Jeri Stephens and I recently spent two weeks hunting in the rain forest of Cameroon with PH Geoffroy Gentile in Mayo Oldiri’s Lognia camp. It was indredible experience hunting with Geoffroy and the Pygmy trackers. They were very professional and hard working. We hunted buffalo for twelve days and actually got within fifteen yards of buffalo on seven different days but the foliage was just too thick to get a glimpse of the buffalo. Oh man, what a rush to hear the buffalo snorting and running through the forest and watching the Pygmies climbing up the trees. Highlights included taking a 27 inch 600+ pound bongo on the first day of the safari, calling a five inch Peter’s duiker in by myself, and finding a fifteen foot python at a saline that graciously posed with us for pictures.

We also saw gorillas and chimpanzees throughout the safary and Jeri almost got trampled by an elephant that took exception to our duiker calling. Geoffroy actually had to fire his rifle in the air when the elephant was about fifteen feet away that’s some adrenalin. Other trophies included a blue duike and red river hog. The camp was very comfortable and the food delicious. I would highly recommend this trip and PH for anyone wanting to go to the rain forest. Remember nothing is easy in the forest neither a step nor a breath and the forest protects its own. See Bragg’n Rights for pictures!.

It was early the morning of the fifth day. Just a few minutes out of camp, we picked up the tracks of a single bull, maybe not smoking fresh, but definitely made the night before. We followed through dense green thickets into more open gallery forest, across another forest road and into more forest. We had followed for little more than an hour when a heavy animal crashed away just in front of us. Our lead tracker released his terrier-like dog, and the trackers behind us released three more.

Fresh out of a cool shower, I felt the first trickle of sweat crawl across my scalp less than five minutes after the refreshing river water sprayed over me from a gravity-fed tub suspended overhead. Toweling off back in my palm-frond-and-wood hut, I felt the mugginess in the air as a troop of monkeys tittered to each other in a nearby tree. The temperature was mild, about 75 degrees, but the humidity was as high as a Turkish sauna. All it took to start perspiring again after that cool shower was a little bit of exertion-tying my shoes.

It was February 18, 2006 as I stood behind a scrub tree in the northern Cameroon's Savanna. I settled the cross hairs on my 300 Winchester Mag on a Sing Sing Waterbuck laying down facing away from me. If I make this 375 yard shot I will have fulfilled a life time goal of taking 400 different species of big game animals, which few hunters if any in the work have ever accomplished.

Here is a short report on the Bongo Hunt.I harvested a Bongo which is about No. 17 in the book.MAYO OLDIRI SAFARIS is a first class and very fine safari outfit. All accommodations and services were exceptional. If someone has the desire to harvest a Bongo, this is definitely the place to go.

I have hunted Africa since the early 1970's but truly feel you have not had the 'true' African experience until you have hunted in the heavy rain forest areas of Cameroon and the Congo. However, if you don't have an unrelenting desire for a Bongo - it is a good country to stay out of.

All 3rd World Countries are in a class of their own and Cameroon is no exception. Cameroon has many problems, in addition to the normal ones, disease, insects, poaching of game and government graft. But, the experience and reward of hunting with Pigmy Trackers is unbelievable.

When I took my two sons with me, little did I know what I was getting them in to. On two occasions, in the middle of the night, we saw Safari Staff being carried out of the camp on stretchers to be MED VAC to Germany. At the time, I was surely hoping that the 'big guy' upstairs was watching.

We were constantly being harassed by rough Elephants who have been peppered by poachers armed only with shot guns. At the time, I had wished I'd left the kids at home. Since American's cannot import Ivory you only have one option - RUN. A hunter prior to us had to cancel his Elephant Hunt because they had to shoot two cow rough Elephants who refused to break their charge. The Jungle is so-thick, you often don't see these Elephants until you are within 50-feet.

Last year, the Head Tracker was killed by a large Bull Elephant who had established a strong dislike for humans. They claim these Elephants are endangered. I however disagree as I was witness to the many times and the large number of Elephants who chased us.

They also claim the Ape's are endangered. However, we saw seven (7) Apes. Some of them were huge. At least they did not chase us. The Pigmy's claimed they were excellent to eat.

No one said hunting for the Giant Lord Derby Eland in Cameroon would be easy. I just didn't know how difficult it would actually turn out to be until pursuing the eland on his terms.

I had the opportunity to meet the owners of Mayo Oldiri Safaris at the Reno Convention of SCI in January, 2005. They are most hospitable people and very honest and sincere wanting their clients to be successful.

Looking back over the month I have just spent in the rain forests of south eastern Cameroon, I can honestly say, without at all wishing to sound sensational or melodramatic, that I have never hunted in a more inhospitable and dangerous place in Africa. The inhospitality is caused mainly by the micro-predators - the ants, ticks, fleas, centipedes, millipedes, caterpillars, flies, bees, mosquitoes, insects and snakes - as well as the climate. Rain here is measured in metres - three and a half metres, on avererage, per annum - to be precise. And when it is not wet, it is so hot and humid that, within an hour of picking up tracks and walking on them, you have perspired right through your clothes and are sodden from head to toe.

At first I thought it was the fault of GT's bongo. My friend of 25 years and regular hunting companion for 20 of those, had shot a good, representative bull on the fourth day of our hunt with Antonio Reguera's Mayo Oldiri safari company, out of Lognia camp, in the 275 000 acre rain forest concession, in the South Eastern corner of Cameroon, bordered by the Sanga River and the Republic of Congo to the East and the Ngoko River and the same country to the South.

I made a big mistake. Two in fact. I became separated from my professional hunter, Geoffroy de Gentile, by about ten metres and I failed to find a tree. When the drumming sound of big, heavy hooves thundered across the leaf sodden forest floor I could not at first determine the direction of the deep, bass sounds. Then the crackling noise of tearing, ripping vines and the crashing sound of breaking, smashing of rain rotted branches announced the imminent arrival of the buffaloes. I was caught in no-mans land with only a four inch diameter sapling as a friend to my front and my diminutive pygmy gunbearer, Mombato, holding a handful of my shirt, to the rear.

In May of 2004, Barry Style and I traveled to Cameroon for a Lord Derby hunt. I booked the hunt with Mayo Oldiri Safaris. I met them at the SCI show in Reno the previous year, and instantly took a liking to the owner Antonio Reguera, his daughter Raquel, and the camp manager Elisa. Traveling to and through Cameroon is in it self an adventure, arriving at the Douala airport is an experience that only a hunter could endure and enjoy. Mayo Oldiri, runs a very smooth operation, and are wonderful host. After arriving in Douala, we were met by one of Antonio's employee's who took us to and incredible dinner of Nile perch and 30 year old scotch. We then spent the night, and flew to N'Goundre the next morning. We were greeted by a cheerful and energetic Elisa, but Barry and I were tired and bogged down by jet lag, or maybe it was the bottle of scotch the evening before in Douala?

Enveloping the savanna like a hot, dry fog, the Saharan wind swept across the Mayo Oldiri hunting concession in northern Cameroon, permeating the air with an opaque haze of desert dust. The sky was gray and overcast with a mist as fine as tale.

The first day was what you might call a reconnaissance mission. We were beat from a long journey and didn't exactly get up at the crack of dawn, nor did we head for the hills right away. First came the ritual of checking the rifles, during I accomplished my own ritual of acquiescence, my first scope cut of the trip. It was already morning and growing warm when we left our camp on the Oldiri River and headed into the savanna woodland of northern Cameroon.

The two most difficult animals to take on a jungle hunt in Africa are the dwarf buffalo and the forest sitatunga.

While hunting bongo with Alan Lafoe in the Central African Republic, I got lucky and took a good sitatunga, but the dwarf buffalo still eluded me. Over the years, I had talked to several outfitters about their ability to produce a dwarf buffalo. Most offered only about a 25 percent chance.

In today's Africa, it's rare to see more game than you anticipated I don't have problem with difficult hunting. The manicured game ranches of aouthern Africa are wonderful, and there's nothing like seeing great herds roaming the shore-grass savannas of Tanzania or the well-watered floodplains and valleys of Zambia and Botswana. But the tough stuff has its charm, too - areas where you work hard for every animal you encounter, where the price in sweat and miles walked makes success aver more valuable.