April 1st 2009 - JOSHUA SPIES
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.
