We got up in the black this morning. It thundered and kind of showered here all night long. We got up early and drove for an hour in the dark to get to the base of the mountain. We started climbing and then just at first light, glassing as we were climbing, we saw eight Menelik's bushbucks including one real big male. We also saw today five female greater kudu. And we saw the lesser kudu variety, including three males, one of which was really big, and then probably 10 or so females. Lesser kudu are about half the size of the greater kudu, and they're an absolutely beautiful species of antelope.
But nothing was close enough today. It looks like it's going to be a pretty tough hunt. We're going to be working hard to get a crack at any of these species. The Abyssinian greater kudu which is what I'm hunting, there are like five tags a year let out per year, and they are only hunted here in Ethiopia. The tags are hard to get, and so is the animal. Success rates are low, but we're going to do our best and see what happens. We also saw tons of dik-dik's today. On the drive out we (Jason) judged 19 different dik-dik's; we saw probably 100 more and we were looking for one that's over 3 inches (in horn length). It's difficult to say the least trying to judge something that is 3 inches to 3 1/2 inches. The world record is something like 4 inches. I don't know how Jason is even judging them.
Today we saw more cool birds including the corybusters which are the heaviest birds in Africa. These smaller birds called bee-eaters basically ride on the backs of the corybusters as the corybusters fly along low to the ground and kick up grasshoppers, and as they do the bee-eaters catch the grasshoppers. One of the many amazing sights here in this part of Africa ...
The Next Day ...
We went out early again in the dark and climbed like son of a guns up into the mountains. It's just cooking hot; sweating, sweating, sweating! We saw a bunch more bushbucks today. The census counters didn't see any when they were here, but we've seen 15 now in two days including one magnificent male. But I don't have a tag for these bushbucks because the quota is cut back.
We didn't see any Abyssinian kudu today, none. We saw some lesser kudu about 160 yards away, but no males. We came back to camp and there are two new hunters who showed up at our Omo River camp, Greg Gibson from Indiana and his buddy Eric. They had been hunting where we were in the Dati area. They got a hippo and a buffalo there, and their hippo was about only 50 yards from where I got mine! So they're here in camp hunting for everything that we're hunting for basically. It's fun, everything's going good. Jason is doing well. He has good eyes and is spotting all kinds of animals.
We're now up to 52 dik-dik's seen and judged. Today was a 30-plus did-dik day; only one today that was real big, but it got off in the brush too quckly. We're going to keep hunting hard. We've got at least 10 more days to hunt ...
Last night for dinner we had hippo tongue. It was excellent. It was so good we're going to have it again tonight, although technically I was the only one who tried it or ate it.
Got up this morning early and went out for Neumann's hartebeest. We got out there and the very first herd we found this morning took off running. So we watched them go, and then they stopped. So we went after them and got within about 300 yards and saw that there was a great big bull with them. So we skirted along the side of the herd. He ran and then he actually circled back to the herd, but we had cut between them and when he circled back he was within 155 yards. Perfect shot. Huge hartebeest. He'll be world's record for muzzleloader for sure. So everyone was thrilled.
We had our lunch and then all of the local natives carrying AK-47's were everywhere, so we offered them meat in exchange for us being able to videotape them. Then four of their wives showed up. They had lip plates, where they knock out their bottom teeth and then they use these plates and their bottom lip hangs way out and way down. Crazy, wild. They don't look very happy and they work very hard.
Our professional hunter, Jason, wanted me to say hi to his girlfriend who is reading the blog to keep track of us. We're taking good care of him. Jason is an exceptional professional hunter, so it's more like he's taking good care of us.
The Next Day ...
I'm standing out here in the pouring rain and thunder. Drove seven hours today from the Sala camp to the Omo camp across the Omo river. Fantastic place, unbelievable, just like walking into National Geogrpahic. The women are walking around and are just wearing beads and a loin cloth of leather and that's it. The drive was beautiful. We saw dik dik's (the tiny antelope) with the long noses ... they can't be hardly bigger than a rabbit. We're here to hunt Northern Grant's gazelle. We went out this evening when we got to this camp which is absolutely beautiful right on the Omo River. It's spectacular. The glossy starlings are just loud, and there are desert rose bushes blooming everywhere around here ... just spectacular; I never saw a camp so nice. There are beautiful tin roof cabins all along this river.
I had this afternoon and I read and looked over the river. It was beautiful. Also one of the most famous places in Africa to hunt. All of the famous hunters of days gone by have all been through here. Since 1996 Jason and his dad have been the only ones outfitting in this area at all and are the only ones who offer the Northern Grant's gazelle. We saw hundreds and hundreds of them and one really big one, but Jason decided it was too early and we could probably do better. We also saw lesser kudu today and ... the bird life is spectacular. We are having a great time. Jason is an absolute professional; very passionate about his hunting and outfitting. He is the new younger generation of outfitters coming on board. Thank goodness for guys like him ...
Great day today ... we went out early in the pitch black to try to get between the hippos and the water, but they were already in the water, so we went off walking through the swamps looking for buffalo.
We were down a lot of times crawling through on our hands and knees through these tiny little holes, tunnels, through the vegetation. I can't even describe how thick it is, and all of a sudden there was crashing alongside us, so we were a little spooked. We came out and found a herd of buffalo.
We were probably within 180 yards of that herd; four big bulls out off to the side were bedded, but then the wind changed and that entire herd took off. We saw some others in the distance so we sneaked through the swamp again in a different direction. Definitely heebie jeebied right out, spooky stuff, you know they're in there and you can hear them crashing off right beside you, but you can't see anything.
Luckily, nothing came at us, then all of a sudden we were within 80 yards of a herd of maybe 15 buffalo with two big bulls. One started walking by us, and the other two followed, and I nailed the biggest one ... a huge Nile buffalo. We gave him an hour, followed blood about 50 yards into the swamp and found him ... fantastic ... got him out and this evening went out for hippos.
We waited right by the river to try to get some hippos coming out, but none did. Just before dark they did, then all of a sudden there was a bellow from a buffalo as we were walking back. He charged after we had passed, but when the trackers were in line with him behind us. The only thing that saved them was a ditch between them and him. Otherwise he would have killed one of them for sure. We got out of the swamp, and that buffalo followed us all the way around and bluff-charged again. He was limping and probably wounded by a poacher.
We're going to go back in the morning for hippos, but are going to wait til light in case that wounded buffalo is there again.
The Next Day ...
Incredible day today. We got up in the pitch dark, even though we were going to wait until light. We got braver overnight ... Last night it rained a lot. We sneaked down past the crazy buffalo swamp, down to the hippo river ... nothing big where we were, but we saw three that we thought were pretty good farther away.
So we ran all the way around the end of a big swamp and back to the river. The first of the three hippos was not big enough, so we kept sneaking along, looking for the other two. All of a sudden one of them appeared 17 yards away, and he was a giant. He came out, and I shot him ... brain shot ... dead instantly. Fantastic footage, all of it on camera, two cameras.
We started walking out, shaking hands, yeah, talking excitedly and smiling, and all of a sudden the one hippo that we hadn't accounted for came out, and Jason just yelled, "Run!" All of us turned and took off getting out of there, out of the way of the hippo, and then he went right by us where we had been standing. Great footage, scared the heck out of us.
We came back to camp, and the airplane came in and flew us along the Sudanese border to a different area of Ethiopia called the Sala area. Went out this evening and got an oribi antelope. Tomorrow we are after Newman's hartebeest. This is the only place in the world where can hunt them, and there are only 5 tags per year. HOT here, boiling hot. We're staying in tents. Stay tuned for more!
We landed in Addis Ababa and had to go through Khartoum in Sudan, and then on to the Dati area of Ethiopia for our hunt. We went through customs which was easy and everything was excellent and very well organized. This hunt was set up by our Professional, Corey Knowlton again, and we'll be going for hippo, Nile buffalo and other species.
I can hear lions roaring off in the blackness and also spotted hyenas around camp here. We are hunting with Jason Ruossoso, who is from a very well-known family of professional hunters. We went out in the pitch black and saw about 400 hippos everywhere, but none big enough and close enough.
I did spot a big warthog, however, and got him right through the heart with my Nosler solid. And late in the day we caught about a 7-pound catfish with our hands ... we're going to eat it for dinner tonight.
The Next Day ...
Last night in camp there were all kinds of weird sounds. We went out in the morning and started across the swamp and saw a beautiful buffalo, but we couldn't get between him and thick stuff. Then there were six hippos heading for water and we got in range 30 yards away, fantastic footage, just not old enough. We let them go and they hit the water like submarines.
Later in the day we found another Nile buffalo drinking and got within 32 yards. We could have taken him easily, nice bull, but not big enough.
We left the Sindh province and drove back to Karachi with an armed guard escort. The big trucks are way cool, garish covered in reds and yellow paint and pictures all hand done, mirrors and bangles, and extended roofs over the cabs and hood all decorated with folk designs, all of them were like that thousands of trucks on the highways.
We met up with our new guards and a new vehicle, traded and off we went into the province of Baluchistan—the least populated province of Pakistan and a really wild place. The tribal lord there was Prince Butanni, and he lorded over about 5,000 square miles. Very remote and desert with high ranges of flat-topped mesa-type mountains. Really barren of all vegetation but starkly beautiful.
Sindh ibex country ... steep, barren, but in its own way, beautiful.
We arrived three hours after leaving Karachi and met Mr. Butanni, a really nice and soft-spoken man. Hard to believe he held the power in such a vast tribal area. His security guards were about as tough a looking bunch as you will ever see, craggy, wind-blown faces, hard men.
Mr. Butanni offered to take us out to look for Kennion gazelle, so we jumped at it. He drove the open-to-the-elements Toyota Land Cruiser and bumped and weaved our way looking for gazelle. The first one we saw was beauty, but holy moly was it ever small!! One of the smallest species of gazelle in the world, I'd guess.
Long story short, I missed my first shot, and the gazelle was gone, gone, gone!
It was way hot in Pakistan while hunting both the Sindh ibex and Kennion gazelle. And all of us got sick! But we kept hunting and got our animals. I'd definitely go back and hunt there again, as long as the political and terror situation improves. Just since we returned from our trip, it has worsened.
We kept hunting and an hour or so later spotted a male and female feeding through a pass. We got out of the truck and made a long stalk, using the hillside as cover. We crested the pass and looked down and honestly when I saw them, I figured they were 200 yards away, but my Leupold rangefinder said 100! I ranged them again and same answer, so I rested the muzzleloader and touched the trigger, dropping the tiny Pakistani gazelle in its tracks.
It was a stunningly beautiful animal!
By then it was getting near closing time, so we headed back to Mr. Butanni's compound where we ran in to Corey Knowlton and Gregg Bond. Corey set this hunt up for me and is one of the most professional international hunters I know. Greg Bond is a hunter who's taken over 20 species of sheep and 20 species of wild goats, like ibex. World hunter with over 200 species including the great Blanford urial they'd taken that same day.
We had our curry rice and chicken and headed off for bed ... sort of ... some of us started getting issues with their stomachs. Chance Cornett was really ill all night. I was OK, but getting worse by the hour. That said, I was up at 5 a.m. to head up the mountain with Corey for his ibex hunt. In the end we did manage to make it to the top of the mountain, although Corey was barfing his insides out the whole way. He was in rough shape. We found ibex, blew the first stalk and had to walk another two miles over the mountain to cut them off. It was incredible, over 200 billy ibex in that one herd!!! I don't think I've ever seen such an impressive sight.
We got in front of them, by cutting over the mountain while they cut around the mid part and actually got about a 200-yard shot. Corey used my T/C Endeavor and made a great shot considering his condition, and our hunt was over!
It was time to get back to North America.
Won't bore you with details, but we had to drive back to Karachi, fly two hours up to Islamabad, wait nine hours, fly back to Karachi, wait nine hours and then fly 15 hours back to NA to Toronto. Wait six hours and then fly another five and then drive two hours!! I was a bag of dirt by the time we got home and have been sick ever since!!!!!!!!!!
Great hunt, though, I'd go back. Pakistan is a cool hunting destination and Kaiser Kahn and Corey set up a super adventure on short notice!
