Jambo!
The 2005 safari season is in full swing now and no doubt some of you have been back and forth to Africa twice! My first safari this season took place in Zimbabwe. I hunted fourteen days with Andrew Dawson of Chifuti Safaris in the Zambezi Valley. To date, it is the toughest safari I have embarked on, and the most rewarding as well. I took my usual two cape buffaloes, another gigantic hippo, a nearly 14-foot crocodile, a leopard and many more.
I was joined on this safari for a couple days by noted outdoor writer Craig Boddington. Craig and I have been trying to hunt together for three years, and this season our paths crossed so that we were each in the same country, at the same time. So it couldn`t have worked out better. Craig took a buffalo as well and was with me as I harvested a 31-inch waterbuck and another record-
book kudu.
Let me tell you a thing about Craig. He`s very modest about his accomplishments as a hunter and a writer and I admire him for that, especially in this era of trash-talking know-it-alls and self-promoters. But Craig is an excellent shot, evidenced by Kappie and I first-hand. He rolled a cape buffalo as it was running full speed from right to left. Certainly some of you have done that before. Right? But how many can say you accomplished it with a Rigby double rifle you`d never shot before? More to come in the video due out in the spring of 2006, Zimbabwe`s Perfectly Shot Dangerous Game.
Without a doubt the highlight for me was a 44-inch sable I took! Yes, you read correctly, I said a 44-incher. Those of you who have followed our videos know how much I admire sables and this safari fulfilled all my sable dreams. Not only did I get to see large herds of them, but the hunt for this big one I harvested took six hours. There were tense moments of Andrew re-positioning me, over and over. And then finally I took the shot from 175 yards. Oooooh! I was so pumped. It was the most magnificent animal I had ever knelt beside. More to come in the video due out in the spring of 2006.
Kwaheri for now,
Bwana Moja
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