Basic HTML Version
This is the story of our
elephant hunt in a forestry
area in eastern Zimbabwe
on Oct. 2 – 16. I am hunting
with my wife Chris, who
has never been and good
friend Richard Cooke PH of
Richard Cooke Safaris who
I've never hunted. Chris did
not miss a minute of the
following. October is called suicide month because of the heat and
the second half of our time here did not disappoint.
Email Sent to my kids- Hello from Vic Falls. This is our
last hunting day, but we cut it short and came in and will be fishing
in the morning on the Zambezi. Got very hot today on the ride in,
felt like Wichita Falls in july. Had some of cool weather and a rain
early though. Mom had a great time. On day 11 we finally shot an
old Bull elephant with thick tusks. Big thrill, side brain on the
move and down in one. We had a recovery and then decided to
take a day and relax. Saw a huge lion at the water where we were
going to set up our camp. Earlier we went for a drive and came
across Rhino tracks, we tracked for 19 km including 2k extremely
difficult and found and photographed him. Probably the only
people anywhere to do so in a wild none park or private area. Big
male lion that evening. Crazy, Then it happened. A second ele was
on quota and not booked. If we saw a monster we would hunt
him.....
Second email - OK-Story continued in the middle
--- We
were fighting a wild fire 3 different days starting day 6 to keep a
large hunting block called Kongoni, which had water and a lot of
talk of giant elephants, from going up in flames. The fire first
burned on day 6 outside our hunting area and we set a large
backfire to keep it out. It jumped our road into our Sulani block (5k
x 5k) and the forestry people stayed and put it out. Pretty hairy at
night. The next day nobody there and it started up again and kept
burning. Kongoni pan is still
15km
away but has water and Rich
said the place of big bulls. We had seen nothing there, but one 50
lb. bull on day 1. This fire ended up burning 20 km to the north
during our hunt. Needless to say we did not stop it. good try
though.
Back up to the beginning and make this a story.
Now more of the past. We flew thru Paris and had 15 hours there
to go into town, probably a mistake. The hotel we booked for the
day had a security evacuation at noon, so only three hours sleep.
After an afternoon in Paris, we left for Joberg at 11pm and on
arrival at 10am we missed our flight to Vic Falls. We also spent
the day looking for our lost bags and after we found them, we
spent the night at the Afton House, which is fantastic.
Eventually we made it to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe the next day
and had a another nights rest before the trip to the bush. No
hunting days missed. Note- Lifesaver- take a phone or a computer
for communication on any overseas trip, especially Africa. Emails
were flying from Paris and Joberg airports.
On our drive into our camp there is a big lioness going to drink at
the waterhole we overlook from our fire. Welcome to Africa,
Chris. A lion 60 yards from your tent. We used a tented camp set
up on a waterhole as the area did not provide a particularly nice
setting for their permanent camp. We had a large tent with nice
beds, and a three minute 5 gallon hot shower and a flush toilet. The
dining area and fire overlooked the water at 50 yards. Animals
drifted in during the day, and many more at dusk and night. The
meals were prepared on an open fire and dinner was served under a
canopy. The hunting area is 10-15 km wide and 70 km long. Later
on, Chris was wondering if the tents were lion proof.
Day 1
takes us to the famed Kongoni Block on the north
end, where not much is happening. We do track an elephant group
with one bull and find a 50 pounder in the group. Morning of
Day
2
and a 50-55 lb+ lone, no tailed bull, as he walks to 20 yards from
us on the road while we start to approach. We see him a week later
and would consider shooting him again. Also on
Day 2
we track
and find ourselves at 40 yards from 10 bulls, 2-3 or 40, 3 over 50,
and a Beast pushing 60 who was 8 to 12 inches taller than the rest.
Rich wouldn't let me shoot him on only the second day. We had a
prior agreement, nothing under 60 in the first week. That is the
only way to shoot a giant. I am not sure how you could approach
ten bulls grouped so tightly to 20 yards or less. We saw bulls of 50
lb.+ on 5 of first 6 days.
Day 5
included a long death march in high
heat, while tracking a large group we didn't find.
On
Day 6
, Kongoni area again, and we find a group of huge tracks
that came and left in the night. We encounter the fire for the first
time today, and fight it until dark. The drive out is very
concerning, but we managed to not burn the truck or ourselves.
Scary stuff, watching not to lose the cruiser. We were not sure our
route was safe. That night, the Cooke family, including Belinda,
Ty and Shanny joined us in camp for the weekend.