Hunting Mbogo – The Cape Buffalo Part 2
“In part one I told the story of how my hunt with Andrew went over two days. I would like to follow through into part two with photos and tales of the experience of hunting in a big 5 reserve”
Once the cow was down and all was on the safe side I congratulated Andrew on a well-placed shot, he was still shaking with excitement and couldn’t believe the size of the animal. We paid our respects to a tough rival and then proceeded with the photo session. We got some fantastic pictures. The smile tells the entire story.
We hunted “Mbogo” in its own territory on foot and I believe this is the best way of hunting. It’s a fair chase ethical hunt that brings out the best of big game hunting in Africa. Andrew took down a very old cow past her prime that is what the core of game management is about.
After the Rhino disturbed our photo session we loaded the buffalo and left for camp. I removed the tender fillets and lay them in some lemon juice, olive oil & spices for the night. This was to be our dinner for Saturday nigh. Andrew took his buff on the Friday afternoon, this left Saturday & a bit of Sunday. What do we do? There is a massive amount of Big game country to cover and see something that you have never seen. We did just that. I took them on an extended game drive through the reserve. By now they had already seen Buffalo, Rhino, Cheetah although only two of the bug five it was still good going.
We had lunch that day and had an afternoon siesta, I had to at least get them to see all of the Big 5 that roam the farm. We decided to head to a area we haven’t covered whilst hunting the buffalo to see if we can al least get some fresh tracks of the 3 big 5 that remain.
By chance we drove past a waterhole that still had some water in the area and there the Big African Giants had a bit of a mud wallow. Ndlovu as locals call them spent some time at the water and gave Andrew and Adele a great show.
We kept on driving that area and low and behold we saw Begeira the local female Leopard lounging in her favourite tree. This was what I was hoping for, 4 of the big 5 down only one to go.We left Begeira and had some sun downers at the Hart shape dam where Andrew photographed the big male crocodile taking in the last of the sun. I vowed that I would get those lion even if we had to do a night drive.
On the way to camp Adele spotted a tawny figure on the right side in a clearing and got very excited, amazingly there she lay the big female Lion, behind her we saw movement and out walked the Big black maned Male followed by the 4 two year old cubs. They looked like they were on a hunt and we followed, the sound of the car had an effect on the big male and he started his call about 50 yards from our vehicle. The earth literally shook with the loud call of the big old male.
We followed them for around an hour and then they silently moved into a thicket where we could not follow. We arrived at camp and as I help Andrew and Adele of the game viewer I could see the beaming faces. We had achieved what I would like every hunter hunting with PHSC to achieve.
Andrew hunted a big old buffalo cow and saw the big 5 on one hunting trip. I cooked the buffalo fillets and we dined on buffalo & garlic bread that night around the fire. Jp & Divan our two game rangers provided some entertainment with their Guitar and time seemed to pass effortlessly and soon we heard the Scopp’s owl announcing the next morning.
We headed to bed and all fell asleep before our heads hit the pillow. We had breakfast in the morning and bid Andrew and Adele a farewell.This was one of the most memorable Buffalo hunting trips I had in a while and enjoyed their company.
“To the Buffalo, to the Hunter, to the Guide, to this Hunt, to past Hunt’s and future Hunt’s”
PH, Bernard de Lange
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