Father & Son Elephant Hunt in the East Caprivi

Dates Hunted:May 16 - May 31, 2009 (16 days hunting + the morning of June 1)

Location:Sobe & Balyerwa Concessions bordering Mudumu National Park for the Elephant & Hippo, went back to Eden for the plainsgame.

Animals Harvested:2 Trophy Elephant Bulls, Hippo, Warthog, 2 Kudu, Impala, Zebra, 6 Gemsbok (1 trophy, 5 cull), Blue Wildebeest (cull), Eland (cull), Waterbuck, Springbok, Red Hartebeest

Species seen but not hunted:Souther Roan, Crocodile, Caprivi Zebra (no shadow strips, but still considered Burchell's), Aardvark, Honey Badger, Blesbok, Black Wildebeest, Giraffe, Steenbok, Duiker, lots of Hyena tracks, Jackal

Weapons:Matching .460 Weatherbys scoped with Swarovski dangerous game scope and Zeiss Divari 1.5x6 for the Elephant, .340 Weatherby for Hippo & Plainsgame, .300 Weatherby for plainsgame

Outfitter:Eden Wildlife
PH: Jamy Traut & Dries Alberts
http://www.eden-wildlife.com

Travel Agent:Shawn at Gracy Travel

Commercial Flights:United from Sioux Falls, SD to Chicago O'Hare International
United flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany
Checked into a day room at the Frankfurt Sheraton
Air Namibia flight to Windhoek, Spent night at the Onganga Guesthouse
Air Namibia flight from Windhoek Eros Airport to Mpacha Airport in Katima Mulilo, Caprivi

Events Leading up to Elephant Safari:
It happened when I arrived home for my '08 Thanksgiving break from college. I was a senior studying Biology and Chemistry at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, and I was excited to get some pheasant & deer hunting in over the break. While we were feasting over my mother's fantastic meal she had prepared for us my dad told me that he had received an email from Jamy Traut. Jamy is a well known PH in Namibia who we met back in 2004 when I went on my first African safari, and in '06 when we returned to hunt with him. So naturally we are great friends and emails back and forth are fairly regular, but this one was particularly special. Jamy had become the new concessionaire of two great areas in the Caprivi, Sobe and Balyerwa. He asked my dad if he would be interested in an elephant hunt, and it took my dad about .2 seconds to send a reply with an emphatic YES! but the kicker was that he said that he had an elephant available for me as well. Convincing my dad to take me with was not such a sure thing. Elephant hunts aren't cheap, and they can be dangerous to hunt. But my mom stepped in and said that he was not allowed to go unless I went with!! So it was decided, right there at the Thanksgiving day table, that we would be elephant hunting the coming May, and boy was I Thankful! I stuffed myself and then retreated to living room to watch the football game only to fall asleep after the Lions were down 60-0 at the end of the first quarter (sorry Lions fans ).

May 14
We arrived to Katima on the morning flight after a somewhat troubling experience at the EROS airport in Windhoek. The police there who checked the rifles wanted to see the ammunition as well as the serial numbers of our guns. Obviously our ammo was in our other checked bags so they had to retrieve those off the plane. The police officer then continued to count every single bullet. Which was very frustrating because I knew this guy didn't have a clue what he was looking at, just trying to make life difficult. He probably couldn't even count that high. Anyway, all of our guns and gear made it safely to Katima where Jamy and his apprentice Naudea came to pick us up. Naudea is a 24 yrold Namibian who is going to make one heck of a PH one day, a super hard worker and a great personality. We stopped for lunch at the Zambezi Lodge on the banks of the Zambezi where we had a beautiful view of Zambia, a country I wish to hunt in the future. We then picked up some groceries, a few spare tires, and checked the status of the Land Cruiser that was "charged" by a kudu cow as Naudea claims. From Katima we drove about 80 km southwest to "elephant camp" which Jamy and Naudea have built in the Sobe concession. There was several kilos of sandy two-track road that went through a rural caprivian village. On this road we immediately started to see elephant tracks....everywhere! We stopped several times to look at them and Jamy took this opportunity to teach us a little about them. We learned what to look for and what to ignore. Any tracks that are 19" or bigger are definitely worth following he said. Then we saw our first elephants! Only 3 km from camp a young bull crossed the two track ahead of us. We stopped and stood on top of the cruiser and for a better look and discovered that there are 5 bulls in total. We couldn't get a good look at 2 of them so Jamy decides that we are going to go unpack and then try and have a look at them this evening. We called those bulls the "Welcoming Committee."

Mpacha Airport


Elephant Camp in Sobe Concession

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May 15
Today we drove around Sobe's perimeter looking for elephant tracks. Sobe borders Mudumu National Park to the North and East. We found several tracks and dung and surprising most of them were coming out of the park and into Sobe. So that was a very good indication. As evening fell we came across a large breeding herd of cows and calfs. I quickly learned that there are a lot of elephants in the area. That night around the fire we met the other PH who will be hunting with us, Dries Alberts. As we meet him and Jamy asks how his drive from Tsumkwe was, he jokingly says that he saw three 80 pounders cross the road into Mudumu. We immediately enjoyed Dries company and listened to the many stories he had to offer about his experiences working for the Ministry of Environment.
Dries and Jamy



May 16
My dad wanted me to shoot first, usually I take him up on it, but in this case there was no way I was going to shoot an elephant and have him go home with nothing. Anyway, on our first official day of hunting with license in hand we drove south of camp and walked into a waterhole that was frequented by elephants. We didn't find anything worth following so we decided to try another hole north of camp. On our way back to camp the staff said that they had heard branches being snapped off. As we got out of the cruiser we also heard it so we just made the wind right and headed in their direction. It only took us a few hundred yards to see the first bull. As we were moving in closer a second, larger bull appeared to our right. We crouched down and the bull, estimated at 30 pounds, walked only 20 yards in front of us. Jamy made my dad raise his gun and practice the sight picture of the side on brain shot. This bull had a huge body. We let the bull move away and then we moved in closer as he fed on palms. I practiced the sight picture as well and we enjoyed watching the bull at about 45 yards. When we decided that it was time to leave him alone we tried to sneak away but the bull spotted us and came at us in a mock charge. Jamy and Dries were yelling and we all had our guns pointed at the bull when he stopped a mere 20 yards away with his head held high and ears out. Talk about a rush! The bull conceded to us and turned and walked away. Later Jamy and Dries were impressed that both of us held our ground and were ready to put the elephant down if we had to. Needless to say the tracker Kaleishus, and the conservancy guys Chicken and Mike were much further away after the mock charge was through. I feel very lucky to have experienced something like that.

May 17
We paid our dues. Walked 12.5 miles according to my GPS and didn't see an elephant. We did find a new water hole that Jamy was unaware of. He named it Mebuke Pan which means "good morning" in Caprivian. This pan had a 23 inch bull track but it was difficult to track on the hard ground so we decided that we would continue hunting in the direction we started in and come back to this pan at first light to see if the bull had visited over the night.
Mebuke Pan


May 18
At first light we drove to the nearest point we could to Mubuke Pan which was 2 miles. We walked in and found the fresh tracks of not only the 23 incher but also of several younger bulls. We decided to spread out and look for tracks since the grass was long and the ground was not good for tracking. We found some still steaming dung after we had walked about a mile when we heard the unmistakable sound of a herd of elephants running away from us. We followed them and bumped them yet again. We followed until we came to a two-track road. From the spoor they figured about 9 bulls were in the herd. We had the truck come pick us up and we drove to a point where we figured that we were ahead of the bulls and could walk towards them as they walked towards us. This master plan worked, but not the way we thought. We hadn't gone that far when we heard a very loud rumbling sound. It sounded like the truck was starting in the distance, but it was actually an elephant growling at us. If he hadn't had vocalized his presence we probably would have walked right past him. As we were walking one direction the bull was moving in the other so Jamy, Dries, Dad and I quickly moved to try and get in front of him. We reached a clearing that the bull was going to walk through but as the bull came he turned to face us. I had seen the right tusk and knew that it was very long compared to the other bulls that we had seen so far in the past few days, but Jamy wanted to see the other side. Once we saw that the tusks were matched, Jamy whispered to take the frontal brain shot, because the bull was looking right at us but there was a tree between us and him. The bull turned and offered a side brain shot at 18 yards as he moved around the tree. Dad took the shot and the bull fell to his knees but quickly got up and turned to run. Dad put another shot into the forehead and then I shot a few times once in the head and another into the body. The bull fell only 30 yards from the first shot but we definitely made war for a few seconds. My dad was a little disappointed that he didn't hit the brain on the first shot, he was just a little low, but he was all smiles and floating the rest of the day!


Dad & Jamy

Kaleishus, Chicken & Mike


We took the rest of the day to take care of the butchering of the elephant. We were a long ways from the nearest village so only a handful of butchers came to take part in the process. They set up spotlights and did not finish until 5am.



May 19 & 20
We let Sobe settle down a little the next two days and traveled to the Balyerwa Concession, which borders the south edge of Mudumu National Park and has the Kwando River system running through it. Jamy took out a Hippo permit for me and we decided that we would try and make a plan for a hippo once I had my elephant was on the ground. After all Dad had shot his elephant on the third day of the hunt and I had 12 days to find one for me. You could just feel how relaxed that made us feel. Because the Kwando river system runs through Balyerwa there are several other species that Jamy has on quota including Hippo, crocodile, Roan, Impala, Zebra & Buffalo. So Jamy wanted to explore his concession a little more and the only way to do that right now is by boat. There are several flooded channels and Jamy has had people working on cutting the tall reeds away so that he can drive his boat through them. He is also funding the building of three bridges into an area of Balyerwa where there are no people and where all the buffalo are found. The bridge made Namibian national news while we were there. He plans to build a camp similar to the one in Sobe here.
Dad & Dries inspecting the bridge's progress

So we took the boat out as far as we could. I had the several stories of insane, aggressive killer hippos that Dries has been telling us about in my mind as we rounded every corner. There were 4 big guns in the boat. Dries had named his .416 the "pumpkin slinger." We didn't see any hippo, but we heard them in the reeds and the loud grunts that the bulls make when their territory is being invaded.





After returning from the boat ride we found that the staff had killed a 8 foot Black Mamba as it tried to enter the tan tent behind where Derrick is standing just minutes before we returned.


It was an exciting couple of days and knowing that we are going to have to get wet if we are going to get a hippo is an example of when it helps to be a little crazy. We spent that night at Namoushasha lodge and acted like tourists as we were warned that its a anti-hunting establishment.

Fantastic report and pics. Thanks for sharing.

Boy, I hope there is more! I imagine that you have graduated already, but if you are still in the area let me know as I would love to hear more about your trips.

May 21
We returned to Sobe to hunt for my elephant. We walked 8 miles today, 4 in the morning and 4 in the evening. I should mention that from noon until 2:30 its really too hot to hunt so you nap, lounge, journal, read or whatever in camp during that time. We did find some big bull tracks but nothing that we could follow. It seems like we spent a lot of time driving from place to place but it pays off because you learn where the elephants are moving and what part of the concession they are in.

Chicken, Mike, Zoro, & Kaleishus


Open area where we saw a large herd of Roan





May 22
At first light we drove to an area of Sobe we had never been before and found that a large bull had walked down the two-track between the concession and Mudumu. Unfortunately, he decided to trick us by going into Sobe and then just a few hundred yards further went right back into the Park. They sure are smart. At about 9am Jamy received a call from Eustace, an old Caprivian who knew that we were looking for a bull elephant. He gave us a hot tip that two bull elephants had been chased out of a pumpkin patch last evening in the village of Lianshulu which is in Balyerwa. We decided that we should go check it out. I forgot to mention that it is a two hours drive from Sobe to Balyerwa via a sandy two track. So its a lot of driving. When we arrived it was around 11 and we picked up Eustace at the school. From there he led us to where he had seen the elephants. We found there track and sure enough we didn't have to walk even a mile before we came up on two bull elephants. They knew we were there and I thought they had given us the slip as we caught a glimpse of him moving in one direction and quickly moved to get into position and he was gone. Jamy figured he had doubled back and said that the bull thought that we were villagers and would not run but simply hide. Sure enough we found the bull not far from where we originally found them. The bulls were sleeping under a big tree, butt-to-butt. When we were about 40 yards away, only Jamy and I crawled to within 23 yards of the bulls. Jamy studied the ivory for what seemed like an eternity and turned to me and said "I really like those tusks, I know that you want something longer but he is thick for a Caprivi elephant." I already had my mind made up though, this was my bull. Jamy told me to stand up slowly. We rose together and I lined up a side on brain shot with the bull slightly quartering towards me. I pulled the trigger and the bull fell right in his tracks. I put a couple more in frontally for insurance purposes and it was all over. I stayed amazingly calm throughout the whole sequence but now I was shaking with excitement. What a privilege. Hugs and handshakes all around because the "Pumpkin Eater of Balyerwa" was down! We found some of his fresh dung and sure enough it was loaded with pumpkin seeds.




Me, Naudea, & Jamy

Me, Dad & Balyerwa Staff

The Traditional cutting of the tail



We spent the rest of the day butchering. Because it was only about a kilometer from Lianshulu it seemed like most of the village showed up. It was a great feeling knowing that I provided tons of meat and protein to this village.





May 24
So Jamy, against Dries' inner wishes I know, developed a plan on how to get one of the hippo bulls out of the reeds. Let me say that I was the first hippo hunter in this area that Jamy has guided. He had hunted one hippo before but that was in a secluded pan away from the river system. He decided that we were going to wade to an area, and then my dad and I would get into a canoe and hold all four guns, while Jamy, Dries, Naudea, Derrick, Dusty, & Eustace would push and swim next to the canoe. This is exactly how it worked out. There was a small stretch that was about 9 feet deep and they had to swim. Mind you that we were constantly hearing hippo grunts and knew that there were a few big crocodiles in the channels somewhere. Eventually we reached a small island where we knew that the hippo were sunbasking during the day as the water is still too cold. Then the waiting game started because we knew that the hippos were going to want to get onto this secluded island eventually. Well it didn't take long, only about 45 minutes passed before we heard a hippo surface and let out a serious series of grunts that were very loud and very intimidating. The bull was only about 30 yards away and in a small pool where there were no reeds growing. We snuck over to an area behind some tall grass where we could see the pool but we hoped they couldn't see us. The hippo surfaced several times and once even yawned letting us see those huge tusks of his. Then something strange happened, a little calf hippo surfaced. Jamy knew that he had seen a bull, but now there was a cow hippo somewhere as well. We sat there for a long time waiting as the bull patrolled his territory in a half circle around us. We heard him spread his dung which sounded like a helicopter as he swished his tail back and forth. Eventually, he became more and more inquisitive, he knew something was wrong and didn't want to come out of the safety of the water and tall reeds. Then he surfaced very close to us as he let out a huge bubble before he came up. We let him go back under and then Jamy and I stood up. Our backs were to a bush with thorns so I felt like a piece of velcro. Jamy whispered to me that when you see the bubble to raise your gun and then take the shot at the brain when he says. So as we were standing there the calf hippo surfaced several times and I thought he was going to give us away. But sure enough we saw the bubble, I raised my gun (.340 Weatherby with 250gr nosler partitions) and shot the bull squarely in the brain, offhand at around 30 yards. The bull just disappeared at the shot and I had no idea whether I had hit him or not. We waited a few minutes before walking the few yards to the edge of the water only to see the bull belly up at the bottom of the channel. I have to admit that the hippo hunt was probably the most thrilling hunt that I have ever been a part of, and probably the greatest shot that I have ever made. Jamy and I jumped in and only once I was standing on my bull did I realize how big their bodies really are. We got a rope tied around his leg and all 7 of us started to pull as we landed my hippo.







May 25-June 1: Quest for the Namibian Tusked Trifecta
We packed up all our gear at Sobe and headed for Eden. A plainsgame paradise just west of Bushmanland where we have hunted before. We took it easy and shot a lot of cull animals for meat and leopard bait for Jamy. What I really wanted was a Warthog so that I can say that I am, if not the only, one of the few hunters to take all three tusked trophies available in Namibia, the elephant, hippo and warthog in the same safari. Luckily to say, that I shot an old, jumbo warthog on May 31st. I also shot a trophy Kudu, impala and a zebra. I also had the privilege of trigger time on three gemsbok, a young blue wildebeest and an ancient eland cow that I took out of her misery. Dad also shot some of the biggest animals that he has ever taken. He took a very nice kudu, monster springbok, red hartebeest, old waterbuck, and a large gemsbok bull.










My Warthog: Completion of the Namibian Tusked Trifecta

Optimistic Jackal

Trophy Puff Adder

Aardvark



A Great Safari that we packed a lot of stuff into but had the time of our lives doing!!!




Even made it to Joe's Beerhouse!




THANK YOU DAD & MOM!!!!!

Super report from a fantastic trip,congratulations to both you and your dad
thanks for sharing

Great hunt, congrats !

Fantastic pictures and a great story. Congratulations on the "trifecta". What a lucky, lucky young man.

Thanks for the report.

Bill

Terrific report and photos!

Congratulations to you and your father on a great adventure!

That was a great report. Congratulations to you and your father.

Congratulations on a fanstastic trip!

Don't forget to remind your Dad how much you appreciated the time you got to spend with him, that'll mean more to him than anything.

Fantastic hunt and report!

If you are in the Market for a much older brother let your Dad know that I am, in fact, up for adoption.

You have very special parents.

Great report, and absolutely beautiful pictures! Congrats to both you and your Dad!

My son and I went on our 1st safari, last summer, together. We hope to go again, in the next 2 yrs. Being a Dad, I'll bet yours has bigger memories of the trip, than you, if that's possible!

Congratulations young man!

Mad Dog

Great hunt and obviously great trophies. I wish I had experienced what you did at your age. I hunted with Dries last year in another part of the Caprivi and he was a great PH with some amazing stories about his work in the Ministry. I can understand his Hippo reluctance though after an episode we had on a Hippo hunt. To keep it brief, we were crossing a lagoon in a Mukuro (small carved tree trunk canoe) when a hippo surfaced and then submerged a few feet away. I'll never forget his immortal words "I'm not dying with a full magazine!". Needless to say, that had my full attention.

Excellent hunt and great report!

Brett

quote:

I'll never forget his immortal words "I'm not dying with a full magazine!".

That's Dries for sure. He had us saying that several times. I couldn't help but chuckle every time it was said because I knew that we were crazy for going some of the places that we did. Dries even went as far as to kiss every bullet he had on him before the hippo hunt got exciting

Thank you for taking the time to write such a great report and awesome photos. Simply outstanding.

Great report, great hunt. Congratulations.

That's a great report on what had to be a true hunt of a life time. The Caprivi is a great place to be. It's amazing how many elephants a person can see on a trip there.

I've hunted with Mike the game scout in your pictures twice. A really nice guy with a surprising amount of education.

Mokoros and Hippos, they supply hunting stories with amazing frequency.....some even good!

What an experience to share with your father. Super report, great photos, and I huge congras to both of you. That is a special trip that I know will last forever...

Strong hunt guys. What a way to spend time together! Congrats on some great trophies. Those are memories of a lifetime.
Cheers,
David

What a great report with great photos as well. And you can't beat ending up at Joes Beerhouse! Congrats.

Great hunt, report and photos!

Wonderful Adventure! You are both fortunate to get to do a trip like this together. Those are stunning ele's and hippo. Congrats and Thanks for sharing.

Incredible trip and report! It doesn't get much better then that in life.

I can't help but laugh looking at all the staff in their "Lacoste" shirts, something tells me they are knock offs!

You picked a good man in Jamy..a real pro.
Congrats on your outstanding safari.

Very good report and fantastic photos. BUT 460 weatherby? They do have excellent counselors you know.

Fantastic report and pictures. Congratulations to both Father and Son!

Probably one of the best hunt reports I have read and your pictures are outstanding.

Your hippo hunt is one of of a lifetime - thanks for that report.

Having shared a bed, as a surrogate parent of a warthog (long story!) in Zimbabwe, I have a definite affinity for them and yours has to be one of the most photogenic old boars I have seen on this site.

Love those big old bodied bulls like we had in Wankie and Bots.

You have been blessed at a young age - take it from a Zim native!

Great trophies and great report! Congrats.

Wow, what a hunt!

Great report. I really enjoyed reading about the hunt. The animals are all very nice and thhe pictures are great. Congratulations to you and your Dad.

Greg

You are a lucky young man to get to hunt Africa with your dad. A very well written report and some great trophies. A wonderful experience that will stay with the both of you for a lifetime.

The both of you will have memories to bask in forever...

Personally, I feel this is one of the greatest hunting safaris I've ever read here...

Your outfitter gave you folks a real adventure and hunting in all types of conditions!

Wow, that's alot of variety and all OUTSTANDING trophies!

The both of you will never be the same!

Truly blessed!

Aloha!

Ro

easily one of the most well written and well photographed safaris ever on AR. Congrats on a once in a life time hunt with your dad. Outstanding!

Thank you, Thank you to everyone who has posted kind words.

Here are a few more photos that I took while I was waiting at a water hole for a warthog. I could sit and watch the activity all day long. I also added a pic of the old eland cow I shot because of her obvious age condition and her horns are actually very very long.

Awesome hunt and report! Thanks for sharing!

ed, great report. it was good meeting you guys in Windhoek.

great report! I liked very much the old elephant bull you have taken. Congratulations