Lord Derby's Giant Eland : Cameroon March 2014 : Photo's added

Outfitter: Safari Chelet : Kourouk, Northern Cameroon
Booking Agent: Adventure Unlimited: John Barth.
Dates: March 23th to April 2nd 2014.

Sitting with my old friend John Barth in his booth at SCI in Vegas we were catching up in general but mostly discussing how disappointed I was with having to cancel my planned hunt to CAR. John and I had talked about my hunting the Giant or Lord Derby Eland for a few years and it seemed with the “closing” of CAR this would not eventuate. I have several friends who had hunted this magnificent antelope and told me of their great adventures in pursuing this much sought after and largest of the Eland species.

John went on to tell me he had a good relationship with Pepe Chelet from Safari Chelet. To date , they have been mainly operating in Cameroon for the Forrest species but had recently secured a couple of blocks in Northern Cameroon and now offered the Lord Derby Eland together with the other Savannah species typical of this environment.

A quick call to Pepe from John and half an hour later I was booking flights to Douala to arrive 5 weeks later for what would be the last Eland hunt (of the 4 they conduct ) for the season. John showed me some photos of the 2 bulls taken up until the SCI show and they were heavy, mature bulls with an average of 47”.

The next 5 weeks went very slow! Together with John’s very capable and helpful assistant, Merrona, we organized the documentation for my Visa through the Cameroon Embassy in DC and my passport arrived safely back in my hands 7 days after lodging. I was locked and loaded.
I was flying Delta (operated by Air France) through Charles De Gaul. Everything went very smoothly and landing in Douala at about 5pm I was met by Safaris Chelet’s local man Emille who did a great job of “expediting and assisting” me through customs etc. By 7pm I was sitting at the bar in The Meriden hotel with an ice cold Beaufort beer in my hand with that warm and fuzzy feeling that only comes with the excitement and expectation of starting of a safari. Emille collected me at 8am the next morning for my internal flight to Ngauondere (which interestingly went via Chad!!) , the capital of Northern Cameroon.
Ximo Chelet , my PH for the next 10 days , and Stefan the cook, met me at the airport and we soon had everything packed in the Hilux and commenced our 5 hour drive to camp. We stopped along the way to pick up some local bbq’d lamb (goat) from the side of the road….with a bit of salt and washed down with cold water I was really starting to get into the groove. Whilst Cameroon seemed to havce its differences to the other parts of Africa I had visited, the sights, sounds and smells were very familiar. The road was marginal to say the least and average speed was probably 60-70km an hour so there was lots of time to talk with Ximo about the hunt etc .

We arrived into camp after dark and despite being pretty tired we managed to have a little party. There was another hunter in camp and he had taken his Eland the day before. Chuck and his wife Vicky were from Florida and had been in camp for 7 days and were hunting with PH Hancke Hudson. I talked at length with Chuck about the hunting and all this did was reinforced my excitement for what was to come. We walked to the skinning shed after dinner and I was stunned by Chuck’s 47” super bull in the boiling drum.
Standard Operating Procedure for the safari would be to wake up at 5am and be out of camp about 6am which was about 15 minutes before sunrise. Much like hunting in other parts of Africa, we would drive the roads looking for fresh spoor and then get on the ground if it looked promising. Our hunting party consisted of Ximo and I and two trackers: Danlardy and Bleus.

To cut a long story short the first 5 days of hunting were the most physically and mentally taxing I have ever done. The conditions were brutal and I soon learned to appreciate why these Eland are regarded as amongst the most difficult animals to hunt. Most days it was 110+ degrees with varying levels of humidity. In the first 4 days we tracked Eland for 9 hours every day ….covering an average of 20km per day. The ground that these animals can cover is staggering. Ximo told me that just walking they travel at 10km an hour! If they break into a trot then it doubles. By the end of day 3 I was beginning to wonder if the tracks we were following really had animals at the end of them!

In the late afternoon of Day 4, after a full day of walking it was clear that the tracks we had been following all day were getting very fresh. The wind was variable and a constant concern but we were soon finding the ground still wet from urine and warm droppings….but did we see those Eland??....No! Incredible. When we were on the hot spoor the trackers naturally slowed their pace looking closely ahead into the savannah. After about an hour (about 5pm) it became clear we were not gaining ground on the herd so we began to move quickly on the spoor. We ran out of light ….always thinking that we would see them any minute. The 2 hour walk back to the car in the dark was very tough.

Day 5 saw the four of us back on the spoor where we left the Eland the night before. This day turned out to be the toughest day of hunting I have ever done. By 4pm we had walked 25km in very hot conditions…. ….and still not seen the herd. We were getting very low on water having drunk 18 litres. I was foot sore and tired and felt like I was in a day dream walking behind Ximo wondering if I would ever see a Giant Eland when the trackers hissed and we dropped to the ground. There, in a wooded area about 300m in front of was a herd of about 40 Giant Eland slowly feeding away from us. This was the herd we had tracked for 2 full days and 45km!! We glassed them for about 5 minutes but could not make out a mature Bull. They soon started to disappear from sight which I found amazing as I was sure they had not seen or winded us. The difference is when they start to walk….they are gone!! The trackers confirmed we had not spooked them and they had just moved off. We had about 30 minutes of light left. Ximo decided we should go as hard as we could and try to catch them and see if we could see a Bull. Dropping our packs, I chambered a round in my 416 Rigby and we went on the tracks at a run. We never really caught them. I got the odd glimpse of a cow but no bull. As the light faded we had to stop.

We were all completely spent and desperately disappointed. I felt sure we were going to get a shot opportunity but none arose. Ximo and the boys did say he saw one mature bull for a split second.
We sat in the shade of a tree and took stock. We were all wringing wet with sweat. We had about 10 minutes of light left. We had run out of water. We had a solid 2 hours walk (~8km) to the nearest road. It was a sobering time and we all steeled ourselves for the trek to come. By the time we stumbled into the car we were completely spent! A 20 mile day, after 4 previous hard days, wrecked us. We had come so close and I had seen my first wild Lord Derby.

When Saleh the camp boy woke me at 5am on Day 6 , I sat on the edge of my bed feeling sorry for myself and thinking seriously about calling a rest morning! 20 minutes later after 2 Advils and a Berocca I met Ximo for breakfast. We discussed the plan. Ximo said the trackers had told him they had seen some Eland Bull tracks in the area where we had put the herd to bed on Day 4. They did not think these tracks we part of the herd and thought we should go back to that area and check. To get the wind right and approach the area from the right direction we had a 3 hour walk. 9.30 am found us hot and sweaty but finding Eland Bull tracks that were a day or two old. Our approach plan had worked and the wind was perfect . Examining the tracks the trackers said there appeared to be 3 bulls moving around a large area of approximately 3 square kms in the previous days. After another half hour walking I don’t know what changed but Ximo handed his gun to Bleus and took the sticks. I instinctively chambered a round and flicked on the safety. Not 200m further on and Bleus pointed to our left. I saw the huge Eland Bull standing in the shade of a tree about 150m away No words were spoken or required.. Ximo threw the sticks down and the 416 barked. The 400gn Trophy Bonded Bear Claw hit with an audible thud and I saw the bull drop in the recoil. We sprinted up to the downed animal and I put in a finishing shot for insurance.

My recollection of the celebration is actually quite vague. I do know that we yelled and screamed in pure elation and our feelings came flooding out in a torrent of unstoppable emotions. The Lord of The Savannah was lying at our feet. We embraced for a long time and stood in awe of this incredible animal. It turned out he was a lone bull. His body size and mass in his horns was breathtaking. The work really started then and it was not until 6 hours later we pulled into camp to begin our celebration in earnest. We sang songs the whole of the ride back and the all the hard work of the previous 5 days was paid in full. Our magnificent bull would later measure 51.5” long with 14” bases.

Ximo and I with our incredible Lord Derby.

Over the next 4 days we hunted a little less hard!! All of the animals we had passed up in the previous week were now in serious danger and we managed to take several superb trophies including Western Kob, Northwestern or Savannah Buffalo, Sing Sing Waterbuck and Harnessed Bushbuck...plus a few Baboons and Duikers.

Found some other photo's to share:

400gn Trophy Bonded Bear Claw recovered from Eland

The meat smoker.

Posts: 751 | Location: Australia | Registered: 31 October 2012

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