This is first trip hunting in the forrest , I have guided on many many primate tours in Tanzania , Rwanda and Uganda in the forrest but I am greatly looking forward to my first bongo hunt ..

I thought for fun seeing as there is internet here that I would post a daily ( or bi daily) report…

I had booked a good friend of mine , Kendall Kilbourne , and we had chosen northern operations , Dave Redemeyer to set this up for me ..

Being that it was my first forrest hunt I was going to be acting as a learner PH , learning under Clint Burton who had been hunting the forrest for the last four or five years …

Arriving in Doula was pretty easy a checkpoint for the yellow fever certificate and then a long and chaotic wait while three different entities looked over the guns , very easy though , just time consuming and actually our “handler” did everything and we didn’t need to get involved at all –

We dropped kendall of at the meridien hotel and we (cameraman andy macdonald and me ) stayed across the street at the sawa…

The nnect morning we were advised the cahrter would be after lunch so I caught up on some rest and emails not realizing at that time we would have internet at the camp …

Taking off at 3.00 pm after just 20 minutes of flying we were flying over pure rainforest – and that’s how it was for the next two hours , seemed like we were flying over brocolli – till we touched down in a small logging village on the south eastern tip of the country ..

Camp is nice , made from sawn planks from the timber company as is all the pygmy villages that we passed , I was so excited that I could hardly see straight and last night , our first in camp a mixture of jetlag , forrest noises and excitement stopped any chance of sleep !

Toady was awesome , the way that you hunt is driving along looking for tracks , I couldn’t believe what the pygmies could see , we have 5 trackers and 6 dogs (tiny little village dogs I may add !) all crammed into the back of our 4 door hilux !

By ten am we were on our first trackl , just walking in the gloom of the forrest with all this plantlife and expectation is incredible , after about an hour a yip from one of the dogs and it was game on , after ten minutes crashing through the bush towards the sound of baying dopgs we saw ouyr first bongo !
It was incredible , its deep orange body , brilliant white stripes and so engrossed was it in the small group of tiny dogs that it hardly even acknowledged us even though we were only about 15 yards away ,

We saw that it was a young male not worthy of taking and clint thought about 26 inches and we backed off and allowed the pygmies to gather up their dogs …

What a spectacular first morning !

Afternoon had us calling duikers , 4 attempts and nothing came in …

Also saw our first group of back and white colobus and at one salt lick heard a troupe of chips whooping at each other in the forrest …

What an incredible start to the hunt ..
The internet is a bit slow tonight , I will post pics when it speeds up … but all in all an incredible first day in the area , there are two guys hunting at once , both saw bongo and turned them down , eleven male tracks seen between the two cars ...!!

will post again in a day or two and will add pics as i can !

Thanks Ivan for posting your adventure!

Thanks for posting this Ivan. With the problems in CAR, I see Cameroon as a good alternative. Can't wait for the TV show.

BRILLIANT Ivan
I'm really looking forward to this!

Roland

Ivan,

Always look forward to your posts.

Mike

Look forward to the "blow by blow" account of your rainforest hunt!

Great post Ivan. When you get back, I would love to have you on High Caliber Radio and talk about hunting Bongo

Very intersting we will be folowwing your safari ,my friend .

Great!

Keep the reports coming.

Something to keep one happy before one is on safari himself

Threads such as these are why I enjoy this site so much!

Keep up the great work!

What a fantastic start to a safari I wish to do some day as well. Can't wait to see the rest Ivan.

Sounds great, maybe one day.

I'm looking forward to your updates Ivan. Best of luck to all involved!

thanks for all the encouragement folks , let me say this is an amazing experience for me ...and clint is being an awesome teacher !!

Well we awoke at about 4.30 after a very restless night the forrest sounds are amazing …after a relaxed breakfast of fried eggs bacon and fruit (lots of fruit and some of the sweetest I have ever had) we set off to look for tracks ..

We had trailcams today that we were going to put up at the salines which are little spots that the animals come to get salt on the forrest ..

The main road cutting through the area is mainly used by logging trucks , I have to say quite disturbing the size of the logs that you see moving out of the area , when I can post pics I think you will be shocked at the size …anyway enough of that ..

The first spot we stopped to look for tracks two amazing things happened , first the hooting of chimps nearby in the forrest which was incredible and then a flock of African grey parrots flies over , my first ones seen in the wild …what an amazing experience …

It hast rained here for about ten days which is unusual and the pygmies tell me in French (which I barely understand after only a few weeks of rosetta stone before the trip!!) that this makes tracking very tough ..

We finally find a good track and set off at about 9.30 am , suddenly the dogs riush off barking and we hear the bleating of a duiker which sets everyone literally flying through the forrest , it turns out is a baby bongo and perhaps the most beautiful antelope I have ever seen , cant wait to post a pic …we set him safely under a bush , admired and photographed him and back to our tracks , within ten minutes the dogs were baying and very predictably it was what we presume was the mother of the calf , they must have crossed the male track …we called the dogs off and decided to move and look for a new track …what an amazing experience when the bongo is bayed they are truly pretty relaxed and slowly turn round and round , every now and then rushing the dogs and so focused are they on the dogs you can get pretty close …

I must say each and every time we stop my eyes are in the sky , the variety of primates , birds and the sheer size and beauty of some of the trees here is simply breathtaking ..

Clint is doing an excellent job of showing me the ropes – so so very exciting to be learning in a new and very different environment . I have a feeling I will be doing lots of rainforest time in the future !!

The rest of the day we didn’t fuind anything worth investing time in ,some big bull tracks but not fresh enough to follow … however we did set our trailcams on three likely looking salines , we also spent a little time calling duikers and only got a fleeting glimpse of a blue ..

More tommorow !!!

Great post Ivan.
Say Hi to Clint from Krister (the nice swedish guy he hunted with in Zambia). Clint is a great PH.

Great Ivan.
keep the reports coming,and good luck on the Bongo!

Ivan,

It is so great to have you and Mr. Kilbourne onboard with NOA. It truly is a fascinating hunt, like no other! My favorite in Africa, would have loved to be there for the baby bongo, so beautiful and amazing!!!!!! Keep enjoying and sooo looking forward to more updates.

Regards,
Maria Rademeyer

Ivan,

I bet your missing the wide open spaces of the Zambezi Jess. I remember being amazed at seeing where significant light hits the ground in the forest because of logging or anything else, it redefines the word "thick".

I'm loving this report. This is a must do for me. Just need to figure out the financing.

Keep em coming Ivan and shoot a big one. Just don't shoot him too soon the updates are too fun.

Great to read this about the real jungel rain forest with big game!

Have you slipped and fallen yet?

The medium sized birds & monkeys make BIG noise and sound like much larger ones in the canopy!

I can't wait to see the phot of the bongo calf! I'd love to see photos of other lesser known animals & birds.

Hey Shamwari - good start by the sounds of it! Please suss out the possibility of a nice Roan up there. My best to Shifty. Thanks and good hunting!
Cheers
Brent

P.S When the Bongo bull has been bagged, be sure to to have the fillet for dinner - it has my vote for the tastiest and most tender venison in Africa! Let me know what you think...

Great reports - I can't wait to read the next one! Ivan, when you get a chance, please let us know what kind of equipment (rifles etc) you are using for this trip. My guess is it is a bit different than what you would use in the Valley.

Loving the updates Ivan Keep them coming.

quote:

Originally posted by NorthernOperationsAfrica:
Loving the updates Ivan Keep them coming.

+1

Sorry no report for a couple of days , we got in late last night …

Day three started at about 4.30 , we had about an hours drive to where we had planned to hunt , imagine the excitement as we opened that first camera and there were pics of a troop of gorillas !!, their tracks were all over the road …what a thrill ,

Nothing followable today , we did a lot of miles , actually you hunt bongo almost exactly like you hunt elephant , …roll the tyres looking for a good track and then assess the track , size of animal , age and how long since it crossed the road …these pygmies are INCREDIBLE …by FAR the very best displays of tracking I have ever seen and most of it in the very deep gloom almost darkness of the forest floor ! almost instantly they will be able to tell when an animal was there and they head off into the dark gloom tracking through the leaf litter …often so fast that even though they are cutting paths for us they are tracking faster than we can walk !!!

I have been fascinated by the birds and butterflies , we haven’t seen many birds but the sounds are incredible …

We are short of rain the trackers and clint tell me when it rains it changes and the bongo start moving …today we drove ten hours straight loking for a big track and while we saw LOTS of groups or should I say sign of groups , no big lone male tracks …the reason you cant follow a group is that invariably the dogs will bay a female or youngster and the bull wont even be seen so what one looks for is a large lone male track ….

Tonight as we went to bed a violent storm was approaching ….what a treat to fall asleep to thunder lightning and torrential rain especially as I know how good that will be for the hunting ….

Day for it only stopped raining about 4.30 am so we started a bit later and almost immediately got onto a track , within an hour the dogs had bayed it and as happens he was too small …actually surprising as he had a good tracks and his dropping was indicative of an older male , very cool to get up to him and we were so very lucky in that he stopped right in a forrest clearing , what an amazing experience to be 10 yards away from a bongo in the clearing , the photos and footage that we captured was incredible , ….we were certainly getting a full bongo hunting experience !!!

The rest of the morning and early afternoon very very few tracks based on the fact that the bongo are nocturnal and the heavy rain only stopped in the early morning this was to be expected so we decided to hunt duikers …

In the afternoon we called duikers and Kendal shot a nice bay duiker , this is also a very interesting process for those of you that haven’t done it ..

For some reason forrest duikers will come to the sound of a duiker in distress and for generations the pymies have used this technique to kill then , what one does is locate a good place to sit where one can see when a duiker comes in …we all sit in a group and the designated caller starts to bleat for four or five minutres , if nothing , we relocate a few hundred yards and start again …in ten attempts we shot a bay and saw two blues that we didn’t get a shot at , …very exciting and always fun to hunt something in a traditional manner ..

We are holding thumbs for tommorow , second day after a storm like that should be amazing….

folks , interestingly enough same guns as one would choose in the valley for elephant , kendall is shooting a heym 470 and clint is carrying a bolt action heavy calibre ...the only time a ph will shoot in this scenario is if one bumps into elephants which is highly unlikely and because of the thick bush a heavy calibre is recommended - when one approaches you are usually very close , moving target and double is a great choice ... of course with all the rain , damp and humidity each evening everything is oiled heavily - after all thats what our rifles are for isnt it ...making great memories !!!
i am carrying a camera and LOVING doing so learning so much from clint , the pygmies and the environment and cant wait to "fly solo" on a bongo hunt here next year !!!!

Keep it coming Ivan !

quote:

Originally posted by ivan carter:
folks , interestingly enough same guns as one would choose in the valley for elephant , kendall is shooting a heym 470 and clint is carrying a bolt action heavy calibre ...the only time a ph will shoot in this scenario is if one bumps into elephants which is highly unlikely and because of the thick bush a heavy calibre is recommended - when one approaches you are usually very close , moving target and double is a great choice ... of course with all the rain , damp and humidity each evening everything is oiled heavily - after all thats what our rifles are for isnt it ...making great memories !!!
i am carrying a camera and LOVING doing so learning so much from clint , the pygmies and the environment and cant wait to "fly solo" on a bongo hunt here next year !!!!

Thanks for info Ivan - I would have never guessed a large caliber double was the rifle of choice. My 470 Searcy Deluxe is my absolute favorite rifle and seems to well suited for this type of hunting. I may have to put one of these hunts on my list.

Please continue the great reports - I find them fascinating!

Enjoying the updates and wishing you good weather and luck!

Thanks for another interesting update Ivan. I'm looking forward to seeing some of your pictures when you get out of the bush.

Day five ,
Let me tell you a little about the pygmies and the hunt – this hunt is very different to anywhere else in africa , one has 4 or five trackers and the amazing thing is that all pygmies are great trackers , yes some better than others but no such thing as a pygmy that cant track … I have worked with a lot of trackers over the years and there has always been a very definite hierarchy and front place in the line is jealously guarded – not at all with the pygmies , they will track just as hard no matter who is in front , when the track is lost they fan out and the next guy to see it becomes the lead man till its lost again – each guy has one or two dogs and they are constantly shushing and hissing to encourage their dogs . ..the dogs are truly tools , very disposable and paid little attention, interestingly this is something I have experienced with many many of the true tribal people of africa be they massai , hadza bushmen or kalahari bushmen , I guess if you are working to survive you have a very different perspective on pet care !!! These folks truly live in the forrest by that I mean they don’t just survive , they thrive ! they buy little and all their food comes from the forrest , most days by the time we returned to the truck they had found some fruit or other , something edible , be it a snail , or a shirtfull of berries …all their needs are met through the forrest – need a dog leash ? – use a vine – need a bag – three minutes will have you a fine bag made from vines and leaves ! actually makes you feel very very inadequate even in our own world we are very dependant on appliances and “living aids”… the sad thing is their complete dependency on alcohol – that’s for another time ….

Anyhow , back to the hunt , by 8 this morning we found a followable track admittedly a little smaller than we would have liked but we were all antsy to give it a try and see if luck would be on our side – the first dropping we found indicated that it was to be a bongo of sufficient age and worthy of some time investment – it was hot , very hot the sun was shining and the humidity was high …

Just twenty minutes past the dropping we had found , our lead dog “dumpy” let out a bark and the game was on …imagine the thrill when we get there and the bongo has bayed in a clearing – in the sunshine – I am getting goosebumps just typing this , I was sire this was it and what a beautiful scenario – as soon as he lifted his head to charge a dog even I could see he was not a shooter – we crept in to about ten yards , took some amazing video and stills and then started to try and call the dogs off – calling the dogs off is tough and takes about 30 minutes to an hoiur as one by one they come to us they are tied by vines and eventually all are off …what a thrill , I just hope that the video will look as good on the big screen and that people will be able to just get a feel for what an amazing priveledge it is to have such a clear view of a wild bongo in great light !!!

The rest of the day was without incident , , we did see a large group of chimpanzees near the road , again just another amazing forrest experience ..

Day 6
I am not even sure where to start today !

As we left camp the trackers urgently banged on the roof , there was a troop of gorillas making their way down a branch , we stopped and sat quietly and got an incredible view of several lowland gorillas , seeing them on a trailcam is totally thrilling , seeing real ones coming down a tree , incredible !

We decided to go down a long logging road , the logging is a disturbing thing to see , giant trees , road networks and yes we would not access the forrest without the logging roads nevertheless , one feels cold and weird as you drive past a stack of logs each one 60 feet long and 5 feet in diameter !

As we drove down the logging road it seemed that every ten minutes we were looking at another bongo track , or a buffalo track , we even found a very fresh forrest sitatunga track that we nearly followed but our lead tracker ( probably correctly) persuaded us to keep our focus on the bongo ..

We never did see a followable track , they were either herds , single males that were too young or single males that were big enough but from a day or two earlier –

One thing that seems to be larger than life here and certainly far more colorful is the butterflies , I will post some of the pics I took of them but its amazing the variety and size and truly in this environment its easy to believe that possibly some of these insects be they butterflies or other insects may not even have been described yet !

driving back to camp we all agreed tommorow we would go on the loop where the salt licks were and check the trailcameras.

Another incredible day , sitting here in my room thinking about it , watching andy download the days footage and scrolling through my pictures , I have two major thoughts
1/why did it take me so long to get to the forrest for bongo
2/how much fun I am going to have here in coming seasons !

have a great day people !

Can't wait to see the pictures and video!!!

pics will be posted as soon as i get fast internet , sorry folks ! they are worth waiting for !!!!

What a fascinating report. Ivan, I think you've convinced several dozen of us that we must someday hunt bongo.

great report my friend ,and of course WE WANT THE PHOTOS

Ivan,
You are a great story teller. I am really enjoying this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chuck

Ivan

Thanks for posting - I know how much extra work this is at the end of a long, demanding day in the field, and I really appreciate you taking this time each day.

"Passion" is a grossly misused word in the modern vocabulary, but you really convey your passion for this experience, and I really enjoy reading these updates each day. Looking forward to seeing the photos.

on the walls of the dining room there are a lot of skulls that have been collected in the forrest , a pair of gorilla skulls gets your immediate attention , the male huge and one that they found dead – judging from the state of his teeth and the sheer size I guess old age , then there are yellow back duikers both male and female , blue , bay peters duiker skulls after that and then one tiny little bates pygmy antelope – seems they all look down on you and beckon you into the forrest a weird world of interesting and little known creatures !

its day seven we are halfway, we have seen multiple tracks every day , we have bayed four bongo but nevertheless every ph will tell you that as you hit the halfway mark the days will speed up and the pressure starts to slowly increase –

it rained hard early evening at the camp , so tracks should be easy to follow today ! and indeed by 8.15 am we had a HUGE track to follow , it was from yesterday morning , we were a full 24 hours behind it but based on the fact that bongo bed in the day , a 24 hour old track found in the morning is treated similar to a 12 hour track and so off we went into the green !

today we went through the thickest possible forrest there can be on the planet and for 9 hours straight (the longest tracking clint had ever done in the forrest) we were ducking diving bending and weaving – at about five in the evening we realized that we were several miles from the nearest road and walking in the forrest at night would be a nightmare so we called it off …tommorow is another day !

so far we have seen tracks every single day , bayed several bongo and both kendall and i are having an absoulute blast !!!!