Vic Lattimore - South Africa 2012

My good friend Vic Lattimore returned for his second safari with CVS in July. We started in Pilanesberg National Park where Vic took a magnificent black-maned Lion on the 6th day of the safari! Pilanesberg became famous for its incredible Lions during our 10-year tenure there. This Lion weighed at least 500lbs and was estimated to be 10 years old. So in addition to being a super trophy he was also the "right one" to take. Vic used his ever faithful 460 Weatherby and made a perfect shot! 
We spent a few days chasing Buffalo in the mountains but they beat us 3 to 0. While stalking Buff, we bumped into a mating pair of Lions which was a sobering experience!
We left Pilanesberg and headed to the Waterberg mountains for Leopard and plains game. The Leopard were not at all co-operative and bush fires and swirling winds played in their favour! We had 2 baits hit and our trails cams revealed one decent Leopard which ultimately outsmarted us. All was not lost as Vic managed to take 2 excellent Nyala and 2 super Kudu bulls.
We left the Waterberg and headed to the Timbavati where Leoaprd and Hippo were on the menu. Coenraad had been in the area for 4 days already pre baiting for us. This paid off handsomely because within 3 days we had taken a massive Tom on the bait that was nearest to the camp. This cat, like Mark Williams's leopard which we reported on in our previous hunt report, was taken just before dark with one perfect shot! Before the Tom climbed the bait tree, we enjoyed a 20 minute viewing of a stunning female Leopard in golden sunlight. Truly magnificent to see.
With the cat in the bag, we spent the next day stalking an old Hippo bull which headed towards a nearby pool. The bull entered the shallow water between the mainland and a small island. He was ankle deep when Vic's 460 exploded. The Hippo took off into deep water where he quickly expired. The challenge now was retrieving the Hippo after another bull came out of nowhere and entered the same pool. It took much coaxing and reassurance from us to get our team of trackers to enter the water, neck deep, to retrieve the dead bull with the other bull mock-charging and looking very distressed with our presence. We finally succeeded and the story ended well for us ... as well as the other Hippo!
At this point, Vic and I had been hunting together for 26 fantastic days! Vic left 3 days early to get back to his family and this gave me a few days to head home to mine.
"Vic - it's always an honour hunting with you. You are the "real deal". Thank you so much for everything! Till 2013 my friend!"