Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa MY EXCELLENT ADVENTURE

I decided to start a new thread to give ya'll my report on my recent trip to SA. First, the disclaimer. I am 59y/o and although I have hunted all my life, I am a greenhorn when it comes to Africa as this was my first trip. There are many on this forum that know lots more than me, yet I hope this report will provide some info from my perspective as a newbie. I used Esplanade as a travel agent, because I was also going to Kruger, but I don't think I would use them again. The opinions are mine and YMMV. Okay, here we go......

We (my wife and I) flew out of Tampa, Fl on Aug 11th and connected thru Atlanta. After meeting up with our good friends Tip and Terre from Arkansas we waited with great anticipation for the 7:30pm direct flight to Jburg. The plane was packed and we didn't push back from the gate til 8:30. We would be traveling 8000 miles in about 16 hrs and friends and neighbors it is a ball buster. My azz does not fit the seats, and after about 8 hrs you run out of things to do. The guys up in first class have a recliner thing they sleep in but I referred to our section as "the torture chamber." I kept reminding myself that it would all be worth it and it was.
About 5pm Thursday, we arrived. We breezed thru customs and were met by the meet and assist guy from Afton House.(I would stay there again and the 100 bucks for the meet and assist was sure worth it to us). The SAPS gun room was a zoo with hunters
from all over the world. I had already sent all my paperwork and as soon as we waited our turn for the SAPS guy to check the serial number on my Interarms .375 (thanks luv2safari) we were out of there (20 min total) and headed to Afton house. My buddy Tip was done too and he had a 1964 Win push feed '06 that he bought when he was 14. It had a cool old tv screen Redfield scope. He didn't know it, but he would kill 8 animals with 8 tsx 180 gr bullets out of it, the best shooting in camp.
We were a little shocked when we got to Afton House which is only about 15 min from the airport. We had to go thru a gate with guards and the fine homes in that area all looked like fortresses with high walls, lots of razor wire and electric fence around the top. Not just a few, every one. There were other hunters there and we got to swap stories. Be advised, if you are going somewhere else (Windhoek) you have to check your gun thru, take it to Afton, then check it back thru the next day when you fly. We just left our rifles in the large walk in safe at Afton and they kept it for us while we went to Kruger.
Ari cooked us a steak and we were whupped and went to bed. Next day, we had a 4 hour drive to Kruger Park. I would advise you to see Kruger if you have time. We saw the big 5, including 2 leopards and a big male lion. His picture might be the best one I got there.



I think I will cover Kruger in a different thread and just stick to the hunting here. After staying at Skukuza camp and driving around and seeing hundreds of impala, kudu, elephants, buffalo, hippos, zebras, etc, etc, etc, we were all pumped up and ready to hunt. We returned to Afton House on Monday afternoon. Ari cooked ribs and lambchops on the braii (pronounced like the cheese) and we ate. Other hunters were coming in and we swapped more stories in a lounge area near the bar. Did I say I liked Afton? Thanks Annelise.
The next morning I was like a kid at Christmas. Craig from cruiser (didn't know he would be my ph) picked us up about 9:30. He had with him Tim Todd a guy from California whose buddy who was scheduled to come with him had to cancel at the last minute because he broke his foot. My advice, as you get close to your departure date, no rugby. Tim had 2 rifles, a pre 64 300h&h and a 300 Dakota, both with killer wood. He didn't know it then but he would fall in love with his Dakota and out of love with the 300 h&h. He was shooting A frames and we found more of his bullets in animals than any other. They were all perfect mushrooms. Ok so we leave and we asked poor Craig a million questions, most of which he probably answers every week. Me, my wife, Tip and his wife, and Tim. Only 3 hunters and 2 wives in camp. We get to Crusier after 3 1/2 hrs and we went thru the countryside that was very beautiful. In places the poverty was apalling. Lots of folks walk everywhere and it was rare for me to see an obese person.
We were met in the driveway by the Pieter, Tiny (delMarie the cook) and other ph's. They welcomed us with a glass of fresh orange juice. After a great lunch, we sighted in our rifles on their range.



My .375 was about an inch right and 4 clicks on my Trijicon 3-9 with a red post brought it right in.
The other guys did the same. Tim had a missfire on his Dakota, no dent in the primer and it kinda worried him but he shot it the whole trip and it never happened again. Tip's '06 was kinda all over the place but he does not hunt alot and was nervous. The ph's were watching closely.



We loaded up around 3:30, everyone in one truck, took Tim's Dakota and went riding around, Johann driving. Tip, Tim, and I sat on the outside top seat of the bakkie (that's what they call a truck). The girls sat inside with Johann. The deal is, if you see an animal you want to shoot, you get charged for 1/2 day of hunting. If not, the riding around is free. We saw lot's of kudu and impala but did not see anything we wanted to shoot. Temps really fall right at dark so take a warm jacket for the rides out in the morning and back in in the evening.
We had some sundowners at the weel stocked bar, dinner, and then off to bed.





Tomorrow.......ZEBRA!!
A

Sounds good so far, keep going......

Yep, keep going, it's bringing back memories...


maddog

What tour company did you book with to tour Kruger(sp) Nat'l. park and which outfitter to hunt? We are planning a second trip and are looking to tour Kruger and different outfitters. Great story!

Oh, Man Your Killing me!
Not fair to keep us in suspense, sounds great so far.
As Paul Harvey would say "Now for the rest of the story"?
Hurry, my heart can't take it!

When we went to bed that first night, we were surprised to find two hot water bottles in the bed at our feet. It was a great luxury as it was kind of chilly. We were awakened by a knock at 5am and I had already been awake awhile. Wow, my first day to hunt in Africa and what a day it would be. Everyone was up bright and early. You know how it is at hunting camp, the first few days you are up and at em and after a few hard days hunting, you get to the breakfast table later and later. We had coffee and those little hard bisquits they eat and also eggs, bacon and all the trimmings. I was too nervous to eat. We left about 6am and we were hunting a large area very close to camp. We called it "across the street". We pulled the bakkie thru a large gate. There were 4 of us, me, Barb, Craig the ph, and our driver Johannus. Craig said "load your rifle and get up in the jumpseat". Man those were sweet words to my ear. Here I am for the first time with a loaded rifle in Africa.



You will notice the fence behind me. If they bother you, don't go to South Africa hunting. They are almost everywhere. There are 20 strands of wire on them and they cost about 6,000$ per kilometer to build. The smallest tract we hunted was about 3500 acres and believe me the animals can avoid you very well. In some areas some game was off limits. In one you could shoot kudu but not impala. In others just the opposite. We drove down the road looking for game. At this point I could take Zebra, impala, blue wildebeest, warthog, steenbok, and kudu. The country looked like this.



We drove around till about 10am or so and we even walked about an hour thru the bush but saw very little. As we were riding along Craig suddenly got "birdy". Now listen, these guys can see stuff you can't see with a 25x spotting scope. I felt like Stevie Wonder most of the time, just being led around by the arm.
He had seen some Zebra and we bailed off the bakkie on the stalk.




The herd was standing still at about 100 yds and Craig put up the sticks and told me to shoot the one on the left. It was a mare. You can shoot either sex and he said the mares were more likely to have unmarked skins. The stallions are rather nasty fellows who bite each other and fight alot. Also, you can tell the tree huggers the stallions routinely kick the small zebras (especially males) to death, we saw one. I got on the sticks but before I could shoot they ran. I had noticed a much larger animal on the right in a group of about 5. As we proceded quietly toward where they had been, a lone Zebra stayed behind. He was the big one I had seen earlier. This is the picture just before we shot (taken by my lovely wife).



The stallion was right to left and quartering away. Craig put his fingers in his ears and I held for the last rib on his left side halfway up and trying to hit the opposite shoulder. Boom! Whop! , I had never shot an animal with a .375 before and the impact noise surprised me. It sounded like when you beat a dirty rug hanging on the closeline outside. Craig took his fingers from his ears and I asked him about the shot. "Not very good" he said and my heart fell in my boots. I learned later that he still had his fingers in his ears at impact and didn't hear it. He said "I saw dust, I think you shot under him." "No way" I said, I heard the impact. While we were discussing it, all of a sudden a large cloud of dust was kicked up about 50 yds away. Craig said "he's down!". We ran to the spot and there was the most beautiful Zebra and he was mine. This picture was taken right where he fell.




Man I was a happy camper. Craig thought I had shot the mare but while he went to get the bakkie, I looked and it was definately a stallion. When he came back, I said "if this is a mare, I am too!" He got a kick out of it cause he had really thought it was a female. Here are a couple more pics of Mr. Zebra.



[img]http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii76/123lassie/AFRICA%202010/AFRICAPICTURES739.jpg[/img]

We took him back to the skinning shed. I told them to skin him for a rug. We ate a nice lunch, rested awhile and went back out about 2:30. We hunted hard but did not see anything else. After a beautiful sunset

[img]http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii76/123lassie/AFRICA%202010/AFRICAPICTURES442.jpg[/img]

we went back to a cold beer, and a hot shower. What a first day!!

tomorrow, impala and blue wildebeest......stay tuned...

AFTERUM, you're doing it right...I'll stay tuned!


maddog

Luvvin the story and pics. Tell your aquantance that I will take that pre-64 model 70 300 H&H off of his hands.

yeah, I offered him $150.00 after he crippled an impala......

Will be looking forward to Chapter 3 tomorrow.

Thursday 8/19/2010 The Wildebeest won.
We awoke at 5am and had a good breakfast. I was kinda feeling like a Bwana since I had one of my most desired animals (Zebra) in the salt. I should know better.

We went to 2 different properties to hunt, primarily blue wildebeest. This ended up being a "walk all day" hunt, tiring and very frustrating. We would walk until we heard or saw the animals, then something would always go wrong. The wind would change, another animal (impala usually) would see us and run and thus ruin our stalk. The wildebeest would run, usually 1/2 to 1 mile and we would follow them and try again. Craig could track a mouse across a marble floor. Sometimes it took him a few minutes to figure it out but he keep us on the trail. I just tried to keep up and be quiet (not easy as it was very dry). Barb was with us and I am sure Barb and I sounded like a crash of Rhinos coming thru the bush. I was on the sticks at least 8-10 times.





Craig, my ph was becoming very frustrated. I was not so much frustrated as just plain tired. Be sure you do some walking (do some 5 mile hikes if you can) before you go. Just before dark, we spotted a herd of wildebeest and Craig said "Let's not go after them, they have fresh legs." Man I was glad cause my legs were anything but fresh. We drug back to camp covered in red dust and worn out. My hands and arms looked like I had been sorting wildcats. I had not yet learned how to avoid the thorns which were everywhere Many times the blood ran down my arm and dripped off my fingers. Craig joked that I may need a transfusion. Wear leather gloves when you go. Dusty, tired, bloody, and outsmarted over and over by those damn wildebeest. A cold Castle and a hot shower helped to ease the pain. I will just say that those gnus are a hell of alot smarter than they look.

Man, sorry to hear about your arms & hands. Was your wife able to avoid the thorns?

yeah, she's alot smaller than me, lol, my 60 y/o hide is pretty thin and I bleed easily. Wear long sleeves when you can, but sometimes it is just too hot. Wish I had taken some leather shooting gloves or just some cheapo leather work gloves (I think Ingwe suggested it) to wear while stalking to protect the back of your hands. You could kick the right one off quickly for a shot.

You mean gloves like these????



Ingwe

yep, those would be the ones.......

here's one more teaser......

Wellllll...

you'll just have to buy some gloves...


and go BACK!!!!


Ingwe

is this what you call a black and blue bird?

cool pic.....

Ingwe