Asitatunga hunt became my primary goal. Most African hunters have a passion for spiral horns and as my collection already included nyala, eland, greater kudu, lesser kudu, and bushbuck, I confirmed my final species list as kob, topi and sitatunga and a Nile buffalo. The sitatunga is often referred to as the “Ghost of the Swamps” or the “Swamp Ghost” given their elusive nature in the natural habitat within the dense papyrus swamps. In fact, to hunt a sitatunga may take weeks to prepare when factoring the time to slash an opening in the papyrus swamps and to build an elevated platform, or machan.
I had heard that three sitatunga trackers, Abdullah, Kasozi and Matovu, all of whom were former poachers, had travelled from Sesse Islands to Lake Mburo to prepare the swamps for my arrival. Their task was to slash the papyrus in front of an existing machan two weeks before of our arrival. The slashing served several purposes. It created shooting lanes and open areas for me to see the sitatunga and it allowed time for regrowth which provided a highly desirable food source
