This is the story of an exceptional elephant safari. When reading this article, always remember that elephant hunting is a serious business, strictly ruled and regulated. All trophies taken during this hunt where done against our yearly CITES quota for the concession. Our quota for Navaisha concession bordering the Gona ReZhou National Park is for 5 elephant males for the year. Taking these animals in a week, a month or a year results to the same game management achievement.
Extra-ordinary elephant safari…
… Izak arrives in Harare with a friend and his challenge is to try to get 3 big elephant bulls in 14 days. Cessna pilot Giles welcomes them and takes them to his C206 for a short flight to Gona ReZhou National park where pro hunter Lloyd and his team will take over.
The 35 minutes drive between the landing strip and Lloyd’s camp are spent discussing the great elephant movement that occurs in the area at this time of the year. Amarula trees are dropping their fruits and elephant just cannot resist them. Water is also abundant right now on the 250 000 ha concession, this is the BEST time to find those big tuskers that Izak is looking for.
Day 1, 06:00 AM, our team leaves camp in search of Izak’s first big tusker. Only 20 min later, some large and worn elephant tracks are crossing the road. Lloyd has a big smile on his face, he knows that area and its potential so well. It will only take 35 minutes to find that big bull, his tusks are shining in the beautiful morning light. Adrenaline rushes right up, this is a shooter … 50 meters … 30, then only 25 … the barrel of the .416 Rigby is raising slowly, shot goes off and the giant bites the dust. Izak is only 2 hours into his safari, and he has just taken a very nice elephant bull.
Two days later, Lloyd decides to go back to the tracks found the day before. It was too late to follow them the day before since most of the day was spent following 2 bulls that finally did not exceed 40 lbs. It is 10:00 AM when our hunters get ready for what could be a long walk. The tracks lead our hunters to a big marula tree. The ground is covered with fruits. This is one of the numerous big marula trees of the concession, a big asset when it comes to elephant hunting. They just cannot leave these fruits alone. From that tree, the tracks are going west, into the wind. One hour and 45 minutes later, they have a visual on the bull from behind. Tusks are huge … possibly way over 85 lbs says Lloyd. Izak’s dream is coming together, years of hunting to come across such a scene. The wind is turning all the time and stalking him is very tricky. Suddenly the bull turns left and runs. He will never look back, never stop and will never be seen again. The big tuskers are not big for no reason…
Getting back to camp, Lloyd finds a good track on top of the car tire’s track. This is real fresh, well worth trying to follow. Akani, a Shona tracker hunting with Lloyd for decades, take our hunters straight to a big marula tree close by, without even following the spoors. The big bull is here, under the tree, picking up fruits. Wind is good this time, Izak can get within 40 meters before lifting up the .416 Rigby … the solid will go right through the brain, the giant will be dead before touching the ground. Beautiful ivory on him, possibly over 60 lbs.
The next day, Lloyd suggests getting back to that area where that huge elephant bull was last seen running away the day before. They will find lots of elephants in this area, walking the whole day amongst some breeding herds. A few young bulls, but not the one they were hoping to find.
It is 06:00 AM three days later when the 4×4 leaves camp for that road bordering the national park for 33 km. While driving North on that dirt road, Izak spots 2 elephants crossing the road a few hundred meters in front of them. The wind is very unstable and often turns from North to South. Lloyd stops the car immediately and after a 2 hour detour walking in the forest, Izak’s .416 Rigby talks again. This is probably the best bull of all so far bearing long, very long ivory. The depth of the nerve inside the tusks will greatly determine the weight, but it could be a 70 to 75 lbs pounder … awesome!
Our hunters see elephants every day. They have already followed 6 bulls in 7 days and have managed to harvest 3 big tuskers so far. This is really exceptional! But they are in for more surprise … good surprises!
Day 10, Izak has already achieved what he came for and couldn’t be happier. If we come across another big one, it’s yours” says Izak to his friend. Sounds like we are doing some springbok hunting in the Eastern Cape of South Africa…
We bumped into a breeding herd and young bulls on the morning, no shooters. Late afternoon, Lloyd finds that big track on the road. This is an old big track of an old elephant bull. Not too fresh, probably from last night but at this time of the year, the elephants normally don’t cover too much ground each day since they have what they are looking for. Akani takes over and starts tracking the bull. It will get dark soon and they will have to carry on early tomorrow morning.
Crack of dawn, Akani followed by Lloyd, Izak and his friend André are already on the spoor when they hear a branch cracking. It can’t be too far, 1.5 km at the most. The wind is wrong so they decide to make a big detour to get to the area where the noise was coming from. 45 minutes later, the back of an elephant is in sight. The head is covered by a fallen tree. Not much cover to get closer, they will have to wait for that elephant to move in order to judge the size of his tusks. One thing is for sure, it is a bull, and rather a big bodied one. It will take almost an hour to finally see those shinny tusks in the morning light. This is a big one and André has taken over the .416 Rigby. Akani slowly get the shooting sticks into position, last recommendations from Lloyd and André slowly get into position. Adrenaline is pumping and the only possible shot is a broadside brain shot at 45 meters … click … no bang! … André does not have Izak’s experience and just did not load his gun when they started to walk behind that bull. Izak will very gently take his gun back to load it quietly. It is uncertain that the elephant bull heard or saw anything, but he took a few steps towards the hunter and pushed a tree over, possibly just to reassure who ever would be watching him how strong and powerful he is. Akani adjust the tripod, André gets into position again and squeezes the trigger. Perfect brain shot, very impressive to see a big elephant bull hitting the ground only 24 meters away…
It is on day number 13 that Izak will take the last elephant bull of the safari. 5 big tuskers in 13 days, all of them between 53 and 73 lbs, making it an average per bull of about 60 lbs!
The area is also very good for those big “low veldt” leopards (4 out of 4 in 2010), as well as big buffalo bulls (8 on quota, smallest in 2010 measuring 41”).
2012 and 2013 bookings are open on first come first serve basis. Do not hesitate to contact us early if interested on big tuskers, leopards and buffaloes.
