I was originally scheduled to hunt late September into mid October but an hour after arriving in camp I was informed that my father had passed away and I returned home as quickly as possible.
My hunt was rescheduled for October 25th throught November 9th, the biggest block of time I could muster.
On quota were two tuskless cows and one trophy bull in Chewore South and two tuskless cows and a trophy bull in Makuti plus a leopard in Makuti. Because of time constraints, after success on the bull and one tuskless, we moved from Chewore South to Makuti. We killed two tuskless and an injured tusked cow and the bull in Makuti, but struck out on the leopard. We left him feeding, but we needed a couple more days for the moon rise and set to shift. We sat for him five times but he was coming at moon set which was middle of the night when we first set that bait but moving toward the morning. I also shot a kudu bull for bait and a very nice 2" horned grysbok, which is a real trophy.
PH was Rich Tabor for the whole trip. We stayed at Chifuti Safari's Angwe camp in Chewore South, which has been re-done since Chifuti took over the concession. Chifuti runs a first class operation and the camp was very nice. We stayed at Charlton McCallum Safari's camp in Makuti and it was a nice camp. We had the Angwe camp to ourselves and shared the Makuti camp with a hunter winding up his safari with Myles McCallum and another hunter hunting with Alan Shearing. Good company to share a camp with.
Temps ran from hot but pleasant to intensly hot, but never intolerably hot. We had no thermometer, but I'd guess temps peaked at maybe 115* on the hottest days, humidity was low, making it bearable so long as you kept drinking water and watching you salt and other electrolyte intake. I used one shot Gatoraide packages and kept the cramping at bay.
Congratulations JPK on the eles you got. We are waiting the pictures. I hunted twice out of the Angwa camp and it was great. After tracking 27 bulls all around Chewore South I ended up shooting a 42x40 pounder quite near to that camp. The best ele I saw that time. The buffalo there are certainly bigger than the eles. Myles is a superb PH and I hope to hunt with him soon. Rich hunted with my partner in one of the trips there and he is a very nice guy. I am envious of you hunt and looking forward to the pictures to try to bring back the extraordinary memories I haver from there.
Congrats on Your hunt mate. We almost pulled into Makuti camp but where a little pushed for time and being mid day you probably would have been out hunting anlway. We drove through Makuti on the 27th or the 28th.