Okay moving from SA to Zim and the chance to hunt with one of our legends, Lon Denny and @Tokoloshe Safaris. To start right off, it was just outstanding in every single way!!! If you are looking for old Africa complete with tents and center eating tent look no further!!!!!
First some overall comments. I had the great honor to personally meet with Lon Denny and his lovely and very accomplished PH wife Lisle. Both were a treasure to connect and talk about Africa hunting with! Lon is such a wealth of knowledge !!! What a great man and now my friend. A wonderful lady named Sara was just fantastic as the lodge manager for this week. Everything was just perfect! The food was wonderful and plentiful! Sara can discuss any subject in the world during our evening chats.
Now for an incredible surprise…My PH for the week was the famous author of both Chewy and Into The Salt, Lou Hallemore!!! Both these books are excellent as the “how to” books along with Into The Thorns. The tents were on raised platforms. The showers were a great surprise…water pressure and hot water matched my US home.
I arrived in Vic Falls to be met by Sara. Just want to share my experience…their immigration and rifle checks simply put Harare to shame given the latter is one big pain in the butt!!! Vic Falls could not have been easier!!! Personally I would avoid traveling through Harare if possible and go through Vic Falls.
We spent the first night at their halfway lodge that sits on the Karibe Lake and is just beautiful!!! The have built an old Africa wood bar that will take you back to both Hemingway and Ruark days of Africa…fantastic!!! The next day we arrived at our hunting lodge. Now onto the hunt!!!
Lon has over 1 million acres in his concession obviously no fences for those of you who this is important to. We are talking thick jungle everywhere!!! Lon, without question, has told all of AH what type elephant are in his area…smaller in size and tusk average between 15-25 pounds each side. We started at 4 for wake up, breakfast at 4:30 and out by 5 everyday. You had better be in shape for this hunt!!! We would hunt from 7 to 12 with perfect winds then break for lunch wherever we were. In the afternoon temperatures went up to almost 100 degrees F. with swirling winds. We hunted hard every single day!!! Lou’s trackers along with Lisles head tracker, Albert were the very best tracking team of all my safaris…not even close. They tracked elephant when I saw nothing over rocks!!!
The first four days we saw nothing fresh as we eliminated whole areas. On day 5 we came across fresh tracks and dung seein a group of 10 beautiful elephants but the wind in the afternoon gave us away! Day 6 we came to within 20 yards of a very big bull and cow only to have the wind suddenly touch the back of our necks and no more elephant before we could set up for the shot. Lou Hallemore is a true professional!!! What an incredible accomplished humble man!!! He always had a plan from A to Z…if something did not work we developed another plan…awesome!!!
THE BIG DAY!!!
We spent our last day getting so close but not being able to close the deal on a small group. I thought the hunt was over when at 3:08 in the afternoon our tracker picked up two bulls…man it was hot!!!
suddenly it happened !!! we saw one of them in the shadows at 50 yards with thick jess between us…the late afternoon sun cast shadows making it hard to see the bull but the wind was perfect blowing in our faces. I got on the sticks with my DR 470 NE but Lou who was right on my shoulder with his binos telling me no shot with the bull looking right at us but jess blocking a shot…what a pro which is what Lou is!!! Suddenly the bull turns to my left and Lou’s says shoot!!! I put my two shots within one inch in the fold for a lung heart shot…but the bull does not even falter!!!
Now for some excitement…Lou says the bull charged…I felt I just happened to be on the elephant path the bull was taking. You decide…in all my life I have never heard such a high shrill roar that came out of the bull as he thundered towards me!!!! You have to love Lou…as easy as you and I would ask “ how are you” he says please shoot that bull now!!! At 20 yards with him coming my shot took him perfectly between the eyes an inch low dropping him on the spot like he ran into a brick wall!!!! I guess you could say I was a little excited at that point having taken my fourth of the big 5 which is my personal dream!!! He was exactly like Lon described…we estimate him at 20 pounds each side. All I know is I am absolutely thrilled with him and my incredible Tokoloshe experience!!!!
While we all pray for Lon’s health I am excited to say Lisle has decided to extend Tokoloshe another 10 years offering everything except lion!!!! Having spent an evening with her I am so impressed!!! She won the Zim PH shot classic against other Zim PHs 3 straight times with them finally not asking her back!!! talk about skill backing you up when needed!!!
In closing I just want to recognize Lon who took a helicopter just to meet me…talk about being humbled by such a great incredible person!!!! I WILL BE back hunting with tokoloshe Safaris and I give them my highest recommendation!!!!
First some overall comments. I had the great honor to personally meet with Lon Denny and his lovely and very accomplished PH wife Lisle. Both were a treasure to connect and talk about Africa hunting with! Lon is such a wealth of knowledge !!! What a great man and now my friend. A wonderful lady named Sara was just fantastic as the lodge manager for this week. Everything was just perfect! The food was wonderful and plentiful! Sara can discuss any subject in the world during our evening chats.
Now for an incredible surprise…My PH for the week was the famous author of both Chewy and Into The Salt, Lou Hallemore!!! Both these books are excellent as the “how to” books along with Into The Thorns. The tents were on raised platforms. The showers were a great surprise…water pressure and hot water matched my US home.
I arrived in Vic Falls to be met by Sara. Just want to share my experience…their immigration and rifle checks simply put Harare to shame given the latter is one big pain in the butt!!! Vic Falls could not have been easier!!! Personally I would avoid traveling through Harare if possible and go through Vic Falls.
We spent the first night at their halfway lodge that sits on the Karibe Lake and is just beautiful!!! The have built an old Africa wood bar that will take you back to both Hemingway and Ruark days of Africa…fantastic!!! The next day we arrived at our hunting lodge. Now onto the hunt!!!
Lon has over 1 million acres in his concession obviously no fences for those of you who this is important to. We are talking thick jungle everywhere!!! Lon, without question, has told all of AH what type elephant are in his area…smaller in size and tusk average between 15-25 pounds each side. We started at 4 for wake up, breakfast at 4:30 and out by 5 everyday. You had better be in shape for this hunt!!! We would hunt from 7 to 12 with perfect winds then break for lunch wherever we were. In the afternoon temperatures went up to almost 100 degrees F. with swirling winds. We hunted hard every single day!!! Lou’s trackers along with Lisles head tracker, Albert were the very best tracking team of all my safaris…not even close. They tracked elephant when I saw nothing over rocks!!!
The first four days we saw nothing fresh as we eliminated whole areas. On day 5 we came across fresh tracks and dung seein a group of 10 beautiful elephants but the wind in the afternoon gave us away! Day 6 we came to within 20 yards of a very big bull and cow only to have the wind suddenly touch the back of our necks and no more elephant before we could set up for the shot. Lou Hallemore is a true professional!!! What an incredible accomplished humble man!!! He always had a plan from A to Z…if something did not work we developed another plan…awesome!!!
THE BIG DAY!!!
We spent our last day getting so close but not being able to close the deal on a small group. I thought the hunt was over when at 3:08 in the afternoon our tracker picked up two bulls…man it was hot!!!
suddenly it happened !!! we saw one of them in the shadows at 50 yards with thick jess between us…the late afternoon sun cast shadows making it hard to see the bull but the wind was perfect blowing in our faces. I got on the sticks with my DR 470 NE but Lou who was right on my shoulder with his binos telling me no shot with the bull looking right at us but jess blocking a shot…what a pro which is what Lou is!!! Suddenly the bull turns to my left and Lou’s says shoot!!! I put my two shots within one inch in the fold for a lung heart shot…but the bull does not even falter!!!
Now for some excitement…Lou says the bull charged…I felt I just happened to be on the elephant path the bull was taking. You decide…in all my life I have never heard such a high shrill roar that came out of the bull as he thundered towards me!!!! You have to love Lou…as easy as you and I would ask “ how are you” he says please shoot that bull now!!! At 20 yards with him coming my shot took him perfectly between the eyes an inch low dropping him on the spot like he ran into a brick wall!!!! I guess you could say I was a little excited at that point having taken my fourth of the big 5 which is my personal dream!!! He was exactly like Lon described…we estimate him at 20 pounds each side. All I know is I am absolutely thrilled with him and my incredible Tokoloshe experience!!!!
While we all pray for Lon’s health I am excited to say Lisle has decided to extend Tokoloshe another 10 years offering everything except lion!!!! Having spent an evening with her I am so impressed!!! She won the Zim PH shot classic against other Zim PHs 3 straight times with them finally not asking her back!!! talk about skill backing you up when needed!!!
In closing I just want to recognize Lon who took a helicopter just to meet me…talk about being humbled by such a great incredible person!!!! I WILL BE back hunting with tokoloshe Safaris and I give them my highest recommendation!!!!
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