Lion Hunting in Mozambique with Wally Dallenbach.

By Lauri Alanthwaite.

Page 1.

Mozambique has been out of bounds to trophy hunters since the formation of Frelimo (front for the Liberation of Mozambique), in June 1962. By 1964 a guerrilla war against the Portuguese colonialists had begun in the north of the country and the following year Rhodesia declared unilateral independence from Britain, which caused further unrest in the region.

On April 25th 1974 a military coup in Portugal ended the dictatorship there, which heralded the end of Portuguese control in Mozambique. In September 1974 a complete handover of power to Marxist Frelimo took place and the Portuguese fled.

Once the Portuguese were ousted the former aligned parties of Frelimo and Renamo came into conflict. Renamo, being an anti communist political party, was sponsored by the ‘white’ minority rule in Rhodesia and the South African Government, who were anxious to stop communist control in the region.
The civil war ended in 1992, and although Frelimo adopted a much watered down form of communism and allowed for multi – party elections, the party has been in power to this day.

As in other African countries that have suffered years of political unrest and war, Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Congo, Angola to name a few, the effect on wildlife has been devastating. Napoleon said that an army marches on it’s stomach; both Frelimo and Renamo were aware of this and used the wildlife to ensure that their armies kept on marching. The vast herds of buffalo and other large plains game were decimated during the war of liberation and the civil war.

The end of hostilities in 1992, gave reprieve to the wildlife that remained. The Mozambique Government has realized the economic value of wildlife for developing tourism and trophy hunting.

As a result of some government protection and the setting up of wildlife reserves, the wildlife has survived. The success can be measured by the number of safari operators who have bought and developed hunting concessions, and are bringing in foreign trophy hunters.

On the 11th of November 2008, Wally Dallenbach, former Nascar and Daytona race car driver, and now television presenter for both track racing and sport hunting, traveled to Mozambique to hunt with Safrique, a new hunting operation owned by Matt Muns. In fact Wally was to be Safrique’s very first sport hunter in N. Mozambique.

Wally’s primary objective was to give his viewers an insight to the hunting opportunities available in Mozambique and lend a hand to Matt in putting his new safari operation on the map.

Safrique’s hunting area, L1, is situated in the N. W. corner of Mozambique, in the Niassa National Reserve. It is a huge tract of well watered country, comprising mainly of miombo forest, and interspersed with towering granite inselbergs.

After having cleared customs in the capital city of Maputo, Wally transferred with Matt onto an Air Mozambique commercial Boeing and flew to the small town of Lichinga. From here the hunters flew in a charter plane to Lussanando camp, situated on the bank of the Lussanando river, where they were met by professional hunter Ian Rutledge and his team of amazing trackers, Willy and Tawanda.

Wally’s primary trophy animal was a lion, which meant baiting, and with only 10 hunting days in hand Ian was eager to start hunting as soon as possible.

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