I have waited a few months before writing about my trip into Mozambique for multiple reasons. One, we went into full holiday mode and the last 3 months have been a blur, as I am sure everyone can relate. Two, I was not happy when I got home. I had an authentic “old Africa” hunt without question, but I struggled on deciding if that experience was something I was satisfied with. After a few months at home, I have come to terms with the two weeks I spent abroad and am satisfied that my experience was authentic but disappointed in what the future of old Africa appears to be.
We left Atlanta around 7pm on Oct 17 landing in Johannesburg at roughly 5pm on Oct 18. We went to collect our bags and guns, a relatively smooth process with our hired help to submit paperwork ahead of our arrival. We waited there with our driver for a few other hunters to arrive who would also be staying at the same bed and breakfast for the night. They had an early flight the next morning to Namibia, we would be leaving at 4am by truck for the Pafuri border gate to Mozambique.
The drive was uneventful, hundreds of miles on typical highways with toll booths, greasy road trip food, standard stuff. The final few miles of the drive on the South Africa side was through Kruger National Park. This area had been decimated by elephants left unchecked by predators or conservation-based hunting and were limited in their range for food. Almost no wildlife remained in the area due to the deficiency of food.
I have never in my life seen such a contrast as when we left South Africa and entered Mozambique. From concrete road to pothole ridden dirt, from 4 wheel-drive truck to bicycle or from modern building with central AC to cinder block structure with no electricity, the contrast between the two countries was stark. We expected to be harassed, we expected to be prompted for bribes and we expected to be on our way with less beer and less cash than when we entered the country. The process of immigration and importing our rifles went pretty much on schedule although they conveniently found issue with some of our paperwork which resulted in a few more hundred dollars in bribes than planned. From there, we made another 8-hour drive to camp, deep into the Gaza province along the Zimbabwe border.
After 4 hours of sleep we were locked and loaded in the Land Cruiser headed out to track buffalo. Shortly after leaving camp our PH showed us fresh elephant sign all over the north side of camp with fresh tracks, huge piles of dung and trees 12” in diameter broken like twigs. Near camp, a lion would make sure everyone knew he was there every 30 minutes during the night with a deep roar that echoed through the banks of the Save (pronounced like Pave diamond) river. The area had been plagued by drought for the previous few weeks and only a few watering holes remained in the area. We started our tracking at the largest of the remaining sites where we found impala and at least 100 baboons watering at first light. After they scattered, alarmed by our arrival, we set out looking for fresh buffalo tracks in the dry surrounding dirt. Our trackers were unable to locate anything fresh so we moved on to the next spot, and the next, and the next. By the end of day 1, we had not laid eyes on a buffalo, welcome to “old Africa.”
We finished back at camp with a few cold brandy and Cokes. Early to bed was on everyone’s list after nearly 18 hours on the road followed by 4 hours of sleep the 2 nights before. The next morning, we were on the road again by 4am on the lookout for buffalo with a few tracks seen but again nothing to show for it. By day 3 we had figured out all the buffalo in the area were coming in at night to eat and then crossing back to Zimbabwe to water and sleep through the heat. At this point we had seen one day in the 90’s and others 110-115 deg Fahrenheit with forecast showing nothing less than 115 for the next week.
That evening, a PH and I decided to go sit on the largest remaining watering hole to see if an animal on my list might show up at last light. We were quickly surrounded by a giant heard of blue wildebeest, many impalas, and a few other critters but nothing on the list. At last light, I was looking through a bush I had been looking through all evening. This time there was a new branch, the light was so dim, all I could see was a new black line. I moved my head up and down to attempt to see around this new obstruction but had no luck. I could see something large in the distance and thought there might be eland coming to water, a big eland bull was #2 on my list for this trip. About 10 minutes before my issue with this new branch in the bush, an impala was 20 yds in front of me and suddenly became spooked. The wind and sun were in our favor so we knew he was spooking on something else but could not figure out what. As I refocused my attention on this obstruction to my vision, I noticed a new detail. Something moved, it was small but moved quickly, seemingly right in front of my eye. As it began to move again, I figured it out, snake tongue… RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY EYE!!!
Looking into the eyes of over 7 feet of python, as thick as my arm, this guy was an uninvited guest to our hunting party.
Stay tuned for more from this hunt.
Hunt 2 Travel 