Kwa-Zulu Game Reserve: Part III

Wednesday: A monster of a Nyala and late night drive to Durbin

We started before sunrise in the same area as the day before. In the morning we sat up a stalk on a decent specimen. Bob and I thought he was big; Scaulk did as well. Justin didn’t like the shape of his horns. We were looking for a harp shape that pointed out at the top with a deep bell. No luck. We continued along a flatter area near the river. We were stopped by a tree that had been felled by an elephant. The trackers got out and hacked it to pieces.

"Real" Toyota Landcruiser

Breaktime

We eventually moved on to higher elevations and reached a scenic point and with the expanse of the Mfuze river valley to our left. We took pictures and videos for several minutes. Before continuing, we looked to our a right. A Nyala had been standing 10 yards from us the entire time. It was a beautiful specimen, but perhaps only 24-26" inches.

Mfuze River Valley

Curious Nyala

Zebras

We reached midday and the heat had starting to grow. So what did we do? Sat in tall tick infested grass in the hot sun at a small lake in a low wide part of the valley. When we approached we heard a commotion – we quickly ran to the bank and caught the last bit of action as a crocodile tried to catch a large bird. We waited for the animals to starting coming to the water. We spotted and watched 4 Hippos the entire time. We were so still that several wart hogs moved around us without them noticing. We kept watch across the water hole. We watched several areas where we expected to see Nyala. Slowly, they started coming. First a group of 6 males and then a 7th a bit further down. No shooters, but all were nice.

Small Lake

Hippos

The number of Nyala we spotted and stalked grew to a point where it all blended together. I started out impatient, but I became intrigued. I thought to myself there must be some monsters in here we haven’t seen, why else did we keep going? We stopped at the top of a large ridge and glassed for a while. We dropped off one of the trackers (along with a shot gun to guard against lions) to stay and glass while we continued along. We circled back about 30 minutes later to pick him up. Nothing.

Glassing for Nyala

We moved to a lower area and spotted a group of Nyala. We quickly dismounted and started a stalk. We got within shooting range and sized the largest Nyala. He wasn’t what we were looking for. We had one or two hours of good light left.

We eventually came around a thick, brushy area and saw 3 Nyala moving away from us, perhaps 100 yards or so. Justin and Scaulk didn’t need binoculars. They didn’t study his length or the shape of his bell. All they said was, "Shoot!" pointing out the largest one. I wasn’t ready. I chambered a round... Then I couldn’t find them in the scope, I dialed back the zoom – I squeezed the trigger. Nothing. The safety was on. Safety off. "Shoot him now Eric!" The three Nyala were steps away from disappearing into the bush. I pulled the trigger. A "Texas heart shot." 300 grain A-frame bullet from 110 yards went directly into the base of his rear and traveled along his spine to his neck. He took three steps and collapsed hard. And we had everything on film.

Trophy Nyala

It was getting dark. We were done at Kwa-Zulu. We had told our PH’s we wanted to hunt hard.

We had a hard drive ahead of us to the Stormberg Mountains on Wednesday – 13 hours or more. We decided to cut some time off the drive. We met back up with JR and Jeff at the lodge. We loaded the Land Cruisers and decided to drive to Durbin Tuesday night. We left around 9 PM and filled up on diesel and dinner at a roadside station. We arrived at almost 1 AM in Durbin at a Bed and Breakfast. We were exhausted.