A Texas man made the catch of a lifetime — and he only had to travel over 9,000 miles to do it.

Garrett Wales was recently on a hunting trip in the Savé Valley of Zimbabwe, Africa, where he heard of the “legend of this croc” who reportedly lived in a local pond, but no one he knew had ever seen it. According to Newsweek, it took Wales and his team of trackers several days to lay eyes on the 15-foot, 1,000-pound Nile crocodile.

“There was this legend of this croc that lived there, but no-one we knew had actually seen it,” Wales said, adding it was a threat to the local community. In the hunter’s five days of stalking the pond, he spotted it but wasn’t able to get a shot. On the fifth day, Wales and his team were about to head out to lunch, but decided to take a look at the pond one more time. “Lo and behold, we come around the corner and we were expecting to maybe see him in the reeds, but he was on our side of the bank just five to seven yard from us,” Wales said. He fired his rifle and it took nine people to move the croc after the kill.

Wales shared his experience on Facebook alongside photos of the gargantuan crocodile. He said:

“A proper, man-eating dinosaur of a croc. Until we brought him in, this creature was little more than a myth amongst the villagers, rumored to live in a grass filled irrigation pond maybe 2k from the village. A frequent spot to water goats and cattle while traveling between villages, it was only a matter of time. After 5 days of hunting, we got to him first! Shot distance was about 7 yards on land… it was an experience I’ll never forget.”

Check out the photos below: