I just returned a few days ago from another great hunt with Alan Vincent. This time we hunted Lord Derby Eland and a few other plains game I was interested in, on the Mayo Nduel & Mayo Vaimba concessions in northern Cameroon.

The genesis for this hunt started back in 2021 while Alan and I were hunting on Mlele South, his former concession in western Tanzania. We talked a lot about this hunt and the final thing that pushed me over the edge was an Idaho duck hunt with AR’s “Safari-Lawyer”, Will. Listening to him talk about an upcoming LDE hunt he had booked convinced me to send a deposit for my own hunt and Alan confirmed dates and concession with Mayo Oldiri. I’d be hunting February 10-21 on Mayo Nduel, prime time for black necked rutting eland bulls.

I departed San Francisco February 4th on Turkish Airlines, bound for a multi-day layover in Istanbul before traveling onward to Doula, Cameroon. Business Class on Turkish is very nice, not quite as good as Emirates or Qatar, but pretty close and noticeably better than some others I’ve flown. The flight from SFO to IST was very comfortable on a Boeing 787, the onward flight to DLA not nearly as good on an airbus A330. Neither the food or sear matched the overseas flight.

I need to make a note here about the Customs and TSA folks at SFO. Flying in and out of SFO seems like a much better experience than a number of other U.S. airports. The people I’ve had to deal with are all familiar with the process, friendly and efficient to get me and my gun on the way without any hassle or delay. Despite what some think about California, and San Francisco in particular, my experiences with SFO’s staff have always been very positive.

More later…

Oh very nice. Can't wait for the report.

And yes, as one of the people that CA is trying desperately to get rid of, I agree: SFO is easy to fly out of. Done it to Kyrgyzstan and multiple times to Africa.

After reading a lot of horror stories about trouble traveling through other airports with firearms, I'm pleasantly surprised.

I used Shawn Kennedy of Gracy Travel to handle all travel arrangements. As usual, she did a great job. For those who are not familiar with requirements to take a rifle to Cameroon, you need to send your passport to the Cameroon Embassy in Brussels, Belgium to get your Visa and gun permit. Gracy has a fellow in Paris whom you FedEx your passport to and he then takes a train to Brussels to obtain your authorizations and FedEx it back to you. This requires time & expense not needed for any other country I’m aware of. While dealing with this, I kept thinking about people here who’ve mentioned their frustrations with the hassles of traveling to Africa, especially with firearms. For the first time ever, I was questions whether the hassle was worth it. Once that was out of the way, I was pretty much set to go. My itinerary would include a 2 dat layover in Istanbul, so Shawn arranged with a local service who helps with arrangements for gun storage at IST airport. Conveniently, the same fellow, Hakan Ozsala, has a tour guide company for seeing Istanbul’s sights. I highly recommend seeing Istanbul if you have time, it’s a very interesting city.

Once done with Istanbul, it was onward to Doula, Cameroon. Mayo Oldiri has staff there to help you clear your gun into the country and with a 2:00 AM arrival, I was hoping things would go smoothly and not take a few hours as I’d heard other hunters had to deal with. It took about 45 minutes for bags to show up and once we had them one of the guys took my gun permit and disappeared for about 15 minutes. He came back and said ‘Let’s go’and we were off to the Star Land Hotel. I had a room to sleep for a few hours, then we were headed back to the airport for our flight to Garoua. Our flight to Garoua went smoothly and shortly after gathering our bags everyone was headed to their respective camps.

Alan and I started on the Mayo Nduel concession. It was a 7 1/2 hour drive from Garoua, all but the first hour on rough dirt roads. We passed through numerous small villages of mud huts with thatch roofs, no electricity, running water or sewer facilities. They live much like they’ve lived for generations. About the only modern convenience are small motorcycles that some of the men have to get around. We finally arrived at camp well after dark. Camp was pretty comfortable with rondavels to sleep in and good meals of fresh vegetables, fruits and game meat.

Our first day consisted of driving the two track roads, looking for eland tracks. Alan uses the GAIA GPS app, which shows the track we were driving and walking. Alan marked each location where we found eland tracks and noted the direction of travel. We did not see any eland the first day, but did find tracks of several groups as well as a pair that we thought were bulls. Three of the sets of tracks were all heading into the same large block, while one group was headed out of the block. Other than a lone Western Hartebeest bull we saw and tried to shoot that crossed the main road that runs through Mayo Nduel, we didn’t see much game of interest. We did see a Western Kob ram that was of interest but it was in the same block the eland were heading into, so there was no way I was going to fire a shot unless it was at an eland.

At the end of the day we had a good graphic that showed where we drove, each point where we saw tracks and direction of travel. The plan for the next day was to drive around that one block to see if we found any tracks leading out of the block and follow them or; if no tracks left the block, to start walking into the wind inside that block trying to find some of the eland we believed were inside.

We started out early the next morning, driving directly to the block and started looking for tracks leading out of the block to follow. About halfway around, Gumna our lead tracker, stopped us and had a quick discussion with Alan. It was decided that the two trackers would walk across the block to look for eland while we continued to drive the perimeter looking for tracks. We drove the balance of the road and were waiting in a shady area for a short while when the trackers showed up. Gumna and Alan had a short discussion, after which Alan asked if I wanted to go back to camp for lunch… or, would I rather go shoot one of the big eland bulls they’d seen not far away!

We all sucked down some water and took off on foot in the direction of the eland herd. We didn’t have to go far, maybe a half mile and suddenly we were glassing a herd of eland drifting through the trees a couple hundred yards away. The first thing I saw in my binoculars was an eland bull with wide spread horns. For someone who’d never hunted Giant Eland before, it was a a sight I’ll never forget. The bull had long and heavily ridged horns and an unusually wide spread, easily upper 40’s in length. But, he was one of two satellite bulls hovering around the perimeter of the herd. The herd bull, probably 11 or 12 years old, was a huge bodied bull with heavily broomed horns, both the ridges that run around the spirals as well as his tips broomed down by several inches. He was covered with mud on his face and neck, clearly the dominant bull.

The wind was bad, so we had to make a large circle to get the wind right. Once downwind we found a creek bed that allowed us to sneak back near the herd which numbered around 30 eland. We were sneaking along the creek bed through thick grass when Alan nearly stepped on a large water mongoose! It was probably 2 1/2 feet long and came blasting out of the grass to get out of the way. Thank God it wasn’t a mamba or cobra!

As we came up from the creek bed the closest eland was the big herd bull. He was standing broadside in the shade of some trees. We snuck as close as necessary to get a shooting lane and Alan set the Gunstix up. Alan studied the bull, turned to me and simply said “I think you should shoot this bull. He’s old, big and if you pass on him we both may regret it in a week.” That was all I needed to hear.

The bull was about 225 yards away and there were some tree branches about halfway to the bull that covered the lower part of his chest. I was shooting my .375 H&H which I’d had built recently on a pre-64 Model 70 express action I had. It was topped with a Leupold VX5HD scope in 2-10 magnification, with illuminated Firedot reticle. I settled the gun on the sticks and turned the scope up to 10x to better see the vegetation between me and the bull. I had to hold high on the shoulder to clear the obstructions, the red Firedot made aiming easy and I touched off my shot, sending a 300 grain Bearclaw on its way. The bullet hit with a loud ‘whop’ and the bull collapsed on the spot, never taking a step.

At noon on the 2nd day we had a grand, old Lord Derby Bull! We were both relieved to have success so early in the hunt.

Hunting and taking a Lord Derby bull was something I’d long wanted to do. We were both relieved to have succeeded so early and after walking only about 5 miles total. Alan had advised me to be prepared to walk up to 100 miles for my Eland and I had put in months walking about 4 miles a day to get ready. Fortunately, it wasn’t necessary and we could now turn our attention to spot & stalk hunting for the other animals I was interested in.

Wow, that is what a LDE is supposed to look like…… congrats

What an amazing hunt and a great bull. Thanks for sharing!

You can see them bigger but you won't see one better! Proper old trophy bull. You would have regretted it if you let that one go. We'll done!

Well done, Dan. They really are impressive beast in the bush

Helluva bull Dan. Huge congrats!

That is an awesome bull and one of the most impressive I have seen. Wel done to you both

What a superb bull. All mature bulls are magnificent and yours has the mark of greatness. Big congrats on your success.
When I hunted LDE ( mostly in Vaimba ) my PH Daniel Moore told me most hunters get it done by around day four. In the end I took my bull on the very last day after we took a short break from the drive out of camp. Almost the complete opposite of your hunt story.

Congratulations on such a phenomenal bull! That bull is the thing eland hunting dreams are made of!!!!

Sounds like you had a excellent hunt!

Very nice old bull there!

Congratulations on (in my mind) the premier plains game trophy of Africa!

Well done and congratulations to your great trophy

A stunning trophy and congratulations to the hunter and guide!

Well done!!!!!!!!!!

Now that's a proper bull amigo, congratulations!

After getting the eland in the salt, we turned our attention to the other game I was interested in. The next morning, we came across a Western Kob ram that was alone and quite calm. A quick stalk and shot and we had what turned out to be the best Kob we’d see on the hunt. We weren’t far from camp so after a few pictures we loaded it and drove back to camp for the skinning crew, than headed back out.

It seems that Roan may have been poached hard on Nduel during the pandemic, as we didn’t see many and the ones we saw were very spooky. We tried to get on a group several different times that contained a nice bull, but they’d spook from several hundred yards out and travel far. We saw buffalo a couple times but like the roan, they were very switched on. Very few Hartebeest, Oribi and we only saw one Reedbuck, which I missed. After a few days we decided to move to Vaimba, as Guav and his hunter were leaving there to move to GABA where they hoped to find more Eland. Ngumna, our lead tracker, assured us there were many more roan, reedbuck and Oribi on Vaimba than we were seeing on Nduel. With a week left, we moved to Vaimba which proved to be a good decision…

Great Trophy, Congratulations.

No finer trophy anywhere in Africa or the world.

WOW!! Spectacular bull Dan!!
Congratulations and good shooting!!

Looks like you are getting a ton of snow back on the home front!! I hope your snow blower is tuned up and you have a good 4x4!!

CheerZ,

Great bull, Dan!

Very nice old bull, does Alan bring his Tanzanian trackers with him, or does he speak French, which I assume the local trackers would speak ?

Lovely bull congratulations.
AR

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Dream bull. Thanks for taking the time to post!

Congratulations.

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quote:

Originally posted by Webster:
Very nice old bull, does Alan bring his Tanzanian trackers with him, or does he speak French, which I assume the local trackers would speak ?

Alan uses the local trackers who are familiar with the units. Between him speaking a little French and their native language, they get by. The lead tracker, Ngumna, has hunted with Alan for about 10 years, and they work well together.

After taking the Kob, we found other game to be difficult on Nduel. There is a major dirt road, two lanes and graded, that runs right through the middle of the concession. It seems that poaching impacted the game quite a bit during the pandemic and we were seeing very few roan, hartebeest and small antelope. Only saw buffalo a couple times and they were pretty switched on, just like the few roan we saw. My guess is poaching was rampant during the pandemic.

After five days on Nduel, we made the decision to move to Vaimba, as Guav Johnson and his hunter were leaving Vaimba for GABA in hopes of finding better Eland hunting. Ngumna, our lead tracker, assured us that there was a lot more game other than Eland on Vaimba than Nduel. He told us that there were ‘beaucoup, beaucoup‘ Roan on Vaimba. The move turned out to be very good for us.

The Vaimba concession was about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Nduel. We left around 9:00 and got to Vaimba in time for a nice lunch, highlighted by a wonderful fillet of Nile Perch that was caught a day before we arrived. The river runs right in front of camp and there is good fishing for Goliath Tigerfish and Nile Perch in pools just 400 yards upriver from camp.

After a great lunch and early afternoon nap, we headed out around 3:30 to get our first look at Vaimba. The difference in game populations was immediately obvious. We were seeing duikers (the red flanked duiker is a very cool animal), Oribi, Nigerian Bohor Reedbuck and Hartebeest as well as Roan. A lot more Roan.

After wandering for about an hour, we saw a really good Oribi, so bailed off the truck in pursuit. The grass was pretty thick and it took a bit to looking before we found it again. The shot wasn’t that far, perhaps 75 yards but all I could see was the oribi’s backend and it appeared to be quartering hard to the left. I put the Firedot on what little hair I could see and shot. The Oribi collapsed and all I can say is I’m glad the TSX exited behind the diaphragm on the right side or there wouldn’t have been much to have mounted.

Nice old LDE. Thanks for the report.

I had long wanted to take an Oribi, but never had an opportunity prior to hunting Cameroon.

With the Oribi loaded into the truck we continued on to see what else we might find. I still had a Roan, Hartebeest & Reedbuck in mind, though I was also intrigued with the Red-Flanked Duiker. We were seeing a lot more game than we had on Nduel even though there were very few Buffalo or Eland still on Vaimba. Buffalo, and especially Eland, are more seasonal on Vaimba with December and January being when they are more abundant.

As we drove along we found a group of Hartebeest with a good bull bringing up the rear. We dismounted and took off on foot after the group, but with very thick bush a shot opportunity was proving difficult. Finally, they were moving through a shooting lane a couple feet wide and I was set up on the Gunstix, waiting for the bull. Alan whispered that the next one to come through would be the bull as I waited through my scope. Suddenly, the bull appeared moving quickly and I shot. The TSX hit a bit far back but the bull was down after a 2nd shot. As it turned out, this was the only animal that required a 2nd shot. He wasn’t the largest Hartebeest we saw, but the largest that presented a shot opportunity

Western Hartebeest

After taking the Oribi & Hartebeest things were looking up since we had about six days left and nearly filled all animals.

The next morning, we found a really nice Bohor Reedbuck which I shot and we were back in camp early for lunch.




While finishing lunch we heard several vehicles pulling into camp. We weren’t expecting anyone, so looked outside to see what was up. The first vehicle was a pickup loaded with Cameroonian soldiers dressed in full battle gear. As soon as it stopped they dismounted and formed a perimeter around the other vehicles which included three Toyota Landcruiser SUV’s and another pickup. This was definitely strange, until the occupants exited the vehicles and we understood why the escort. The other vehicles contained a fellow who is the head of Cameroon’s Game Department, as well as Switzerland’s Ambassador to Cameroon along with his wife and several friends.

They were on their way from Garoua to Bouba Ndjida National Park for game viewing. They’d stopped at our camp to stretch their legs for a bit and enjoy a cold drink. Alan about fainted when I shook hands with the Game Department fellow and told him he looked as big as an Eland (he’s a very big guy), but he corrected me and said “Not an Eland, more like a Buffalo!” So I agreed and told him he looked like a big buffalo bull. Alan relaxed when the guy broke out in laughter and told Alan he liked me. We all went out onto the veranda and ordered cold drinks for everyone. After downing cold beers and visiting for about 30 minutes, they loaded up and left for the park, but not before the Game Department fellow encouraged us to come visit the park “but do not bring your guns inside the park”.

After they left, we decided it was time to fish after a good nap through the hottest part of the day. I’d brought along a bait casting rod paired with. Calcutta 400 level wind reel and an assortment of tackle for Nile Perch and Goliath Tigerfish. Alan said we might encounter fish over 30 pounds, so I’d loaded 40 pound braid and brought a Boga-grip for handling fish. My fingers were not gonna be anywhere near a Tiger’s teeth.

We went upriver with a couple hours of daylight left and proceeded to try a variety of spoons, spinners, top water and even live bait but had no luck. Alan was a bit concerned about crocodiles as the guys told him there were six or seven living in the stretch we were fishing. However, these aren’t Nile Crocs, but rather short snouted crocodiles that only grow to six or seven feet long. Still, a six foot croc near deeper water could easily drown a person. At one point, I got my lure hung up on some brush across the water and Ngumna, against my protestations, stripped down to his undershorts and swam across the fifteen or so yard wide stretch, dislodged my lure and swam back. I gave Ngumna the rod as he wanted to try it himself and he had to go swimming a couple more times to save lures that he got tangled.





After it got dark, I shined my headlamp across the water and counted seven sets of crocodile eyes shining in the light beam.

Dandy LDE!

Nice trophies to round out the safari.

The following day we set out very early to find a big roan bull. About an hour into the morning we found just the bull we were looking for. It was old, with long and heavy horns. We took off over a hill in pursuit of what was the best roan we’d seen, by far, on the entire trip.

I need to pause here to mention that, even though I’d been shooting well, I was having a difficult time seeing game well (especially roan due to their color) due to having cataracts in both eyes, with my shooting (right) eye being the worst one. I’ll be getting cataract surgery later this year before my next big hunt. I was not finding game very easily, stuff that I’d normally see immediately. I was also pretty dependent on that illuminated Firedot for aiming as it’s more difficult to see regular crosshairs when vision is clouded by cataracts.

It took about a half hour of following the roan and we were in fairly dense bush with a lot of closely spaced trees. Alan finally put up the Gunstix and I settled the gun with him asking if I could see the bull’s shoulder between the trees. There was a narrow shooting lane and the shoulder was all that was visible. It took me a bit to identify the bull and by the time I did, it turned and walked directly away. We did not want a first shot to be in the backend of the roan so the pursuit continued. Finally, the roan took off, rather spooked so we left him rather than blow him out of the country.

My vision challenges precluded me from taking a Roan bull as I’d hoped for. I had passed up a couple great buffalo that would have been easy to take earlier in the trip as I preferred to fill my license with a roan if at all possible. When a couple difficult visual opportunities presented, I wasn’t able to get it done due to not seeing nearly as well as I used to. In the end, it wasn’t meant to be. I’m looking forward to getting cataract surgery later this year and getting back to clear and sharp vision that I used to have.

We Decided to spend our final day exploring farther up the Vaimba River, fishing some areas that were less pressured than the pools near camp. We found an area with great looking water and I managed to land a modest sized Goliath Tigerfish that hit a salmon spinner viciously thankfully, I was using a wire leader and was able to release it after a few pictures

All in all it was a very good hunt with a long time great friend. I’ve known Alan literally since he was ten years old, nearly 41 years. We’ve had some really good hunts together and we’re both looking forward to future good times shared across some of Africa’s great places to hunt.

I‘m glad I hunted Cameroon, though the country outside of the hunting concessions is pretty impoverished even by African standards. We drove hours on rough dirt roads through village after village of nothing but mud huts with no electricity, running water or sewer facilities. Most of the people outside the cities live a very basic life just as they’ve done for decades. About the only modern convenience for a few are small motorcycles or bicycles, but most people still get around only by walking. I might go back someday for a roan, buffalo & red flanked duiker; but not likely as there are still so many other places I’d like to hunt across Africa and at 65 years old, I know I probably only have 10-15 years left to hunt the places and species I still want to pursue.