ZIMBABWE: Zimbabwe With Buzz Charlton

[E Butler]

Sounds like a very fun hunt with two classic rifles and more.

 

[Philip Glass]

Update: traveling with ammo. Flying U.S. airlines in particular I’ve always had the ammo in a locked container buried inside my bag containing my clothes etc. Not this time. They wanted it to travel with anything except clothes. So out the ammo container came, dumped my toiletries into my main bag and put the ammo container into the bag that had contained the toiletries. They also weren’t sure if the TSA would need to open the ammo case, but I knew better. As I sit in the plane my Delta app has notified me that all three bags are on the plane and my air tags confirm that. Off to Atlanta we go.

Sorry to hear of that trouble. They are reading their bulletin wrong is what I think happened. It is the rifle case that should not have clothes in it. Stay flexible when traveling.
Thanks for taking us along on your journey!

 

[PARA45]

Update: traveling with ammo. Flying U.S. airlines in particular I’ve always had the ammo in a locked container buried inside my bag containing my clothes etc. Not this time. They wanted it to travel with anything except clothes. So out the ammo container came, dumped my toiletries into my main bag and put the ammo container into the bag that had contained the toiletries. They also weren’t sure if the TSA would need to open the ammo case, but I knew better. As I sit in the plane my Delta app has notified me that all three bags are on the plane and my air tags confirm that. Off to Atlanta we go.

Did you have any issues from Atlanta to SA with your ammo? Did the ammo fly from Atlanta to SA by itself?

 

[godwincp]

Sounds like you’ve had a great safari. I’m glad you’re leaving in hopes there’s still some game left in Nyakasanga for my September hunt!!! Can’t wait to read the full report. Thanks for the updates

 

[Sourdough]

HAHA this is cool havent even finished the report but love this hope to see a photo of them wearing them on this thread.

Buzz sent me this earlier today. Pretty sure it will be the only one. He's styling it.

I'm hoping tomorrow I'll have the first part of what will be lengthy report ready to post.

 

[McKenzie Sims]

Buzz sent me this earlier today. Pretty sure it will be the only one. He's styling it.

I'm hoping tomorrow I'll have the first part of what will be lengthy report ready to post.

View attachment 610028

This is great! Lookfroward to reading more

 

[Sourdough]

I used Gracy Travel to book my flights, hotels, vip pickup, firearm registration etc. I can get in touch with them 24 hours a day 7 days a week which is very helpful for me because it seems like I always change something, adding days is the usual one.

I flew First Class Delta from New Orleans to Atlanta. As I've already mentioned in New Orleans the ticket agent was confused about ammo traveling with clothing so wanted it to travel in any bag that didn't contain clothes. Normally I would have gently pushed back and got her to speak to her supervisor but since Airlink, the airline from Joberg to Harare, requires ammo travel in it's own separate locked case I decided not to push the issue. And traveling first class allowed me three bags with no extra charge. All my bags have air tags so I figured I'd always know where everything was, and I did.

Had about a four hour layover in Atlanta. All my bags got there. The Delta app is pretty good about letting you know where your bags are, but not as good as air tags.

Flying Delta One gave me the option of a bed for the flight from Atlanta to Joberg. Didn't get a lot of sleep but any is better than none.

Arrived in Joberg and was met by a representative from Gracy Travel, but not Bruce as he was attending a funeral. As they always do Gracy's rep whisked me through immigration, through baggage claim, through the firearms checkpoint where they just confirmed the serial numbers on my rifles with the permits, and across the street to the Intercontinental Hotel where I had an excellent meal and a good nights sleep.

The following morning Gracy's rep met me at the hotel and took me to the Airlink concourse where he again whisked me through the ticket agent process then dropped me off at a lounge since I was flying Business Class (their First Class) where I spent 45 minutes waiting to board my flight in comfort and quiet. When flight time came Gracy's rep picked me up, took me to the gate where I would be the first to get on the bus that takes you to the plane, and then first on the plane.

The flight to Harare was uneventful, the flight attendants were outstanding, so much better than American flight attendants, and a hour or so later we landed in Harare.

The moment I entered the terminal I was greeted by a gentleman holding a sign with my name on it. He grabbed my carryon and hustled (that would be the word) me towards immigration. We hadn't gone far when there was another gentleman holding a picture of me. He joined us. I'll admit I was a bit confused as to why I had two people with me. We walked even faster. It was explained to me that an Ethiopian Airline had just landed and they wanted me cleared through everything before that crowd of folks got in front of me.

They took me to an immigration officer that had no one in line, a nice lady, and on to baggage claim we went. The first guy that met me dropped off at this point. As we continued walking to baggage claim four other people joined us. Bag, gun case and ammo case were retrieved and we headed to what appeared to be a customs line where not only firearms were checked but also anything else that might require duty. Only two young ladies were working this process. My entourage moved me and my stuff to the head of the line, not an easy feat since everyone was trying to get to the front of the line.

As I watched my rifles serial numbers being checked, and the ammo case opened and rounds looked at, they let me tell them how many rounds there were for each caliber. I realized at that point that the folks that had joined us earlier had something to do with the firearms control. Added to them were a few others, including two that I took to be Chinese nationals as they spoke perfect English without a Zimbabwean accent-interesting.

I felt sorry for these two young ladies doing all the paperwork with as many as six to eight officials looking over their shoulders the entire time and a long line of people waiting to be processed by them.

With that done we walked a short distance with the lady that was part of the entourage to the domestic section of the terminal where the ticket agent and gate for the Charter flight was that would take us to the bush strip. That's where Buzz met me with a big pvc tube with a couple of fishing rods in it and a nuisance monkey rifle.

Here again my rifle case had to be opened, serial numbers checked against the permits I had just received a few hundred feet before, and with the lady who I now learned was the supervisor of firearms control with us the entire time. Interesting. The lady did tell the agent she didn't need to see the ammo.

Thanks and handshakes all around, a tip to Buzz's rep, and through the gate we went where our pilot Jasper met us. Instead of flying in a Cessna 206 (gas engine) as is customary, we where going in a Cessna 208 Caravan (turboprop), a bigger plane powered by a jet engine that turns the propellor-a lot more reliable power plant.

When I told Jasper that I was an Alaskan Bush pilot, he said "Well you certainly can't sit in the front seat then" with a big grin (kind of a inside joke between pilots and co-pilots). I was fine with that as I don't know how to operate a turbine engine anyway.

I asked Buzz why I'd been met by two people originally, he said the first was a rep the Charter company, and the second was his guy.

Water was passed around and off we headed on a hour and a half flight to the bush strip. Occasionally Buzz pointed out some ground features. At the bush strip we were met by Creighton and Nyati (Buzz's trackers) and Eddie (Buzz's driver). These guys are fantastic, respectful and professional. From there it was about a two hour drive to the tented camp that's right on the Zambezi River. During the drive we saw one elephant, lot's of impala, and a family of warthogs.

The food in camp is 5-star and I was serenaded to sleep by all the hippos in the Zambezi River not 30 feet away. I was so tired I fell asleep almost immediately but my internal clock was still out of sync so I'd wake up, sleep, wake up, sleep. The hippos talked to me all night and we did have one of them come into camp as well as an elephant.

Random Thoughts:

I'm going to say at this point, and it's not a recommendation so don't take this that way, I decided not to take any anti-malarial drugs- although I do have two types with me.

During this entire trip I've only seen/heard three mosquitos. I use Bull Frog SPF50 with insect repellent. It very effectively keeps the mosquitos off me as well as sunburns. It's also possible it keeps the Tsetse Flies away. We didn't have many of them but when they were around Buzz and Andy (my camera man) got bit but I never did. So maybe it's an effective Tsetse Fly repellant as well. And the few times we had Mopane flies around they never landed on me. Hmmmmm.

Ticks, never saw any. And although I did buy a bunch of that Permethrin Spray stuff with the intention of spray all my clothes, after reading the extensive warning label I decided no way I want parts of me to start falling off- so never used it and won't ever.

Snakes. Never saw any myself. Andy did spot one grass snake near the end of the Safari.

As I found in 2005 when I was here, the Zimbabwe people are the friendliest and happiest people I've encountered anywhere in the world. And get three or more together and the laughter will commence.

[stay tuned for the next installment as soon as I get a chance to write it- I'm still in Harare]

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

Following along..
I really like your detailed writing style, can't wait for more!

 

[Sourdough]

First hunting day.

After having breakfast, and with both the 1910 W.J. Jefferey 475 No2 Jefferey Double and the 1914 Holland & Holland 375 H&H in the truck we started the first hunting day driving dirt roads in the concession looking for fresh Elephant tracks that were also big enough to indicate a big Bull Elephant which might have tusks of the desired size for the region we were hunting.

But before we got very far we pulled up in a sand river bottom to check the sight-in of 375. No need to check the double as I only use iron sights and as long as they haven't been visibly damaged the point of impact isn't going to change on the double.

Scoped rifles should always be checked as they are much more prone to being knocked out of alignment during transport. So a home made target was put up, I rested the 375 on the shooting sticks, placed the cross hairs of the 2.5x20 1" B.Nickel Marburg/L scope on the target and squeezed a round off. Dead center so we were good to go.

We continued down the dirt/sand roads and eventually found a track that was promising. We dismounted the truck and started our near three hour long tracking session that went in and out of the Jesse. The Bull was moving really slow and meandering around indicating he was in a very peaceful state. Wind was a bit sketchy but he never winded us. We caught up with him and he was a big bodied bull but only with 25-30lbs tusks so we broke off hunting him.

We saw five bull elephants in total, this guy being the biggest bodied and heaviest tusked. Also saw around eight cows and a half dozen juveniles including a really small one probably born recently that was as cute as can be. Buzz believed they probably came out of Mana Pools National Park as they weren't afraid of us. That wasn't the case with a Matriarch Zambezi Lady from a different herd that charged and chased us in the truck for no other reason then that's what Zambezi Ladies do. They hate people.

We took a break for lunch in the bush and then a brief nap.

We focused the afternoon on trying to locate some Cape Buffalo duggaboys of which we did find some tracks and headed into the Jesse after them. The Jesse was incredibly thick. We finally caught up to them but jumped them before we saw them. The original ones had picked up some other duggaboys along the way making four to six duggaboys.

During the day we also saw Zebra, lots of Impala and Waterbuck. An excellent first day. We also came across an area with lots of big Elephant tracks and decided to start there on day two.

Not So Random Thought DON'T DO THIS OR ANYTHING LIKE IT

I decided I had to loose weight and committed myself to it. In roughly a years time through diet and exercise I lost 30lbs, but after another years effort I just couldn't loose any more. So my doctor recommended I try Semaglutide (which is kept refrigerated) injections using a size 29 needle (really small) and injecting the proper dose into the fat of the belly once a week. Sure why not.

I was started out on a .2ml dose (actually a little more technical than that but good enough for the story). In my terms what Semaglutide does is puts my body into permanent Ketosis and slows digestion down to a point where one meal will take days to make it out of the stomach and into the intestines. Imagine your stomach being full all the time. Eat anything or even take a drink of water and it has nowhere to go but stay in the esophagus. Don't eat don't drink, pretty easy to do sitting at home behind a computer. But try not drinking when its 85 degrees outside and you're hiking all day. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

At the .2ml dose I really didn't experience any side effects. And I did start to loose weight, very slowly, but it was coming off without me doing anything else. Pretty cool. A couple weeks later dose is upped to .3ml, .4ml, .5ml which makes me feel like crap but the weight is coming off quicker. So I loose another 20lbs, cool. Then I have to get my left knee replaced about 7 months ago and I can't deal with that pain and feeling like crap from the Semaglutide, so I tell my doc I'm quitting the injections until my knee is fully heeled (I still want to loose another 20lbs). He's cool with that. About a month before this trip my knee is good enough that I decide to put myself back on Semaglutide at the .3ml dose. No problem. Weight begins to drop and I'm feeling fine.

The day before my flight is the next injection day. Since I can't take Semaglutide with me because it has to be refrigerated I decide to up this dose to .5ml so I'll continue to loose weight even on the trip. Made sense to me.

BAD IDEA.

As soon as I'm tracking critters in 85 degree weather I need water, lots of it. My esophagus holds near nothing, and it isn't going anywhere anyway cause my stomach isn't emptying out fast enough. Which means burps that resemble acid reflux except it just water. Then the dreaded 24 hour a day hiccups start (how that originally happened to me is another story that I won't bother you with). And of course I can no longer eat breakfast, lunch or dinner cause there is nowhere for it to go either. (Did I say the food was 5-star here)

I know this will only last about a week, half my hunt, until the Semaglutide gets out of my system. And of course my reactions: hiccuping, burping, gaging gets worse every day. Buzz is starting to worry because it never stops, not while driving, not while walking, not while sleeping. He's secretly thinking he might need to take me to the hospital because after a few days of non-stop hiccups my larynx starts to have seizures where I can't breathe. This happened before so I'm not super worried but I'm now mentally and physically exhausted- and pissed.

After three or four days I finally text my doc and ask him what he prescribed last time I had the seizure hiccups. He tells me. We come up with a list of all the generic names and Buzz sends the camp manager across the border into a village in Zambia (closer then any to us in Zimbabwe) and he manages to secure the drug. Take two every six hours. Okay that sounds really bad to me but I'll go ahead and take two. BAM I was loopy and had a hard time walking but I made it to bed. Note to self, only take one and only as needed. By morning I was a little better, by the following day even better and able to eat a meal a day (Semaglutide is wearing off). By the morning of the fourth day (a week into the hunt) I was right as rain. Eating three meals a day and no more hiccups or seizures.

So what is my point with this long winded story? Just this. DO NOT change any prescriptions right before you head off on a trip. In fact probably don't change any pills, supplements or routines. You never know what the consequences will be. Either make the change a few months before so you have time to see how your body reacts, or wait till your back home.

 

[Sourdough]

 

[PARA45]

Awesome report, keep it coming, anxiously waiting for more.

 

[cwickgo9]

Living vicariously through you on this adventure - keep up the great reports!

 

[Frederik]

Thanks for sharing saw the video of your buff on Facebook.

 

[Rare Breed]

First hunting day.

After having breakfast, and with both the 1910 W.J. Jefferey 475 No2 Jefferey Double and the 1914 Holland & Holland 375 H&H in the truck we started the first hunting day driving dirt roads in the concession looking for fresh Elephant tracks that were also big enough to indicate a big Bull Elephant which might have tusks of the desired size for the region we were hunting.

But before we got very far we pulled up in a sand river bottom to check the sight-in of 375. No need to check the double as I only use iron sights and as long as they haven't been visibly damaged the point of impact isn't going to change on the double.

Scoped rifles should always be checked as they are much more prone to being knocked out of alignment during transport. So a home made target was put up, I rested the 375 on the shooting sticks, placed the cross hairs of the 2.5x20 1" B.Nickel Marburg/L scope on the target and squeezed a round off. Dead center so we were good to go.

We continued down the dirt/sand roads and eventually found a track that was promising. We dismounted the truck and started our near three hour long tracking session that went in and out of the Jesse. The Bull was moving really slow and meandering around indicating he was in a very peaceful state. Wind was a bit sketchy but he never winded us. We caught up with him and he was a big bodied bull but only with 25-30lbs tusks so we broke off hunting him.

We saw five bull elephants in total, this guy being the biggest bodied and heaviest tusked. Also saw around eight cows and a half dozen juveniles including a really small one probably born recently that was as cute as can be. Buzz believed they probably came out of Mana Pools National Park as they weren't afraid of us. That wasn't the case with a Matriarch Zambezi Lady from a different herd that charged and chased us in the truck for no other reason then that's what Zambezi Ladies do. They hate people.

We took a break for lunch in the bush and then a brief nap.

We focused the afternoon on trying to locate some Cape Buffalo duggaboys of which we did find some tracks and headed into the Jesse after them. The Jesse was incredibly thick. We finally caught up to them but jumped them before we saw them. The original ones had picked up some other duggaboys along the way making four to six duggaboys.

During the day we also saw Zebra, lots of Impala and Waterbuck. An excellent first day. We also came across an area with lots of big Elephant tracks and decided to start there on day two.

Not So Random Thought DON'T DO THIS OR ANYTHING LIKE IT

I decided I had to loose weight and committed myself to it. In roughly a years time through diet and exercise I lost 30lbs, but after another years effort I just couldn't loose any more. So my doctor recommended I try Semaglutide (which is kept refrigerated) injections using a size 29 needle (really small) and injecting the proper dose into the fat of the belly once a week. Sure why not.

I was started out on a .2ml dose (actually a little more technical than that but good enough for the story). In my terms what Semaglutide does is puts my body into permanent Ketosis and slows digestion down to a point where one meal will take days to make it out of the stomach and into the intestines. Imagine your stomach being full all the time. Eat anything or even take a drink of water and it has nowhere to go but stay in the esophagus. Don't eat don't drink, pretty easy to do sitting at home behind a computer. But try not drinking when its 85 degrees outside and you're hiking all day. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

At the .2ml dose I really didn't experience any side effects. And I did start to loose weight, very slowly, but it was coming off without me doing anything else. Pretty cool. A couple weeks later dose is upped to .3ml, .4ml, .5ml which makes me feel like crap but the weight is coming off quicker. So I loose another 20lbs, cool. Then I have to get my left knee replaced about 7 months ago and I can't deal with that pain and feeling like crap from the Semaglutide, so I tell my doc I'm quitting the injections until my knee is fully heeled (I still want to loose another 20lbs). He's cool with that. About a month before this trip my knee is good enough that I decide to put myself back on Semaglutide at the .3ml dose. No problem. Weight begins to drop and I'm feeling fine.

The day before my flight is the next injection day. Since I can't take Semaglutide with me because it has to be refrigerated I decide to up this dose to .5ml so I'll continue to loose weight even on the trip. Made sense to me.

BAD IDEA.

As soon as I'm tracking critters in 85 degree weather I need water, lots of it. My esophagus holds near nothing, and it isn't going anywhere anyway cause my stomach isn't emptying out fast enough. Which means burps that resemble acid reflux except it just water. Then the dreaded 24 hour a day hiccups start (how that originally happened to me is another story that I won't bother you with). And of course I can no longer eat breakfast, lunch or dinner cause there is nowhere for it to go either. (Did I say the food was 5-star here)

I know this will only last about a week, half my hunt, until the Semaglutide gets out of my system. And of course my reactions: hiccuping, burping, gaging gets worse every day. Buzz is starting to worry because it never stops, not while driving, not while walking, not while sleeping. He's secretly thinking he might need to take me to the hospital because after a few days of non-stop hiccups my larynx starts to have seizures where I can't breathe. This happened before so I'm not super worried but I'm now mentally and physically exhausted- and pissed.

After three or four days I finally text my doc and ask him what he prescribed last time I had the seizure hiccups. He tells me. We come up with a list of all the generic names and Buzz sends the camp manager across the border into a village in Zambia (closer then any to us in Zimbabwe) and he manages to secure the drug. Take two every six hours. Okay that sounds really bad to me but I'll go ahead and take two. BAM I was loopy and had a hard time walking but I made it to bed. Note to self, only take one and only as needed. By morning I was a little better, by the following day even better and able to eat a meal a day (Semaglutide is wearing off). By the morning of the fourth day (a week into the hunt) I was right as rain. Eating three meals a day and no more hiccups or seizures.

So what is my point with this long winded story? Just this. DO NOT change any prescriptions right before you head off on a trip. In fact probably don't change any pills, supplements or routines. You never know what the consequences will be. Either make the change a few months before so you have time to see how your body reacts, or wait till your back home.

You are so like me…”if a little is good a lot has to be better”. lol!!!!

 

[Sourdough]

I didn't take a lot of photos myself as I had a cameraman along. So until I get a copy of the stuff off the hard drive I'll just be story telling mostly. But the cameraman told me he took about 560 photos and hours and hours of film so I'll have some great stuff to share once I get it. Meanwhile here goes.

Day 3

Wake up was usually around 4:30, breakfast at 5:00 which for me (once I could eat) consisted of either bacon and toast or bacon and hash browns or bacon and thinly sliced potatoes. But I could have had most anything else had I wanted it. And of course coffee around a mopane wood campfire right before breakfast.

Zimbabwe is coming into winter so most mornings it was nice to have a jacket or sweater, but certainly by 9:00 it was warm enough for just a shirt, usually earlier than that.

As Buzz, Andy and I sat around the fire drinking coffee talk would quickly go to what animals were in camp during the night or else very close. Many nights had an elephant in camp. Most nights had a leopard in camp usually walking by someone's tent not inches from their face. Lions were heard most nights although generally not really close. Hippo, Eland, Impala and Baboons as well visited.

This third day we decided to focus on Duggaboys. We didn't see any, nor did we see any herds of Cape Buffalo. We did see four cow elephants but no bulls. We saw various species of plains game including Kudu, Eland cows, and lots of Impala. Also warthogs. Toward the end of the day we found a big elephant track and decided to start there in the morning.

Turned out the day was mostly about resting my legs, which wasn't a bad thing. Dinner of course was 5 star. Then it was hit the shower, which is a bucket of hot water hoisted over my head with a showerlike spigot at the bottom. Wet myself down, turn the water off, soap myself, and then turn the water on. Not enough water to linger. Dirty clothes from the day before were clean and pressed and waiting on the bed.

Climb in bed and be serenaded by the wildlife and to sleep quickly.

 

[Sourdough]

My accommodations for two weeks

 

[Sourdough]

The view from my tent.

 

[PARA45]

WOW, very nice. Love the accommodations and the view, priceless. Anxiously waiting for more.

 

[Frederik]

Keep em coming!!!!

 

[Sideshow]

Can’t wait for more.
Thanks for the tip on Bull Frog I’ll give it a whizz as mozie love me