African adventure: Hunting trip to Mozambique provides thrills for local man

Photo provided Ed Moon crouches next to a cape buffalo he shot during a hunting trip to Mozambique. The cape buffalo is one of the five most dangerous animals in Africa. Adult males, such as this one, typically weigh between 1,800 and 2,000 pounds.

sports@thefranklinpress.com

Ed Moon had a great time in a recent trip to Africa. He spent 10 days hunting various antelope and buffalo in Mozambique.

But there was a problem for him once he returned to Franklin.

"I got back and was real melancholy, coming off the high and excitement and newness of it." Moon said. "I started watching some of the videos we had made. I was like, 'We need to go back. I gotta go back.'

"It's that addictive."

Travel

Moon began planning for the adventure about three years ago. His previous hunting experiences included hunting deer behind his house in Cowee, and deer, dove and turkey in South Carolina.

But Moon knew a trip to Africa would be an incredible experience. He began planning everything he would need on an excel spreadsheet, including the cost of insurance if he were to be injured and had to flown out.

Moon set up the trip with his friend Jeff O'Cain, owner of Heritage Hunting Company in Columbia, S.C. The two flew from Columbia to Atlanta, then to Johannesburg, South Africa on Oct. 26.

They spent the night in Johannesburg at a bed and breakfast. They then flew to Pemba, located in the northeastern part of Mozambique, the world's 35th largest country.

Moon and O'Cain had submitted the required paperwork with photo ID a few weeks in advance. But when they arrived, the officials in Mozambique didn't have the information.

Luckily, the people who organize safaris compensated. They wrote the serial numbers from the guns on an envelope.

Nearly at their destination, they then traveled a few hours away from the Indian Ocean to the Lugenda Wildlife Preserve, a plot of land totaling about 1.6 million acres.

"I thought it was neat," Moon said. "I didn't feel like we were that isolated. We had a generator with power that ran part of the day to cool down our drinks, produce a little ice and have lighting at night."

It was the end of the dry season and beginning of the rainy season in Africa. The temperatures were routinely higher than 100 degrees.

"It was miserable trying to sleep at night. We were in tents with mesh windows. The wind didn't really come through," Moon said.

"It was really hard getting to sleep because of the heat. It's not that we weren't tired."

Moon and O'Cain weren't alone in the Africa wilderness. They were accompanied by a professional hunter at all times, Derek Littleton, who also had two or three trackers to assist him. There were three cooks in camp and three skinners who processed the meat.

And a game scout was often on hand, hired to prevent poaching.

The hunt

The main quest was to shoot a cape buffalo, which often weighs between 1,800-2,000 pounds. The cape buffalo is very dangerous and is labeled as one of the five most dangerous animals in Africa along with elephants, rhinoceros, lions and leopards. Its nickname is "Black Death."

The group tracked cape buffalo every day, but they kept bumping them away because of a swirling wind. In order to hunt the buffalos, they needed to get downwind so the buffalo couldn't pick up their scent.

"The animals are skittish, but not nearly as spooky as a whitetail deer here in the states," Moon said.

It was day eight, and Moon still hadn't even taken a shot at a buffalo.

"I was concerned," he said. "We were seeing buffalo every day. We were hunting, but we weren't shooting. If you don't get one, you don't get one. You don't shoot a deer every time you go out. You don't get a duck every time you go out and duck hunt. That's just the way it is. That's the way I looked at it."

In the morning of day eight, the trackers located spoor (tracks or droppings). But again they bumped the buffalos because of the wind.

They headed back to their trucks for lunch and a long snooze, while the trackers went back out. They again found spoor and located three buffalos. Some zebra were mingling with the buffalos, so the group waited about 20 minutes for them to leave before moving closer.

The buffalo were old bulls, likely five years or older, that were too old to breed and no longer remained with the herd.

One of the buffalos was trophy quality. The group slowly moved closer, getting within about 60 yards. Moon lined up a shot and struck the buffalo. It ran about 30 yards before collapsing, letting out an audible bellow before it died.

It took only one shot, which is unusual. Moon would have taken a second shot but wasn't able to get his scope set in time.

Moon used a Czechoslovakian rifle manufactured by CZ. The caliber was .416 Rigby, with a 400-gram bullet.

Moon also shot a Lichtenstein hartebeest on day seven, and a Johnston's impala on day nine.

The meat from each animal is divided up amongst the local people, while Moon and his friend also got a sample to eat.

"The food was good. Well served," Moon said.

Adventure

Moon had a blast viewing the land and wildlife. Some of the animals he saw on a routine basis were sable, kudu, hartebeest, buffalo, klipspringer, bushbuck and reedbuck, elephant, wildebeest, zebra, baboons and duiker.

An eagle with a busted wing had been domesticated by a local man, as was an African wildcat.

Moon plans to get a head mount of the cape buffalo, and will keep the skulls from the hartebeest and impala. He also plans to keep the skins for rugs.

Moon plans to have the work from the animals done at Wilderness Taxidermy & Outfitters Inc., but that's pending the arrival of the trophies. He hopes to have them arrive in Atlanta in a few months, but delays in the shipment can often occur.

Moon was thankful of his employers at Clark & Co. Landscape Services for allowing him to take nearly three weeks off to experience the African adventure.

He's doesn't have any plans right now, but hopes to make a return trip someday.

"It's a different place, it really is," Moon said.