Elephant Hunting Zimbabwe

Elephant hunting is the ultimate test of endurance, patience, and nerve. It is also, for many hunters, the most profoundly moving experience in all of African safari. Brian Van Blerk has taken 50 elephant bulls across his career, each one earned through days of walking, tracking, and waiting for the right animal in the right conditions.

In Zimbabwe's Zambezi Valley, elephant hunting is conducted entirely on foot. There are no vehicles in the final approach, no elevated platforms, no shortcuts. You walk. And you walk. And you walk some more. A typical elephant tracking day in the valley covers 20 kilometres or more, through mopane scrub, across dry riverbeds, up and down the broken escarpment, in temperatures that can exceed 40 degrees Celsius.

Brian and Albert pick up fresh tracks early in the morning and follow them through the day. Elephant move constantly, feeding as they go, and the tracking can take hours before the first visual contact. When the tracks are fresh and the wind is right, Brian closes the distance carefully, reading the terrain for escape routes and looking for the mature bull within the group.

The shot on elephant requires absolute precision. Brian's weapon of choice is his Heym 500 Nitro Express double rifle, a heavy-calibre gun designed for exactly this moment. The brain shot is the ideal, a single well-placed bullet that drops the animal instantly. But the brain target on an elephant is small relative to the size of the head, and the angle must be exact. Brian coaches every client through this shot with the calm authority that comes from 50 successful elephant hunts.

The Zambezi Valley is one of Africa's last truly wild frontiers. The valley floor stretches along the Zambezi River, a vast, hot, rugged landscape of mopane woodland, dry riverbeds, and jesse bush. It is remote, harsh, and beautiful. And it is elephant country.

Zimbabwe's elephant population is one of the healthiest in Africa, with numbers that exceed the carrying capacity of many areas. In the Zambezi Valley, large herds move between the escarpment and the valley floor with the seasons, and mature bulls, often carrying impressive ivory, separate from the herds to lead solitary lives or form small bachelor groups in the thick riverine bush.

Brian has hunted the Zambezi Valley for decades. His knowledge of elephant movement patterns, water sources, and feeding areas in the valley is unmatched. He knows where the big bulls go when the valley heats up, where they drink, and how to position a camp to maximise the chance of finding a trophy-quality bull within the first days of the safari.