We ran, jumped over fallen trees, crawled under branches, while every thorned branch in Namibia tore our clothes to tatters.

Eden is home to a thriving population of elephants. These young bulls crossed the road forty yards in front of the author's hunting party.

Final stop: The cat is lying down, panting. A small dog is two feet away, lying down, panting. I run up and stop--panting. Jamy yells, "Shoot him before he charges!" The cat is up, about to run at us, and I can't see it through the brush. "Dwight, shoot him if you see him," I yell. Dwight fires. He had a shooting lane. I didn't. Peter Capstick couldn't have scripted it better.

Adrenaline overload, pictures and a talkative ride back to camp wrapped the unplanned leopard hunt. I didn't get the shot, but Dwight had wanted a leopard for a long time, and it worked out great. Little did I know that I still had a trophy of a lifetime waiting.

Everyone kept telling me how hard eland are to get. What? It's a big cow. How can it be difficult? I found out. We hunted for ten days, and I made five stalks on eland--all of them involving long belly-crawls. Those sonofaguns can see and hear.

The author's spectacular forty-inch eland was a great way to finish his first African safari. It is a trophy of a lifetime.

The last one, though, was the hunt I'll long remember. Long walk, long creep and very long crawl. Sand everywhere. Thorns an inch long just appearing out of the sand. One went through the bottom of my boot. I shook it off and keep hunting. It's a good thing an eland is big, because the brush was tall. When Jamy told me to stand up to shoot, I could see only the top half of the bull's body. No chance for a heart shot. Using shooting sticks, I carefully put the reticle near the top of the shoulder and touched off the .338. The big bull dropped in its tracks; both shoulders were broken by the deep-penetrating Barnes bullet.

When we got to the bull, Jamy and Kumati kept talking about what a good bull it was. Okay, it's a nice one. Dwight explained that this bull, which measured right at forty inches, was the equivalent of a 400-plus-inch elk. Now I understood. Really a once-in-a-lifetime trophy.

While at Eden we also took gemsbok, kudu, red hartebeest and several other animals, and we wrung out Kimber's beautiful Valier double shotgun on sand grouse and guinea fowl. The hunting was incredible. It's no wonder Dwight loves it so. The people, service, food, lodging and equipment are all first rate.

And...it's a great place to re-establish connections. Thanks, Dad.