Posted on Behalf of Pravin Ghatge. Contact email add: pghatgekagal@hotmail.com

To all fellow hunters.

This is a report of a very bad experience I had with my safari to Zambia in 2005. I would like to take up the matter with whoever is willing to help me fight such practices, bad management in the safari business.

This is how it happened.
At the 2005 SCI convention, I was looking for a crocodile, Hippo hunt. I wanted to do this in an area where I had not previously hunted, this being my 5th African safari. The other reason being to collect some new species of Plains Game.

My choices were Zambia, Tanzania or Mozambique. Mozambique was ruled out as there were no trophies I could take other than the hippo and croc. Some friends also advised not to consider that country therefore ultimate choice was between Tanzania and Zambia. The Tanzanian operators were really not catering for a specialized safari like the one I wanted and none of them had an area up north where I wanted to take the Masai plains game species.

I visited Wes Hixon’s stall where I met Peter Chipman of Kwalata safaris. Also at the stall was the famous movie maker Mark Watts who was marketing his latest DVD “Double Down.” needless to say I was impressed with the star studded stall as I had just seen the dvd “Jaws of Simba”.

Peter Chipman assured me that his hunting block had 60 miles of river frontage and huge hippo and 13-14 feet crocs were 200% guaranteed. He said we could do this easily in 4 or 5 days and then hunt Sitatunga in the Banguela swamp for a week combined with the swamp species. Now that was exactly what I was looking for, to collect as many trophies in one safari. Hunting Zambia was going to give me an opportunity to take 8 new trophies including the hippo and croc. Most important it meant hunting in areas I had not hunted before.

Mr Chipman offered me this hunt for $12,000 for 12 days. But he said I should get in touch at a later date as if he booked the hunt at the Convention he’d have to pay Wes Hixon his commission. I suppose that is where I should have initially smelt a rat.

Eventually when I got back to India. I finalized the safari for 12 days. I was supposed to hunt the Luangawa valley for Hippo, Croc and Puku and then go to Banguela to hunt the swamp species, Black Lechwe, Sitatunga, Oribi and Tseebee and then if time permitted do the Kafue flats for the Kafue Lechwe. Through all this correspondence Peter assured me a number of times that all the species I wanted were more or less guaranteed except the Sitatunga which obviously I knew was a bit of a chance. And lot of luck!

We landed in Zambia a day before as planned as my past experience has taught me to try and get acclimatized for a day or two. The first surprise was there was no one to pick us up when we arrived. I got through to the Kwalata office after a lot of hassles like changing currency etc, they told me someone was on the way after waiting for 2 hours I contacted Kwalata office again and was given Kessy’s telephone number. (Who is Chipman’s partner?) She said she was not able make the drive of 26 kms to the airport as the country was in acute shortage of gas…I should find my way to the Taj Pamzundi where she will meet me. We tried finding a taxi but there was not a single taxi due to shortage of gas. So the next phone call was to a personal contact in Lusaka who drove down and very kindly dropped us to the hotel.

I did understand this and take this as a part of hunting Africa. Next day we flew to the hunting area where Peter and Sarge (his junior P.H) picked us up. We start hunting the next day.

Day 1; in the morning we set out for Hippo. We drove along the river and spotted pods of Hippos. There were two big males. Peter asked me to shoot one of them. For some reasons the Hippos were not cooperative after some time Peter asked me shoot the other one since he was at a more shootable distance. As I was not able to take the shot Peter reverted back to the 1st hippo. Even my 15 year old son doing his African second hunt noticed and commented on the hesitancy or ‘couldn’t be bothered attitude’ The thing was to get over with!

Eventually we shot one of the hippos and I remember asking Peter on his estimate on the teeth. He informed me that it would be 26 /27inches when measured now they tape out to be just over 23. At this stage I was very keen to have the hippo back skin cured but Mr chipman said we didn’t have time and needed to cut up the hippo and put it out as baits for crocodile immediately. And said that he would replace it with another skin and send it with taxidermy consignment. The skin never arrived.

Day 2; Over the next day we look over a lot of crocodile and I realized there was not a big one there as these guys had taken 10 big ones in that very season. This is something which I fail to understand he was allowing the package buffalo hunters take a crocodile and hippo .I can understand this about a hippo but with a crocodile to reach 12 or 13 feet it probably takes 30 or 40 years. And if you shoot the big ones so indiscrimanately where will the big ones keep coming from. And I was on a specialized Crocodile and hippo hunt!. I’m not an expert but this was my personal observation.

Day 3; We shot a 12 and a half foot crocodile. Which I am sure was the biggest available in that area. Obviously I was very disappointed as I was looking forward to a 13 or 14 feet crocodile after the 200% guarantee by Mr. Chipman. He very callously put it down to hunting luck as there are no guarantees in hunting.

Since I was in the Luangwa valley I was very keen a nice Puku which I had booked from day one. Mr. Chipman had the nerve to inform me there was no Puku available as they had finished their quota and I was to take a Puku on a ranch near Lusaka. I refused to believe the situation as the hunt was confirmed in March 2005.

We needed some camp meat and Mr. Chipman decided to shoot an impala. As it was only camp meat I requested Chipman to let my son shoot it. He agreed but when it came to actually shooting he didn’t bat an eyelid before he picked up the gun himself and shot it himself.

In all my earlier correspondence I had specifically told Mr. Chipman that being Hindus we ate everything but beef. Chipman being a Muslim should understand this as there was no pork available in the camp. They served beef for almost all the meals .I am doing my 6th safari and having hunted with the very best like Rosslyns Safaris, Hunters safaris. Zengela Safaris. Here the client’s food was given as much importance as the hunting. Nowhere did we face such insensitivity. Again the attitude was the problem.

Day4; We drive to the swamps…again it is Rashid’s camp in Banguela so again he being a Muslim there was no pork or liquor. Here it was game meat or beef. The very least he could have done was inform me about the diet constraints. I would have than taken my own tinned stuff.

We get up at three in the morning and drive towards the Machan our car start walking thru knee deep weed and water for over an hour and a half. Mr. Chipman conceded that his local guides had lost their way in the darkness and they would have to wait for sunrise to find their way back. After this I really had had enough of this film star P.H and was happy to hear the good news that he had to leave that evening for Livingston under the pretext that he had a bout of malaria also he said had to get his car ready and finish his packing for a long season in Tanzania. He left me in the with his nephew Sarge as my new P.H. It was decided initially that he would hunt with me thru out the 12 days. this was a blessing in disguise as Sarge is one hell of a nice guy and has a very likeable nature.

The safari hereafter was very enjoyable and we shot a good Black Lechwe, a wonderful Oribi and Tssebee.

Day 8; We shot a very nice mature Sitatunga. We also collected a very good Kafue Lechwe on the Kafue flats and shot a Puku on the ranch, which frankly wasn’t any fun.

But all in all we took all the desired trophies. And that is the reason I thought I would leave the whole experience as it was and be large hearted about it.

We met Mr Chipman at the end of the safari. He billed me $100 for my hotel stay in Lusaka for my hunting days!

This was shocking, unheard and totally unethical. The cost of my hunt was $25,000 including daily rates and trophy fees. By any standards this is not a small amount in 2005. He kept blaming his partner in Lusaka head office for the mismanagement and the confusion. He claimed he was not aware due to their incompetence he had no information on my diet etc… he blamed them for the whole operation being so shoddy.

In the last two years Mr. Chipman has not responded to my emails and through help of various people like Rashid, Mike Borman and local friends I finally got my trophies sent to South Africa after a delay of 2 years. They arrived in South Africa in such a bad condition, further the shipping that should have cost $1,000 cost me $3200 because of wrong packing and labeling on the consignment. (I was so informed in South Africa).

After all this the now I hear from the taxidermist that the crocodile is totally ruined and cannot be salvaged. The Black Lechwe cape is ruined. The puku hooves are ruined too. I’m further shocked to hear that they have not followed skinning instructions that I had specified to Mr. Chipman’s skinners.

Mr. Chipman has sent all the wrong capes as you can see from the taxidermist note. I assume that this Simba and double down has really got to Mr Chipman’s head!

Quote from the taxidermist.“We cannot make your Oribi a full mount as it is skin to be a half mount. Your Lechwe we only received a cape for a shoulder mount and not a half mount, the same with the Sitatunga.”
“The quote I gave you was in 2005; surely you can’t expect me to do it for two years ago’s prices? Your shipment is by far worse the field preparation on any trophies we have ever received and require a lot of extra work, tuck up and additional care. We also have to make some teeth for your crocodile. You have seen your shipment, capes with no salt or very little, severe hair slip on many capes, broken skulls, missing teeth etc.” hunters taxidermist.