One Heck Of A Ride

125 Fabled Land Of The Maasai Long necks on southern gerenuk have led to them also being called “giraffe gazelle.” This ram was the first animal author took in Tanzania in 2005. removing his eyes from his binocular. “You probably should take him.” I didn’t hesitate. I loaded my .30-.378 and Charlie and I left the Land Cruiser with one of the trackers and began the stalk. This ram didn’t come easy, though. He kept moving off whenever we tried to close the distance and it was at least an hour and a half before a decent shot was presented. As we approached the downed animal, it clearly was evident that Charlie’s assessment had been correct. My first East African animal indeed was “a good one.” Its lyre-shaped horns were 28 5/8 inches long and their SCI score of 43 easily made it a gold medal trophy. One of the antelopes on my bucket list was an East African bushbuck, and I couldn’t believe it when we saw one standing on an anthill just twenty yards off the road that first day. The driver stopped suddenly while I pulled my .30-.378 off the gun rack and rolled out of the truck. I was too late, though. By then, the ram had bolted off the backside of the hill and was out of sight before I could get the rifle to my shoulder. It was 7:00 PM before we finally returned to camp. Long days of hunting were the rule on this leg of my Tanzania safari. We left camp at 5:30 AM the second day and didn’t return until 7:30 PM. Most of those fourteen hours were spent driving around and stopping to glass for game from likely Professional hunter Charles Horsey (left) of Malagarasi Safaris and author with author’s great Grant’s gazelle vantage points. When we found something that required a second look, we’d park the vehicle and go off on foot. We made three such stalks, and two paid off with my taking trophy-class Grant and Thomson gazelles. The third stalk was for a fringe-eared oryx, but I couldn’t get into position quickly enough. It didn’t matter, though. I was seeing a lot of game and truly enjoying myself. Mto wa Bbu is Swahili for “Mosquito River,” but it wasn’t long before I knew mosquitoes were not nearly as troublesome as the tsetse flies in that area. When I asked Charlie how his female clients handled tsetses – in some areas near this camp the Gold medal lesser kudu was high on author’s wish list for his Tanzanian safari things were especially brutal – he smiled and said, “They leave.” Do they forfeit what they’ve paid for the