Thanks for the wonderful reports.

May 27-With the two elephant taken in the last two days we agreed to make today a bit of an easy day. We slept in until 6:30 and then drove some roads looking for plains game. Nothing was seen in the morning except a couple of big old buffalo bulls. They were very impressive specimens but Karl had filled his quota on buffalo earlier in the season.

After lunch we began the same journey we had made so many times in the previous week. We spotted some roan and started on their track, but they were on to us from the start. After we had bumped them a couple times Karl called us off the track. I did manage to get a shot at a couple of warthogs and fortunately we were able to get some warthog ribs for supper tonight.



May 28-During the day yesterday Karl was on the phone making arrangements for us to hire a boat. Early this morning we made the drive back to Salambala and the Chobe River to try our hand at hippo hunting. Even though we made an early start and had made much of the arrangements the previous day, it was still after 10:00 AM before we got the boat in the water. Anyone who has spent much time in Africa will know what I mean when I say that while you are in Africa, you have to have your watch reset to Africa time.

I am admittedly a type-A personality.If I have something planned I want it to go on a schedule. I like to be punctual and I want to know what is going to happen and when it is going to take place. Africa doesn't work that way.I have learned to expect complications and try to leave the detail work to the people who are paid to deal with them; The PH and his staff.

So after making the drive to Salambala we first have to go to the villages and locate the owner and boat driver. Then we have to drive to Katima and pick up the boat. The boat has to be taken to a fuel station and filled with gas.The station does not have two cycle oil so we have to go find one that does. We drive to the Conservancy headquarters and pick up the game scout. Finally we can head down to the river and try to find a location to launch the boat.

The boat was a pretty decent boat for Africa. It was about 17 feet long, aluminum, and had six bench seats and a pair of storage compartments in the rear that could be used as seats also.It was powered by a 40hp Yamaha outboard motor.Once we found a suitable bank for launching we began organizing our gear and loading the boat. Prepare to be amazed!

I got Angela into the boat and in a seat as we began to launch the boat. I placed Todd and myself in the front seats as that would be the best place for a shooter to be. In the second row beside Angela would be Karl. Next was Simone and Calicious, a tracker and a skinner.In the very back was George, the game scout, Daniel, a partner in the concession, and Eric, the boat owner.

I looked over at Karl and said,"Karl, this boat is seriously overloaded!"

"It's got nine seats, counting the storage bins, and we have nine people. We should be OK."

As soon as we left the bank I knew that we would not be OK. The 40hp motor did not have enough power to get the little boat high enough in the water to make plane. At full power we sat dangerously low in the water, barely making any progress at all. Surveying the situation I realized that the only life jacket in the boat was the one that our boat driver had on when we picked him up at his house this morning.

I guess the obvious became obvious to the rest of the souls in charge because we began making our way to the nearest bank. We dropped off our skinner and tracker with a can of sardines and a bottle of water and told them that we would see them when we saw them and to make do until then.

We were able to get the boat on plane, and cruised up the chobe River for about ten kilometers until we reached a densely wooded island that was about 8-10 acres in size. We put ashore on the downwind side of the island and began working our way upwind looking for hippo or hippo sign. Their tracks were abundant in the muddy soil as were the tracks and droppings of elephant.

We had worked our way upwind for the length of the island and as I expected we did not see any hippo.It being mid-day most hippo would be out in the water somewhere rather than on dry land. But I was encouraged that this may be a location from which we might be able to contact some hippo coming ashore to feed at dusk.

We were making our way back to the boat through the dense but dryer bush in the center of the island when we heard a branch break between us and the shoreline that we had walked by just moments earlier. We eased a bit closer and had approached to twenty yards before spotting an elephant in the thick cover. Seconds later we spotted a second bull slightly farther ahead and facing in the opposite direction.We moved around a bit to get a better look at both animals tusks but when the first one became slightly agitated we backed off. Circling inland we found a different opening through which we could observe the bulls. One had about 25 lbs and the other about 35. They caught our wind eventually and crashed away through the thick riverine bush.

Once back to the boat we decded to continue on up the river channel and almost right away we came upon a pod of hippo that was almost certainly responsible for all the sign we found on the island. They were lying half-submerged on a flooded bank beside the river channel.

As we approached to about 150 yards most of the hippo moved into the channel in front of the ridge, but a few moved off the ridge into a channel on the backside. We glassed the hippo in the channel closest to us as they rose to breathe or to check our position.None looked to be a big bull.

We eased over the ridge to the channel on the backside but were never able to locate the hippo that had escaped in that direction.

We left the pod and made our way back to the island to enjoy some shade and a shore lunch. Bernard, our Herero chef, had packed us the leftover warthog ribs from the previous evening's braii. I think they tasted even better cold ,there in the shade of an umbrella tree on the river bank.

As it was still quite early when we had finished eating , we decded to make a run downriver to see if we could locate another group of hippo. We drove back to the bridge where B8 highway crosses the Chobe to enter Botswana at Kasane.Continuuing on downriver we began to see lots and lots of game on our right side in the Chobe National Park that occupies the Botswana side of the river. We saw lechwe, impala, warthog, buffalo, sable, giraffe, and elephants. Unfortunately all the game was on the Botswana side of the river where we could not hunt. The Namibian side of the river was inundated with a large shallow floodplain where the Chobe had spilled out of it's banks. The vast but shallow and weedchoked bank kept us from getting within three hundred yards from the new shoreline.

Later in the dry season these areas would become grass covered plains that would be a magnet for game coming across the river from the dry and overgrazed park. I knew this to be true because I had seen this very same country in late July 2009 when I had come here to hunt elephant with Vaughn Fulton Safaris.

When we realized that we were running short of time we began to make our way back upriver to the island. Our plan was to watch the shoreline for hippo coming ashore to graze through the night. Our plan almost worked. We heard the hippo splashing through shallow water and they were definitely moving closer as the light faded to the point where shooting would have been impossible without the aid of artificial light. We sloshed our way back to solid ground and across the island where we got in our boat for the starlight ride back to our waiting vehicle.

eyedoc,

Your bull first bull with Carl is an outstanding bull. Good job..

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by JudgeG:
Great report. I'm forwarding this report to a fellow who will be with Karl in a month or so. I know he's going to love it!

BTW, which is the elephant and which is Karl?

The elephant is the one that is laying down.

You can always tell which is which because the elephant has bigger teeth.

Eyedoc,

I'm living the life right along side of you!

GREAT writeup! GREAT hunting! GREAT trophies! GREAT memories with family!!!

BTW - awesome cliffhanger there ...

November in Namibia with Karl - hope I can do half as good as you!

quote:

The elephant is the one that is laying down.

You can always tell which is which because the elephant has bigger teeth. Big Grin

And the Elephant has ALL his teeth!!! :-)

Well done eyedoc!

May 29-This morning we again made the ninety mile drive back to Salambala from our permanent camp in Sobbe Conservancy. We spent the morning exploring the waterways of Lake Liambezi. In spite of positive reports from the local fishermen we were not able to locate any hippo.

After lunch we made our way back to the Chobe River to check out the pod of hippo that we had seen the day before, and to possibly attempt a twilight ambush.

When we got to the place where we had seen the hippo the day before they were lying in the exact same location. While we were still a couple hundred yards away, we slowed the boat to a crawl and continued in to about seventy yards. The pod slipped into the channel as we were approaching, but none slipped out the back as they had the previous day.

As it appeared we might be about to attempt a shot I told my son Todd to get ready, as his scoped 375 would be a better choice of weapons than my open sighted 470, under these conditions. He said that he did not feel confident shooting at such a small target from an unstable and windblown boat. So, we swapped rifles and I got myself ready for the shot.

Karl was busy scanning the hippo in search of a good bull. He thought he had one located several times, but before getting me directed to the correct animal he would either dissapear below the surface or the wind would blow the boat into a position where I could not get a shot.

It was beginning to get very frustrating when Karl whispered, "That's him, the second from the left. He's facing us. Go ahead and take him!"

The cow on the left side of the bull swam into my sight picture and submerged just under the chin of the bull, causing him to raise his head just a bit.

Ka-Boom! I was solid on the shot but had to force the trigger to break rather than waiting for it to surprise me in a more controlled and preferred shot. But I thought for sure that I had heard the bullet slap hide at the instant of the shot.

Before I got the scope back down in recovery from the recoil that rocked the boat, the hippo was out of sight. Then a head popped up in my crosshairs and I shouted, "Is that him?"

"No, it's a cow!", answered Karl.

We watched the pod for a while but never once got a positive sighting of the bull. I wanted to move in right away to look for the bull or some sign of a hit, but the rest of the crew voted to wait a while for the rest of the pod to move away.

It did not really matter anyway. Our yellow-bellied coward of a boat driver was not wanting any part of the hippos anyway. Minutes seemed to last longer than hours as we drifted on the river not knowing whether the bull was ours or if he had totally escaped.

After what seemed an eternity Karl ordered Eric, our boat driver, to slowly make his way into the area where the bull was last spottted. As we were getting into the general vacinity we rose from our seats to stand and peer down into the dark waters for any sign of the hippo.

At that moment a hippo surfaced five yards to our right with a blast from his nostrils that was very similar to that of a whale surfacing. Eric buried the throttle sending us all tumbling backwards into our seats as the boat surged over the shallows where the hippo had been sunbathing earlier.

My heart was in my throat and beating furiously over the prospect that we just might lose the hippo. We calmed Eric and convinced him to circle back into the area where the bull had dissapeared.

"There he is!", said my son Todd. He was pointing down at a pale spot in the dark depths of the Chobe River channel.

I was finally able to breathe again. Now one would think that with the hippo thouroughly and completly murdered, the excitement of this hunt would be all over. Not so, my friends. We still had to get this beheamoth to land for processing.

We considered our options. There was still about ninety minutes of daylight remaining and we were still in the middle of a slightly agitated pod of hippo.

"It will take at least an hour for him to float on his own", said Karl.

Both Todd and I offered to go in and tie off on the hippo but since it looks bad on a PH's resume to have a history of clients getting eaten by crocodiles or hippo's Karl insisted it would be him to do it. So Karl slipped off his shirt and lumbered over the side of the boat. It was probably about nine feet deep where the hippo lay on his side, but by standing on the hippo Karl was able to keep his head above water while tying a rope around the back leg of the hippo. He worked as fast as he could in the surprisingly cool water, and when he felt he had the rope secured he practically sprang from the hippo and back into the boat.

It took us several attempts to get the tow rope positioned to where the overloaded and underpowered boat would not be steered by the hippo instead of the other way around.

With about an hour of daylight remaining and about ten kilometers to our landing site, we finally got our hippo towing straight and cruising at about three kilometers per hour. We also had to stop about every fifteen minutes to clear the prop of lilies, weeds, and monofilament gill netting. It became obvious very quickly that we were going to be on the river well after dark.

I took stock of the situation. Angela had a light sweater. Karl, Todd and I were in T-shirts and shorts. The black trackers and game scout had plenty of clothes as they wear plenty even in the heat of day. We had mosquito repellent- A plus since they get really bad on the river once the son goes down. We had one life-jacket, our boat driver apparently had been wearing it since we picked hin up the day before. The boat had no lights.

"Does anyone have a flashlight?", I asked. No response.

" Get my flashlight out of my little blue bag, Angela." She scratched around for a spell and said that she could not find it. Apparently it had fallen out in the truck somewhere.

So we are about ten kilometers from our vehicle, towing three tons of hippo down the Chobe River, after dark, with no lights of any kind, and no life jackets, in a seriously overloaded and underpowered boat. Any survivors are sure going to have a great story to tell their grandkids!

By about 8:15, we had been in the dark for about an hour. We had settled into a routine. Cruise for fifteen minutes. Prop gets fouled. I lean over the back of the boat and in the soft glow of Eric's cell phone, I clean the prop of debris and we do it all over again.

At some point, we shut it down for about the tenth time and I extend out over the back of the boat to clean the prop.I am holding onto the motor with my right hand and trying to clear the prop with my left. The hippo is floating pretty well by now, tied off a few feet behind the boat. When we stop it sort of drifts right up against us and I have to be careful that when we resume cruising the rope does not get tangled in the prop.

Anyway, as I am leaning out over the water and reaching for the prop a huge splash erupts from the hippo just behind my outstretched hand. I yank back my hand and begin to retreat from the crocodile that is feasting on my hippo.

"What was that?", I shouted.

Eric looks calmly into my eyes and says, "Fish."

Mildly embarassed, I go back to my job of clearing the prop.

Almost as soon as we got the boat back on coarse and were again making progress toward our destination, Karl shouted,"Elephant!"

Eric throttled down the motor and put the boat in nuetral.In the dim light it was hard for me to make out anything. But as the elephants passed twenty yards in front of us they blotted out the lights on the Kasane bridge and revealed their forms more clearly.It was a cow and her calf, making tracks from the Botswana side and headed toward the Namibian shore.

If Karl or Eric had not spotted the elephants when they did we would have driven right into them. Angela had been a real trooper up until this point. But elephants in the dark, and in boats was just more than she had signed on for. For just a short time, she lost it.Sobbing quietly into Todd's shoulder,she kept repeating that she did not want to be here anymore. We were crazy and she wanted to go home.

The elephants glided past us on the floodplain and once again we started our boat and made a bee-line for the lights of our vehicle waiting on the shoreline a couple kilometers away.

The last thirty minutes of our journey passed without further fanfare. One more net to cut out of the prop and we were back to the landing where our truck. There waiting, was our staff as expected. Also waiting were about ten or twelve local villagers who had got word of the hippo and were there to see it. With all the men helping out, and the wench from the truck straining mightily, we were able to beach the hippo for photos and buchering.

It was quite late when we got to the Zambezi Houseboat Safri Lodge in Katima for some much needed food and rest. The suites are three sided with the open side facing the Zambezi River so one can awaken to see the sun rising over the Zambezi in the morning. Quite an awesome sight, and the splashing of Tigerfish and the croaking of hippo is the music that lulled us to sleep that night.

Eyedoc,

Absolutely epic hunt report!!! You are a great storyteller - it's great to follow along with you on the hunt.


Phil

I am looking forward to the next installment.

Hartley

Fantastic !

... thanks for taking us along !

Fabulous!! Keep it coming!! MORE! MORE! MORE!

2 more pics from Mike(eyedoc)

The first one who say "HE SHOT KARL!!!" is banned for life! :-)

Sounds like quite the trip thus far!

Congrats!

Eye Doc
Great hunt
That Karl has the way with elephants.
I will be back in November with him.
Hope you guy's leave some of the Jumbos
for me.

May 30- We left Namibia about 8:00 AM after getting a few daylight photos of the hippo. The local village had turned out in full force for te butchering of the bull. Everyone wanted to make sure that they got their portion of the njama (meat).

The border crossing into Botswana went pretty smoothly but the clowns at the Zimbabwe border had me unpack my rifles twice so they could check my serial numbers. We checked at customs as would be expected. After getting their approval and all my permits stamped we moved ten meters to the road block where they make sure you have all the permits before letting you go.

"I need to see your firearms please."

"We just had them inspected at customs and they stamped the permit", I tried to plea.

"But I am the detective, and I must see them myself."

Nothing I could do but get out of the truck and unpack them again.

We arrived back at Vic Falls and went to The Ultimate Lodge to unpack our things before going to a guest house for lunch. The cafe where we had lunch was called In Da Belly, which is kinda cute on it's own. But it is also a double entendre' as one of the local tribes are the Indabeles.

We used the afternoon to do a little more Tiger fishing, but the fishing was slow and we only caught two small tigers and one catfish.

We had a wonderful supper at the ultimate lodge and the next morning it was time to start our flights home.It was the end of a wonderful trip and we have memories that I am sure will last a lifetime.

That post about the hippo hunt is an all-time classic! What a great post to finish off an oustanding hunt report.

Great hunt and what an adventure! Thanks for sharing.

Whoa, what a fantastic trip!

Great report and an interesting way to chronicle your hunt.

Congrats on the great trophies!

What a report and adventure Mike! Congrats on your hard earned trophies, but all that tough crap will be nothing but pleasure to remember...even those jackwad's at the road blocks. I like the way you presented your report...always leaves us wanting to read more.
Cheers,
David

great trip. thank you for sharing it!

Eye Doc; You have an enviable style of writing that puts the reader right in the picture. It was as if I was there with you every step of the way. Thanks very much for a great story.

Hugh

Hunt Summary
Dates: May 20 - May 30
Game hunted: Trophy Elephant, Own Use Elephant,Hippo, Warthog, Roan, Zebra
Game taken: Trophy Elephant, Own Use Elephant, Hippo
Rifles Used: 1) Elephant-Chapuis 470 NE Double Rifle
2) Hippo and warthog- Remington Model 700 375 H&H

Travel Arrangements- Steve Turner of TRAVEL WITH GUNS

I was quite familiar with what I would be seeing as far as country hunted and also Karl's outfit, Ndumo Safaris.I had hunted with Karl two years ago (leopard), and had hunted in the Caprivi both with Vaughn Fulton, at Salambala, and with Karl at North Of Khadoum and in Rupara Conservancy.

This was my first time to hunt the area this early in the year. There was a great deal more water to contend with and the grass and bush were much denser and higher than on previous trips.

I booked this hunt at the time of year that I did because while I anticipated tough plains game hunting, I wanted to concentrate on elephant and traditionally their numbers have been highest in this area in the early part of the season. For whatever reason, the elephant were not in the conservancy in the numbers that we expected. For that reason , we tracked one group of bulls and shot the best of the lot. Then we tracked another set of bulls and took one from that herd as well. I still look forward to an elephant hunt where I can track and peruse bull after bull until I find that one special bull. Do I detect a reason to return?

In six weeks I will be heading back to Namibia for a month of bowhunting. While I do not anticipate the same degree of suspense as in elephant hunting, I will post a report upon my return.

Thanks to all who followed along. Keep the wind in your face and Good Hunting!

Proper hunt report that.

Once again...very well done!! Thank you!!

A great story told by a master story teller. All I needed was a firepit and some lions roaring in the background ...

Superb, just superbly done and what a trip. thanks so much for bringing this to all out us.

Outstanding report. Really puts a guy right there beside you.

Thanks

congrats!

A good hunt report for sure-but a reminder that hunting a park border area can never be considered a classic hunt , even when a bull is taken. To risky as we found out. Hunt where you can follow tracks in any direction. Not meaning to be negative, just an observation .Congrats on your bull, I am glad you got him.

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Fulson:
A good hunt report for sure-but a reminder that hunting a park border area can never be considered a classic hunt , even when a bull is taken. To risky as we found out. Hunt where you can follow tracks in any direction. Not meaning to be negative, just an observation .Congrats on your bull, I am glad you got him.

No offense taken Dave. Your comment about hunting park borders definitely has merrit. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to follow a set of tracks only to have them cross over that boundary and out of your concession.However, if you look at where some largest elephants have been killed over the last five years you will note that a large percentage of these come from concessions bordering parks. Those are areas where elephants have had a chance to get some age and age is what makes for big bulls.

quote:

A good hunt report for sure-but a reminder that hunting a park border area can never be considered a classic hunt , even when a bull is taken.

I am not sure I understand the point?
Every hunting block in Africa has borders, at some point if you go far enough in one direction you are going to hit the boundary. That could be the border with a park, the border of another hunting area, etc.

quote:

can never be considered a classic hunt

Are you joking? Am I missing something? For a well informed guy that is a pretty daft comment, or I am the stupid one not understanding your meaning? By the way, eyedoc's bull was shot more than 30 miles from the closest park boundary...

i guess a classic hunt can only be done with a knife, wearing only a loincloth, accompanied by a chimpanzee, prior to 1938

Butchloc, if you have changed your date to 1983, it would have been poetry... LOL

Congrats to eyedoc and to Karl!

Not trying to stir shit guys. I understood the bull was taken in the secondary area, not on the park boundary. My only point, and I have done boundary hunts too, is that it is a quick hunt if the bulls are on the wrong side of the track, and an old bull does know which is the best side to be on.I know both PH and client are hard hunters who did their best in unexpected conditions which were explained in the report. Yes eventually you will hit some kind of boundary in Africa if you walk far enough-I get that. But my point on the boundary road hunt is that if the bull tracks are on the wrong side of the road, the jig is up for the day. That was my only point, no disrespect intended guys. And I know about some of the bulls that get killed in these areas are dream bulls.

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Fulson:
hunting a park border area can never be considered a classic hunt

I too am left wondering how to interpret this statement.

Why can't Eyedoc's hunt be considered a classic elephant hunt?

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Fulson:
My only point, and I have done boundary hunts too, is that it is a quick hunt if the bulls are on the wrong side of the track, and an old bull does know which is the best side to be on........ But my point on the boundary road hunt is that if the bull tracks are on the wrong side of the road, the jig is up for the day.

Not nesecaraly Dave. In the case that the elephant ONLY come from the park, maybe, but in this area, there are ALWAYS resedent elephants around, and in most areas I have hunted in NAmibia that is the case. A point that may not have come across in eyedoc's report was that I do not have roads all over the place, so the 40km or so park boundary is as good a place to start looking for tracks as can be found.

Of further interest, on the day that he shot his non exportable bull, we got a call on the radio from my driver that he found some ele tracks where he was pumping water, quite some way from the park border. We followed these tracks, and found the bulls, and plenty of other sign as well...