OK, before I start forgetting everything, I wanted to document my hunt last month with Richard Holmes. This was a plains game hunt in the Eastern Cape and had been planned for several years and been postponed due to Covid. I am going to break it up into several posts, over several days, so no one post is too long to read. Also, how do you document a 2 week long vacation in one post..........I cant. I will attempt to document everything as I post but feel free to ask any questions and I will attempt to answer them as I can. If anybody wants to volunteer to post pictures, I will be happy to email them to you. I have never figured out how to post pics on this site.
July 9, 10, 11, 12.......Getting there.
July 9: We were flying Delta out of Atlanta so we decided to drive down the afternoon of July 9th so we would be in Atlanta early and not have to worry about traffic or car problems and God forbid miss our flight. We live about 4 hours north of Atlanta in the mountains of WNC.
July 10: Parked in long term parking at the Holiday Inn Express across from the Porsche dealership in Atlanta. We used Ways to find the long term parking. The Holiday Inn Express was located very near the airport, so it was just a short shuttle to the International terminal. We vastly over packed like I figure most folks do when traveling. Check in was very simple. We were flying Delta One so we went straight to the front of the line and checked our baggage with no issues. The Atlanta terminal was hot and muggy as you would expect on July afternoon. After we checked our luggage, we went to TSA to check in our (my) firearms and that is when the fun started.............
Apparently Delta is supposed to check the firearms at check in and make sure they are unloaded. They will then give you a red card, looked orange to me, saying that the firearms are unloaded. Nobody had told me this and I had not seen it on any travel advisories. So, TSA will not check the guns so back to the Delta counter we go. The check in people at the Delta counter have no idea what I am talking about and don't want me pulling out my guns at their counter. Finally, someone figures out what I need. They give me the red card and I open my case enough that I can shove the card in with the guns. The card is supposed to be in the case when TSA opens it. I am not supposed to be holding the card with the guns. Anyway, back to TSA we go. TSA then searches my gun case thoroughly, I lock it back up and off the guns go. We go hang out at the Delta Sky lounge for a couple of hours. We have a few snacks and a couple of drinks to calm the nerves on flying that far. The plane was an Airbus 350 I believe.
Everything else goes smoothly and we board our flight around 6:00pm. We are flying a direct flight to Johannesburg so flight time is roughly 16 hours. Our seats have their own pods and fold flat. The wife insisted that if she were going, we had to have "the seats that fold flat for that long of a trip." Holy crap they were expensive but after this trip that is the only way to go. The flight was uneventful, lots of naps, no real sleep. I was able to watch Dunkirk on my movie scree. Lamb chops were for dinner, snack was a mini pizza. Breakfast was a quiche and sausage I believe. The food was decent, service was great. I would definitely fly that way again..............if I can afford it.
July 11: We arrive in Johannesburg at 4:55 pm local time. We are staying at the Afton House that night and we purchased the gun permits and the VIP meet and greet through them. We are met at by a fellow as soon as we get off the plane. It was nice to see someone waiting on us to get us through the airport and customs. He escorts us through customs and then to the baggage claim area and helps us claim our luggage, again we had a lot of luggage.........way too much. He then takes us to the SAPS (South African Police) office to claim the guns and passes us off to another gentleman. That guy has my gun permits and we get the rifles claimed. There is some confusion now. The second fellow thinks I need to pay the SAPS 150.00 for my rifle permits. I am certain I have already paid for the permits and am wondering if I am getting shaken down for another 150.00. I stick to my story that I have already paid for my permits. This frustrates this second guy. Anyway, this fellow calls Mister X, yes that is really what he goes by. We meet Mister X and he straightens everything out. Mister X seems to run all the logistics at Tambo/ Johannesburg airport for the visiting hunters and their guns. Apparently it was another hunter that still has to pay for his permits. Tambo is a big, nasty airport by the way. It is not laid out well.
Guns are claimed and we are taken to the Afton house van and off we go. We are very tired. I notice that all the residences we pass have walls around them with either barbed wire or electric wire on top of them. Luckily, the wife did not notice that. We arrive at Afton and are warmly greeted by Elize Bester and her staff. Everything goes well. We met Elize's husband, another hunter from Arkansas, 2 fellows from Anchorage AK, a South African PH and a husband and wife from Australia. The pre dinner conversation and the dinner conversation was very good. There are some very impressive mounts at the Afton house. Dinner was their steak dinner and it was very good. We turned in fairly quickly after dinner because we were tired. We then learned about load shedding. ....... Apparently the electrical grid in SA is so old or mismanaged that there are rolling blackouts for 2 separate 2 hour periods during the day. I use a CPAP so it was a little bit of a start when the power shut off and I was breathing in an empty coke bottle. Luckily, the Afton generator kicked in and all was well. Showers were hot, beds were comfortable. Nighty night.
July 12: Up, showered and breakfast at 8:00. Breakfast was bacon, eggs, toast and fruit if I remember. It was good. Back to Tambo we go. In the daylight now and the wife notices all the barbed wire and electric wires. Luckily we are leaving. Check baggage and meet the guy from the night before. We get guns checked in and paid for. Airlink charges an extra charge for handling guns and ammo. Ammo has to be in a separate hard sided case. Mine was a small pelican case and checked as well. On Delta they want it in your checked baggage, Airlink is different. The guy apologizes for the confusion from the night before about the gun permits. Apparently Elize has called him to straighten it out. I had just casually mentioned it to her last night and she cleared up any issues. It was appreciated.
We are flying out of Tambo going to Port Elizabeth. We are flying just shy of 2 hours on an Embraer 190. Flight goes fine. It has the cattle car feel and Airlink is not Delta. But we arrive in one piece and with all our luggage. Yeah. Port Elizabeth has an old time airport feel. Walking down the steps onto the tarmac. Small terminal. Only 2 luggage carousels. We meet our PH wife and claim my guns. Marian is a delight. We load up our luggage in the back of her Toyota Tundra pick up along with her 2 weeks worth of groceries. She makes a grocery run every-time she goes into PE. Her mother is also joining in on this trip. She is going to visit on the farm. Her mother is a delight as well.
We have about a 4 hour drive north from PE to their farm between Craddock and Graaff Reinet. Along the way we saw monkeys, baboons, kudu cows and other plains game. We are playing typical tourist and taking it all in. Marion is telling us about the local culture, languages, environmental problems in SA and lots of other topics of conversation. She is delightful, smart, well educated and a very good conversationalist. The trip flies by. Soon enough, we arrive at their farm. We are greeted by Richard and the 2 PH's I will be hunting with, Lalasa (?) and Anthony. They give us a choice of 2 places to stay. A rondoval or the lodge. We choose the lodge because it is bigger and will allow us to spread out. Did I mention we have a lot of luggage? The beds are good, mostly twin and 1 double. The floor is stone which is nice but can be a little tricky at night in the dark. The shower is also stone and is huge. The accommodations are nice although a little rustic for the wife's tastes. I am good. Dinner that night is a braai with pork being the protein. Dinner conversation between Richards stories and Marion stories is fascinating. This turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. We turn in after dinner and immediately are reminded of load shedding. No power from 7:00pm-9:00pm. I have to wait until the power kicks on for my cpap. But hey, we are here in Africa.
To be continued.: Going Hunting.
