I just finished this book. It's an interesting format in that it's 12"x9"...full of large photos on high quality paper...the cover artwork is nicely done also.

It's basically a photo journal of Marc's recent hunt in CAR for Lord Derby Eland. He bid on the auction at SCI put up by Andre Roux but the twist was that Marc wanted to do 2 LDE in the same time frame as a regular hunt, which is 14 days. Andre cut Marc no slack and stated that he would have to pay for 2 full hunts and Marc wasted no time in writing a 2nd check...although it sounds like Andre wondered what in the world Marc was thinking...2 trophy LDE in 2 weeks? That's somewhat on the distant side of impossible and Andre had never done that before.

There was a lot of difficulty in tracking the LDE in the noisy cover and Marc is quite honest about the mistakes he made and the stalks that were subsequently blown. It's interesting to see Marc take a personal rollercoaster emotional ride as it's something that many of us can relate to on safari. The end result was that the first LDE took longer than it might have due to some errors in the final stalk. Again, Marc tells it like it happened with no one to blame but himself. That's somewhat uncommon in safari writing and I appreciated Marc's candor.

The 2nd LDE comes much quicker and as with all exceptional animals there is that hard to define element of luck. Marc openly states that his 2nd LDE was the trophy of his lifetime without question and it took the #2 spot in SCI. Even Andre and the trackers seem to be stunned at the animal on the ground before them. Andre goes into some detail about his shock in the book's introduction.

Marc goes on to give the highest praise to the trackers and to Andre Roux who Marc believes is one of the fittest and most able PHs that he has ever met.

Much of the story is told in the photos with assorted pages of text and the photos follow the story line well enough. It's an interesting book about a very difficult hunt (some say the toughest in Africa) and I'm pleased to have it in my library. If there was one hunt I could could do that is beyond my reach...this would be the one.

One more for the library!

Just got settled in and found two big book stores and LL Beans pretty exaustive collection here in town.

I might get one of these it sounds great!

Did he video that hunt?

Yes, he videos all of his hunts. Some of the footage is shown on his Botswana DVD called Delta Royale. I'm watching that now and will post a review afterwards. It's amazing how big that LDE is...the first one is really nice but the 2nd one is a freak.

jbderunz and I had dinner with BillC during his layover in Paris on his way to Cameroon to hunt LDE. I hope he gets SCI number one, but I had to tell him that I am green with envy every time someone tells me about their Lord Derby hunt. If you have never seen a well done shoulder mount of a Lord Derby Eland, you haven't seen the most stunning of all African antelopes. I think I'll get Marc Watt's book.

I saw some live ones at the San Diego Zoo about 5 years ago. My then girlfriend at the time and I both agreed that it was the most beautiful animal in the world.

I wonder if they still have them at the zoo? I don't think I have ever seen a live one before.

They are definitely impressive critters. I think this is one of those times when there is no ground shrinkage effect!

I'm a bit jealous of Bill also but he works very hard to take these hunts and is very zealous in his research and training. He is just about the perfect client.

Wink and D99, I think you'll like the book if for no other reason that they are unique and done with quality. Some of the photos are not razor sharp in focus but that's because some of them were taken from video footage (and noted as such).

http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-spiral-horned_antelope.html

They do!

You know years ago I talked to a fellow that imported the first LDE to North America, I can't remember if he lived in Sask, Manitoba, Michigan, or Minnesota.

He had about 100 of them on his place in addition to the ones that were at the zoo that he worked at. He had paid for the initial importation himself and kept half of those animals.

I would rather hunt LDE than Tanzania anyday of the week. You don't even have to do a full bag Tanzania safari and the prices are similar, so why not hunt LDE?

Are there LDE in Tanzania? I thought they were located in the central African nations. Thought the eland in Tanz were the East African variety.

It was a comparison between the cost of a LDE safari in the West and a half bag safari in Tanzania.

14 Days in Tanzania is more expesive than those same 14 days hunting LDE in CAR.

13 Days in CAR with Fauna Safari is $37,000 plus another $5000-7000 for trophy fees.

10 Days full bag plainsgame safari in Masailand with Swanapol and Scandrol Safaris is $42,500 plus another $5000-8000 for trophy fees. Yes that's ten days.

10 Days two buffalo safari in Selous is $18,000 plus trophy fees for buffalo, warthog, zebra, and so on.

I would prefer the Eland in CAR, any day of the week.

It's going to be $50,000:

For a 14 day safari in Masailand for leopard and buffalo.

For 14 days in West Africa hunting LDE and little else.

For a full bag safari in Zimbabwe including a good elephant bull, lion, hippo, leopard, and a host of plainsgame for 21 days.

Value is in the eye of the beholder!

I would go for LDE (or Marco Polo ram) instead of a TZ hunt...no question.

quote:

it was the most beautiful animal in the world.

I think I agree.

Marco Polo isn't my idea of a good time. I have spent too much time in the Stans to want anything to do with that hunt.

Understood. I didn't say it was a good time but it is one of the top trophies of the world. The LDE is far from being a typical African hunt though too. It's not real cushy.

The second biggest problem other than where you hunt MPArgali is the fact that you may not get an import permit.

$40,000 and maybe or maybe not an import permit.