I just got back from a self guided hunt in Cameroon. The hunt was conducted totally on foot with 12 porters carrying all of your gear, we had a good hunt and a great experience! During the hunt I shot Harnessed bush buck, Western heartabeast, Red river hog, Western roan, Northwestern buffalo, I had opportunities but passed on oribi, warthog, and bush duikers. I will try to post a complete hunt report with pictures in a few days .

Did you go with Cam? If so, I got his report of the hunt. Man, what a time you had!

Cameroon is French speaking isn't it?

Any language issues?

Thanks.

FYI NitroX, Officially it is English and French. My understanding is it is practically French. USELESS INFO WARNING!! The country is actually originally german then split into british and french Cameroon. Once they were given the keys they then combined with hardly any bloody violence at least by african standards.

I hunted with Greg Cam. On the first four days I was very sick. I don't know what I had, My guess is heat stroke or some form of giardia. Being sick made walking 10-15 miles a day in 100+ F a little harder, but it still was a very enjoyable hunt! French is the primary language in most of Cameroon.

That hunt sounds like the safaris of past. I've ask questions on this forum about hunts like what you've just done and not much response and the response I got was mostly negative. I guess most hunters here like the pampering the big companies give their clients.
I can't wait to get the full report. Hope you had a great time!

Robert,

If you don't mind me asking, how does the cost of this hunt compare with someone like Mayo Oldiri? I take it you were in the savannah? Did you see any LD Eland? Were you hunting them?

Wow, what an adventure! I am eagerly awaiting your full report and pictures!

quote:

If you don't mind me asking, how does the cost of this hunt compare with someone like Mayo Oldiri? I take it you were in the savannah? Did you see any LD Eland? Were you hunting them?

A 12 day fully guided hunt in a premium area in Cameroon will cost around $24,000 + $5000 in trophy fees ( For the animals I shot ) I would guess my hunt cost a 1/3 of that. But its not fair to compare the two hunts. Outfitters operating in premium areas have huge expenses! (Government leases, Transportation, Roads, Housing ) For me spending $30,000 is not a option! I just don't have that kind of disposable income.

Zone banal areas (areas open to self guided hunting ) are usually heavily poached or offer limited animals. There are areas that still offer reasonable hunting but you must be willing and able to walk many miles from any road of town. You also have to realize you will not have the same level of luxury of any guided hunt.. No driving around looking for fresh tracks, no cold soft drinks, no air conditioned lodge,.
Very few people would ever enjoy this type of hunt, It's HOT, It's Humid, You will walk 5-15 miles each day, It's Dirty, Poachers, Nomadic herders, Someday everything will go wrong.

quote:

Originally posted by Robert johnson:
Very few people would ever enjoy this type of hunt, It's HOT, It's Humid, You will walk 5-15 miles each day, It's Dirty, Poachers, Nomadic herders, Someday everything will go wrong.

Robert

You certainly are one of the VERY SELECT FEW (tough hardy bushmen) whom woould venture to attempt such a hunt ///

I dont believe there are many others from AR whom would (truly commit) to do what you have done, if there are any others I would like to know whom they are.

Can you please tell me what (drives you personally) to do such a hunt in those godforsaken conditions. I know for sure I could not handle it myself, at my time of life give me a comfortable safari lodge with (ice cold) bevarage in hand and swimming pool to immerse the body in (-:

Cheers, Peter

Robert,

I am most interested in your hunt report. Since I travel fairly frequently to Cameroon, it is the presence and density of game in the areas you hunted that interests me most (are exact locations possible to post?). I have no problem with the logistical or language hurdles. I suppose if I commit some day I'll have to inform Balla Balla.

quote:

Very few people would ever enjoy this type of hunt, It's HOT, It's Humid, You will walk 5-15 miles each day, It's Dirty, Poachers, Nomadic herders, Someday everything will go wrong.

Only REAL Hunter will do it.
There is no place for SHOW Man.

mbogo, I didn't know one had to suffer and be in great discomfort for the adventure to be a REAL HUNT and could only be done by a REAL HUNTER.

Mbogo,

I am with Die Ou Jagter on this. How can you insinuate that what Robert did was any more admirable than me shooting a wt deer out of a treestand or when I wait patiently for a wt buck to clear the leg of the feeder so I can kill him from my stand without shooting the leg off the feeder. Shame on you.

Robert, it sounds like a fantastic experience and not for the faint-hearted!

Yes Robert, you have done what few do. A great experience. Even porters. Hope you took some photos.

Only twelve porters you really were roughing it. I'm still envious.

I am really looking forward to the report and pictures Robert, including not just in regards to the "hunting", but also the logistics and coordination involved in pulling a trip like this off. My hats off to you! Bill

(trying this for the first time - there should be a pic above if I did it right)

Look who you can bump into at Paris Airport on the way to Cameroon!

Starting on the left: Jim Shockey on his way to an outfitted bongo hunt (I believe with muzzleloader), Cam Greig, lil' ol' me, and Bob Johnson on his way to a savvanah chase libre hunt with Cam (hey Bob, congrats on your hunt!)

Bob will tell you all about his hunt in his hunt report.

I'm hitting a busy patch which probably put delay any full reports from me until August at least. But a quick summary: I went on a chasse libre (no PH, no vehicles), too. But mine was in the jungle for bongo. We were actually too early in the season (too dry for good tracking). Jumped a giant forest hog and bongo. Saw lots of buffalo, bongo, sitatunga sign. But no shot opps (I was using my long bow). I enjoyed it a lot. Because of the good economics, I'm planning to go back in July durinig the tail end of the wet season (better tracking I'm told) and maybe even one more trip a bit later on in one of the savannah areas.

In terms of trekking, we were in a mixed savvanh/jungle zone. So moving camp was straight forward with porters and stuff. But moving through jungle during the hunt was tough. Sort of tarzan-like. Porters with machetes cutting brush ahead. Worst part was

a) feet (and sometimes chest) would always get tangled by snare-like vines; lifting feet clear meant a strange movement which cramped up these odd muscles in the groin/upper thigh - they weren't the hamstrings which one can exercise in the gym; cramps disappeared when walking on clear ground along steam beds then reappeared when the snares were back.

b) there's little breeze beneath the canopy, so it gets hot, humid and I sweat like mad (need long sleeves but not something thick like BDUs). I wasn't prepared with salt. So sweating added to cramps.

c) Thorns as long as 4-5 inches so gloves and boots are needed. Funny . . . the big thorns weren't as much of a problem (unless they went through a boot which happened once), but the small ones you can't see really get you.

d) Good news: biting bugs are much less that Canada and Alaska. The worst were ants that would appear in the morning. Brushing along the wrong branch could unload a bunch of them up your leg or down your neck. Sometimes felt like bee stings. For me, ant bites + malaria med reaction also caused a lasting rash. Bad news: bugs and bees after you the salt in your dried sweat can swarm at selected times during the day (night was surprisingly cool are relatively bug-less). At times, so many bugs it becomes hard to breathe much like Canada/Alaska in peak bug season. But since its warm and humid, headnets and long sleeves are more uncomforatble. We ended up retreating to our jungle hammocks.

Good part is that water is available even in dry season (stream water was drinkable and tasted good even though a bit cloudy; great for a bath) and the locals could cook unexpectedly good meals from jungle stuff (don't ask where the fresh meat came from). Lots of labor + water meant clothes were washed daily (a big plus). Nights were surprisingly cool. The (generally bug free) calm of mornings and evenings was nothing short of wonderful.

Perhaps more info after summer. Bob's report will be of great interest until then. Gotta do taxes (ugh!) and work now.

All the best!

Thanks for sharing! Would love to hear more at a later stage, because this kind of hunting really is something I would like to try..

Robert or The Big K

Is Cam from NZ, as if my memory serves me corect there was this chap (I think it is Cam) whom has done that (self guided Cameroon hunt) a few times now. To be a bit flippant I guess we could call him Cam from the Cameroon (-:

Do any you (real hunter wildlife guys) per-chance have a home DVD production of your self guided Cameroon soujourn at all !! If so would it be possible to get hold of a copy somehow as that hunting you do is something we lesser mortels only dream about

Cheers ......

I thing the NZ guy your thinking about is Ross Green. Guys I will try to post a full hunt report soon.

Robert

You have a much better memory than me.

You are 100% correct it was in fact Ross Green Outfitter in NZ whom hunted self-guided in the Cameroon, he has also hunted Congo. I remember now seeing his hunting report some while ago in the SCI (New Zealand chapter) news publication.

Ross in fact operates Call O The Wild in NZ

Cheers & thanks for the heads up answer

i nearly went on a similar deal in BF this season, but got put off because the more I investigated, the more it looked like an expensive pg hunt masquerading as a cheap buffalo hunt. and the representatives I contacted were very bureaucratic, would not bend the rules at all (one of which requires two "guides" for each hunter, so my buddy and I ... we planned to back each other up..would have to hunt in a party of 6 people. they couldn't give me a live reference of anyone who had actually shot a buffalo. the same names kept popping up as references and those guys never responded to my emails.

it also turns out (from some reading i did) that the REASON the chasse libre exists in this area is that NO safari company was interested in the lease...not enough high-dollar species. even though this is supposed to be a reserve.

sooo...anyone heard anything about the BF chasse libre hunting?

quote:

Originally posted by Robert johnson:
I just got back from a self guided hunt in Cameroon. The hunt was conducted totally on foot with 12 porters carrying all of your gear, we had a good hunt and a great experience! During the hunt I shot Harnessed bush buck, Western heartabeast, Red river hog, Western roan, Northwestern buffalo, I had opportunities but passed on oribi, warthog, and bush duikers. I will try to post a complete hunt report with pictures in a few days .

Great experience! My respect to you!

May I ask you some questions? 12 porters, aren’t too much? What did they do? Did you carry all food and water with you?

On this type of hunt there are no cars, once you are dropped off at the village Everything must be carried on the porters backs. Its hard to truly understand how much harder this type of hunt is! Simple things like moving camp 15 miles. On a fully guided hunt, You get up, take a shower, put on clean clothes, have a nice breakfast and take a short drive to the next hunting area. On a self guided hunt it's an all day grueling test of endurance! On my hunt I know we packed over 100 miles, The packer carried all the camp supplies and meat! Some days their loads were over 100 lbs. in 100+ temps and 80-90 humidly. If you ever go on this type of hunt you will come back with a new sense of respect for the African bushman! One of these days I will try to post some of my pictures.

Robert, I've got such experience in Russia not in Africa. The package in autonomic hunt for a 1-1.5 weeks about 55,12 lbs. for a person (without water). More porters - more food and camping things to carry. My experience says: two porters for one hunter is enough. I am really interested, why did you need 12 porters?

It will be very interesting to see more photos from you.

There a many reasons!
Even though you don't legally need it you must have the approval from any local village leaders ( if you want things to go smoothly ). Gifts of Salt,Sugar, 1/2 dozen machetes, and hiring a half dozen porters, and the promise of half of all the meat. get you permission. You have to realize the porters only work for Meat / Food. They also want some money, But in a corrupt African country paper money can be useless to them ! These guys live 30-50 miles for the closest "Store". They only way they could get to town is walk or pay someone to drive them. To them meat is truly money in the bank!

When you shoot an animal everything is saved /dried (meat, guts, intestines, hide,large bones) Everything is packed back to the village (10-25 miles each way) were the village leaders get half of everthing! Even with a large group of packers killing a very large animal like elephant can effectively end your hunt. If we only had say two packers we could have only killed one animal.

After going on this hunted I have a far better understanding of some of Africa problems.

Very interesting nuances!

Robert,

Anyone who would go on a hunt like that has balls and superior woodsmanship to say the least!!! Congratulations Robert on great and difficult hunt!


Die Ou Jagter & SG Olds,

Settle down! There's a difference between "Only REAL Hunter will do it" and "if you don't do it this way you're not a real hunter".

Brett

This sounds like a hell of a great time! I am very much looking forward to hearing details of the hunt soon.

This is Cam from Cameroun I will let Robert continue to share about his adventure, but if any of you would be interested in having one of your own I would be glad to answer any PM's sent to me. Just read the whole thread and note it is not for beginners or those with a low tolerance for risk.
I charge $6000 to set up a hunt like this for you and a friend (each). You can shoot one male of each species and pay the trophy fee. The cost covers almost everything except a concession fee of %600. It even includes visa, gun import and hunting license. I have a number of areas in Cameroun with a variety of game. I was born there and have a full time Cameroonian staff that helps you with all the details. I guess I could start a new thread if you would be interested. I will be giving a talk at the Dallas SCI in November on "Self guided huts around the world" if any of you are members.

Cam Greig

I forgot to post the trophy prices that go with the Cameroun self guided hunts.
animal $ cost
Elephant $ 4,000
Bongo * $ 3,500
Eland * $ 3,500
Buffalo * $ 1,800
Roan * $1600
waterbuck $ 800
hartebeest $ 500
bushbuck $ 300
red river or wart hog$ 300
giant forest hog $ 400
sitatunga $ 1000
Yellow back duiker $ 500
peter & other duike $ 300
* Denotes group 1 animal of which you are only allowed 2 on a hunt
Four other animals are allowed per hunter/year (Group 2)
Only males may be shot
PROTECTED: Leopard, pangolin, water chevrotain, chimps.

Elephant may not be imported into the USA at this time, but you can see you could have an all inclusive elephant hut for under $11K. I am storing some there until such time as importation opens again.
Cam

Thanks for the info Cam, what are the chances at either a bongo or eland?

Cheers

Gabriel

The chance for these two flagship species is low. That's why the outfitters can charge such huge amounts of money. They are two very hard animals to collect. On the other hand a chance at either a forest or savannah buffalo is very high; 90% close encounters and about 80% harvesting.
You can see what Robert took: buffalo, roan, hartebeest, red river hog and harnessed bushbuck. That's a pretty good value for the hunt.
I bill this as an adventure hunt, not a collector’s hunt. If you want a true African adventure with a good chance at game it might be a good hunt for you.
Cam

A clarification is that Robert and I had the 12 porters between us, not 12 per person. If you think about carrying enough salt to properly salt what Robert shot along with the food for not only yourself but all the porters you will see why these trips end up with a “string of porters.†I think Roosevelt had more than 100 for his hunt with his son Kermit in “African Game Trailsâ€. . My most for 2 hunters was 25 on a one month trip deep into the southern jungles. The pygmies on that trip ate up a whole elephant in 7 days and came begging for more meat!

Cam