Post by adkman on Oct 17, 2010 9:11:14 GMT -5
Hunting in the Limpopo area with Matlabas Lodge
Our second trip to the NYB Convention last year proved to be one that we will remember for a very long time. It was at the dinner that I was setting at a table with some friends, Mike Savage, Kathy Tessier, Pinky Ryder and his wife when I heard the auctioneer say "She is going to Africa for $1000. I looked at Mike and asked, "Who won that trip?" Mike started to laugh and pointed across the table at my wife Patty. My response was,
"You got to be kidding me."
The next thing you know, we are making plans and asking questions. Because some other members of NYB have also taken this hunt, we found it easy to get information, as well as great responses from Matlabas Lodge. Mike and Kathy both told us that we would love the area and that Willem was a real gentleman, which he was.
Next thing you know, it's September 3rd and we are finally getting on board our flight to New York City to catch out connecting flight to Africa. Wait!!! The plane has a malfunction, and is being called back to the terminal. At that point I thought that this was an omen as to what we were in for. After redoing our reservations, canceling our transportation from LaGuardia to JFK, contacting Matlabas Lodge to tell them we were going to be 12 hours late, we finally take off.
The first leg wasn't to bad. Albany to Washington DC was just a short 1 1/2 hours. Then we boarded a South African Air Line to Johannesburg. The next 16 hours seemed like they would never end. Now it's clear customs, find our luggage, and try to locate out bows.
Our hostess, Lorraine Frost, met us at the Airport and suggested that we stay in the hotel that night, because it was so late and another 3 hours to Matlabas. I was more then happy to agree with her, Anything but setting down.
The next morning, bright and early, Lorraine met us and off to Matlabas. Along the way we saw many things that were very different to us. One of the hardest things I found to get used to, was that they drive on the wrong side of the road.
Upon getting to Matlabas, we were met by Willem, and Fillipie Frost. They showed us to our room and offered to let us get freshened up a little before lunch. WARNING!!!! Lorraine's cooking can be very hazardous to your health. Each and every meal she fixed for us was just amazing. It was so good that you actually needed to force yourself to leave the table. Everything from Impala pot pie to Wart hog sausage. It didn't take long to figure out that when Fillipie said "It's ok or not that good" that it as going to be something special.
From there, we went out to the practice range to check our equipment and do some fine tuning. A few minor adjustments to the sights and off we go.
My first stop was at Buffalo blind. I thought "Why is it called Buffalo blind?' The wife was to find out a little later in the hunt. I wasn't in the blind 10 minutes when the first animal came out. A nice kudo. As it turned out, it didn't cooperate, and I didn't get the shot. A few minutes later out comes a nice Warthog. Seen that it was so early in our hunt I decided to pass on it and look for something else.
Upon getting back to the Lodge, and asking Patty what she had seen I was surprised to hear that she had seen hogs, kudo, and several mongoose. No shooting for her either, except for the camera.
It's up early the next morning for the first cup of good coffee that I had had in almost a week. Breakfast!! Toast, oatmeal, fresh fruit, juice and assortment of muffins. After breakfast it's off to the blinds again. Fillipie asked if I wanted him to come with myself or go with Patty. I asked him to go with her and give her some pointers on what to look for in a good mature animal. She has a great idea on whitetail's down here?
As I sat in my blind I wondered what it would be like to harvest an animal that was bigger then anything I had ever harvested in my 50 years of hunting. It didn't take long for me to see. About 9 AM I seen some movement in the wooded area to my right. What was it going to be? After another 5 minutes passed out into the open steps this beautiful water buck. He wandered around out at about 50 yards looking at the blind and trying to see movement inside. I sat frozen and watched for my moment. To my surprise he turned and walked up to the water hole and offered a perfect broadside shot. By now the heart is going into overtime, sweat is pouring down the forehead (and it wasn't because of the temps). Stop, Take a deep breath and squeeze the release. Perfect shot at 18 yards. I was so excited that I almost forgot to call Fillipie to let him know I shot the water buck. After a short wait Fillipie showed up and asked the details of the shot etc. We started tracking the animal or should I say Fillipie tracked and I followed. There were so many tracks I don't know how they keep them seperate, but he did. About 75 yards later here he was. A beautiful Waterbuck.
Now how do we get this thing out. Just 2 of us and lots of bushes with thorns to go through. To my amazement Fillie said "wait here and I will get the truck." Next thing you know here he comes right into the brush with the truck. Distance to drag 8 feet at the most. I couldn't wait to show Patty.
Once we got the Waterbuck back to camp the skinners got right to work capping it out for mounting and butchering the meat. I watched in amazement at the skill and patients of these people. While one dressed out the carcus the other spent his time skinning around the head.
A little later we went back to the same blind hoping to get a shot at a Duiker. About half way through it the radio came alive and Patty was saying something about a warthog. She gets really excited when she shoots something and I knew that there would be a dead hog somewhere near by. Upon getting the trackers we proceeded to her blind. She showed the trackers and Fillippie where she took the shot and where she had last seen the animal. After some intense tracking due to the troop of velvet monkies coming into the area we found her warthog. The rest of the day was spent riding around and looking in awe at all the differant animals of the Bushveldt.
The next morning it was cloudy and cool to their standards and animal movement was slow, however on the trip to the blinds we saw lots of animals. Fillipie informed us that things are starting to green up and the animals can get enough moisture from the plants that they eat that they don't always have to come into the waterholes.
Around noon the clouds went away and it started to get really warm. Temps in the upper 90f area and no wind. I decided to stay with Patty and Fillipie and go to her blind and watch her shoot something. At about 5 PM things started to move. Lots of female Kudu's comming in, female warthogs with young, imature Gemsboks etc. It wasn't long after that that we spoted some blue wilderbeast and mature Gemsboks milling around the outer area of our watch. I told Patty to get ready to pick out the animal she wanted but she decided to not shoot any of these animals because she had her list of what she really wanted. Upon taking a close look at the wildebeast I spotted one that looked like a decent animal. Our PH Fillipie was also looking at the 25 plus animals that were comming in and pointed at the same one I had picked out, He wispered to me "that one is really a nice one." As the animals milled around the water hole the one I had picked wedged his way in amoungst some immature ones and stayed hidden from my shot for some time. Eventually the young moved off one at a time and there he was, broad side at 20 yards. I put my 20 yard pin just behind his front shoulder and touched it off. Another perfect shot. Being the time of day and seeing cheetah tracks in the roads every day, we decided to wait until the next morning and go after the wilderbeast. All kinds of thoughts passed through my head most of the night. What if the preditors got to it before we did the next morning. Surly it would be a shame to loose such a magnificent animal to them.
Morning seemed like it would never get here, but as the sun finally peaked over the horizon, we were off to find my animal. Willem stopped and got our trackers, and was already on the spot just before we arrived. Shortly there after we were standing over one of the nicest wildebeest I have seen.
The afternoon for me was pretty uneventful. Probably because I was napping on and off most of the afternoon to catch up on some of the sleep that I didn't get the night before. Patty had seen many female Kudus and some warthogs with young and didn't want to shoot anything with young.
Back at the Lodge Lorraine was busy fixing dinner while Willem and Fillippie watch what they called a real sport. You guessed it. Rugby. After short education on just what was going on we all had a laugh and decided that it was a rough sport.
The next morning I shot my 3rd animal. A nice Impala. I watched it for almost an hour before it finally offered me a shot. A call to Fillipie on the radio and off we were tracking once again. A short while later and there it was. We picked it up after some photo's and headed off to pick up Patty and have some lunch. That afternoon proved to be really interesting for Patty. Fillippie and Patty went off to Buffalo blind where I had seen a beautiful Kudu the first day. I had told Fillippie that I would like her to shoot something really nice.
They were in the blind and evening was creeping in. All of a sudden they hear this grunt and a strange look came accross Fillippie's face. He picked up his video camera and pointed it around the cornor of the blind. A very large Cape Buffalo was standing a short way from the blind. Patty had no desire to even attempt to shoot this monster but watched it for a short while. As darkness started to fall Fillippie decided that it would be wise to scare it off in order for the two of them to walk back to the truck. As he stepped out of the blind and started yelling at the buffalo to go it pawed the ground, snorted, and make several half harted charges. After several minuted Fillippie decided to grab his flash light and use it to try and scare him away. No luck. All that did is make the buffalo even madder. Patty later told me she kept saying to herself" I wish he would stop teasing it." Now things were getting serious as far as she was concerned. Fillippie came back into the blind and called Willem on the radio and explained the situation to him. A short time later Willem showed up with the trackers and the other truck and finally chased the Buffalo off. Back at the Lodge we had a laugh of the evening's activities.
By now I really wanted to spend some time with Patty and watch her harvest an animal. So the next morning was spent at one of the blinds with her. I guess I must have been a jinx. Not much activity all day. Willem contributed it to cooler temps and strong winds that couldn't make up it's mind what way it wanted to blow from.
Fillippie took me back out to Duiker blind early the next morning. The Duiker was one of the animals we both wanted badly. The morning passed for me with very little action once again. When I was picked up for lunch, I asked Fillippie how Patty's morning had gone and his response was " it wasn't anything special. As I got into the truck I could tell that there was something very differant. I asked Patty what she had seen and all she said was "check my arrows in the quiver." I had placed one of her arrows in the quiver the day before that had fluoresant pink feathers and noticed that one was bright red with blood. My first question was "what did you shoot?" As she went to answer I detected a slight crackling in her voice which indicates that it was something nice. When she gets excited that is what happens. She told me it was a Kudu. I knew that there were a few nice Kudo's at the blind where Fillippie and she was setting. As we traveled back to the lodge she told us the story of her shot over and over again. I asked "just how big is it anyway?" Fillippie responded "It's extremely nice." Once we got back to the Lodge I decided to go over and take a look at her animal. It surely was a nice one. Upon measuring the horns we discovered that one was 49 3/8" and the other was just shy of 50".
As our time there started to get shorter and shorter we realized just how lucky we were to have the opportunity to be able to go on such a trip and end up with such wonderful host.
Now it's the last day of our hunt. I have 3 animals and Patty has 2. We had already decided to put on an addition to our house for our trophies and my words to Patty were "I would like another animal to match one of the ones we already have for each side of the door. Shoot something we already have and make a pair.
The morning was rather cool. Fillippie stayed in the blind with me with his fleece zipped up to his chin. I noticed that he looked a little cold and I am sure that me setting in the blind in a t-shirt and shorts didn't help his cause. The temp there was about 60f and to us northern New Yorkers that is summer. Not much in the morning but after lunch the temps really warmed up. I watched several Bles bucks out at about 75 yards and some female Kudos just feeding around and I thought "The trees and grass sure got a lot greener in the short time we were there and there wasn't any rain." As the afternoon passed without any action at my blind I kind of given up on getting another animal to match the ones we already had. All in all it was a very successful hunt and definately a lot of fun. All of a sudden at 5:10 PM Fillippie reached over and picked up the radio. I looked at him couriously because I hadn't heard anything. He turned up the volum and I heard a famillar voice on the other end. Yes it was Patty. The radio signal was kind of broken and hard to understand but we did hear wilder beast. Off we go to Patty;s blind. Upon getting there Patty told us about a group of wilder beast that had come in and she got a good shot off at one. Being that it was getting late and being our last night hunting I was anxious to recover the animal if we could. Here we go off on the track with Patty following. We were so intent on following the tracks we passed within 5" of a Duiker that was standing by a bush and didn't even see it until Patty said "Look!" After a short 30 minute tracking job we found her animal. What a way to end the day and our hunt.
Patty was using a Mathews FX set at 38lb draw, with Bass Pro Shop Arrows and 100 gr Razorbaks
I was using a Mathews Q2 set at 50 lb draw with Carbon Express arrows and 125gr Razorbaks
One of the things I tell every person that comes into my Sportsman Education class is that "It's not speed or heavy poundage bows that kill your animal it's shot placement." I guess this proves my point.
Patty and I would like to thank our host Willem, Louraine, and Fillippie Frost for providing us with the true Hunt of a Lifetime. We would also like to thank New York Bowhunters for accquiring such a great sponsor of our annual Banquette.
Our second trip to the NYB Convention last year proved to be one that we will remember for a very long time. It was at the dinner that I was setting at a table with some friends, Mike Savage, Kathy Tessier, Pinky Ryder and his wife when I heard the auctioneer say "She is going to Africa for $1000. I looked at Mike and asked, "Who won that trip?" Mike started to laugh and pointed across the table at my wife Patty. My response was,
"You got to be kidding me."
The next thing you know, we are making plans and asking questions. Because some other members of NYB have also taken this hunt, we found it easy to get information, as well as great responses from Matlabas Lodge. Mike and Kathy both told us that we would love the area and that Willem was a real gentleman, which he was.
Next thing you know, it's September 3rd and we are finally getting on board our flight to New York City to catch out connecting flight to Africa. Wait!!! The plane has a malfunction, and is being called back to the terminal. At that point I thought that this was an omen as to what we were in for. After redoing our reservations, canceling our transportation from LaGuardia to JFK, contacting Matlabas Lodge to tell them we were going to be 12 hours late, we finally take off.
The first leg wasn't to bad. Albany to Washington DC was just a short 1 1/2 hours. Then we boarded a South African Air Line to Johannesburg. The next 16 hours seemed like they would never end. Now it's clear customs, find our luggage, and try to locate out bows.
Our hostess, Lorraine Frost, met us at the Airport and suggested that we stay in the hotel that night, because it was so late and another 3 hours to Matlabas. I was more then happy to agree with her, Anything but setting down.
The next morning, bright and early, Lorraine met us and off to Matlabas. Along the way we saw many things that were very different to us. One of the hardest things I found to get used to, was that they drive on the wrong side of the road.
Upon getting to Matlabas, we were met by Willem, and Fillipie Frost. They showed us to our room and offered to let us get freshened up a little before lunch. WARNING!!!! Lorraine's cooking can be very hazardous to your health. Each and every meal she fixed for us was just amazing. It was so good that you actually needed to force yourself to leave the table. Everything from Impala pot pie to Wart hog sausage. It didn't take long to figure out that when Fillipie said "It's ok or not that good" that it as going to be something special.
From there, we went out to the practice range to check our equipment and do some fine tuning. A few minor adjustments to the sights and off we go.
My first stop was at Buffalo blind. I thought "Why is it called Buffalo blind?' The wife was to find out a little later in the hunt. I wasn't in the blind 10 minutes when the first animal came out. A nice kudo. As it turned out, it didn't cooperate, and I didn't get the shot. A few minutes later out comes a nice Warthog. Seen that it was so early in our hunt I decided to pass on it and look for something else.
Upon getting back to the Lodge, and asking Patty what she had seen I was surprised to hear that she had seen hogs, kudo, and several mongoose. No shooting for her either, except for the camera.
It's up early the next morning for the first cup of good coffee that I had had in almost a week. Breakfast!! Toast, oatmeal, fresh fruit, juice and assortment of muffins. After breakfast it's off to the blinds again. Fillipie asked if I wanted him to come with myself or go with Patty. I asked him to go with her and give her some pointers on what to look for in a good mature animal. She has a great idea on whitetail's down here?
As I sat in my blind I wondered what it would be like to harvest an animal that was bigger then anything I had ever harvested in my 50 years of hunting. It didn't take long for me to see. About 9 AM I seen some movement in the wooded area to my right. What was it going to be? After another 5 minutes passed out into the open steps this beautiful water buck. He wandered around out at about 50 yards looking at the blind and trying to see movement inside. I sat frozen and watched for my moment. To my surprise he turned and walked up to the water hole and offered a perfect broadside shot. By now the heart is going into overtime, sweat is pouring down the forehead (and it wasn't because of the temps). Stop, Take a deep breath and squeeze the release. Perfect shot at 18 yards. I was so excited that I almost forgot to call Fillipie to let him know I shot the water buck. After a short wait Fillipie showed up and asked the details of the shot etc. We started tracking the animal or should I say Fillipie tracked and I followed. There were so many tracks I don't know how they keep them seperate, but he did. About 75 yards later here he was. A beautiful Waterbuck.
Now how do we get this thing out. Just 2 of us and lots of bushes with thorns to go through. To my amazement Fillie said "wait here and I will get the truck." Next thing you know here he comes right into the brush with the truck. Distance to drag 8 feet at the most. I couldn't wait to show Patty.
Once we got the Waterbuck back to camp the skinners got right to work capping it out for mounting and butchering the meat. I watched in amazement at the skill and patients of these people. While one dressed out the carcus the other spent his time skinning around the head.
A little later we went back to the same blind hoping to get a shot at a Duiker. About half way through it the radio came alive and Patty was saying something about a warthog. She gets really excited when she shoots something and I knew that there would be a dead hog somewhere near by. Upon getting the trackers we proceeded to her blind. She showed the trackers and Fillippie where she took the shot and where she had last seen the animal. After some intense tracking due to the troop of velvet monkies coming into the area we found her warthog. The rest of the day was spent riding around and looking in awe at all the differant animals of the Bushveldt.
The next morning it was cloudy and cool to their standards and animal movement was slow, however on the trip to the blinds we saw lots of animals. Fillipie informed us that things are starting to green up and the animals can get enough moisture from the plants that they eat that they don't always have to come into the waterholes.
Around noon the clouds went away and it started to get really warm. Temps in the upper 90f area and no wind. I decided to stay with Patty and Fillipie and go to her blind and watch her shoot something. At about 5 PM things started to move. Lots of female Kudu's comming in, female warthogs with young, imature Gemsboks etc. It wasn't long after that that we spoted some blue wilderbeast and mature Gemsboks milling around the outer area of our watch. I told Patty to get ready to pick out the animal she wanted but she decided to not shoot any of these animals because she had her list of what she really wanted. Upon taking a close look at the wildebeast I spotted one that looked like a decent animal. Our PH Fillipie was also looking at the 25 plus animals that were comming in and pointed at the same one I had picked out, He wispered to me "that one is really a nice one." As the animals milled around the water hole the one I had picked wedged his way in amoungst some immature ones and stayed hidden from my shot for some time. Eventually the young moved off one at a time and there he was, broad side at 20 yards. I put my 20 yard pin just behind his front shoulder and touched it off. Another perfect shot. Being the time of day and seeing cheetah tracks in the roads every day, we decided to wait until the next morning and go after the wilderbeast. All kinds of thoughts passed through my head most of the night. What if the preditors got to it before we did the next morning. Surly it would be a shame to loose such a magnificent animal to them.
Morning seemed like it would never get here, but as the sun finally peaked over the horizon, we were off to find my animal. Willem stopped and got our trackers, and was already on the spot just before we arrived. Shortly there after we were standing over one of the nicest wildebeest I have seen.
The afternoon for me was pretty uneventful. Probably because I was napping on and off most of the afternoon to catch up on some of the sleep that I didn't get the night before. Patty had seen many female Kudus and some warthogs with young and didn't want to shoot anything with young.
Back at the Lodge Lorraine was busy fixing dinner while Willem and Fillippie watch what they called a real sport. You guessed it. Rugby. After short education on just what was going on we all had a laugh and decided that it was a rough sport.
The next morning I shot my 3rd animal. A nice Impala. I watched it for almost an hour before it finally offered me a shot. A call to Fillipie on the radio and off we were tracking once again. A short while later and there it was. We picked it up after some photo's and headed off to pick up Patty and have some lunch. That afternoon proved to be really interesting for Patty. Fillippie and Patty went off to Buffalo blind where I had seen a beautiful Kudu the first day. I had told Fillippie that I would like her to shoot something really nice.
They were in the blind and evening was creeping in. All of a sudden they hear this grunt and a strange look came accross Fillippie's face. He picked up his video camera and pointed it around the cornor of the blind. A very large Cape Buffalo was standing a short way from the blind. Patty had no desire to even attempt to shoot this monster but watched it for a short while. As darkness started to fall Fillippie decided that it would be wise to scare it off in order for the two of them to walk back to the truck. As he stepped out of the blind and started yelling at the buffalo to go it pawed the ground, snorted, and make several half harted charges. After several minuted Fillippie decided to grab his flash light and use it to try and scare him away. No luck. All that did is make the buffalo even madder. Patty later told me she kept saying to herself" I wish he would stop teasing it." Now things were getting serious as far as she was concerned. Fillippie came back into the blind and called Willem on the radio and explained the situation to him. A short time later Willem showed up with the trackers and the other truck and finally chased the Buffalo off. Back at the Lodge we had a laugh of the evening's activities.
By now I really wanted to spend some time with Patty and watch her harvest an animal. So the next morning was spent at one of the blinds with her. I guess I must have been a jinx. Not much activity all day. Willem contributed it to cooler temps and strong winds that couldn't make up it's mind what way it wanted to blow from.
Fillippie took me back out to Duiker blind early the next morning. The Duiker was one of the animals we both wanted badly. The morning passed for me with very little action once again. When I was picked up for lunch, I asked Fillippie how Patty's morning had gone and his response was " it wasn't anything special. As I got into the truck I could tell that there was something very differant. I asked Patty what she had seen and all she said was "check my arrows in the quiver." I had placed one of her arrows in the quiver the day before that had fluoresant pink feathers and noticed that one was bright red with blood. My first question was "what did you shoot?" As she went to answer I detected a slight crackling in her voice which indicates that it was something nice. When she gets excited that is what happens. She told me it was a Kudu. I knew that there were a few nice Kudo's at the blind where Fillippie and she was setting. As we traveled back to the lodge she told us the story of her shot over and over again. I asked "just how big is it anyway?" Fillippie responded "It's extremely nice." Once we got back to the Lodge I decided to go over and take a look at her animal. It surely was a nice one. Upon measuring the horns we discovered that one was 49 3/8" and the other was just shy of 50".
As our time there started to get shorter and shorter we realized just how lucky we were to have the opportunity to be able to go on such a trip and end up with such wonderful host.
Now it's the last day of our hunt. I have 3 animals and Patty has 2. We had already decided to put on an addition to our house for our trophies and my words to Patty were "I would like another animal to match one of the ones we already have for each side of the door. Shoot something we already have and make a pair.
The morning was rather cool. Fillippie stayed in the blind with me with his fleece zipped up to his chin. I noticed that he looked a little cold and I am sure that me setting in the blind in a t-shirt and shorts didn't help his cause. The temp there was about 60f and to us northern New Yorkers that is summer. Not much in the morning but after lunch the temps really warmed up. I watched several Bles bucks out at about 75 yards and some female Kudos just feeding around and I thought "The trees and grass sure got a lot greener in the short time we were there and there wasn't any rain." As the afternoon passed without any action at my blind I kind of given up on getting another animal to match the ones we already had. All in all it was a very successful hunt and definately a lot of fun. All of a sudden at 5:10 PM Fillippie reached over and picked up the radio. I looked at him couriously because I hadn't heard anything. He turned up the volum and I heard a famillar voice on the other end. Yes it was Patty. The radio signal was kind of broken and hard to understand but we did hear wilder beast. Off we go to Patty;s blind. Upon getting there Patty told us about a group of wilder beast that had come in and she got a good shot off at one. Being that it was getting late and being our last night hunting I was anxious to recover the animal if we could. Here we go off on the track with Patty following. We were so intent on following the tracks we passed within 5" of a Duiker that was standing by a bush and didn't even see it until Patty said "Look!" After a short 30 minute tracking job we found her animal. What a way to end the day and our hunt.
Patty was using a Mathews FX set at 38lb draw, with Bass Pro Shop Arrows and 100 gr Razorbaks
I was using a Mathews Q2 set at 50 lb draw with Carbon Express arrows and 125gr Razorbaks
One of the things I tell every person that comes into my Sportsman Education class is that "It's not speed or heavy poundage bows that kill your animal it's shot placement." I guess this proves my point.
Patty and I would like to thank our host Willem, Louraine, and Fillippie Frost for providing us with the true Hunt of a Lifetime. We would also like to thank New York Bowhunters for accquiring such a great sponsor of our annual Banquette.
