The Last Ivory Hunter

A chance meeting around a safari campfire on the banks of the Mupamadazi River leads to The Last Ivory Hunter: The Saga of Wally Johnson, a grand tale of African adventure by renowned hunting author Peter Hathaway Capstick. Wally Johnson spent half a century in Mozambique hunting white gold—ivory. Most men died at this hazardous trade. He’s the last one able to tell his story. In hours of conversations by mopane fired in the African bush, Wally described his career—how he survived the massive bite of a Gaboon viper, buffalo gorings, floods, disease, and most dangerous of all, gold fever. He bluffed down 200 armed poachers almost single-handedly, and survived rocket attacks from communist revolutionaries during Mozambique’s plunge into chaos in 1975. In Botswana, at age 63, Wally continued his career. Though the great tuskers have largely gone and most of Wally’s colleagues are dead, Wally has survived. His words are rugged testimony to an Africa that is now a distant dream.

Read about the most dangerous animal, getting downwind of your elephant, how to track a man-eater, how hippos navigate, when poisonous snakes attack, where to aim when an animal is charging you, and why zebras are bad-mannered.

Harry Manners has recorded his extraordinary experiences as a professional ivory hunter in the picturesque and romantic land of Mozambique.

As thrilling as any novel, as taut and exciting as any adventure story, Peter Hathaway Capstick’s Death in the Long Grass takes us deep into the heart of darkness to view Africa through the eyes of one of the most renowned professional hunters. Few men can say they have known Africa as Capstick has known it—leading safaris through lion country; tracking man-eating leopards along tangled jungle paths; running for cover as fear-maddened elephants stampede in all directions. And of the few who have known this dangerous way of life, fewer still can recount their adventures with the flair of this former professional hunter-turned-writer. Based on Capstick’s own experiences and the personal accounts of his colleagues, Death in the Long Grassportrays the great killers of the African bush—not only the lion, leopard, and elephant, but the primitive rhino and the crocodile waiting for its unsuspecting prey, the titanic hippo and the Cape buffalo charging like an express train out of control. Capstick was a born raconteur whose colorful descriptions and eye for exciting, authentic detail bring us face to face with some of the most ferocious killers in the world—underrated killers like the surprisingly brave and cunning hyena, silent killers such as the lightning-fast black mamba snake, collective killers like the wild dog. Readers can lean back in a chair, sip a tall, iced drink, and revel in the kinds of hunting stories Hemingway and Ruark used to hear in hotel bars from Nairobi to Johannesburg, as veteran hunters would tell of what they heard beyond the campfire and saw through the sights of an express rifle.

Rod Parker is an adventurous young man who finds himself bored with his tedious job at a Pennsylvania steel mill. Then one day in the summer of 1900 he quits his job, leaves his long time girlfriend Elizabeth Durham and strikes out on his own to seek his fortune in the hunting fields of Africa. In Africa he lives out his childhood dream of making a living in the wilderness where he soon discovers that learning this trade the hard way can be an extremely dangerous pursuit, but he is a fast learner and of adventurous heart and he soon comes to realize his dream of wealth and earning a living with a rifle. In time he discovers that money cannot bring happiness and contentment as he lives a life of heartbreak and tragedy. Despite the loss of his wife and his best friend, he trudges onward in his restless pursuit of money and adventure. Then after fourteen years of hard work and heartache he finally discovers that true happiness lies in his relationship with others and not in the tremendous wealth that he has acquired. Ivory Hunter is a fast paced action/adventure tale of courage and loyalty set during the golden age of the ivory trade. Be with Rod and his faithful tracker on the trail of big bull tuskers and feel the tension as he levels his big bore express rifle on the dangerous beast bearing down on him.

From renowned hunting writer Peter Hathaway Capstick comes the most lavishly illustrated, historically important safari ever captured in print. Capstick journeyed on safari through Namibia in the African spring of 1989. This was a nation on the eve on independence, a land scorched by sun, by years of bitter war. In these perilous circumstances, he commences what is surely the most thrilling safari of his storied career. He takes the reader to the stark landscape that makes up the Bushmen’s tribal territories. There, facing all kinds of risks, members of the chase pursue their quarry in a land of legend and myth. In this first person adventure, Capstick spins riveting tales from his travels and reports on the Bushmen’s culture, their political persecution, and the Stone Age life of Africa’s original hunter-gatherers. In addition, the author explains the economic benefits of the sportsman’s presence, and how ethical hunting is a tool for game protection and management on the continent. Featuring one hundred striking color images from leading African wildlife photographer Dr. M. Philip Kahl, Sands of Silence: On Safari in Namibia superbly illustrates Capstick’s return to the veld and perfectly captures life and death in the “land of thirst.”

The most thorough book ever written on the Aftican elephant from a hunter's point of view. Illustrated with some of the most amazing historical photos of giant tusked bull elephants ever seen as well as a four-tusked elephant.