Ivan Carter’s Safari Journal

I am now sitting at my sister Nina’s house in Harare, Josh Spies and his dad Jim are relaxing on the porch with a couple of beers so I thought I would let you know how the rest of the hunt went ….

After the bull, we had a choice between a third buffalo or a tuskless cow …we decided to hunt hard and see what came up first.

That very afternoon after the bull, we got on some buffalo tracks from the morning …after just two hours of walking we were right among them. The only problem was the very thick bafia jesse ..bafia massaiensis is an extremely thick, heavily leafed bush which is almost impenetrable.  The herd numbered about 250 animals, but we could never ever see them, just heard them grunting and then thundering away from us in the thickets …no matter how careful we were. Very, very frustrating, but not frustrating enough to dampen our spirits from the morning’s excitement.

At this point let me just add the thoughts on hunting tuskless…it’s simply a management tool to remove the genetics from the breeding gene pool. It’s believed that removing these cows will strengthen the genetics for good tusks in the future.  However, there are some negative aspects to this as well, taking a cow from a herd has a profound effect on the herd and in areas where this happens one can frequently end up with a very aggressive elephant population.  As with so many conservation techniques, there are often two sides to it resulting in a double edged sword that needs to be well balanced to work out well. The consoling factor is that all the meat is utilised and nothing goes to waste.

The next morning we ended up following another group that surely led us on a long and hard walk!  Five hours later once again we were among them but the bush was simply too thick. By the time we had got amongst them it was very very hot and the whole herd was resting in the jesse.  At that time of the day the wind is truly your enemy and after getting VERY hot and sweaty and somewhat discouraged we decided that that was over for the morning.

While we were sitting in the shade waiting for the heat to pass, we heard the  squeal of an elephant cow. Knowing that we had the whole afternoon ahead of us we decided to follow them just to see if on the off chance there was a tuskless with the group.

Well, just by following the sounds of their ears flapping and a few feeding noises we ended up in shoulder high impenetrable growth. All we could do was climb a tree and look from up there …as luck would have it there were two tuskless with the group …but now how were we going to get in for a shot and more importantly, how would we safely get out after the shot?

We tried to get in among them but even though the wind was good, it simply wouldn’t have been safe as there would be nowhere to go after the shot!

The wind then swirled and they moved up on the riverbank - that was very good …hopefully we would find them in a clearing.

We snuck up behind them and the tuskless happened to be right at the back, she presented a side brain shot, we were still about 30 yards out but with the bush as thick as it was, any closer would have been madness.

Josh put in a great side brain shot, as soon as the shot went off the whole herd came charging in …the largest cow very aggressive. We backed off, the shot was excellent so there were no worries. A few minutes later they moved off and we all breathed a sigh of relief …what a great hunt!

We’ve had a hectic few days, we stopped the other morning for a look at some bull tracks and after measuring them and seeing that they were a full 20 inches along the back foot, (for the Valley that’s great) we decided to follow.

    It wasn’t long before we all knew this could be good, there were lots of dig holes where the bulls (two of them) had been getting at the roots of the Prince of Wales Feathers trees, with the heavy dew the tracking was pretty simple.Sure enough, after just an hour of tracking there was a crackle in front of us and a low grumble… I cant even tell you how excited we were!  Josh had my .450 Heym and the bull was close, of course we still hadn’t seen his tusks so it wasn’t over by any means. 

As we moved in all I saw was a great long tusk, buck fever, or should I say elephant fever can sometimes make a tusk look bigger than it is.  I will say that when you have walked the miles we had walked and spent the time we had spent just looking over all these animals, it’s quite a moment when you see that tusk for the first time!!!

As soon as I saw that he did in fact have two tusks it was game on…we walked towards him and as soon as he sensed that we were nearby, which was as we got to about 15 yards, he simply turned and came in.  Josh shot low on his first shot but that stopped the charge and the bullet went right through and into the heart/lung area. As he turned Josh put in his second barrel and it was over. WOW! What a fantastic bull taken in such a great traditional manner ….this just proves that it’s not about the shot, it’s about the hunt with the trophy simply as a reminder of great hunting moments …

With the buffalo down it was onto the elephant part of the safari …WOW! This bush is thick and getting stuck every day isn’t all that much fun (the novelty of using the winch wears off pretty fast !!!)     

There is a lot of movement though and every day we have been following tracks of some really great bulls. Even though we have been getting among the elephants,  with several days left I am still being pretty choosy ..

Yesterday we were so close that we could hear them breathing, we even got a few glimpses through the bush at about 8 yards but couldn’t quite see the tusks, then the wind changed and what we thought was just two animals turned out to be a whole herd! They ran into the open and stood there, ears out and trunks up just looking for us, very exciting stuff …

The birdlife and butterflies at this time of the year are simply stunning , the bush, which is more like jungle, is filled with birdcalls and hundreds of butterflies, mainly the “white” family but there are lots of little common grass yellows as well.

Well its nine pm, we have been going since 4 am this morning so I am going to sign off ….

Well, after an uneventful flight over to Zimbabwe and a good evening with family, my main cameraman Simon Elton and I drove down to the Zambezi Valley. The first part of the journey was on asphalt road, all 300 km of it, and then the fun began! Dark was just approaching as we entered the Valley on dirt road; it has been an excellent rainy season, lots of mud and very thick green bush. The last 100 kilometers took us three hours to travel, during which time we saw one startled hyena, a hippo bull that was completely nonplussed with a small spotted genet and us. By the time we arrived in camp, my white truck was more brown than white!!!

Josh Spies and his father Jim arrived in camp at 9 am the next morning. Josh is a world class artist, have a look at his website www.joshuaspies.com He is my age and lots of fun to be around, as is his dad Jim….fine ingredients for a  happy and exciting safari! 

After settling into camp and a late breakfast, it was off to the range. Josh was going to use my Heym 450 for his elephant as well as - hopefully - his buffalo. Jim had his trusty model 70 .458 …a few minutes at the range has us all ready to go. 

We decided to try and drive up the Chewore River, that was a lot of fun but somewhat tough. With the bush as thick as it was and the roads not yet opened, it was some tough going!!! After winching ourselves out of the mud and through the river a few times, we eventually got there and back and saw one herd of elephant and a few impala for our efforts. 

The following day was our first full hunting day. We spent the first part of the morning walking on tracks, when we came upon a bull with just one single large tusk, which we turned down. We then went into the northern hills of the concession where there was a large herd of buffalo crossing the river into the concession.  We sat and waited this out, amid beautiful scenery, with buffalo all around and in great company; what more could a guy want?

 After some crawling and stalking we were suddenly within 6 yards of the edge of the herd, of course the bull we were after was well hidden as Murphy has always got a firm hand in these matters! However, this did not in any way diminish the experience. 

Jim’s breathing told me that he was equally excited and a glance at Josh confirmed he was having just as much fun, even though Jim had been elected to shoot first. 

It was hot and humid, the grass was over our heads, we had 150 buffalo all within 50 yards …this was good!! 

After about another half an hour of jostling, duck walking and a few hundred meters of stalking …we suddenly had a group of 15 animals all walking towards us, up to about 40 yards. Of course our bull was not with them! Three more attempts and there he was, walking across a clearing over the backs of the nearest animals, I got Jim up on the sticks, we had plenty of time and he put in a great shot. 

The herd didn’t go far and shortly thereafter we saw a second bull. We rushed in, Josh got on the sticks and made a rare shot, quartering towards he dropped the bull right in its tracks …unbelievable!  What an experience to enjoy with people, all on the first big day. We were certainly going to have to work hard to keep this up.

I hope that you find the adventures interesting and entertaining.

Due to the nature of hunting, we are often out in the field for 16 hours or more in a day, when possible. I will update the blog at least twice a week. I apologize if I don’t always get to it that often.

I would like to thank Explorer satellite for making this possible via BGAN satlink. http://www.explorersatellite.com