Felix whispered into my ears, but I could not hear it clearly as I had earplugs on. I took one off and asked him what he was saying. He told with softly voice that the wind are turning and those cows to our far right will wind us and I must shoot. As soon as I could understand what Felix had been trying to communicate, the wind turned. Felix expected that our old bull would turn his head to look at us, so I could have a chance for a clear frontal brain shot. But instead he immediately made a left sharp u-turn and started to run away with the cows and calves. There were branches, bushes and trees everywhere, I had to run three to four steps to our left, and within a split second, I found a small open area but I could only make quartering away shot at the old bull. The shot would be targeted for high heart- lung shot. I had no chance to adjust my sight view for his heart, as time was limited. I has a choice of either shoot right now or we would never see the old bull again. After the shot, Felix asked me how I felt about shooting and I told him "it was good".
After I had fired the shot, elephants were running all over the place. We had to shout really loudly to let them know our presence, this was done in order to avoid them charging at us. We waited fifteen minutes before we look for his spoor but: this was very difficult as there were variety of cow's tracks all over the place, and they covered my old bull track. After ten minutes, trackers managed to find some blood and the old bull track. He had stopped running after he had been carried a couple hundred meters by the frightened cows. There was a good sign which indicated that his injury was fatal; he was swaying from left to right, here and there with no one direction. At 16.30 pm, we saw him standing in a semi open bush with the range of a hundred meters away with another younger bull. He could not walk any further; it was only a matter of time before he falls down. I finished him off. He was a very old bull as the hair of his tail were white, his head was very round and his feet had big cracks and were worn off. A roadside elephant had turned out to be a tough but great hunt. The total distant that we have traveled from for the hunt was 24.2 Kms. We walked 52 Kms in the past two days, covered about 115 Kms in the last five days. This was a marvelous elephant hunt indeed.
Entrance hole from spine-shot. Federal Premium Cape Shok .375 H&H 300 grains Trophy Bonded Sledgehammer solid failed to penetrate. The old bull's body dropped only a couple of inch instead of falling down the ground.
Same ammo failed to penetrate on Frontal Brain Shot
Well-Worn Feet of an Old Bull
An Old Bull Foot with Big Cracks
Xhau, Keshe (the old tracker), Robert, Felix and Me
Two weeks later Felix has weighted the tusks, with our great doubt, right tusk weights only 65.5 lbs and left tusk weights only 59.4 lbs. We could hardly believe them as these tusks weight less than the first bull because it was 37" versus 33" in length from the lip with 19" versus 18" in circumference.
Wednesday September 5-18th day
We had recovery job of the old bull's carcass to do today as Florian has gone to Capravi two days ago to take care of a German client and his family. We went off early to take more photographs of the old bull in the early morning sun. His meat was cut and prepared to be distribute to several villages. Some of the villages have not received any meat for the whole year. I could easily see their happiness once the were aware that some of the meat would be given to them.
528,534,538,545,546,551,553,557,564,566,567,568,56 9,570,571,572,574,583
Thursday September 6-19th day
Today was the last day of this safari, but I still have a permit for own use elephant, Roan, Eland, Kudu, Gemsbok, Warthog, Hyena, Leopard, Springbuck, Red Hartebeest, Blue Wildebeest and Steinbok. So we decided to have a go at finding Roan. We drove around for a couple of hour to only find a lone blue wildebeest's spoor. We followed his track for an hour before realizing that he is way ahead of us. We searched more for track but found nothing.
After our lunch break, we drove to a pan and to discovered a group of blue wildebeest. We stalked up to them for an hour, but did not find any bull worth taking.
My Safari has came to an end. Nyae Nyae Conservancy is truly the best place to hunt for a great majestic old bull elephant. I must say I did have a good time with great experiences here, both the place and Camerlthorn Safaris have been splendid. Before I have booked the hunt, I was not sure about Felix as I had never known him nor had heard any information about him. On the other hand, I have just had a very bad experience from a PH in Botswana earlier in April, but Felix had turned out to be a great PH. He is honest and a hard working PH. He does not give you any sweet talks, give you BS, nor sell dreams. Since the first day of this trip, he has never said bad things about any one at all. Camelthorn Safari now has four concessions in Namibia. I am definitely come back to hunt with them next year.
Thank you for spending time reading my story. Thank you very much for your kind support and mostly for your patient.
