May 2010, we landed in Johannesburg with some friends for a plains game safari in the Eastern Cape. We got Grand Safari’s contact by some friend of ours in Lyon (France) that has been hunting with Christophe Beau’s organisation for some years. During that safari, one of our friends, while harvesting his nyala, saw an orange nyala bull in the distance, and grabbed the chance to video the unique animal. Talking to Christophe about it back in camp, we discovered that this orange nyala bull is known of, but very hard to get. Christophe himself tried to put one of his hunters onto it in 2007 with no luck. Other PH’s also tried, and the orange bull always ducked in the bush before they could get a shot at him. My husband Pascal likes that kind of challenge, and I can feel that we will be back in RSA in no time chasing an orange nyala …
Wednesday the 18th of August, PH John Barnes from Grand Safari was waiting for us at East London Airport. Yes, we were back in South Africa, this time to chase an elusive orange nyala … It took us about 2 hours to reach the newly build Huntshoek lodge. Beautiful place, tastefully decorated, overlooking an outstanding valley over the Great Fish River. It was raining, rather unusual for that time of the year, winter should be dry. A nice fire was going in the fire place, making the lounge very cosy.
Next morning, John took us to the shooting range where Pascal had to show some shooting skills. Always a bit stressful when the hunter knows that not only they will check his rifle, but also the shooter… mission accomplished, they could now search the hills for that unique orange nyala. The rain stopped, we left the 4×4 and walked on the side of a steep hill. The view was something else … even more when our nyala appeared a thousand yards away on the other side. We saw him on that small video camera screen a few months ago, and we could now see him in our binoculars. We came especially for him and here he was, in front of us. John is a very skilled PH and we start walking up and down, always getting a bit closer. The terrain didn’t allow us to walk straight to him, making it even more of a challenge. We know that nyala has been very shy and there is very little room for any mistakes here. The rain was starting to catch up on us, and the sky was turning pitch black. We all decided to get back to the car quickly. Pascal has 6 hunting days to get the trophy of his dream, so we decided to go back to the lodge for lunch, get dry, and return later.
We enjoyed a light but delicious lunch at the lodge, little siesta and then back into the bush. We went back to where we left him … and found him again! Finding him twice in a day is just amazing, especially when one knows that it has disappeared for months before. Luck was on our side … but not the wind and it was now getting too late to get in the right position for a stalk. Well, tomorrow is another day and we decided to get back to the lodge. We stopped a few times checking on some kudu, zebra, impala and lots of nyala. The density of nyala there was unreal, I took nice photos of a young bull standing behind a bush only 10 yards away from us. Back at the lodge, the fire was going and sundowners were also keeping us warm … there is one question we all wonder about, is our orange nyala a male or a female?
Friday morning saw us up and going at 07:00 am, heavy mist in the valley this morning, visibility was next to nothing. When we got on the top of the hill, the sun was also coming up and is starting to burn away the mist. The bush turned bright green and shiny, this was very beautiful. We walked a few hundred yards and sat down to glass the hills with our binoculars. Animals were slowly getting out of the bush to stand in the morning sun. Some nyala cows, bright orange with
a big nyala bull, a big black bull, were gathering food not too far from us. Temptation was big for Pascal, but he was lucky to get a nice bull in May and will let that one go. His mind is on the orange bull and I know he will stick to that until he gets it.
Sometime later, eyes were starting to burn from scanning through the binocs … this was when that big nyala female looked a bit bigger than the ones seen earlier… walking with 4 bulls … 1 female with 4 bulls … a closer look soon confirmed that it was our orange bull walking with other black bulls. He was not the biggest trophy nyala around, but the only orange one in miles for years!! Here he was again, warming up in the sun. John quickly checked the wind, it had not changed and was just perfect to try a stalk from where we were sitting. John took us to less than a hundred yards away from the bull. Pascal could only see some orange behind a big bush, he would have to move quietly to the left in order to get a shot. Bang! The bull jumped into the air and ran, Pascal will gave him another shot through a small opening in the thick bush. Second shot was a good shot and we could all see the orange bull limping heavily before he disappeared into the thickets. John’s tracker Nahoy was soon on the blood and found the bull 100 yards down hill. These African game are so strong on their feet, it always amazes me to see how far they can run with 2 deadly shots.
The pressure was gone and Pascal was now jumping up and down around his unique trophy nyala. Quite a few hunters have tried to harvest him in the past, Pascal was the lucky one that succeeded. Mission accomplished!
Before taking photos, we first needed an answer to the big question: Male or female? It’s a boy!
The traditional photo shot took a bit longer than usual, and then a tractor came and helped to carry the nyala out of the bush to the hunting vehicle. Nahoy will do a good job on the full mount preparation, getting our orange nyala bull ready for a new life in France. Karl Human will do the full mount, hopefully on time for the big hunting show in Rambouillet (France) early April 2011. We are hoping to display this unique animal on Grand Safari’s show booth there.
There were some extra sundowners that evening around the fire to celebrate Pascal’s Orange Nyala Bull, thanks to Grand-Safari.com for that wonderful experience, and see you all very soon in the African Bush for some new adventures!!
Jocelyne & Pascal Andreo
