Dylan Cloete's African Safaris: November 2010

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Walt & Trisha Lewis - Selous Game Reserve

Walt & Trisha Lewis booked their Tanzanian Safari with Johan Pieterse of South Africa. Johan choose to bring the Lewis' to African Bush Company for a Buffalo hunt in the Selous Game Reserve.

Nice Dagga boy to get the safari going.

The Team: Johan, Trisha, myself and Walt

Another great Warthog to add to the collection for the season.

We spent some hours at this waterhole just checking out what is out and about in the area. We came across lots of different animals. I used this waterhole to great success in the previous safaris.

Zebra at the hole.

The Ellies just loved this water hole. they visited here daily for a refreshing afternoon drink.

I recently made a deal with a good friend. He had an Landcruiser sitting in his yard that needed fixing, and I was paying $150 - $200 per day to hire cruisers in Tanzania. I offered to fix the cruiser, then use it for hunting when I am up here. After many weeks of getting the cruiser hunting ready, the driver, on his way to the Selous, managed to put the cruiser on its side. The damage is mainly cosmetic, but it's heart breaking after so much effort has been put in to get the vehicle ready. I managed to finish the seasons hunts, and now the cruiser is back in dar getting repaired for next years season.

Team Lewis on the Beloved Landcruiser....

Team Lewis patiently waiting for lunch. Trish, I see that loaded rifle there!

Walt & Trisha ready to go hunting.

Walt lines up that Hippo.

And that is what we pulled out the water.

Great Buffalo Bull with some impressive hooks.

Black Mamba; one of my less favoured bush friends....

Monday, November 8, 2010

Tiger Fishing in the Selous Game Reserve

We always try and get a couple of days Tiger fishing in while on Safari. Here are some photo's from this seasons Tiger fishing. I hope to go Tiger fishing with some more of my clients in 2011.

Nice Vundu with Craig McDonald

This is the honey pot where the rivers join.

Not bad for a beginner

Nice Tiger, Craig!

We are getting amonst the fish!

Walt Lewis with a nice Tiger

Fantastic place to catch fish. What a sunset!

Even Trisha gets into the action!

JP with a great Tiger. Look at those teeth!

Now we are cooking.

Another good sized Vundu!

Even JP caught some Catfish!

Walt & JP with some of their catches.

JP with another awesome Tiger!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Craig McDonald - Selous Game Reserve - September

Craig McDonald, out of Midland Texas. A big out door's man. Craig has made a few trip's to Africa and this was his second trip to Tanzania. Elephant was on the top of the list and took some other great trophy's. We hunted in the Selous Game RTeserve with African Bush Company and hunted in U1 & U2. We had a fantastic time!

Bohor Reedbuck

Great old bull

Selous Burchell's. Note that there is no shadow stripe like the Burchell's Zebra of Southern Africa

Another great Buffalo bull

Craig's #1 animal down. Great Elephant Bull!

View from the leopard blind

The Leopard on safari really gave us the run around. At one stage we had 5 leopards feeding on baits, but we decided to wait for the Big Tom on one particular bait. This Tom just never came back, and we then spent many hours, in fact many nights sitting in blinds waiting for Leopards. We saw one leopards, females, lions, and even the odd hyena. Sadly that Big Tom never returned. Just gives Craig something to look forward to for next time.

Craig waiting patiently in the blind. We spent many hours together doing this, just waiting!

We came across this herd of Lichtenstein's Hartebeest, and as they ran off we noticed a really small calf got left behind. It couldn't have been more than a few hours old. We all jumped out, took a look, got some footage and left him on his own, hoping the herd would return for him. Good news is the following day we saw the herd again and he was happily back with his mother and thgis time staying really close to her.