I received a delightful report from subscribers John and Sandy Searles about a recent trip to Uganda with both Royal Uganda Outfitters and Game Trails Uganda. They booked both hunts through Bob Kern of The Hunting Consortium (540-955-0090; hunt@huntcon.com), who is now representing Kaka Matama, owner of Game Trails Uganda, in the United States. Continuing subscribers will remember our past reports about both of these operations as tourism hunting slowly reopened in Uganda over the last few years.
Searles writes, "Kaka is excellent. This was among the absolute top five African experiences we have ever enjoyed!" The Searles hunted both of Matama's areas, Katonga and Lake Mburro, and took numerous quality trophies, including a 32.5-inch impala and a 32.5-inch waterbuck, as well as East African sitatunga and eland and Nile bushbuck. Searles also shares an engaging account of a Colobus monkey that followed them during their sitatunga hunt and attacked Matama. "The malevolent rascal approached us, swinging rapidly through the trees, growling loudly as it confronted us," writes Searles. "To our astonishment, the monkey leaped from 15 feet up in the tree and landed on Kaka's shoulders, driving him to the ground, growling loudly! Kaka shouted, 'Kill him!' and I shot the bastard through the chest. End of story!" That occurred their first afternoon, just after arriving in camp.....
