LIBERIA: Liberia 2022 Hunt Report

[Wishfulthinker580]

Interesting place and report. Looking forward to the rest

 

[mrpoindexter]

Sounds like a horrible place and a miserable trip. Can't wait to hear more and maybe go myself!

Still very interested and want to hear more. Also do not want to book a trip there anytime soon. I am thinking this will be as close as I will get to acquiring a zebra duiker for my collection.

 

[gillettehunter]

Sounds like a miserable hunt and no animals makes it very rough
Bruce

 

[Royal27]

Tim is a really nice guy and I know one of his goals is to hunt every huntable place in Africa.

Sounds like y'all are hunting unhuntable as well!

Still though, doing what sp few have done. Pretty cool.

 

[Nickcusato]

I had the pleasure of working with Celia Cuffy Brown, Liberia's Director of the National Housing Authority in the early 2000's just before her appointment to Director of Liberia's National Port Authority. Quite an experience and a really good time. She introduced me to a variety of foods that we here in the US don't experience. That country has made some moves in the right direction but has a few hurdles ahead.

 

[MLindsay]

I have spent 31 days hunting in the rain forest in Cameroon over 50 years working, and hunting in Louisiana, which is tougher than the rain forest. The most troublesome problem in the rain forest is ants. I wore 17" Rocky Snake boots, not for snakes but ants. My ripstop pants were tucked in my boots, my long sleeve rip stop shirt was tucked in my pants thus making it hard for ants to reach my skin before I brushed them off.

 

[LivingTheDream]

This report is fascinating! I have no desire to go through what you did, but I envy you for being able to have this experience.

 

[Ridgewalker]

Oh I am so sad I can’t put together the funds for such a hunt…NOT!
I must admit I do envy you looking for the next bizarre hunt! You have done so many!
I also have to admit I am really enjoying reading about your misery! LOL!

 

[WAB]

Well, Liberia is definitely not on the bucket list!

 

[ChasingHemingway]

Love walking in your ant filled boots and looking through eyes and enjoying the experience without having to go there myself!! Lol Thank you for sharing!

 

[MarkB]

I am the opposite, I would love to be able to do such a real hunt. I am totally enjoying this report. No getting out of vehicle to open and close game fence gates, not looking for big 9, or "the" specific animal. What an opportunity @Hank2211 gets to have in the flesh. This poor fellow Cannuck gets it thru osmosis. Please keep it coming.

MB

 

[Andrew62]

'Someone somewhere must be trying to illegally emigrate to Liberia. Oddly, I take some comfort in this fact, since it means there must be a place worse than this somewhere!'


I can't stop laughing at this quote!! Back in the early 2000's I looked into a hunt in Liberia, definitely glad that never happened, this seems so damn miserable!! I am very thankful you posted about this hunt!!

 

[K-man]

Ah! Jungle hunting! I did ask for this!

Wow! I decided a decade ago I was not going jungle hunting. you have really reinforced that decision. Congrats on making the trip - I am glad someone is going. just not me.

 

[mark-hunter]

@Hank2211
I am envoius! Not so much for the hunt, but for the possibility to book the hunts so many years in advance!
Due to my still frantic work schedule, I am not able to plan 6 months in advance, not to mention 2, or 3 years ahead! And this, makes me a lot of problems to book my next African hunt, wherever it may be.

This report is fascinating, giving me a very plastic picture of the area and the country you were hunting!

So, far, one shot is fired. It gives me hope, you will get something on the end.
Pls keep on, as by now, I am stuck to my laptop, waiting for your next installment!

 

[Tra3]

Great writing!

 

[BourbonTrail]

Honestly, I am enjoying @Hank2211 ’s story.

Every experience is different, and some experiences suck. However, they are still important in shaping how we see the world. It sounds like much hasn’t changed in Liberia since WDM Bell was there “hunting” elephants (he hated it too), and honestly it adds a depth that can’t be had with a wonderful hunt in a fabulous lodge.

Side note: hunting in the jungle at night sounds like being in the Southern US at night, especially in the swamps or canebrake. I could feel the mosquitoes as you described them, even choking on those SOBs.

Thanks Hank for a good read.

 

[Hank2211]

Last Part

Laundry time. All of our water - cooking, cleaning, etc., came from this river.

Over the next two days, Tim did get a shot at a bay duiker during his many treks, and we had the backstrap for dinner that day. I managed to get the only animal I saw during the entire hunt – a palm civet which I actually saw in a palm tree. When I can see something to shoot at, I have some confidence that I can hit it, but when I can’t see it . . . it’s just a function of luck. We didn’t eat the backstrap of the civet, or any other part of it for that matter. We were told that "everything" we shot (less the one backstrap) went to a local village.

A palm civet

Day hunting. Can't see much through this jungle.

Nothing had changed since our conversation a few days before, and in fact we became firmer in our judgment that this wasn’t the type of hunting we were prepared to be a part of. So the final decision was easy. We called the hunt and advised Tony that we were going to head back to Monrovia.

We had warned Tony that this might happen, so he was prepared. The truck tire had to be replaced and, while removing the old tire, three of the nuts holding the tire to the hub had (or had been) snapped off. Tony had had to send someone on a motorcycle to Monrovia to not only get a new tire, but also to pick up nuts for the wheel hub. Fortunately, the tire and nuts arrived just in time. But unfortunately, the truck’s battery had died during our time in camp, and there was no means to charge it. But this being Africa, we managed. We got everyone in camp to help us push the truck up an incline (not an easy feat), and then Dean drove it down the incline, push starting it.

Hard to put on a tire if there are only three nuts to attach it to . . . especially if they're all on the same side!

We headed off, but of course, nothing is straightforward in Africa. The new tire was a different size than the old tire and wasn’t fully inflated. We had to inflate it at the nearest logging operation, but they didn’t have the part to fit the compressor hose to the tire nipple. No problem. A small pebble held the pin down and a cloth over the nipple held the compressor hose on and we filled it up. And by the time we hit the outskirts of Monrovia, the differential began acting up from driving so long on the different size tires, and the brakes had stopped working. So we came to a slow stop (using the emergency brake), parked and waited for another vehicle to come and pick us up. Another day in Africa!

And so ended our hunting trip to Liberia. There really wasn’t much to hunt, and what there was, we didn’t want to hunt, at least not by the methods used there. To be candid, if Liberia wants to be successful in the hunting business - and they should want that, if only to ensure animals survive into the future – they need to:

• Create larger hunting concessions and ensure that there no one lives or farms within those concessions.
• Change the method of hunting. It's unacceptable that females be killed as a by-product of trophy hunting.
• Create (if necessary) and enforce rules against poaching.
• Build roads through those larger concessions so that more areas can be accessed than can currently be accessed on foot.
• Develop alternatives to night hunting, as is done in places like Cameroon and Congo.
• Acquire more modern shotguns and rifles and keep them in good condition. None of the shotguns “worked” properly in one sense or another. The main problem with them was ejecting shells – Tim’s wouldn’t eject at all and mine was erratic. But both shotguns were heavily rusted and neither filled you with confidence. I get that firearms rust in a rain forest, but I know from experience that with proper maintenance, this can be prevented. The rifles in camp were another matter altogether – we never used them, and I would not have wanted to without first allowing someone else to demonstrate that they could be fired safely. And that’s not really an ethical thing to ask . . .

I have some doubts as to the 'structural integrity' of the stock on the left!

Note the spider which has made a nest behind the trigger

In fairness, not all these things can be done at the same time. For example, calling duikers will not be successful (as it wasn’t for us) unless there is a reasonable density of game in the area, which will require larger areas and no farming as well anti-poaching measures.

If these things were done, I have little doubt that the small game would recover quickly and even the larger game, once prevalent, would return. We’ve seen it happen in other parts of Africa and there’s no reason it couldn’t happen in Liberia.

There are some other things that should be done, although these aren’t as important as the foregoing. Liberia is remote, and likely always will be (that’s a good thing, in my view), but still, some efforts could be made to upgrade camp facilities for hunters. For example:

• We had no showers in a conventional sense – a bucket of warm water and a saucepan. A black plastic bag hanging from a tree with a nozzle and valve would be infinitely better and likely less work for staff in terms of heating water. I’ve had this setup in both permanent but remote camps (in Ethiopia, for example) as well as in temporary fly camps.
• Mosquito nets are critical – note the picture (above) of the bugs on my net one morning. I don’t know if the Danish hunter was taking malaria prophylaxis, but no one really needs to needlessly increase the risk of malaria.
• It’s not terribly hard to evict a colony of bats from sleeping quarters. I understand that bats live in the jungle and that you won’t get rid of them, nor, frankly, should you, but you can make sure they do actually live in the jungle, and not in one of the hunter’s huts. I can clean up guano every day (though I really shouldn’t have to) but I can’t do anything about the bat urine.
• Toilets. We had “regular” toilets, but they lacked a seat, so, when necessary, you sat on porcelain (or developed your quads). Equally, if it’s possible (and it usually is, especially when there is access to running water), have a toilet which can flush (we had to pour water into the toilet with our saucepan to flush).

The toilet. The bucket is hot water for a shower. The big tub is water for the toilet and to dilute the hot water for a shower. The water was straight from the river.

• Clean up the camp site itself. Our camp was dirt, tree stumps and felled trees. The felled trees could be cleaned up and used for firewood, the stumps could be burned out, and groundcover (which grew everywhere) could be planted (or just left alone). As it was, when it rained (which was regularly), the camp became a large mud puddle.
• A cooler box in the truck with water and something to munch on would be great – the drive to and from camp is, as I mentioned, long, and while we had our driver stop from time to time in villages to allow us to buy what we needed, it would be better to simply put a cooler box in the back with a few things.

These are in many cases small things, but they would help make the experience more enjoyable without a great deal of cost or effort.

One last note on some of these matters. Neither I nor Tim demand anything approaching luxury in a hunting camp and had we been advised that we were going into a new area to open it up, we would both have been up for the challenge, even if that involved sleeping in tents and eating re-hydrated food. That wasn’t how this was communicated to us though, and so our expectations, more or less minimal as they were, weren’t met. That’s a problem and one which is easily addressed by the outfitter (and to be clear, Tim and I booked this hunt directly - Dean wasn't involved in booking, so he isn't the outfitter here).

I also want to be careful to avoid any misunderstanding here. The camp staff were all uniformly pleasant and more than willing to help. They did whatever we asked of them. I think their challenge is that they have no real experience of a hunting camp, or even much experience with westerners, so they don’t know what they don’t know. To the extent that there is any fault in all of this (and it’s not clear that there is), it must rest with management, and not with our camp staff.

Overall, I’m glad I went. I had a reasonable time among pleasant people, and I think Tim did as well. We worked hard and the circumstances were difficult as they always are in the jungle, but that's what makes the jungle a challenge, and I enjoy challenges.

We were of course disappointed in the hunting, but without trying to be trite, you live and learn. The bottom line is that I would not go back to hunt Liberia unless I had some assurance that the major conservation issues surrounding hunting, poaching and the presence of animals were addressed.

And the "hardship" of jungle hunting and remote places? Bring it on!

I found this amusing . . .

 

[DieJager]

Thank you for reporting. A jungle hunt in the future is a thing I want to do. So I am glad with your report in things to look out for and ask.

 

[Wishfulthinker580]

Thank you for the report

 

[MarkB]

A different report from the norm, real, honest, maybe not as advertised but a life memory added to the bank. I did enjoy.

Thanks

MB