Africa 2017 9/17/17 through 10/1/17
Outfitter: Jamy Traut Safaris
Booking Agent: Mark Young “Mark's Exclusive Adventures”
Travel Agent: Steve Turner “Travel with Guns”
Lucky Charm: Ernest the Elephant provided by AR’s own safari-lawyer
Firearm Battery: Army/Navy .450 NE (according to markings manufactured by Charles Lancaster circa 1930), .375H&H built by Mark Bansner (Rem. 700 action w/Bansner barrel and stock w/Swarovski 4x12x50 scope)
Animals Hunted: trophy bull elephant and hippo
Animals Taken: 2 trophy elephants and 1 bull hippo

This hunt started as an inquiry on AR on a trophy leopard hunt for me with my wife as an observer. Mark Young replied to me and offered several options. During conversation with Mark, I stated that I would really like 1 more exportable bull elephant (had previously take some in Zim) but was wondering about my mobility due to an artificial left hip and bum knees that make me walk more like a 86 year old and not the 56 year old that I am. He stated let him send some inquiries and get back with me. About 2 days later he had me several options that he thought would fit the bill. One was a trophy elephant/hippo hunt with Jamy Traut Safaris in the Caprivi area where if I didn’t get one or both trophies there would be a partial refund. He further stated that the hippo would not be problem and thought I should have a 90% chance at a good shooter bull elephant plus the Caprivi was flat and walking shouldn’t be an issue. After a few days of deliberation on my part, I took the hunt and we started making plans. I started with Steve Turner Travel with Guns(TWG) and once again they were a pleasure to deal with, efficient and never failed to answer any of my questions. This was my retirement hunt as I retired June 30,2017 from my job (returned to work 5 weeks later) so I told TWG that I wanted to travel “first class” and minimize the fatigue and brain scramble from the trip over. TWG made all the arrangements and everything was flawless. I have never traveled first/business class but after this trip I am not sure I can go back to economy. Hurricane Irma forced us to leave a day early and spend a day and night in Washington, DC but we took this in stride. We were able toad in a tour of the NRA Firearm museum in DC, enjoy a super meal that night, and our flight went out the next afternoon. If you are in DC and have time to kill, take an Uber to the museum. It’s free, very nice and well worth the time. We booked one extra day prior to the start of the hunt in Windhoek to tour the capital city and allow us to get acclimated to Africa time a little easier prior to the hunt. Jamy Traut’s assistant booked us in to the House on Olaf Palme (owned by Jamy Traut) for our arrival day and the next day and arranged for a car to pick us up on our arrival. Once we cleared customs and the rifle permit (painless), we were greeted by Dean Martin, our driver. He was very nice and informed us he would be our tour guide the next day in Windhoek. He dropped us at the B&B and we coordinated his time of arrival the next day. We crashed and woke up the following morning, had a great breakfast and Dean picked us up and we spent the day with him visiting the National museum, a German Lutheran church and the craft market in the city. When we arrived back at the B&B, we were greeted by Emile Kirchner who was to be our PH for the duration of the hunt. He is the brother of Wanda Kirchner that runs the B&B for Jamy. He was 29 years old with lots of dangerous game experience and seemed to be an easy person to spend the next 14 days with. I told him my expectations on the hippo (mature bull) and elephant (again a mature bull). I stated that on both animals I had no preconceived notions of weight or size, naturally I would prefer a 100 lb per tusk elephant (who wouldn’t?), but knew that was not the expectation. I further stated that his decision on which animal to shoot would be completely his. He assured me that we would target mature bulls that were on the downhill side of life. He left and said he would see us at the airport in the morning as he was flying up to Katima Mulilo the same flight as us. My wife and I went to Joe’s Beerhouse for dinner that night. Joe’s lived up to everything we had heard and read about. If you are there, don’t pass up the chance and go experience it for sure, you will not regret it. On Sept. 15, we flew up to Katima and were meet by Jamy and several of his PHs and staff. We also met Craig from Texas who was to be hunting with Jamy Traut for leopard in another area in the Caprivi. Everyone had lunch at a nearby hotel and we went our separate ways. Emile drove us to Jamy’s Kwando Camp which is situated along the Kwando River. The drive was about 1 hour 10 minutes and along the way Emile was able show us some of the hunt area and areas we would be frequenting in the coming days. The camp looks similar to most African hunt camps with tents on concrete pads with beds, showers, toilets, dinning/kitchen area, PH tents, the skinning shed located about 200 yards away, and staff accommodations behind camp. Jamy’s staff in camp consisted of chef/camp manager Ferdinand (Ferdi), two ladies that cleaned and help served meals, one man that cleaned up around camp, Christopher (apprentice PH and general hard laborer), and Risco was the tracker on staff. Jaco van Heerden was in camp for our hunt as a licensed PH that was gaining additional dangerous game experience to sit for his final PH license. Jaco was an asset to the team and gained some great experience while hunting with Emile.


After getting our stuff squared away in the tent, we took the rifles to the range to check zero and make sure everything was in order. At this point I put on a shooting exhibition that a 10 yr old shooting a 30/06 for the first time would have been ashamed of. I could not hold the crosshair on the .375 on the bullseye to save my life. I told him the gun was on but I couldn’t hold the crosshairs still, he said ok, let’s shoot the double rifle. No problem as I always shoot it well. Again, I flinch at the first shot, squeeze on the front trigger until I realize it probably will not shoot the second barrel until I move to the rear trigger. Two more shots and all 4 are within 3” of each other but not in the bullseye. I began to tell Emile that I can shoot both guns but am not sure what the hell is wrong with me today, not the way to inspire your dangerous game PH. He stated to me that both guns were on and that I should relax everything will be fine. Reassuring, but my mind is going 90 mph to hell wondering what was going on with me. We have dinner, discuss different shot scenarios and placement on the elephant, and Emile says breakfast will be at 5:30 and wake up will be at 5:00 am. We go to bed with me questioning what is going on with my shooting.

Day 1
We leave camp at 5:30am and pick up our “game scout” Frank. He is an older gentleman, but Emile says he loves to hunt with Frank because he is very active in the conservancy and takes an active role in the hunt. We ride 5-6 km and pull up at a tree line and they listen for elephant feeding. After about 10 minutes, Emile says they can hear them and we load up the guns and take off. We are walking on a dry floodplain at first light for about 350-400yds when we approach a tree line ahead and stop. We glass the tree line and there are 200-300 elephant feeding through these trees and heading back to cross the river and into the park. Emile says we will take a heading to cut these elephant off and catch them prior to crossing the river. It is at this point the one factor I had never heard mention came into play. Emile starts off across the dry floodplain at that PH pace that says, “we will get there before the elephant”, after about 100 yards we enter the water which varies between ankle deep and waist deep. Emile possesses the ability to walk in water just as fast on dry land. I do not possess this ability and lag back, but Emile patiently waits on me and my wife (she is really having zero problems), as we cut the distance to the cutoff point we go through an area the elephant herd has been previously feeding in which results in being able to step in elephant footprints under water that allow me to stumble and fall resulting in everything except the top of my head submerging including the double rifle. After about ¾ of a mile of this I am getting winded, we pull up on a small piece of dry land and Emile says, “get your breath and we will make the last push to cut them off,” so 1.5 hours into the hunt I am getting the let’s make this last push speech. It’s all good as I catch my breath and we move into to position to glass them as they pass by. The next 45 minutes to 1 hour we watch 200-300 elephant move horizontally to us at about 40-50 yards with a perfect wind from them to us. It is a mixture of cows, calves and young bulls, toward the rear of the elephant train are mature bulls but Emile deems that there are no shooters here so as the last of them cross the river back into the park we head across the floodplain in another direction to check additional crossings. We arrive back at the truck around 10:30am having now walked our clothes/boots dry. It’s now that we find out that from 10am-ish until about 4pm-ish the Caprivi becomes an oven. Now we are from South Carolina and routinely have 95-101 degrees days through the summer with 90 percent humidity but this dry heat was new to us and we made sure to hydrate frequently as we always had bottled water available. We return to camp around lunch, had lunch and took it easy under fans until about 3:30pm at which time we return to checking various floodplains in the conservancy for elephants returning to feeding from the early evening until the next morning. Emile explained that the elephants we were looking at came from Angola, Zambia and Botswana where they have eaten most or all the available food and moved into the floodplains to feed on the seas of reeds there until the rains come and everything starts re-growing at which time they will return to their home range until it depletes and they return next year. These elephant corridors have been here for hundreds of years and Namibia now has more elephant than they have had in the last 150 years. Two weeks prior to leaving, Jamy had emailed me and said that the elephants were slow in coming and that the temperature needed to rise and they would show up. Well, it got hot as hell and the elephants showed up in droves. Days 2-4 were similar in that we glassed various herds from the truck, floodplains and from a small pontoon boat from the river or from various palm islands in the floodplains. After day 1 our days started at 4am finding us back in camp for lunch and in the evenings around 7/730pm .
Day 5 found us on the river at 4:45am heading to a palm island where we had seen some bulls crossing into the reeds the previous evening. We beach the boat and move a little inland where we can see the floodplain as first light begins to break. As it gets lighter we see 200-300 elephants feeding across the floodplain that is probably 1 mile by 1 mile. Emile spots 3 bulls heading to the river slowly feeding back toward the park and that there is a shooter in the 3. We move diagonally to them and get in position ahead of them as we cross one last channel and set up the sticks on a slight rise. There is one small channel in front of us but Emile thinks we could spook them crossing it so here is our spot. I am on the sticks as Emile is in my ear making sure I am on the correct bull (the one in the lead). He tells me side brain shot right in the earhole. I state that I am ready and flip off the safety. This when the hunt becomes surreal, everything becomes slow motion mentally, I am on the sticks, and line up my sights on the bull’s earhole. Emile says he is five steps from the river, the bull is slowly walking by at what later is confirmed to be forty yards. I slowly squeeze the trigger, hear the rifle go off, never feel the recoil, see his head extend forward and he drops dead -- everything then speeds up with elephants going everywhere. Emile says move back as the 2 other bulls come toward us ears flared. Emile and Jaco put insurance shoots in my downed elephant’s spine and the other 2 bulls turn away and cross the river. The floodplain empties in a matter of about 1 minute. We walk up to my elephant and I place an additional shot in the spine between the shoulders and all movement stops. My wife gets all of this on video with the GoPro, hopefully we get it posted here. Now this is not my first elephant, but it is at this point I cannot make my legs quit shaking. I am relieved the hunt is successful, my shot was spot on and yet I am shaking like a kid after his first buck deer. I hug Emile and shake Jaco’s hand and apologize for the shaking and Emile just smiles and says if you weren’t I would be worried about you. As we replay the shot I talk about the “Yips” I had at the range 5 days earlier and how everything just slowed down once we got in position and Emile called the shot. We look him over and I cut the tail to claim my elephant. I look at my watch and it is just 6:45am. I took the shot at approx. 6:15am. We load up the boat and return to the truck to go get skinners for the recovery and return about 9am with 8 skinners and 3 additional people who just seem to want to go. When we get everyone there, Emile gets them to help get the tusk out of the mud for some photos with everyone from the skinners to me and my wife. I was amazed these guys wanted their picture made with the elephant both by themselves and as a group.




Emile issued orders on how he wanted the recovery to go and turned everything over to Frank the game scout at which time Frank climbed up on the elephant and started issuing orders that would make any drill sergeant proud. We left and returned to camp for lunch and did not return until around 5 pm to pick up the meat. Five boat loads of meat were brought to area where conservancy officials were on the river. We loaded up 3 trucks and a trailer with the meat and the head, dropped the meat off at the conservancy office for distribution the following day, and returned to camp around 7:30pm to unload the head, 1 ear, the tail and one section of belly skin for me to be tanned, plus meat for everyone at camp. I still don’t know the weights but Emile stated he was 16.5” at the lip line and the right tusk should be 6’ in length and the left should be 5.5’ in length. Doesn’t really matter to me as he’s mine and he’s coming home to me. Emile stated when they pulled the tusk he would get them weighed when he had time between the last few hunts. I will post the weight when they come in.

We now had 9 days to find a hippo so day 6 was spent looking at various pods in the water and trying to find one on dry land. Emile had told various people in the conservancy to call him if one was sighted feeding on dry land. On the morning of day 7, Emile was called at 530am by a local and told where a bull was feeding about 500yds away from the river. We loaded up and went to the farmer’s garden where across the floodplain on small rise was the bull hippo. Emile and Jaco glassed him and said here’s your hippo. They discussed ways to approach him and it was decided the best way was across the floodplain on a 45-degree angle to him as hopefully he keeps feeding and we can be quiet. So, into the water we go. The morning had broken cool and the water was ice cold. As we proceed it is chest deep on me and neck deep on my wife. The bottom was smooth so the going was easier than some we had tried plus we had become used to wading these channels to some degree. We moved toward him slowly over about 30 minutes and finally came to a slight rise and set up the sticks. We moved about ten more yards and reset the sticks. I got on them with the bolt action .375 and Jaco ranged him at 63yds. Emile stated that since he was angled forward for me to take the heart-lung shot behind the front shoulder. He was 500yds from the river and would die before he got to it. I told him I would do that and he further stated reload and shoot for the spine as he went away. I clicked off the safety, centered on him behind the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. Once again everything slowed down, the hammer drops as I see the impact of the bullet prior to the recoil, the hippo shutters and goes straight away. Emile throws a shot his way, I reload as he comes out of a channel pulling himself up about a 2 foot rise. My 2nd shot goes off right behind his head in the neck and he is spined and never moves again. Our shots immediately attract a crowd and a pirogue starts making its way to the hippo. We head straight to him too, but they get there way ahead of us,. They yell back asking is it dead? Emile says poke it with the poles. They do and he is dead -- not sure what would have happened had he not been dead. When we get to him we roll him over for pictures and see the first shot was perfect and he was going to die, but the neck shot ended the scenario more quickly. He was an old bull, well scarred up and had great tusks. I was again relieved to have him down after my debacle in the Omay in Zim a few years back with PH Tini Kok. I felt vindicated and relieved. His recovery took up most of the day as the pirogue was used to shuttle the meat to where a truck could be used to take it to the conservancy late that evening. Even though he was in the floodplain that had water in it, we thought he qualified as on land due to the nature of the shot. I told Emile and Jaco that something was inherently wrong with getting in water neck deep to approach a hippo that was standing in 6” of water… it just felt backwards. I will be getting his skull, teeth and a panel of his skin tanned.



Now my hunt was complete with 7 more days available to hunt. We discussed various options such as red lechwe, eland and roan on quota with the roan been the least likely of happening. I had a good old eland already, so I started debating maybe adding a lechwe. The leopard hunter from Texas (Craig) had moved to our camp in hopes of getting one on bait near us as they were having a tough go where they had been hunting. During the evening, a call came in to the camp from Jamy stating that there had been a desert elephant declared a “problem animal” by the ministry in Windhoek. It was non-exportable, but a chance to hunt and shoot a true desert elephant. This was offered to Craig first if he wanted to break off his leopard hunt and pursue this elephant. He declined and said he would rather continue the leopard hunt. I discussed it with Emile and was kicking around the decision when another call came in that the elephant was causing too much damage where he was and that he was to be shot that night. We found out later that the wife of a PH close to the area went and shot it. So, after thinking about this we were back to figuring out what to hunt next. The following morning Jamy called and said 2 additional desert elephants had been declared “problem animals,” but these were exportable -- cost was higher but exportable. Again, Craig was offered first dibs on this since he had not connected on his leopard. He hunted that day taking a huge eland as evening fell and that night he said he would stick with the leopard hunt. I jumped at the chance and Emile called Jamy and told him we would load up and leave the next day. We had between 800-900 miles to get to where we needed to be, plus we needed the permit delivered by courier.
Arrangements made we loaded up at 5am and drove throughout the day until we reached Omaruru that evening. The change of the terrain throughout the day was amazing, leaving water and vegetation until we ended up in the desert. We checked into a B&B in Omaruru only to find out the government official had not yet signed the permit so we had a day to kill in Omaruru the following day. The four of us (me, my wife Angie, Emile and Jaco) managed to do this by visiting a couple of curio shops as well as an art & gemstone shop owned by a guy from Boston who came there 21 years ago as a geologist and never went back to the states. That afternoon we found out the permit had been signed with me down as the hunter and Emile as the PH and would be in Omaruru at 4:30am the next morning. We also found out that there had been an outcry from the various animal rights groups from around the world in protest of these permits. The Namibian government answered questions about this for a while but they essentially shut down any further communication with these groups after they provided answers to all the questions and maintained the hunts would take place. We arranged food and water for the following day and left Omaruru at 4:45am after obtaining the official permit from the courier.


We drove approx. 2 hours to the town of Uis where we met the manager for this conservancy (Eric). We were told to follow him about 20kms to a farmhouse. Now we thought we were in the desert in Omaruru, but we were wrong. As we followed Eric, we went into some of the most desolate and barren land I have ever seen. Nothing but sand, rocks and canyons… and more sand and rocks. Angie made the statement this looks like a scene out of a “Mad Max” movie and Emile replied that this is where they filmed the last one, “Fury Road,” go figure. During this ride I ask Emile how the elephant had arrived to be here. He stated that the elephant was over 100 miles from his normal range and was most likely a grumpy old bull that decided to get away from the rest of his herd and live out his days in solitude. He had walked for days across the desert to get here. He had arrived at the dry river bed of the Omaruru River where there are a few green trees and was feeding on these trees, but also tearing up water pipes and corrals that the few inhabitants in this area had, therefore he was declared a problem animal. We had seen a cell phone photo of him that someone had taken days before, but it was not indicative of his size so Emile just said he a was a decent bull. So we finally arrive at the farmhouse on the dry river bed and learn the conservancy game scouts had gone to look for his tracks. The people on site stated that the elephant was quite aggressive when he saw people. The scouts returned about 8:15am and we followed them to where they found his most recent track. We unloaded and Emile climbed up a huge boulder (think the size of a building 30-40’ high) and glassed the surrounding area where he found him feeding up a dry feeder stream bed about a mile away. We loaded the rifles and took off along with a string of locals in tow behind us. Emile had told them to stay back and be quiet. The going was easy and it was quite cool that morning. When we got to where Emile thought he should be, the conservancy manager told Emile we should move out into the open of the river bed. Emile ask why and the manager said, “so everyone can run.” Hmmm. Emile overruled this statement and told him we would hug the sides of the river and get up close for the shot. The manager relayed this to the entourage following us and within about 30 seconds the only group remaining was me, Emile, Jaco, Angie and 1 black that remained with us. Guess they figured the white guys and woman were crazy. We moved about another 50 yds and Emile saw him feeding and we froze. Now on the trip there I said I hoped we could take a side brain shot again as I had never done the frontal brain shot, but felt good with the side brain. When we froze the bull stopped feeding and stepped behind a boulder between us and him. Emile set up the sticks and I get on them. The elephant steps out, sees us, turns straight on to us, throws his ears out and starts walking toward us. Emile says you are going to have to take the frontal shot. The ele keeps walking toward us and Emile ask if I am good. I say yes and once again it all goes to slow motion as I line up my sights on his zygomatic arches, drop slightly below them as he is walking and squeeze the trigger. When the double rifle goes off, I see the dust on him fly, his rear feet go out, his front legs collapse and he is down for good. I was 23 yards away when I shot. We approach and I put in the insurance shot between the shoulders. Everyone breathes again and we start with the congratulatory handshakes and hugs. Just like that, I have my desert elephant and my wife again gets it all on video. Emile seems especially excited and states this is probably the only time he will get to guide a desert elephant hunt. He produces a Puma White Hunter knife that was passed down to him from his grandfather to cut the tail with. I gladly oblige him and feel honored that he thought to bring this knife with him and I officially claim my elephant. Emile says he is bigger than the Caprivi elephant in that his tusks are thicker and his right tusk that was previously broken is a huge stub of ivory that is 19.5” around at the lip line. Our entourage appears and are quite excited as they have never seen an elephant other than this one. We take photos and they take tons of photos themselves along with tons of measurements taken by the conservancy manager.





Recovery takes up the remainder of the day and we deliver the soft cuts of meat to the head of the elderly in the conservancy. We take the head, tail, trunk and 1 ear with us and head to Omaruru to overnight one more night. Dinner that night is especially good knowing that we have a completely unexpected bonus elephant. The following morning, we leave out for Windhoek only stopping to drop off the elephant parts at King’s Taxidermist along the way. We arrive in Windhoek and check into Jamy’s B&B and see Jamy he is extremely happy with the desert elephant even though he has been getting hate mail from the activists. We say our good byes to Jaco as he is returning to his home and then back to the Caprivi for more experience with the next clients. We go to dinner that night with Emile and his girlfriend Kirsten (she is from Australia and teaches at the international school). While at dinner we discuss the remaining few days. Emile states there is a leopard feeding on a bait in a conservancy that we can go to and sit Friday night, Saturday and Sunday morning if I want to go. I opt not to and Craig from Texas goes after it and gets his tom on Friday evening. The plan we come up with is to collect Kirsten when school is out the following day (Friday) and drive to Swakopmund on the coast to stay at an apartment that belongs to a fellow PH’s family until Sunday. While there, we visited the seal colony up the coast at Cape Cross plus all the other little shops and sites around Swakopmund. It was a relaxing few days, having a great time with Emile and Kirsten, as well as some great German food and local food. Angie and I equated it to spending a long weekend with family. It was perfect ending to a great safari.
Just as an aside, we rode through a conservancy area (approx. 5 square miles) one day where there was logging of a forest of African rose wood going on for export to China. I was disappointed to see they were only harvesting the main trunks and largest branches leaving much of the usable tree behind. Additionally, there were large piles of scrap wood left behind from the portable saw mill. It was heartbreaking to see such waste of a precious resource. This photo is of a scrap pile.


Closing Thoughts:
Caprivi Area - It is a great place to hunt and has great animals. Elephants must be timed when it is hot and they have started to migrate out of the parks. You will see people and cattle every day. It’s unavoidable so if you think this will bother you then don’t go as it’s just part of the area. Be ready for water as there is lots of it and you’ll probably be in it 50% of the time especially if hunting elephant and hippo. If you want a lechwe and are willing to take your time and pass up average ones, then you should get a nice one in Jamy’s area as we saw tons of them.
Jamy Traut - His operation is top shelf all the way, his camps are superb, his staff is impeccable and his PHs are top shelf all the way too. He is well organized as is his whole operation from start to finish. They go the extra step to make sure you have a successful hunt and enjoy yourself always.
Emile Kirchner - If you are lucky enough to get Emile as your PH then count your blessings. I have never had a bad PH on a hunt, but Emile was without a doubt one of the best I have had the pleasure to hunt with. His knowledge of the animals and the area was phenomenal. We had several close encounters with elephant and hippo and never once did we feel he didn’t have mastery of the situation (he and I approached a possible shooter bull once through a palm thicket and as we emerged the elephant was 20’ away and saw us just as we saw him, Emile said no to shooting him, the bull literally kicked sand at our feet as Emile shouted him down and he turned and ran away). He was a gentleman at all times and it was a pleasure to get to know him. My parting statement to him was “if we could add a son to our family, I would want it to be him.”
Mark’s Exclusive Adventures - Mark and Sadie were great to deal with and answered all my questions, were straight forward with all our dealing and were with us from start to finish, a pleasure to deal with and I would highly recommend using his services.
Steve Turner Travel with Guns - Everything was taken care from start to finish, they stayed in contact with us throughout the trip even handling a canceled flight from Katimo when we decided to go for the second elephant, highly recommended.
Angie Timmerman - I must give her credit here, she is not inexperienced in Africa as she has hunted twice, taking plains game and cape buffalo. This was my hunt and she went to observe and video everything with the GoPro. She never complained about the water, heat, bugs, walking or anything. She was a real trooper and went above what most women would do and always looked good doing it (read this meaning “I over punted my coverage” with her). Thanks for accompanying me and making the trip a success.
I initially thought this may be my final trip to Africa, but now I really think next year will find us back in one of Jamy’s camp for who knows what.

Heck of a report Wes, beautiful bulls!

Thanks for posting it.

Great report on a very successful hunt. Thanks for posting.

P.S. That pile of rosewood would have at least payed for your airfare if you could have figured a way to get it home!

Congrats. Very nice Bulls.

Well done !!!
Always enjoy living thru others hunts

Good stuff! Going for a dip with your Double was rough. I'm planning a TB hunt in the Caprivi Area next year.

Great Report!! Sounds like you had one heckuva a hunt.

Outstanding report on an interesting hunt. The unexpected desert elephant was a real treat. That is not something everyone gets. I hunted with Jamy a few years ago at his camp on the river, go to sleep listening to the hippos. We had Mr. Frank as the game scout. You are right , people called him telling him where the elephants were. Thanks for sharing, it brought back a lot of memories.

Nyae Nyae bull elephant hunt raffle
https://www.tsumeb-gimnasium.c...hant-hunt-in-namibia

Congratulations on a wonderful safari and well written report. What a great 'bonus' the desert elephant was.

Wesley,

The Desert bull was the unexpected cherry on your safari. Well done and thanks for letting MEA play a small part in your adventure.

Huge congrats!

Mark

Wow! Two ele bulls plus a dry land hippo, all from my favorite African country, Namibia. It's amazing how those desert elephants use the dry riverbeds to navigate far from their home ranges. Well played. Sir!

Very nice!!!

Well done. Some great animals and it sounds like fantastic memories. Well written report. Congrats on some great animals. Bruce

Just outstanding. A great adventure....and a desert Elephant! Wow!


.

Simply outstanding.
You have just expanded my bucket list.

Well, I'm no longer "wife to be" as I've been firmly ensconced in my wedded state for over six years now. But when I first joined AR that was my status so I suppose it lingers here. Lol.

I just thought I'd add to my husband's hunt report and reiterate his comments on what an excellent hunt and amazing all-round experience it was. Jamy Traut Safaris is first class and Emile Kirchner was everything we could have asked for in a PH and subsequent tour guide. I would go back in a heartbeat.

And just to add a little different flavor to the thread, I'll post one more photo. This was a delicious meal at The Stellenbosch Tasting Room with Emile and his lovely girlfriend.

Wonderful story of a fine hunt. I really enjoyed it. Thanks! Brian

Great stuff and well done on your great adventure in Namibia. Good job that man Emile.

Nice Report, Wesley. I found this article in the news - clearly concerning your desert elephant. Amazing how the story gets twisted and contorted in the press
http://www.traveller24.com/Exp...t-elephants-20171025

Well done and glad to see that Ernest is not lacking in mojo.

Uwe,
Twisted/distorted would be a start to describe the article. They have the right area but everything else in the article is made up especially if they are referring to my bull plus we have the video to prove it. One shot plus the insurance and the fact he was on his last molars(worn down and none coming in),maybe they are combining accounts from another hunt also not sure. An additional bull was taken by another hunter in another conservancy and I think it was a bit of a goat roping but definitely not what is described here in the attached article. Also on my hunt the only people around were our hunting party and conservancy personnel and I mean for miles upon miles no one.
Thanks

Well done Wes, and one hell of a hunt!