing like Santa Claus at the embarrassed young ranger as he gathers his .303 rifle and hat while blushing; it's not everyday you get to see a black man turn bright red.

We keep our head in the game though and continue the stalk after giving the Impala a few minutes to calm down and settle back into their feeding routine.

The big male makes his appearance again and is standing at 130yds, Bruce asks me "Are you comfortable with that shot?" I kind of chuckle at the question but then again African PH's see all kinds of marksmanship so it is a valid question.

On the sticks I go and adjust aim for the slightly quartering away angle, aiming at the opposite shoulder and send the 200gr partition from the .300win...... BANG FLOP!

I have my 3rd African animal on the ground - A more than respectable Impala at 61"

 

[Altitude sickness]

Deewayne, thanks for the write up. And congrats on a great hunt. Especially the tuskless hunt. Interesting review on the taste.

I have a petty correction on Lake Karina. Lake Superior is the biggest by surface area and Lake Baikal is the largest by volume.


My “Check Liver “ light was on the next morning after my tuskless hunt also. And it too was Jamison poisoning.

 

[deewayne2003]

Deewayne, thanks for the write up. And congrats on a great hunt. Especially the tuskless hunt. Interesting review on the taste.

I have a petty correction on Lake Karina. Lake Superior is the biggest by surface area and Lake Baikal is the largest by volume.

LOL.... No worries, I had been told Lake Kariba was the largest by volume by so many in Zimbabwe that I believed it.

So I alter my statement to - Lake Kariba is one BIG DAMN LAKE, regardless of world ranking.

 

[Altitude sickness]

I can not fault them . We are proud of our Great Lakes too. And many here don’t know about Lake Baikal

 

[Rare Breed]

Great start to your hunt! D&Y will definitely put you on game! But you’re making me miss the Omay!

you know this is why we call it hunting. when I was there last year with my two friends, @Philip Glass and @TOBY458 we saw plenty of elephants but no shoot able tuskless…yet less than one year later they are everywhere! Great outfitter in D&Y!!!

 

[Rare Breed]

Was this by chance in Vietnam....?

Ah…someone has been doing their homework on the Omay North. Yes there is a heavy piece of Jess they call both Jurassic Park and Vietnam. From what I read though I don’t think he got his tuskless in that particular patch of jess but I could be wrong. He would know

 

[deewayne2003]

Day 7 - To hell with that!

Day 7 starts with sleeping in and feeling much better; Bruce and I have breakfast and discuss the plan for the day, we are going to do a drag for Hyena and set up a blind in an area where we saw lots of tracks the day before while hunting Impala.

Bruce calls out to his head tracker to gather what we need to build a Hyena blind and the tracker replies in Shona "To hell with that!, Hyenas came in last night and ate all of my meat that I laid out to dry and took a shit and left!"

I felt sorry for the man and determined to get vengeance for his lost meat supply.....

Before the Hyena raid

I'll spare you the image of what was left in trade......

I did learn a couple of valuable lessons that day, the first being how to effectively build a ground blind quickly out of natural materials, the other lesson was of patience and persistence.

Philip, Jasper, Johnny and the tracking/filming crew had been on the track of the buff that Jasper shot 7 days earlier and we arrive at camp to see an extra buff head at the skinning shed and smiles all around as they had completed their mission of tracking down this wounded buff and finishing it.

There was a little bit of tension in camp as the days progressed in their endeavor, other PHs in camp giving them 5% or less chance of success in completing their task; but with the patience of Job himself
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_(biblical_figure)

Philip, Jasper & Johnny continued on and triumphed to everyone's elation - it was time for a well deserved rest from this daily routine of up before dawn and returning well after dark with kudos to their whole crew for sticking it out and finishing the job; I know lots of "hunters" that would have thrown in the towel days earlier.

 

[deewayne2003]

Ah…someone has been doing their homework on the Omay North. Yes there is a heavy piece of Jess they call both Jurassic Park and Vietnam. From what I read though I don’t think he got his tuskless in that particular patch of jess but I could be wrong. He would know

lol no my tuskless was not taken in "Vietnam" that particular piece of thick jess was being explored to no end by Dalton and Dan who were pursuing "Mr. T" a large bull elephant that they had been tracking over hill and dale for days.

 

[deewayne2003]

Day 8 - Back on the water

Armed with some more blood and hippo liver for bait Pierre, Todd, Bruce and myself leave out in the morning for another day of combined fishing - I was yet to see one of the mythical Vundu Catfish other than the large one mounted over the bar at the lodge.

Pierre and Todd leave to get another boat that I can best describe as a Boston whaler type boat and we met them at the local fishing beach beside the croc farm; where we see a couple of dozen locals fishing for bream(tilapia) and some standing knee deep in the water while doing so, which I thought was rather brave considering we could see several large crocs swimming on the surface a couple of hundred yards away.

To my surprise the parks ranger on site was charging the locals $1 each to fish on this beach and the PH's were told they couldn't fish here because they are not locals and that it would be $15ea for the PHs to fish and $25 each for us Americans and we had to fish away from the shore.... Okay no problem, we pay the fees are given a receipt for payment and proceed to fish a few hundred yards from shore.

The bucket of blood and some guts are dumped into the water to attract the Vundu and we cast our baits into the water as I once again weigh the irony of dumping blood into a lake where we had just seen crocs swimming.

We suffered several frustrating bites of fish taking bait and getting wrapped up in trees, I once again had a repeat of our first day fishing with one breaking off and that particular rod with it's undersized line is retired from service and we are back it again.

While enjoying a large can of Zambezi lager(my favorite Zim beer) my line goes tight and I hold tight and let the circle hook do its job and the battle is on!

After many back and forth runs the fish finally tires enough for me to bring it in beside the boat and with Bruce's quick assistance the fish is jerked from the croc filled waters.... My first Vundu!

I've fought bigger fish in deeper water but I'll never forget this one.....

We come back into camp early and gear up for the Hyena hunt, only we arrive onsite and vultures have found the bait and torn it to pieces..... we call for a while and call it a night.

 

[deewayne2003]

Day 9 - A fairy tale ending....

With the days coming to an end my roommate for the hunt Dan @abnhog has been up every day early and putting in the miles/Km like a soldier and keeping pace with Dalton in the hunt for "Mister T" with the only break in his pursuit of this bull being one evening when they call it early and we all sit down and watch the Ireland vs. South Africa Rugby game courtesy of a live feed via star link where Dalton looses a $100 bet to Bruce on the game and like a man of his word pays up accordingly.

However on the morning of day 9 Dan is up early and using his red headlamp to try and not wake me up as he prepares for another long day, all I can do is offer words of encouragement from my warm bed ....

"Stop playing around and put some ivory on the ground!"

Dan laughs and out the door he goes, Bruce and I on the other hand have other business - After a leisurely breakfast we build a thermal target for the thermal scope my placing a candle inside a coke can and find out the scope is 14" high and 5" right.... we adjust the scope and inform Todd that his miss on a Hyena nights before was indeed not his fault.

We return to camp and find that Philip has shot a Grysbok, which is #9 of the tiny 10 for him and while sitting next to the fire pit I tell Philip....

"All we need for a fairy tale ending to this trip is for Dan to put some ivory on the ground"

Philip agrees and no sooner than we look back down at our phones we hear BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG.... Philip and I both look at each other and as we do BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!

Excitement grows in camp and we hear a call on the radio from Dalton's driver to bring people, we all load up and respond to where his driver is parked - we wait a few minutes and with no direct contact from Dalton over the radio we decide to back out incase something went wrong and they were tracking it down.

We return to camp and waited for their return, little did we know that while driving out they were whistling and shouting at us because they were 100yds from the road and didn't have a radio with them but sure enough..... Dan bagged Mr. T - the very bull they had been tracking for the last 9 days; and Dan certainly earned it because by this time his legs looked like he had been in a fight with a weedeater!

Just like that - Dan had completed his Big 5 and we had another elephant carcass to deal with in the morning; and the fairytale ending to 10 days in Zimbabwe.

Sadly that evening Todd misses another Hyena at 50yds and we chalk it up to more difficulty with the thermal..... Now its time for cigars and drinks for everyone and celebrating a trip for the ages that I will never forget.

 

[deewayne2003]

Day 10 - Best laid plans.....

With Dan's Bull on the ground and close to camp Dalton want's to bring in a tractor and load the meat up and take it all to a nearby village to keep hundreds of people from stomping around the lodge/hunting area and disturbing the future hunting.

Unfortunately the bush telegraph gets out and come morning the bulls carcass is surrounded by villagers before the tractor can even be brought in.

Dalton and Camp manager and apprentice PH Scott are doing a commendable job of keeping the crowd at bay and making sure everything goes accordingly.

Several bullets are recovered, it's my understanding that the bull was taken at 15yds and all of Dan's shots were kill shots, but in the ensuing rodeo both Dalton and Scott took shots as well.

Everyone is elated at Dan's hard earned success and we celebrate accordingly.

That evening we experience the fine tradition of the last night in camp being a riverside BBQ done right by the D&Y crew....

From left to right.... myself, Pierre, Bruce, Dalton & Johnny

while not in this picture I give a special thanks to camp manager Scott for making everything run smoothly.