CAMEROON: Cameroon Hunt With Mayo Oldiri 2019

[Red Leg]

Great Buffalo - has everything one would hope to find. Sincerest congratulations.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

I do appreciate all the comments telling me what I should have had in my carry on though . . .!

I'd have double bagged it.....

 

[Hogpatrol]

Allegedly off a Cameroonian facebook page. Not well known but post Cecil, lions now have internet access.

 

[LivingTheDream]

Awesome Bull! Congratulations!!! Love the color on that guy, you did well.

 

[Nyati]

Just love that buff, and the reedbuck has a very nice shape to his horns !

 

[Hank2211]

Congratulations on the buff! Maybe you can write a short recommendation letter to Crocs once you arrive home. Send them a pic of you hunting wearing them with an explanation about how many days and the rough country you were in, but no animals included in the pics. Then they may offer you a new pair every year for the remainder......

I actually thought about that, but my guess is the last thing they would want to be associated with s hunting . . . so even without an animal picture it's unlikely. And I threw them out as soon as I got home!

 

[gillettehunter]

I have to admire your tenacity and strength. You really EARNED that buf. Good looking trophy and a nice reedbuck. Congrats
Bruce

 

[cagkt3]

Fantastic looking bull! The coloration is really something

 

[sestoppelman]

Love the buffalo and the reedbuck looks like a monsta for a bohor! Not going to tell you what you should have done about packing...

 

[BRICKBURN]

............. And I threw them out as soon as I got home!

Those things should have had their own plaque in a place of honor.

 

[rinehart0050]

Very nice colouration on your buff! Congrats.

Very interesting having the local special forces arrive in camp. In my experience it's always nice to have them on your side and very bad if they're after you. I found them to always be quick on the trigger to deal with issues.

 

[kudukid]

Very nice colouration on your buff! Congrats.

Very interesting having the local special forces arrive in camp. In my experience it's always nice to have them on your side and very bad if they're after you. I found them to always be quick on the trigger to deal with issues.

Captivating report. Looking forward to a bit more each day. Can we get a close up of you in your crocs? Love the hooky horns on your reedbuck. Your buff with the roan/ginger colour will look a treat on the wall.

 

[enysse]

Excellent hunt report! Very mature animals taken. My feet are killing my every day after work so hunting in crocs is a true challenge and hardship.

 

[BobT]

Congrats Hank! Beautifully written report as usual, thank you for sharing. Some fantastic trophies.

Crocks make my feet hurt!

 

[Deleted member 43267]

This is a great story, well told. You have a rare ability to "take the reader there."

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[Neale]

Hank, you take us on adventures that few will be able to experience first hand. Thank you.

 

[AB2506]

I believe you are right. I should be put up for some sort of award. If you asked my PH, he would suggest an award for "most complaining on a hunt."

I can understand the complaining. If I had only Crocs to wear on a hunt with uneven footing like you did, my hunt would be effectively ruined. A back injury caused nerve damage and significant weakness in my left leg. If don't have high supportive boots, my ankle flip flops every which way. I also finds that using trekking poles really help me negotiate rough terrain. With them I am almost normal, albeit slow, however I get there. It is something I just have to work around.

I usually wear a comfortable slip on shoe on the plane. It is easier to put them back on after going through security. I've been thinking about what I am wearing and taking with me on my trip to the RSA in April 2019. I am leaning towards wearing my new boots. One, they will be with me regardless what happens to the luggage. Two, it will free up a lot of space in the checked luggage. Three, it will help break them in that much more wearing them on the flight.

On my first trip, I wore some Cabelas Meindl uninsulated Ultralight Hunters. They worked great and would last more trips, but in the intervening five years, I often feel the front of the boots with my big toe. This has never an issue before, but it is now and is very disconcerting. I don't want to be on a hunt and have blisters on the front of my toes.

I have purchased a pair of Lowa Z-8S GTX Coyote OP. They are even more comfortable. Looking forward to trying them.

And Hank, how much longer do we have to wait for the next installment?

 

[Hank2211]

I can understand the complaining. If I had only Crocs to wear on a hunt with uneven footing like you did, my hunt would be effectively ruined. A back injury caused nerve damage and significant weakness in my left leg. If don't have high supportive boots, my ankle flip flops every which way. I also finds that using trekking poles really help me negotiate rough terrain. With them I am almost normal, albeit slow, however I get there. It is something I just have to work around.

I usually wear a comfortable slip on shoe on the plane. It is easier to put them back on after going through security. I've been thinking about what I am wearing and taking with me on my trip to the RSA in April 2019. I am leaning towards wearing my new boots. One, they will be with me regardless what happens to the luggage. Two, it will free up a lot of space in the checked luggage. Three, it will help break them in that much more wearing them on the flight.

On my first trip, I wore some Cabelas Meindl uninsulated Ultralight Hunters. They worked great and would last more trips, but in the intervening five years, I often feel the front of the boots with my big toe. This has never an issue before, but it is now and is very disconcerting. I don't want to be on a hunt and have blisters on the front of my toes.

I have purchased a pair of Lowa Z-8S GTX Coyote OP. They are even more comfortable. Looking forward to trying them.

And Hank, how much longer do we have to wait for the next installment?

First, I know what you mean about ankles that flip flop. My left ankle seems to just bend over when I walk, especially on uneven terrain. And Crocs - even the leather ones I had on - really provide no ankle support at all, though they are quite comfortable.

I had thought of wearing my boots on the plane, but when you're faced with about 24 hours of flying, then adding layovers, that's a long time to be wearing a pair of hunting boots, no matter how comfortable. And don't forget, most of us find that our feet swell when we fly, which could make a great fitting pair of boots pretty uncomfortable.

Second, I'm working on the next instalment! Things are actually winding down now . . . sad to say . . . sort of!

 

[Hank2211]

Day 7; Jan 26

Another beautiful day, but one a little less interesting than past days, now that we have both of our allowed “A” animals. A bit of good news is that the big blister is getting better. That’s tempered by the fact that another blister seems to be developing underneath the new skin! But the big walking hunts are over, so I’m not too worried.

The mornings have been reliably cool so far, which has been helpful in terms of sleep. On more than one night I’ve woken up and actually gotten under a blanket! And when we get on the truck in the morning, we’re all wearing a jacket. Guav actually wears a toque (wool hat for Americans) because I think he has very thin blood. It seems he’s had just about every disease you can get here except Ebola. His last was typhoid not a year ago. I mentioned there was a vaccine for that now . . .

If the days start out cool, it doesn’t last. By 7.30 or so the coats come off, and by 8.30 or 9, it’s hot and just gets hotter until the sun goes down.

This is a day of relaxed driving around, but that doesn’t mean we don’t stop when someone spies a nice Western Hartebeest not too far from the road. Guav and I jump off, walk into some bushes, and once the sticks are set up, I take a shot. The Hartebeest immediately turns and runs off into the bush. I say “that felt good” and two of the trackers say it was a miss! Guav says if it wasn’t a miss, it wasn’t a great shot. I point out that I tend to know when the shot was iffy, and I’m sticking to my gun, so to speak, that this was a good shot. So the trackers get down, and they begin tracking. They quickly find some blood – so not a miss – and almost as quickly find the hartebeest, dead. He’d run maybe 60 yards and piled up into a bush. I expect the trackers were deceived by the dust behind the hartebeest which was caused by the bullet exiting. Because I was right. The shot was exactly where it should be.

It turns out he’s quite the specimen – long tips but not because he’s terribly young. I suggest to Guav that he might trust my judgment about my shots. He says he’ll think about it, but doubts he’ll end up there.

As the morning wears on, we’re just sort of shooting the breeze on the back of the truck, with Guav presenting Dean with ever more outlandish choices, and telling him he must choose one or the other. Dean refuses to get drawn into the game, which shows good judgment on his part. We are coming to a (dry) river crossing (there are the odd pools of water) when one of the trackers points out a pair of bushbuck about 120 yards away, next to the river bed. We’re quite a bit higher on the far bank, so they haven’t spotted us.

We quietly get off the truck and try to both get a better look. There is a male and a female, and both look to be small to me. Guav has said that the bushbuck here – of the harnessed variety – are the smallest of the species, but it still looks small. Nevertheless, he says it’s a good one, and I’m really only interested in the skin, so we decide to give it a try. We sneak a bit closer, but then have to wait for the female to get away from the male. I’m ready when she does, and with one shot he’s down on the spot.

It was bushbuck which really got me interested in the spiral horned antelope, so it's fitting that I take one on this hunt for the last of the nine.

This afternoon we drove to another part of the concession – the “plateau” – which we hadn’t seen yet. The truly is a vast area, and one which harbours tse-tse flies in some unlikely places! It's no less beautiful for that, which gets me wondering how long areas like this can stay wild.

The pressure from exploding human populations which need room for crops and pasturing of domestic animals is intense, and while the tsetse flies will tend to keep domestic animals limited, they can't keep the cotton fields out.

Giant eland, more than buffalo, need lots of room. They aren't territorial and given that they're selective browsers, they'll walk miles and miles every day to get the food they need. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) categorizes the giant eland as "vulnerable" and suggests that the total population is between 8,400 - 9,800. That's not an enormous number, especially since they are spread out over northern Cameroon, CAR and south Sudan (with a very small remnant population in the Senegal area). Note that two of those countries are currently not good places to be if you look like food. The IUCN goes on to say this: Safari hunting is the most likely justification for the long-term preservation of the substantial areas of unmodified savanna woodland which this antelope requires, and sustainable trophy hunting is a key to the Giant Eland’s future. That's why we're here. If trophy hunting ever stopped, it's likely the giant eland - which cannot co-exist with cattle - would quickly disappear in the wild.

 

[cpr0312]

This is a grand safari! Congrats on the hartebeest and bushbuck!!