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To me what is important is not that you are called to Africa but that you answer. So after three years since we last took the children to South Africa and four years since we were last in Zimbabwe, it was time to go back and smell the smoke from the Mopane fire once again.

We booked again (of course) with Richard Cooke, and we flew South African again but this time on the morning flight from JFK in New York. When flying to Vic Falls, if you leave on the evening flight from Dulles then you are going to spend the night in Johannesburg because there is no connector after you arrive until the next day, (which we did last time staying at Afton), but if you leave on the morning flight then you can catch the connector to Victoria Falls, and you don't have to fool with South African customs or importing your rifles for one day etc.

Five trips on South African, five trips in the exit row!

When we landed in Vic Falls, Richard's wife Belinda met us at the airport since he was already at the camp. We got through customs in about 20 minutes, then we were back out to the ramp and on our way.

I got some stick time in the 206. We flew to Chirisa and then drove to Sengwa camp.

On the way we stopped for refreshments. This is my first on in-country in four years.

The Sengwa camp has a house that was built some time in the past when it was a pure research area. It was interesting to think about how many people have passed through here, whether they be hunters, tourists, writers, pilots, or researchers, all with their own personal love affair with Africa. The fire pit on the patio overlooked the gorge, but most nights were so cold that we enjoyed the fire place inside the house.

This is the view from the patio.

There is always hot water.

We started every day early so that we could be out of camp before sunrise. Like last time, Richard and I have a commitment that we only hunt dugga boys, which is hard work but well worth it, and this time we were looking for the oldest one we could find. On the second day, we tracked one up and got to within about 15 yards from where he was laying down in some thick cover, head up and alert, watching the valley that he had come up, but since his path had j-hooked before he lay down, we came up behind him with a favorable wind. He was a nice bull, but not a shooter on day two.

View of the Sengwa from the top of a hill.

Palm trees near the river.

Sunset through the umbrella thorn trees.

Covis River where we walked up one morning from where it comes into the Sengwa. We walked up on one croc who scurried back down into his hole at the end of a gully, and found another one about a mile further down. The high rocks on either side while beautiful, made us nervous about walking up on a buffalo or elephant, but we didn't find anything except the skull of a long dead bull over forty inches wide,

and the next day we found this one.

Richard and I both carried Krieghoff doubles. Mine on the left is a .470 while his is a .500, both manufactured in 2002.

Richard and Muzi with a pangolin we found one evening

One day we were stalking up three bulls, and suddenly I couldn't understand why Richard was pointing up in a tree, but he had spotted a Genet in the middle of the day, and we managed to get some pictures of him before he jumped to the ground and ran off.

There was one group of four that we followed for three days. and we got up to them a few times, but they always either managed to hear us or wind us or see us. I got one view of them as they stared back before they ran off. It was hard to move silently in the dry scrub, and the thorns and combretum and mopane scratched us up pretty badly. There was one track that dwarfed the others, and while big tracks doesn't necessarily mean big horns, we really wanted to get a good look at this bull, but after three days of cat and mouse, we moved to another area to give these guys a rest.

Sometimes you are lucky if you get a look like this, much less if they hold still long enough to take a photo. We saw this bull on day one.

We tracked and walked, and walked and tracked for seven days, and then we walked and tracked some more.

At the end of the days it was always nice to see the truck. I tracked us with my GPS every day, and we averaged about 8 miles a day, with the longest day being over 11.

On day 8, in we found five bulls, and they split into two groups. First we followed the three, but they went into the really thick thorn scrub, and we heard them run from about 20 yards away. We were that close but we had never even seen them because it was so thick. So we went back and walked up on the two, and got within about 10 yards of them laying down. We could have shot both, but while old they really weren't what we were looking for, and I got them on video as we shuffled our feet to get them to stand up. So then Richard had the great idea to go back and find the first three, which we did, and as we moved though some cathedral mopane I spotted them, head down and in the open, about 50 yards in front of us.

We got a good look at them, and as this one turned to face us, I shot him in the chest. As they ran to the right I swung and fired again, and the click of the misfire caught me completely unaware. I looked at Richard and he put one in him from his .500, and he went down about 20 yards later.

Not as classically shaped as my last bull, but very old, with big nearly smooth bosses, and worn down tips.

This is Muzi with him at the skinning shed on the day we left.

Alicia with Stephen the chef on the night we cooked the francolin and grouse that we had shot.

Me and Richard with Servius the game scout on the day we left.

When we left we drove to Victoria Falls where we stayed for a few days. If you go to Zimbabwe you need to see it from the air and from the road.

While we were in Vic Falls Richard took me fishing on the Zambezi. We went up the eye of the needle in the morning, at one point bumping a hippo, and in the afternoon we went down and fished above the falls. The sign warns beware of crocs, but we saw more hippos than anything else.

Not a big Tiger Fish, but bigger than the one I caught in 2008!

Overexposed but I love this picture anyway.

Zambezi on the Zambezi!

The next day we went to Zambia so that we could go out to the falls and have lunch on Livingstone Island. If you think that the Victoria Falls Hotel is beautiful (and it is) then you should see the Livingstone on the Zambian Side.

When they say they will take you to the edge of the falls, they really mean it,

and they set a great table for lunch,

complete with wildlife.

The next day we went to Botswana to tour Chobe National Park. We went up the river on a boat, then drove back down in a Landcruiser.

Five trips to Africa before I saw my first wild lion,

and my first Lechwe.

and then home until the next time.

Richard does a great job. He is an independent PH, which means if you book with him you are going to hunt with him, which also means that you can spend some time in Dallas face to face discussing details, and later, when you are in Africa, you won't have to worry about any confusion or misunderstandings due to information transfer long after you have paid some third party.

For me the importance is in the entire experience as a whole, which means the animals and the birds and the sounds and the wine and the beer and the mopane, but also how we hunt is a big part of it, on the ground, tracking truly wild animals, and no fences. The way we talk about the golden age of hunting at the end of the 1800's is how they will talk about us one day. If you are thinking about it, my advice would be to hurry up and do it. The few places like Sengwa and others that make up what little is left of truly wild Africa won't last forever.