Recently hunted in South Africa. Anyone want a recap?

[LopeHunter]

Eventually, I was a sophomore in high school and Mr. Hoffmeyer assigned Hemingway’s tale of Francis Macomber to our American Literature class. Africa was back in my life. Africa began to have a personality. I read the Snows of Kilimanjaro a year later.

And yet, once again my vivid daydreams of Africa faded. Meanwhile, I was tipping over whitetail deer with a .6mm rifle using tags bought at the local hardware store. Put your money on the counter in that era and you walked out with a firearm deer tag good for use during the rut.

I finished high school then earned a college degree. I moved “out West” during the mid-1980s while still in my twenties. I was bewildered to learn that securing big game tags out West was typically much different than Missouri. What is this tomfoolery?

I honed up on big game draws. I accepted the likelihood that the better deer hunting experiences might take years or decades to draw. Elk tags likely would take even longer. Pronghorn tags might be a bit sooner. Bison, moose, mountain goat and bighorn tags were far from a certain thing if diligently applied in multiple states for a decade or more.

I began applying for big game tags in several states. I was eventually drawing one or two very desirable tags each year. Was memorable as I road-tripped the American West which I had mostly only seen from an airplane’s window.

I became comfortable showing up to a unit where I had never set foot then hunting with whatever weapon the tag required. The first ten hunts were about a flip of the coin if would be tag soup. After that learning curve of new species and terrains and weapon types, I rarely ended up not filling a tag. I harvested big game with rifles, muzzleloaders, shotguns and bows.

About every tenth year, I would draw a tag for a mountain goat so hunted Alaska, Colorado and Montana. Drew one Shiras moose tag in Idaho and a bighorn ewe tag as a second choice in Colorado. No bighorn ram tag. No bison tag. Drew an oryx tag in New Mexico and an aoudad tag in Texas. Hunted feral goats in Hawaii. Alligators in Florida.

I got old, though, as you can follow over a couple of decades of photographs.



Photograph: 2002 Oregon Pronghorn




Photograph: 2009 Alaska Billy




Photograph: 2015 AZ Coues




Photograph: 2018 Wyoming Elk

 

[LopeHunter]

At some point around 2000, cable television added hunting shows including a couple focused on hunting Africa. This is also around the time I began to surf the web looking for bulletin board hunting websites. I eventually realized my understanding of a modern African safari was quite flawed. The early Tarzan movies I grew up watching were filmed in Florida rather than equatorial Africa. Hemingway’s version of a safari was all but non-existent. You needed a guide at your side on these hunts. Dang it.

Sure, Africa in 2000 still had pockets of remoteness which could be hunted though is for the most part not we would label wilderness using North American metrics. You might encounter someone herding goats with clanging neck bells or stumble onto game snares or poisoned watering holes. We are blessed here in America to have wilderness in hundreds of locations which still offer access for big game hunting.

I was not keen to have a mandatory guide along on an African hunt. Part of why I hunt is to test myself against the mountain. I have used guides in America but only on a handful of times and usually when I wanted to get a few miles away from where the dirt road ends while still being able to get harvested meat out quickly.

The amazing African dream of my youth had gradually been sawn down like Roy’s rectangular dinner table.

A couple more decades pass.

My spouse and I had navigated beyond the siren call of needing “just one more dollar” before were confident we had “enough” for our golden years. Feeling comfortable to stop working is not an easy mental hurdle for some folks. My wife grew up hustling for ways to pay for college and launch into her career. That drive continued as she advanced in her career. She was her own safety net from age sixteen. My wife retired at the end of 2019.

I, on the other hand, had multiple safety nets on my journey into adulthood. My career weaved through stints in accounting, high tech sales, graduate school, NBA team operations, Venture Capital research staff until I spent the last twenty years nurturing and growing a sales team for a growing low-tech company. I enjoyed the evolving challenge of my role and liked my team, colleagues, vendors and customers.

And yet, I did not want to work until I tipped over out of my office chair. In early 2021, I chose a day which fell in the first week of February 2024 as the exact day I would retire. I would leave my role after exactly to the day upon reaching twenty years of service which also was my deceased father’s birthday.

I was optimistic re retirement. My wife was thriving in retirement. I was confident I would also thrive in retirement. I was not running away from work but instead seeking to gain even more free time to do what I already enjoyed doing away from the office. I looked forward to more days spent on photography, slower-paced road trips around America, flat land hunts, writing and entertaining our four grandchildren.

I decided I would embark on a bookend event which would clearly delineate between when my work career ceased in February 2024 and my retirement launched. I parsed though various options. My spouse suggested an overseas trip. Where to go? I dusted off my childhood dream of Africa. I set aside funds for an all-in door-to-door budget including a donation to a rural African school. Let’s do this!


Photograph: Deciding on which camera gear to take to Africa

 

[LopeHunter]

Where to go in Africa? I set aside time during multiple weekends to read multiple inspiring, vibrant African hunt recaps involving several countries. Many of the recaps brought to life mesmerizing adventures where big game species roamed on fenceless open expanses. Incredible! The adventures typically involved days seeking out large specimens of one or two species to then attempt multi-hour stalks. My physical condition was not going to mesh well with hiking miles each day.

I was also leaning to a hunt where I would have shot opportunities spanning Cape buffalo and several plains game species. I opted for South Africa. Yes, this would be mostly shooting and not hunting in the way I had done in America where could measure myself against the mountain. I checked references provided by a ranch and from I found additional hunters through my own research. I was comfortable my expectations were realistic as was my back of the envelope budget.

I decided to head to Africa during our springtime 2024 for three reasons. Spring is when there is a lull in American big game hunting seasons. All I would miss stateside was the tail-end of spring turkey hunting which I enjoy the heck out of though tipping over a Cape buffalo is an entirely different level of exhilaration. Secondly, I wanted to make the trip soon after I retired. Finally, why not celebrate my birthday on this hunt when Africa would be in early autumn?

How was my experience now that the dust has settled over the past six months?

My trip to Africa was everything I was hoping for and much more. As anticipated, there was plenty of shooting and a bit of hunting. Tried several stalks following Cape Buffalo tracks carrying a .375 rifle but the stars never aligned. I truly am no Hemingway tossing back sundowners under the stars much less a Boddington patiently putting in weeks of intense effort to find one magnificent trophy.

My boots and hat were similar to those guys though my approach aligned with going on an educational vacation where I would leave the heavy lifting to the hosts and staff.

I was grateful for every moment of my trip as I shoehorned three years of hunting into two weeks. Every aspect of the adventure which unfolded was imprinted into my brain. The views. The critters. The smells. The interactions.

My adventure was my most productive compared to my dozens of North American big game outings. In Africa, I was able to harvest eight animals. These animals can be variously compared to one North American bull bison, two bull elk, three mule deer bucks and two pronghorn bucks. Obviously, very few hunters in America obtain eight big game tags in a year. Heck, hunting eight tags spanning multiple species using just two weeks away from work would be a tall task.

My adventure took place in the South African bushveld just south of the border with Botswana while was a bit further southwest from Zimbabwe and even further west of Mozambique.

The animals I encountered were an integral portion of my experience. The sounds of the birds. The snakes encountered, though, thankfully mostly what I saw was merely tracks in the soft dust and sand.

Several times animals which were not present one moment would then be standing relaxed drinking water in front of the blind. I am not into mumbo jumbo things such as horoscopes or energy vortexes though I absolutely felt something at times there in the bushveld. There is an energy, an energy with an edge.



Photograph: Hard to go back to drawing a bead on a coffee can once you have African soil on your clothes


Next up by this weekend, more photographs including any harvests as I create a short blurb of each day in Africa. Will be a much different approach as we now will transition into weapons, distances, critters encountered and weather.

Thanks for following along.

 

[Birdbander]

Great writing!