One Heck Of A Ride

119 Two Memorial Hunts In Cameroon in a Paris warehouse and sent to my taxidermist, Dennis Berry of Wildlife Arts, who called me to say he’d found dead bugs in the box. He’d sent the skins to a tannery but my female bongo’s hide had lost most of its hair and couldn’t be mounted. I’d paid a $1,500 trophy fee for that animal, and I wasn’t happy when I contacted the outfitter again. When Borge offered to send me the skin of another female or sell me a safari for a Lord Derby eland at half price, I chose the hunt. I ultimately gave the ruined hide to Darryl Hastings, who needed a set of bongo ears for his own mount. I left for my second Cameroon hunt the day after Safari Club International’s January 2004 convention ended and again flew to Douala via Los Angeles and Paris, and again spent a night at the Meridien Doaula hotel before flying to Borge Ladefoged’s northern hunting camp. Instead of a chartered flight, a scheduled airline took me to the Garoua International Airport just thirty miles east of Cameroon’s border with Nigeria in the far north of the country. This region had an entirely different climate and terrain than Borge’s Lokoma concession in the rainforest where I hunted bongo and sitatunga three years earlier. Little or no rain falls in its November to February dry season, when daytime temperatures average 103ºF. Borge’s Garoua concession had good numbers of free-ranging giant (Lord Derby) eland, western hartebeest, western roan antelope, western bush duiker, oribi and other savannah species. There also were harnessed bushbucks, but I saw only females. The rams eluded me, probably because we spent nine days of my twelve-day hunt mostly chasing eland. (“Chasing” is an appropriate word for hunting giant eland. We spent about as much time running as stalking and tracking. These largest of Africa’s spiral-horned antelopes have long strides and we had to trot just to keep up with a herd that was merely walking.) Our first eland sighting came on the third day of the hunt when we spotted a small herd in tall grass. Two trophy bulls were moving from our left to the right. Although both bulls were broadside just a hundred yards away, I only could see their horns and a small portion of one bull’s head. I expected them to present a shot when they moved into an opening but they turned and disappeared instead. I was simultaneously disappointed and pumped-up. I had encountered my first specimens of these majestic animals and they were much larger than I had expected. Although there was no shortage of these beautiful animals, the challenge grew more demanding after I missed my first chance. We made a number of unsuccessful stalks that took anywhere from three to five hours each and each covered a couple of miles. The ashes from burned grass made breathing tough at times. In addition, worms emerging from the ground left holes that were ankle-twisting, blister-building, and foot- and-leg-grinding menaces. To top it off, it was much hotter and drier than the rainforest where I’d hunted bongo – except for the fifth day, when it was so cold I wore a jacket and gloves all day. Outfitter Borge Ladefoged and author with big western roan On the second day, I shot at a trophy roan antelope bull and was certain I’d hit him. In that part of Africa, dusk was short and darkness came quickly. We could find only a single drop of blood