July 20, ninth hunting day
As always, we started with the tour of all of our nine baits across a large perimeter. Мale leopards came regularly to have a bite or two at three of them, while females frequented two other baits. Gomez noticed a track of an eland in the sand and decided to take a look at this area. After the regular burning of old grasses, which takes place in late May and early June, fresh green grass had sprouted and there were many offshoots in the bushes and trees burnt on the outside.
After more than two hours of pursuit of two buffaloes we gave up because as the temperature rose, the wind picked up and was shifting its direction. Then we checked the other baits. Before sunset, we made another lion feed using the entire carcass of the sable antelope. It was placed on a tree not far from a dry river in which there was a large pool of relatively clean water. The place was very calm and perfect for hunting if we were lucky enough to encounter a lion.
July 21, our tenth safari day at the Makuti concession in West Mashonaland
It is 7:15, and this is the first bait. We caught a glimpse of a large leopard which looked at us and ran away calmly. Later, the camera showed us that this was a very large female. From 3 o'clock in the morning a very strong wind started blowing. The temperature was already higher and reached 12 degrees Celsius. From 6:30 a.m. we started once again the rather prosaic routine inspections of all lion baits. We had nothing else to do because there was a terribly strong wind blowing. We continued our way and in four more places spotted spoors of leopards and of their visits to our baits. This is our tenth and last bait which we put in last night, and it is sable meat. Immediately a huge leopard arrived whose spoor we saw in the river. It ate as much as it could and we will see in a moment the photos that the camera has managed to capture. Unfortunately, there was no chance of getting a second leopard licence during this safari season in our concession.
The buffaloes had exited our area and probably because of them the lions were absent. Some 300 metres from the camp we noticed our old acquaintance Dagga Boy who lives in our area and drinks water in the evening from a small pond with clear water 50 metres from my tent. Gomez said that we should not touch this buffalo for now and should only hunt it as a last resort in case we are short of meat for the lions.
Mana Pools occupies 219,600 hectares, and represents a wildlife conservation area and a National Park in northern Zimbabwe. This is a region along the lower course of the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe where the floodplain turns into a wide expanse of lakes every other rainy season. The area around the Zambezi River, as well as Victoria Falls, were discovered by the great British traveller David Livingstone who together with the local natives decided to take a trip along the river hoping that it would prove to be God's main route along which he would discover Central Africa.
He was the first Westerner to undertake such a journey. He later said about his trip that “sights such as these must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight”. Today, while we were touring our classic baits, we registered the same night visits of three female and three male leopards. I am sure that with our generous baits of nearly 2 tonnes of meat, we have so far saved the lives of dozens of duikers and warthogs.
Our leopards had a wonderful opportunity to dine peacefully and lavishly with the meat of a hippopotamus, two zebras and a sable. My friend and I are dreaming of a possible encounter with buffaloes tomorrow and maybe a few days later – with a lion. What else does a hunter need to be happy and content after an 18-day safari, huh?
For a long time, we watched the area near our camp from the high hill next to it. Unfortunately, we did not see the two large buffaloes which usually grazed here and drank water late at night. We returned home after sunset.
July 23, twelfth hunting day
Today we only noticed the visit of four different leopards at the baits placed by us a long time ago. In the afternoon there were no special events and encounters with many animals, apart from duikers. Later in the camp, I filmed the little chameleon before letting it climb the old tree next to our canteen.
July 24, Day 13 of our safari
In the morning, along the large pond with relatively clean water, we found the fresh tracks of 4-5 lionesses. They had drunk water and had not scented our bait which was only 200 metres away. Maybe they went back to a victim they had killed somewhere nearby and were not much interested in an old carcass. However, a large male leopard and several hyenas feasted on it again.
Thirteenth hunting day
For the first time we see spoors of a lion. In my opinion, it is not alone. They have come here to the water; there is a bait 100 metres away, but they have not sensed it and have withdrawn in this direction. Now I will go back to the professional hunter to find out what tactics we should take. Are we going to make a new bait or shall we drag the carrion here? The important thing is that they have been here. These are only female spoors. Then at about 9 o'clock we approached an old dried-up dam which had a large puddle of water on the left side. A lioness appeared in front of our jeep, looked at us serenely, and moved to the left towards the water. There was an even bigger lioness 100 metres away which was also climbing the slope slowly.
This is the second bait we are checking today. There were also two lionesses which came and ate a lot of the meat and withdrew in the morning in front of us. The boys removed some of the baits and added more meat only to baits with spoors from lionesses. At 3:30 p.m. we are again on our way to the place of the brave lionesses. They were not late to come over to the delicious and rotting meat.
During the night, a leopard came to this bait, climbed the small tree where the camera was hung and opened it. It couldn't damage it, but it couldn't film anything afterwards. It is the fourteenth day of our safari in Makuti. The day of the buffalo! We left a half-eaten hippopotamus leg next to the old bait and lowered the two zebra legs placed here 12 days ago.
Within minutes, the two lionesses came closer and lay down not far from us in the high grasses. I managed to take some nice footage of the proud strong animals that knew their strength and superiority and were not impressed by us. Velichko took the rifle in his hands to guard the two boys who were busy around the tree with the old bait.
At 10 o'clock we found the tracks of two lonely buffaloes – Dagga Boy. We walked along their winding paths for more than three and a half hours. Then at 5 p.m. we found the tracks of the two males again. They had left fresh tracks on the road and Gomez decided to follow them immediately despite the approaching sunset. The tracks were very fresh and only 30 minutes later we saw the two grazing animals. The wind was not favourable for us, so we made a big detour to the right of the buffaloes.
We stalked them very quietly and carefully and Gomez placed the shooting stand showing which of the buffaloes to shoot at. Velichko did not wait long and sent an accurate bullet at 150 metres. The animal reacted and ran to the left. Maybe it was hit in the heart and could run for no more than 50 metres.
The other buffalo looked at its brother and slightly moved away up the slope. In the morning at 10 o'clock we detected two buffalo tracks and followed them. We chased them for up to two hours and they started going round in some high grasses. Then they sensed us and disappeared.
We decided to check the rest of the baits and return in the afternoon, and so we did. We got here around 4:30 p.m. We found the tracks again and followed them. Some 250-300 metres further I saw that it was a buffalo.
“I am glad that I achieved my second goal. I had three cherished trophies: a leopard, a buffalo and a lion. Now only the lion is left.” - The Hunter
We took pictures with the excellent trophy of this old buffalo. Its horns were certainly about 40 inches. The hunter's joy was really great because today he enjoyed a real pursuit that took us nearly five hours.