:r. ;:1&: ,::-.1',::.. .;if {. ':4.. '!.{' : :l: ,*ni'i lli,,"'{. 3. ::4.1-{raa ,''9 "'xrs ;& &...,-.'r: . i Oneof the uerytfew remaining'whitespoti in theAfrican map,still aslate as the 1960s,was the remotesoutb-east corner of Angola,in the old Cuando-CubangoProuince. 'no-man cameto fnor a linle bii of this 'ln f - 'impossible'dreams' I"na,'thanksro rhefirsr-handinformation 1962 I was hunting in Uganda, a a r..ond my became I "il I given to me by my dear friend. rhe lare wonderful country in rhose days before the a realiry. Of course, I acceptedand two JoseFenykoevi. who wasthe first ro visit this ldi Amin disaster,when I gor a telegramfrom weekslater I wason my way.ln thosedays it part of Angola severaltimes in the 1950s my lriend Fenykoeviin Madrid,asking me to wasextremely difficult to reachLuiana from during his privarehunting and exploratory contacthimassoonaslreturnedtoSpain.OfLuanda, the capitalofAngola. the shortest. expeditions.In oneof them,in 1955,he shot cour5eI wasvery curiousand, on my arrival way being from Victoria Falls.in Sourhern - (4 amonsterelephant13ft2 in m 1cm) up someweekslaterinValencia.'Tli"i.'i myhomerown, I Rlrodesia(nowZimbabwe).Fromthere, I had l:H:*fffil,il,,1:t-'l;l,)Ifr?::* l,Jo,n. exprained ,hemarrer: rn i; K"tff::J'ii:i:,tJ'ilf'*"Jli:*:: During my continuous search for new 1961. some good friendsfrom Lisbon had the Zambezifuver hereand arriveto Katima elephantcountry all over Africa. I was very obrainedfrom the Angola Covernmentthe Mulilo in the CapriviStrip. parr o[Sourh Vl/est 'The lucky to combine it wirh my other great righrsLo a huge hunting concessionin Africa(now Namibia).In 1962,the roadfrom passion:lhe explorationof remoteand losr Land of the End of the Vorld' under Lhe Vic Fallsto KarimaMulilo wasa lousyone - corners. narticular,O,T.,,r,tlt nameof LuianaSafaris - rhePortuguese name iusta sandytrack: but from thereto rheborder , lfr; ,*::" ,t: ... afr$ota..$.-lne lanc.at the fascinatedme-primitiveandne4rlyuqkntl.:n,....c.!x.rggw"',,o.'iil.;. ..1 with,only ,a tr.ny adminisuritive' 'ii ih. priuil. and lousylife in thewhole counLry... with the largeamounts of money invested. in Katima Mulilo, the nearestpost with a 'Despitethetimpieci,e.,.a,'d.''',in4euiat-6,Fenykieviand maps of the territory, for years I dreamt of ou., reorganizethe company. For me this store was Finaughty. th. grandson oi"the "nd going there. But irs remoteness,the expenses was a lantasticproposirion, to be able Logo famouselephant hunter William Finaughry. involved,and the total lackoFhelp lormed an to the land of my dreamslike a paramounr who hunted berween 1867 and lB77 in impossiblebarrier, and I continueddreaming chiel, explorethe country, open tracks for .Matabeleland,thanks to his friendshipwith 46 Vtiuag 13 .Issue3 Hunting Storiesof Yestp*eru ' ihe great cl'ief Mzilikazi; hg shot around 400 elephants.all with his 4-boregun. In the extfen-e tjp. of the .south,east coiner of Angola,: along the Crlandij Rive.;' *. , ij establisheda mini camp on the lefr bank, in I ,Northern Rhode.sid, where ..one Land.Rover $ was kepL to go ro Karima Mulilo and bring all ihe necessiry supplies back to ihe border. :to Friim here werything was senr Angola,: loaded'on a pentoort:made with empty petrol.. rfi drums and.strong planks. The crossing:.fqom' one'side of the river.tp ihe:oiher took 4n .hoqr; following an open channel through rhe high grass and aquatie veg€tation. .Anqther Land-. Rover waited on the Argolan side ro lake everything to rhe main camp, about 50 km away.on a very poor track. Th6 adiirinistrative pori of i-ul"a" was about nine krn up the river ; in a beautifirl place wit! big trees, :home to i ' hundreds of dor,.sl , .' , ,,, On arriv.al at Lqiana.C-arnp:I met the people : working: there: oriei camp manageqi two,.PHs,., and rwo drivers lor rhe hunting cars. all of them Portuguese,plus all rhe native workers. The camp. wirh .its small chalets and central dining room, was in better'.c<jndition thae I . expected. Finally I was at the gate of my wonderland, Af.ter a.fefu dayg in camp:sgrtin'g o.ut problems, .I :started lo-prepare to explore the'.country between the Cuando River in tlie east,,fcirming the boundary berween Angola and Northern Rhodesia. and the remote and unknown territory -to the wesr. along thr Luiana and Utembo Rivers. The co,untrywas a successionofopen places, 'chanas' locally known as that alternared with forestswith, big treesand horrible thorn bush, very difficult to cross. The sandy terrain made rhe walking tiring. \With some small and nearly uselessrents, food, riffes and the polrers. we starred rowards the areas nobody had enrered before; during 1961,hunting had mostly beenalong rhe road to rhe Neriquinha Mission and Mavinga. Nor roo lar from the camp we srarted to see rhe first gaTe - reedbuck, tiang, roan. zebra and, near rhe water. many red lechwe. About l0 km farther, in a place wirh several ;!&&f:,:lX.{i',.,,,:r warerholes. we saw the first eleBhant, buflalo ,t,:.lEti:le and black rhino tracks, which was fantastic ,m: i' $ $,q, news. Here and.-there we,also found lion. 3i:t tr4cks, very'weh marked in the sand., Thq expeitation.could not be, betlet. :,.r :, . Along the way, rrying to find the easiestway for a future ueck, the i'ratives rnarked the tree; ., w-ith their axes. L:rtir; the Land-Rovers could :. 'much tln:. cross thelbush',without problem. 'plcadagli Angola, these bush tracki arq namgd , and one qf otir objgcfiveswai lo makd'as man11, as possiblein order to reach the mosr remore parts of the concessionwirh the future saflaris. Volme 13 . Issue3 47 "".,f'o=- Hunting I qteryqar Flunting .Storie s, of Ye Little by little we went ahead, reaching places kind of ianimals' they had in front- For sure, ' nevervisired before by a whiLeman. GPS had they we-!enot at all used to ieeing humans. .ot yet been invented, ald we'found our way 11 yas the ,same with the leopards, also 'with a.compaii, the sun.and our instinct while found all over rhe place. $/e neverhunted I made maps of sorts, m.arking the riverS and rhem with bait eithei be&use they would have permanent ryaterholes, so nectssary for. game .a dayiight.siestaon a.branchor any oth6r clear, animals. The territorylwas.sparsely irihabited, place . easyto spot them. It was li\e hunting and we found only some primitive groups in a zoo.... Buffilo,was,alway!present, in big of Burhmen from rime to time. known as herdq in srnall groupr of old bulls, with 'Mukankalas' 11d in Angola. These poor people. vgry r6ne.hea.ls among them., I shot several .who had never met a .European before, were betw€en46 and 50 inches,6ut the biggestone, horrified to see me. I he Bushmen qvere still obrainedby oneofour PHr. -..rurJJ 52-l12 -completely pure, without arly mixed .blood inihes,a,quperirophl,'' : froin other tr'ibes. Aq- I .am 6 feet 4 inchEs m11,' The old' eleph4nts.had rhori':and very rlhl6p they looked like miniatures by compariion; 'tusks.' Their, bodies wgre so big thaq' man)t .and wei€ very hervous in front of me.. Thanks times,lhe hiinlers irnderestimatedihe weight 'irl to my interprerer, a half-caste Ponuguese the ,rus!<r.bQcaqse ,they iooked'sriraller'by ,cqnipirigon. and Afriian, I was able to c6mmunicate with The. bigges.r,l lhot':was a.,103lb rhem. and. after they lost their fear, rhey singlerusker, but I gor severalin the 80 and turned our to be quite friendly. so diffegent 90-lb class,,Even:in those.f4r'away days in a from their relatives in Botswana and Namibii rernote territorir neltr before, luskers ,' ' ' , ' thuiited - always w1rn.a serlous expression, distanrand. over 80 Lbs;were di.f€ctilt to find,:rnd w€fd rhe distrustful. The in[ormarion I usedto get from exception.The averagewas from 50 to 70 lbs. the Mukankalas was alwaysquite accurareand per tusk. Ifl am not wrong,the recordfor rhe very helpful, just like thd Pygmies in the Cuando-Cubangowas. l20,.and 125 lbs.,shot Cameroon, Gabon and rhe Congo. which it is somefew yearsafter I left rhe country. a great rhing for hunrers and explorers. As I sajdbefore. black rhino wasplentiful. Months later, when I was on salari and I wasvery lucky to getthe all-timeAngola after elepharrts, I came across a gto,lj gf recordwith 30-Jl4 inches.on safariwith a Mukankalas I had known fo,r some time.. The clientin I96J alongthe LuianaRiver. chief. an old person [ull of wrinkles, was a Createrkudu and sablewith magnificent well-known hunter and, when I asked him heads were found all .:over the, dace,;.Vbry., if he knew where to 6nd rhe elephants, he sdldom we .shot'sable *ith -less then' 44','r' quickly answered: "Yes, I know." My .ne)at and my biggestonq *1. 5g:17t1',6oth horni,, question was: "-{/here?" Alrd his fantastic eiactly the sam€length. Kudq'witfr headsup reply. poinring ahead wiLh his arm, was: "ln ro 58" were nol rare,and during the rhree the bush... yearsI wasthere, we gor threebulls over 60", The farrher wesr we wenl! the biggesr63-I I 2", a supeibeaury. Euen ,72tfiose far away we found more and more In the marshesalong the Cuando fuver ,. elephanls, mostly old buils, lived thousandqofrgd lechwes. Looking from days ffi a remote terrttorl vbry seldom females, and a high point it was possiblero seea moving never a single calf. Ir'looked red.mass,and tley were.tame like catrle. The ?sge$rl$i&vet&d, &.efore, tuskers ouer to me like an asylum for old problemwas to choosethe righr one ro shoor B0 lbs.were dfficult to age elephants.