John Tolmay -The Gwase Bull

Bronze Africa ‘The Gwase Bull’

This Elephant bull is not a figment of my imagination. I saw this bull with Mike Aldersey when we hunted for a short time east of Chewore Hunting Area in Zimbabwe in what was a tribal area running along the western border of Mozambique. We were billeted in the District Commissioner’s Boma at the base of the Zambezi River escarpment. There were a group of elephant bulls that crossed into Zimbabwe from Mozambique and the locals referred to them as ‘Ndzhou wa Gwasse’. They were serious crop raiders and a serious nuisance and Mike and I were to hunt them. We set up at the DC’s camp and had a good feed that night and very early next morning there was guy outside from a nearby village to say that his crop was decimated that night and he was right, the crop was ruined. We got on the tracks very quickly but right from the get-go we had to contend with the south east wind blowing up behind us and we were tracking north.

Much later in the day still on tracks they were moving without stopping and I decided that it was going to be futile because the wind was wrong. Way in the distance I could see the tops of a group of jackal berry trees and figured by then (around 11am) they would stop there so we made a huge circle going east and coming back onto the trees from the north and the wind in our faces. We were nearly successful but those wily old buggers were already moving. I could have had Mike take a long shot but from 100 yds minimum that was only going to wound the one I selected so we paralleled them in an attempt to get ahead of them now moving on a bee line for Mozambique through tall mopani forest. They were very visible but Mike simply ran out of steam after we had crossed the Mushumbi road and I had to let them go. All the while trying to get ahead of them I could clearly see THAT bull. He was at the back and slower than the rest but they made good time to the Mozambique cut line and they were gone. We were miles from camp and lucky for us when we got back to the Mushumbi pools road along came an African bus and we flagged it down and got on board. That in itself was interesting because the passengers and the driver would never have expected to see two white men and a bunch of black guys armed to the teeth in that remote place. The driver, when he got the gist of what we doing took us right back to the DC’s camp and would not let us pay him. To stay and expect to catch up with the Gwase bulls was futile but I have never forgotten that elephant.