The hunt for ndlovu

Around Christmas, I was sitting in my office late one night when my wife rang to see where I was and whether I was ever planning on coming home. I had to confess to her that I'd been day dreaming about going to Africa again which was met with a rather stony silence on the other end of the line - "...just you and me, maybe two weeks, we'll hunt elephant and leave all the drama at home for a while..." A bit more silence, and she agreed...

I put the word out on AfricaHunting.com that I was looking for a non-CITES elephant hunt and had a number of responses from professional hunters operating in Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. All the offers were good, then I thought to call Siegfried Osmers. Siegfried runs Dalerwa Ventures for Wildlife

Dalerwa Ventures for Wildlife, based in Hoedspruit and operating hunting and photographic safaris in South Africa. Seigfried and I had been speaking over the past few years about organisising a dedicated hunt for the Brown Hyena and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to combine a couple of very different and exciting hunts.

Siegfried and I spoke a few more times before I got in touch with past clients; everyone had great things to say about their experience with Dalerwa so over the next few days we worked out what we wanted to do and when it might be feasible. A generous result from the tax man sealed the deal and the issuing of a few non-CITES quota for elephant by Nature Conservation meant the hunt was on...

Reams of paperwork are in progress and I just got back from a weekend getting my eye in, firing 500 grain Woodleigh solids launched from some of Bruce Bertram's fine brass at milk bottles hanging in trees. Come August, the long stalk for ndlovu, tembo, jumbo, olifant will begin. However you say it, I expect this will truly be a once in a lifetime experience!

We're off mid August and back early September - so 14 full days of hunting, a few road travel days in South Africa plus air time. It's a much shorter trip than usual but we're leaving the girls at home due to the very long walk... this particular hunt doesn't really suit kids.

The boss is quite excited and has set her mind on knocking over a giraffe with my .300 Weatherby Magnum; not sure where that came from but I certainly have no issue with her having a go. I'll back her up with my .450 Ackley Magnum. Very supportive Dagga...

I'll need to load a box of 500 grain solids for the .450 Ackley and a couple of boxes for the .300 Weatherby for any other encounters we might have; the stinkbull and hopefully hyena. So in addition to the elephant, we're pretty keen on getting amongst the hyenas so we'll be dragging a few bush tracks, hanging baits and doing a bit of calling. Beyond this I guess we'll just keep our eyes open.