South Africa hunt/family vacation report

[DLS]

I only registered with Jesse's a few weeks ago, and think it's a pretty good website for us hunters. However, it isn't as lively as I wish it were, especially on this african forum. I love African hunting, so I thought I'd liven up this forum by posting some pictures and a report from the 2 week vacation/hunt I took my family on this past May & June.

We departed San Francisco for Johannesburg on American Airlines, transferring to British in London. From Jo'burg, we flew South African Airways on a small turboprop up to Phalaborwa, arriving just at sunset. Phalaborwa is a small town near Kruger National Park. We spent our first night at Sunbird Lodge, a small bed and breakfast, before departing for Kruger the next day.

Lounge area at Sunbird Lodge

Pool and guest rooms

Breakfast before departing for Kruger

We rented a Toyota Landcruiser SUV for our 3-day self guided tour of Kruger Park. This is something I'd highly recommend. We could have easily spent 5 days at Kruger, it is a fabulous place, as you'll soon see.

 

[DLS]

Once into Kruger, we headed straight for Letaba Camp, which was where we'd be spending our first night. Letaba is right in the heart of big elephant country, and we saw a ton of jumbos.

Big bull, he was about 20 yards off the road

This jumbo was photographed south of Satara, I'd love to know what his ivory weighs.

Hlanganini, one of the Great Bulls of Kruger

 

[DLS]

There was a lot of other great game to view as well at Letaba

Old Dugga Boy at water

A very nice Kudu bull, who is rutting.

An old White Rhino bull.

A bull like this weighs close to 5,000 pounds!

I love African sunsets!

African traffic jam. A little different than following an elk at Yellowstone!

 

[bzzboyz]

Cool pictures. I'm hunting Cameroon in May/June, so I hope to have some great pictures to post then.

Where's the hunting pics though?

 

[DLS]

The first half of our hunt was spent game viewing, and the 2nd half was spent hunting. I do have to say that photographing the same animals I love to hunt and have pursued on previous safaris was a wonderful way to spend some time, like when I found a herd of buffalo bulls and got some shots of several huge bulls.

I don't know for sure how big this heavy bull is, but I'd guess he's at least 46" wide, and those bosses are huge!

We caught this herd coming to water just before dark, there were a couple hundred buffalo in this group.

This would be a bull of many lifetimes for anyone who loves to hunt buffalo.

There were about a dozen nice bulls in this group.

 

[DLS]

After three wonderful days at Kruger, we spent the next 2 days at Monwan Lodge, which is a small private lodge within the Thornybush Game Reserve. Thornybush is 35,000 acres, and they have large numbers of game, especially such tough to find animals as cheetahs and rhino, both white and black. The highlight of Thornybush, however, is 'big cat' viewing.

Heavy maned old Thornybush lion

Old fellow!

This is a different lioni. How spooky would it be to suddenly have him materialize when you're walking in the long grass?

The other big cat. We found this leopard up in a tree, and realized later that he'd been chased up there by a group of lions that were trying to catch him.

After about 15 minutes, he headed down out of the tree.

I got very lucky to capture this image as the leopard descended the tree.

 

[DLS]

We eventually got around to doing some hunting, and it was very good for the brief period that we hunted. Here's a photo of my then 21 year old son with his first African animal, a nice Impala. My daughter didn't shoot anything, but did enjoy getting out and hunting with us. She was a bit intimidated when we were stalking Eland, as the ground was noisy and she feared that she'd spook the herd we were following.

 

[acousticmood]

Great story - thanks for posting.

 

[bzzboyz]

So are you posting this in real time or are you just teasin' us?

 

[Duknutz]

Great pictures you got there DLS!Man those are some trophy animals...I was trying to go back this year (2010) myself,but don't think I'm going make it happen,I'll try like heck to make it in 2011.
My PH buddy is coming over and were doing the SCI show in Reno NV. again this year,that will get me all spun out again.
Keep posting the pics for us dreamers!!rayin :

 

[DLS]

My son really wanted to shoot a warthog with his bow, but since only a small portion of our time was to be spent hunting, I advised him he'd have to settle for only rifle hunting. We burned up the 1st three days of our hunting time looking for a big eland for me, to no avail. There were enough eland, and they took a 38" and 41" bull off the ranch last year, but the leaves were still very heavy, along with enough recently dropped to make stalking very difficult, so after 3 days of chasing eland around, we decided to devote the remainder of our hunting time on the other things we were interested in. This trip made the 3rd time I've had an eland license without firing a shot, the other two times being in Zimbabwe and Botswana. Anyway, we re-focused on the other animals and had quick results. Here's my son's warthog.

 

[dglover]

Great pictures thanks for sharing!

 

[DLS]

My son's #1 desire was to take a nice kudu bull, and I wanted that for him more than anything else we were hunting. I was fine coming home without firing a shot if he was able to take a big kudu, and the property we ended up hunting them on was fantastic for having lots of kudu, and big bulls too. We saw perhaps 15 or so mature bulls in the time we hunted there, and my son managed to take a bull that exceeded our dreams.

We had looked for a big bull all day, and had a couple near misses earlier. During the middle of the day we sat on a waterhole and never saw any kudu bulls, though we saw some warthogs and other stuff come in. As it turns out, we were traveling to another part of the ranch when we spotted this fellow, and even though we could only see small portions of his horns behind the brush, it was obvious that he was a 'no doubt' bull.

My son could only see a small patch of hide through the leaves, and he made a great shot to put this bull down with a single shot from his .270. The bullet, a 150 grain nosler partition, didn't exit but was sitting under the hide on the offside shoulder. I told my son that he'll likely never kill a nicer kudu. It has length, great mass, outward turned tips and is a bit worn down, the signs of an old bull well past his prime. At this point, I could have simply wrapped our trip up, as we'd acheived what I really wanted for the hunting portion, seeing my son take one of my all-time favorite animals, a big Greater Kudu bull.

This photo back at the skinning shed will give you a good idea of the mass on this bull's horns.

 

[DLS]

Our final day in South Africa, I only had till noon to hunt and then we had to be packed and ready to leave by 2:00 for our departure flight out of Phalaborwa on to O.R. Tambo and then home. I wasn't holding out much hope of taking an nyala, as we hadn't spent any time hunting them yet. I'd spent 3 days tracking eland, and passed up a nice bull due to an inconvenient branch in the way to make a clean shot, and never had another chance at a bull that fit our criteria. All in all, it was 3 great days of hunting, plus the time we spent hunting kudu, and the impala and warthog. I was totally satisfied, but Koos assured me that we had a good chance of finding a nice nyala, so off we went. Talk about a "2 minute drill."

We were driving down a dry sand river, when my wife (of all people!) spotted an nyala bull run across from one bank to the other up ahead. We snuck up to where she'd seen the bull, and quickly found him. Koos wasn't real urgent about me shooting him, indicating that is was an "OK" bull, mature but not huge. I asked him quickly if he thought I should shoot the bull and as soon as he said "He's an older bull." BANG! The heck with waiting for shooting sticks, it was close enough to make an easy offhand shot and the bull didn't go far. As it turns out, the bull had a very open spiral, not the classic tight spiraled horns that turn back out, and he looked shorter than he turned out to be as a result. I caught a lot of good natured ribbing from Koos for shooting so quickly offhand, but heck, it was no tougher than shooting ducks back home....

My son Danny and I with my bull.

It was great to have the entire family along, as the girls enjoyed themselves. While they won't be on most hunts we ever make, it was very nice to have them along on this trip.

 

[bzzboyz]

Great job. Again, are you posting live or are you just teasing us?
You've got a captive audience either way.:thumbs up2:

 

[DLS]

We took this trip in late May/early June. I just figured that I'd post about it since there isn't much activity on the african forum and it may give good information to someone considering an african hunt. This was my 4th hunt over there, but first in South Africa. It was also a bit different than most people do when in Africa, as most people don't take time for a family vacation but spend all their time hunting. I've hunted lions in Zimbabwe and Botswana, but who'd have ever thought that I'd hear more lions roaring around camp at night in South Africa than either of those two places? More pictures to follow.

 

[tpuig]

Great pics and stories. I'm hoping to get there in the next year or two...

 

[elkguys]

I cannt think of a better way to spend time with family!!what a great trip and some nice racks that the family will talk about for years to come.this is what the outdoors are all about to me family then the kill second.thanks for sharing your trip with us all.will be at the SCI too this year

 

[Duknutz]

Ah!You gotta love those spiral horned animals over there.Another Kudu Bull,a Nyala and a big bushbuck are on the most wanted list for me...next time!