SOUTH AFRICA: Great Trip With KMG Hunting Safaris

[Tintin]

There's plenty to say about this adventure, so there will be some installments - apologies to the impatient ones

Final practice session off sticks with the .22, (300mm steel plates at 150m) just before departing for the real thing.

Final zero check on the .275, ~1.5” @ 200m - so can’t blame the hardware for any untidy shooting over there. 140gn Woodleigh PPSNs handloads.

The snakes and ladders started as I arrived home from an interstate trip (for a Rigby event with Marc Newton and Jérôme Lanoue) the night before commencing the journey to Africa,

only to be greeted by the handle on the shed door suffering a catastrophic failure in my hand. Only finger impacted was trigger finger of course.

Last minute packing and final gear checks where interrupted by a string of calls, emails and text messages from well wishers and mates. Like this one

Valuable time lost in the morning procuring and installing replacement garage door handle, punctuated by a text from the Virgin that my domestic flight to Sydney was cancelled - thankfully booked on flight an hour later - gave me some time to for last minute chores let the last batch of permethrin treatment of clothes dry properly.

Mrs Tintin chauffeured me to the airport, check in for the domestic flight with Virgin was smooth and friendly, the staff member asked if I was going anywhere special with the rifle and wanted to know what critters I had planned on chasing - I replied 'the ones you see getting eaten in David Attenborough videos'.

I figured overnighting in Sydney the night prior to the 0930 departure for JNB was is really the only safe option. Even with the earliest flight being on time, practically not possible to make the connection. The cab driver to the airport was a Chinese chap and was fascinated with the whole notion of travelling overseas to hunt.

Carry on back pack was well stocked so that I could hunt with just a borrowed rifle and ammo should the luggage go walkabout - but was stretching the friendship with the airline weight limit - the stewardess on board asked me if a had a body in it - I assured her it was only body parts not the whole thing - sensing that she had better sense of humour than some TSA types

Prevailing thoughts of gratitude on the short domestic flight to Syd for having the opportunity to be returning Africa.

The bloke who checked me into the hotel had just immigrated from RSA - so we had a good chat.

A few excitement affected wake ups during the night - a bit like kids asking ‘are we there yet’ on the road trip.

Pretty ordinary Uber ride to airport - he couldn't find the international check in ... WTH

He copped an appropriate rating. My advice for anyone having to transit through Sydney is to spend the extra and stay at an airport hotel, rather than one ‘near’ the airport - $30 each way to get the 3.7km to airport from the Travelodge ;-(

That behind me, the airport processes dragged on, I had allowed 3 hours and used every bit of that. The piranha bite delays from Uber, ABF, Qantas quickly added up. The Border Force staff were very good - although had a 10 minute delay for them to find a ‘firearms trained officer’.

Copped a trainee on the Qantas check in desk - polite and helpful but took ages.

Another snake from Qantas, the Business upgrade that I put in for months ago didn’t eventuate - they didn’t bother letting me know in time to switch to Premium Eco - they are case study in dysfunction - anyway after some haggling I got a no cost exit row at least.

‘House’ lounge at SYD was a pleasant enough space for the 15 minutes I had there - but food was pretty average.

 

[Tintin]

The 14 hour flight got away close to on time and was relatively uneventful.

The electro-chromatic window shades on the 'Dreamliner' failed - not sure why we needed to upgrade from the low tech plastic window shades that served us well for decades - finally got light levels down to sleeping level with some 'field exigent repairs'. The airline staff on both flights were less than complimentary of the 787 generally.

Made it to JNB -

more importantly so did the gear ;-) - seeing the cases waiting for me warmed the cockles of my weary heart.

Process on arrival was smooth and fast - greeted by Henry’s guys from RIflePermits.com.

Stayed at Citilodge, had a good chat to guy there from my home state of Tasmania, a keen Fallow hunter. He works in the mines in RSA 6 weeks on / 3 weeks off. There were about 10 of them on the flight.

Was reassuring to see what appear to power plants operating from the hotel window ;-)

Another restless night - I got up early to enjoy a big breakfast in good surroundings - a group of US hunters there - hoping to help me sink into a food coma on the flight to East London.

Got the report in from the 'advance party' lads - they did well on their first day, 2 big Kudu and a good Bushbuck.


Firearm travel admin at JNB for the flight to ELS took a while, but was pretty straightforward.

The Bidvest lounge was not crowded and food was good, in particular the fresh croissants and ginger health shot drinks.

Flight to ELS got away on time - service from AirLink was great. Arrived at the lodge mid afternoon - had a quick bite, then off to the range - to check zero on the scope - no doubt the PH was also quietly checking out the client as well

PH, Greg, was awesome, lived in the area all his life, speaks the local language well and I knew we'd have a ball. He's also a fellow Hilux (aka Tacoma in USA) driver

The lodge at Outspan Farm was excellent, perched on a magnificent gorge.

We then took a drive through some incredible country in what remained of the day, saw 4 Kudu bulls, Blesbok, Impala, Blue Wildebeest, Zebra and Warthog.

More to follow.

 

[Tintin]

Day 1 of hunting saw us out getting into it pretty early, leaving the lodge before 0700. Sunrise was amazing - pics don’t do it justice.

We meet the local tracker, Ali, who joined our tracker, Feti in the back, lots of game spotted, including Zebra, Impala, Blue Wilderbeast, Springbok, Nyala, vultures and some Kudu cows.

The trackers were awesome, incredible eyes, always happy, with big infectious grins.

Fine weather, a crisp start then sunny and mild.

So a fair bit of time driving, glassing and getting the spotting scope into action where a closer look was deemed worthwhile.

The plan was for Impala and Spingbok and we looked at a lot of animals, many of them great, but 'not the one' was the theme for the day.

We had a good, long look at two Springbok rams, that weren't quite there yet. There was a real focus on quality not targeting animals that would only get better.

We spotted baboons and tried to make a move on them, to get a shot at one - but they busted us and bolted when we were 1km away ;-(.

A few pics of the country we’re hunting in, the view from the Lodge etc.

Some long hours were put in - all in all, a great day but nothing down - we got outwitted by the same big warthog once in the morning and once again in the late afternoon.

What an amazing opportunity it was just to be in the middle of it all, taking it all in, learning from Greg about habitat, behaviour etc.

The Warthogs, and many of the other species, like the flat 'putting greens' of short green grass, like the little guy in the pic.

So the day ended with plenty of memories, some great conversations with a top bloke who spends his days doing this and plenty of ammo still in reserve.

Cameron Mitchell - YouTube star was in camp with us - great guy with lots of amazing experiences to share.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg0pJVUh52_OjYGLU9Wfx3w/videos

 

[shotgungibbs]

Keep it coming!

 

[Tintin]

I can hear the bakkies starting up in the half light outside, so I head out and take in another incredible African sunrise.

We head to another area today, sprawling open country, without much cover, operating without a local tracker, chasing Blesbok and a Warthog if the opportunity arose. Turned out 2 of the other lads in camp where chasing Warthog today, so there some (only half jolking) suggestions of 'facilitation payments’ being offered to the local trackers to lead anyone else astray who was going try the place we were on yesterday where we saw some good, mature Warthogs that gave us the slip, twice. The country was what we’d normally think of as plains game terrain. Quite different from yesterday. Not as flat as it looks when one is out of shape.

After a bit of search we spot a big herd of 50+ Blesbok, in very open country, with very little cover to support a stalk. The Bakkie was parked and plan made and we moved up to assess the herd for suitable old ram.

The herd was stretched out across our front probably 150 metres wide, lots of wary eyes check us out from 800m away as Greg selected a good ram though the spotting scope. With the wind in our favour, the slow, low crouching stalk was underway.

At about 600m out, we were busted for want of better cover, and 3500+ Kg of Blesbok departed from view over the skyline.

Stalk plan B is hatched, a wide flanking move to our right, with tracker Feti going in the opposite direction, with a radio to spot them, and hopefully pop up over the ridge and move them our way. We reach the spot where they should have been to find zero Kgs of Blesbok where they were supposed to have been. A few moments of headsratching to conclude they must have used a bit of dead ground and skulked off again out of sight - still wasn't clear if they'd gone left or right, so we sort of toss a coin and head to the left.

Eventually we catch them, now somewhat more edgy and very bunched up into a tight group, we spot our target, the herd was milling around in a big brown game of musical chairs 350 metres away, Greg on the high power spotting scope, me with the rifle up on the shooting sticks for literally 25 minutes constantly confirming and cross checking I was on the right animal - ’the one with the white nose’ wasn’t going to get us there, it was a bit of a mentally and physically straining exercise to keep tabs on him until there was a clear opportunity offered where he was clear from others in the herd, with no pass through risk, finally that moment materialised and then promptly disintegrated with my shot hitting about foot to his right. WTH

Blesbok bedlam ensured - they went every which way but loose.

Greg, always the optimist, tried to boost morale a bit with 'Elevation was spot on'

Plan C is hatched. We walk back to the bakkie and do some more searching, nothing spotted. Lunch consumed. A family of Warthogs spotted and watched as they moved into thick cover about 800m away. Back into it the search for another herd. None found. Maybe the herd had settled? It transpired they had. This time we get half lucky, we can drive, unseen to within about 300m of them. Only half lucky as the wind was as terrible as it gets, right up our clackers, somehow we manage to pull off a short stalk to get to about 250m. We find our guy again, more cross checking, watching for him to clear other animals - we’re getting the hang of this part of the game, unfortunately, I’m not getting any better at the marksmanship bit, another miss, same impact about a foot right from pint of aim.

For whatever reason, they move on a bit but don’t scatter or bolt, and are now at 350 metres, no doubt backing their odds of the clown who has now missed twice, even at 250m won’t have any hope at 350m. Plan D - maybe the scope was knocked at some stage, since we checked zero the night I arrived, I should give Greg’s rifle a go.

A suppressed 300WM. Prone, bipod down and another round of talking on and cross checking with me through the scope and Greg on the spotting scope, and Feti probably thinking to himself that he wouldn't have any skinning work today.

Once our guy - they same guy who has been shot at twice in the last couple of hours - is evenutally clear of the herd, the shot goes, a thwap is heard and he’s down. Lights out. Finally!

Once the photo is set up - I get Feti in for a picture, I reckon he hadn't had too many photos of him looking like the client - and he was beaming even more than normal. I gave Greg some cash to get this photo printed and framed for Feti. He said it would have pride of place at Feti's place. I said 'Straight to the Pool Room'. No one got it. I guess The Castle wasn't a hit over there

He's much more photogenic than I am anyway.

Felt great to have one down and finally have some skinning for Feti.

Just before we lost daylight, we re-check the zero on my rifle, and it's out, about 5" at 100m, explaining the misses - still not sure how / when / where the scope could have got a bump. All mount screws checked - they were all fine.

Rifle was re-zeroed and we head back for dinner ... of all things it was Blesbok stew - a delicious and fitting to end to day that had not been without it's challenges - but ended in contentment.

Finally have something for the salting shed

 

[shootist~]

I'm enjoying the story and the pictures. You have a nice style of writing. Looking forward to more.

 

[Firebird]

So grateful to have a hunt report to read in November. Don’t skip the details and good luck with the Remainder of your trip!

 

[Tintin]

After another good breakfast we had a slightly later start, departing camp at 0730.

The plan today is Impala and Springbok, we saw plenty yesterday, but ’not the right Impala’. I appreciate the focus on quality that Greg, my PH and Marius @KMG Hunting Safaris have. We’re only targeting mature animals, so passed up an ‘almost excellent Impala ram on this basis. This quality approach extends to and no doubt strengthens the relationship between landholders as well, I enjoyed having a good chat the manager of the property the lodge is on, who runs it for his brother, the land owner and is quite the character and exudes that warm South African hospitality that we all love.

My business curiosity had me delving into the mechanics of how the sector operates and has been fascinating for me - albeit a bit boring for Greg but he gave some great insights.

The predominant hunting approach that we used is probably best described as 'search, spot, select, stalk’,

The Searching is facilitated by vehicle, (Greg's is a ~2015 DC Hilux) with the seat / bar sided tray set up. Our tracker, Feti rides in the tray set up, sitting higher and accompanied by another local tracker, as we are on another property today, who adds local knowledge of the terrain and the game. I called him ’the GPS’ - and although I don’t speak any Xhosa yet, I’ve been impressed by his focus and what seems a pretty considered approach. The two of them seem to be having a ball the whole time, and are always rugged up to the max, even in the mid afternoon when it was a very pleasant 20 or so degrees. Greg said he'd seen some trackers can get very numbers driven which lead to a tendency to be less selective in the selection phase, as they enjoy the bragging rights at the end of the day with their mates when comparing notes about the number of animals taken.

As we left, all the other bakkies were lined up, four of five of them, trackers in back all rugged up with hoodies etc, I commented to ‘AmeriCam’ (our USA mate) - so named to distinguish him from the other Cameron @HRS ('AusCam') there, that it looked like an assault of technicals you might see in some of the conflict zones - just without the tray mounted Dushka ;-)

All Hiluxes, bar on 75 series. All but are ours come equipped with the detachable tracking accessory upgrade pack ;-)

Once again, the trackers excel and the search and spot phase, I think I was only the first to spot something twice from the front passenger seat. Greg’s attention is divided between spotting and keeping us on tracks and the right way up.

After lunch came abound a corner on a narrow, steep track, in what felt like the middle of nowhere, descending, to met by a D4 size dozer heading up towards us - a funny moment that I didn’t have the presence of mind to snap a photo of.

As most are probably aware, PHs have to attend a 2 week full time course and pass various assessments, I asked Greg a lot about the course and he said a big part of it is focuses on the Selection aspect of determining which animals to target with consideration to taking animals that reflect well on the PH and outfitter, aligning with landowners intent for managing game and developing and maintaining the quality of the herds.

A 90 minute drive to another area, a journey of quickly changing landscapes, some not dissimilar to Western Victoria, some a spitting image of parts of Utah, Idaho or Wyoming I've visited - passed through the small towns of Catchcart, Komga and Stutterheim arriving at our area for the rest of the day to be greeted by these likely lads.

Very different country to the Kai Valley where we had been hunting to date. Every day we had hunted different properties, all of them large with no sense of being 'fenced in'

More to follow.

 

[Tintin]

So grateful to have a hunt report to read in November. Don’t skip the details and good luck with the Remainder of your trip!

Thanks @Firebird - I've probably erred on the side of too much detail fore some readers

While the report is in November, trip was in July.

 

[Tintin]

I'm enjoying the story and the pictures. You have a nice style of writing. Looking forward to more.

Thanks @shootist~

 

[Tintin]

With a plan made, and a local tracker collected, the search for Spingbok was underway. After an hour or so we had eyes on good sized herd of maybe 15 animals, with a good, mature ram identified, and took up a firing position not too far from the Bakkie. It was a long shot (by my standards) and a poorly executed one that, a clean miss low. Looking for the positive in an otherwise unsuccessful outcome, I repeat the mantra 'a clean miss trumps a bad hit. The herd had left the postcode, so we’re back into search mode.

During the search, we bumped a big herd of Wildebeest, what a spectacle it was to see them roaring away, tails flailing in a could of dust.

Eventually we spot another herd at about 280m in open terrain. After the watching and waiting for a clear shot (patience based activity that had been well rehearsed the previous day), a shot presented, a hit thudded home, he only stumbled about 20m before expiring.

As we were prepping for the obligatory photo, I had my first encounter with an African snake, up close and personal, less that a foot away, angered by his hibernation being interrupted moving at full speed was a 12cm mole snake. I’m fairly convinced that if one is to have an encounter with an African snake, this is the chap you want involved.

Having survived the encounter, and with work for Feti prepping the Springbok, we stopped for a breather and a bite (including Simba chips), served with a Warthog skull table ornament in one of the most rustic, relaxing lunching spots one could hope for, in the surrounds of an old small lodge.

Focus quickly shifted to an Impala as moved through country that would have got a Hollywood location scout’s heart racing as a backdrop for the next big screen Wild West blockbuster, replete with rocks and prickly shrubs of all shapes and sizes.

During our time searching the new area we saw Ostritch, Bontebok, Zebra, Lechwe, Sable, Black Impala, Duiker and more Black Wildebeest.

We (actually Greg, PH) evenutally spotted a group of about Impala moving through a gully, a few hundred metres away. Medium vegetation was providing us and them a decent amount of cover, we were only catching glimpses of them for a while amongst low hills.

We set a course to try to reach a spot to intercept their expected path, and ended up across a little rocky gully, and Greg got a good look at the ram and was certain he was a fine specimen, mature but in excellent shape and would have already passed his good genes onto the little group. I was taking his word for it - I had barely caught a glimpse of him.

We got into position where we hoped we would get a good view of them as they moved up up the side of the gully, and hwe ad barely stopped when the first of them began moving through a small window in the cover, only about a metre wide, between two dense bushes, one by by one. We couldn't see them approaching or departing from this opening.

As the first two ewes passed through the opening, the sticks went up quickly and quietly, the rifle settled in. Two more ewes briskly passed through, the whispered instruction from Greg was ‘wait for the ram, there is only in the group - don’t be put off when I call out to him to stop him in the opening’. In an instant an Impala with horns was visible, Greg’s holler was on queue, leading to the briefest of pauses, and a quick shot. None of us had a great view of the hit or the reaction, but the shot felt tidy.

We gave it all a few minutes to let things settle and our local tracker heads further up our side of the gully.

Shortly after he calls out something in Xhosa.

Greg draws the suspense out a bit longer, by answering in Xhosa and then another reply from the tracker.

I finally run out of patience and joined the conversation 'Hey Greg - subtitles mate? What's going on?'

'He's down'

Tracker had spotted him, down and out in prickly bush , with plenty of frothy blood a solid lung shot.

We never lasered the distance, but later both estimated it at about 70-80 metres.
It had all happened quickly and had come together nicely.

I’d promised us ice creams if the day went well, so it was of course, Magnums all around on the way home.

At dinner that night, there were a few long faces from the other PHs who had watched some other Spingboks getting sorted out earlier in the day … by the All Blacks.

Thankfully it was a Kiwi free zone that night, so dinner was a peaceful affair.

With the load shedding kicking in, the only thing to do was to adjourn to the fire pit, the sounds of happy libations making their way up the gorge. Sometimes I guess the best entertainment can come from the most unlikely of quarters - Big Stuart who manages the farm where the lodge is, wheels and deals in livestock and is farm real estate agent, also turns out to be great guitarist and singer and spontaneous lyricist - pure gold, had the crew in stitches one minute, toe tapping the next and performing non stop genre hopping, generation and language spanning classics.

It’s worth coming to Africa just to see him unplugged and no doubt well lubricated, tonight he was, I suspect at his best, being egged on by an old high school mate of his from probably 40 or years back who had joined us for the night and also was real character. Phone battery had given up the ghost - so the Kodak moment went uncaptured.

 

[Tintin]

Another day, another new property, where we've had the tip there are good numbers of decent Warthog.

It was a massive property, with very diverse terrain, the northern part fronts the Kei River (the border to the Transkei to the North) with some steep country the southern area relatively flat, parts of which could easily have been lots of places Australia ... but with more Ostritches. One patch had a stand of gum trees (saw a few of them during the trip).

We bump into the owner, he tells us there is ripper Bushbuck, so we'd decided to have a look for it and see what we thought, we never came accross him. I'd been very keen to get a Jackal and the owner told us that one of Greg's mates, who shoots his place for pest control had got 5 in one night the previous weekend. Apparently they are very fast learners and the guy has exclusive access as missing one or over use of lights really makes them hard to get. I got a sense that thermals / IR are not as big in RSA are they are in Australia for foxes etc. Anyway the 5 Jackal haul was quite a big deal and Greg was amazed to hear of the fox numbers we can pull in a night here in Australia. We never never did manage to get out after my Jackal in the end. Oh well - I'll have to go back to tidy up that unfinished business.

1 Warthog, 2 Warthog, 3 Warthog more - they just kept coming. We briefly got eyes on what we thought was a potential candidate, but he gave us the slip in the scrub.

A couple are spotted about 1km away, so a wide flanking stalk is planned to try use the wind to our favour. That attempt is best summed up as a 'nice walk' - no sign of them upon arrival.

We set up a lunch ambush, and silently watch a patch that they could come to feed at or even transit through. The cut lunch was great, but nothing came our way.

With the ambush not sprung, it was a short walk back to the Hilux, not a minute later a troop of Baboons run across the track. They are enemy number 1 there, had seen some on day 1 from over 900m away and as soon they saw the vehicle they bolted. So, we were on, we hadn't seen where they went after crossing the track, but were pretty sure they hadn't clocked us - the instructions were clear, 'it's a drive by, rifle out the window, pick a big one and have a crack, regardless of range'. There was some serious excitement in the vehicle, a well executed hard stop by the driver and a less well executed quick snap shot by the shooter that didn't quite connect meant the Baboons won that round

It was my biggest disappointment of the trip - the counselling sessions are helping, one day I hope to get over it.

It the words of the late, great Man in Black

I guess I will, someday
I don't like it, but I guess things happen that way

One sees plenty of unexpected sights in Africa - none more so for an Australian than this ...

Never got the back story on how this Emu got to the Eastern Cape

What an incredible day, despite nothing on the ground. The Warthog were legion, the country beautiful, the company enthralling and the food glorious. How good are the Mrs Balls Chutney flavour Simba chips!!! - I regret not bringing a case of them home.

 

[Mekaniks]

What a great report! Thanks for sharing

 

[PARA45]

Keep it coming, I'm enjoying your report very much! I'm laughing at your humor. Those Simba chips are really good.

 

[Nyati]

 

[Tintin]

Thanks @PARA45 - most probably prefer Simba chips to my humour (note correct spelling )

 

[Tintin]

The Warthogs, having won the previous day, were still Priority 1.

The plan was to chase the big fella we had spotted late on day one, feeding on one of the little 'putting greens’ of short green grass that they, and other critters, favour.

We had his address and were coming for him.

This spot was a small knoll, with a track below it and fairly good visibility form across the gully. Plenty of Aloe plants, as there where almost everywhere, the bright reds are impressive and made for useful target indication references, when used judiciously - ‘reference the red aloe plant’ wasn’t much help, given red aloe plants were everywhere.

A beautiful bright day, the warmest start to the day we’d had.

We head up to the other side of the gully to our vantage point and spot him. I’m thinking ‘we’ll be home for lunch’. He wasn’t.

He was 1km away, so we leave Feti in overwatch with a radio to keep eyes on him, while we outflank in the vehicle to put a final stalk in on him.

While en route, we get news from Feti that our guy had moved off the putting green and is well and truly in the scrub. We find another spot from which to look up onto where he was last seen, and after a while we finally catch a glimpse, we’re at about 300 metres away - but he's Oscar Mike. More watching, more waiting - a couple more glimpses then he’s gone.

No problem, we’ve got time, it’s only about 1100. We have general search around in the Hilux for the possibility of another option and spot 2 incredible Kudu bulls, and spend some time just watching them, and I'm mulling the possibility of hitting one of them. When the spotting scope came out it transpired that they were great, but not not outstanding, so the focus was back on the Warthog. We got held up by some Impala traffic at one point.

A quick cut lunch - poor old Feti had not grabbed his when we dropped in the overwatch position, so had a hungry day, with only half a pack of durries to keep him going.

A couple of stalks into 2 more pitting greens, we get to within about 20 m of a couple of small ones, but didn’t quite manage to get a photo before they busted us.

We did come across the remains of a long deceased porcupine, some quills, a skull and spine. To add some spice to the pile of quills, I reflected that Taylor, in African Rifles & Cartridges suggests that porcupines are favoured fare for lions. Maybe there was more danger that I appreciated lurking in the Kei Valley

Thinking we must finally be due for an ambush to come off, we pick a well shaded spot overlooking our putting green - where we had now seen this big fella 2 or 3 times over the week - and where we had reasonable views of the approaches. We were at about 200m, relaxed, well concealed, hyper vigilant, three of us with slightly different lines of sight, plus Feti up on the hill and in position with plenty of time left in the afternoon.

Perfect weather, pleasant breeze - coming almost from right where we wanted it. All that was missing was a couple of hammocks as we whiled away an hour or so eagerly awaiting our quarry's arrival for dinner. Player comfort levels where enhanced by Ali, the local tracker, doing a welcome esky run back to the Hilux returning with a cool, refreshing ‘Frog’s Pee’ that went down well.

Wally Warthog never showed.

Feti gave us warm welcome when we collected him and did our belated UberEats delivery of his lunch almost on last light.

A great day out, notwithstanding nothing more in the salt shed, that was certainly filling up with the collective efforts of the crew over the week.

All that remained was the farewell dinner, some photos and the ringing of the bell at the bar, celebrating one’s first successful African hunt.

Some final admin, government paperwork and details for the taxidermy outfit doing the cape and skull prep.

Some sad goodbyes.

More to follow

 

[Tintin]

The morning saw me packing under an LED backup light as load shedding kicked in, an early start and at ELS airport in plenty of time for the pre check-in bottomless hot chocolate at Mugg & Bean.

The Eaton Mess cheesecake was a hit at the BidVest lounge in ELS. Dairy is important in a balanced diet.

ELS to JNB on a little AirLink Embraer 135 - great service from AirLink on both flights - except they do charge AU$45 for the rifle - my fare was only ~AU$100 - the rifle fare seemed disproportionate to my fare.

Snow on the mountain tops on the way up to JNB, with smoke from what appeared to be bushfires visible a few mountains over (a whisp is just visible in the top right of the photo). Africa has plenty of contrasts.

I saw something quaint on both these AirLink flights I've never seen on a flight previously, anywhere in the world - passengers on the side with the best view (of the mountains or the coast) asked strangers on the other side of the aisle if they wanted photos - and mobile phones were passed back and forth across the aisle - a nice gesture.

Had a close encounter with a BA 380 on the ground at JNB. I think that is what Embraers want to be when they grow up.

JNB check in was OK. Qantas (Aspire) lounge was very ordinary, so I headed to the BidVest lounge - vastly better.

They have some different shops at JNB than in any other airport I've been through

QF64 was about an hour late getting away. I manged to land a Business upgrade so appreciated the horizontal flight mode. The flight one little twist - one of the cabin crew was a relatively new convert to hunting and he had just bought a new Howa in 308W for chasing pigs in Western NSW - not a conversation I would have anticiapted.

Good service from ABF and Bio guys in Sydney - they all wanted to know how the hunt had gone.

One of the Bio fellas asked what species I’d bagged, his young female colleague, just laughed and said ‘yes - but did you try Zebra pate’, showing us a tin of which had just been confiscated from a fellow passenger. As I left them, I said I hoped they enjoyed their Zebra sandwiches on their next break and we shared a laugh.

And there I was, in that slightly melancholy moment where, with a thankful but heavy heart, one realises that hunting life has morphed back into real life.

What a week it had been. @KMG Hunting Safaris were excellent, Marius's hunting tales over dinner are the stuff of legend. It is very apparent why (like so many good outfitters) that so many of his clients return for more.

I know folks on here will often say 'their' PH was the best in all of Africa ... I regret to advise that you're all wrong ... unless Greg was your PH. Tracker Feti was a legend - I left Greg some shekels to have the photo of Feti with the Blesbok printed and framed for Feti. Our local trackers all did great work.


As the great philosopher and historian Forest Gump said ... 'that's all I have to say about that'.

 

[Greenhorn]

What a great write-up! I appreciate all the pictures you took. That is definitely something I need to get better at doing. Glad you had a successful trip and hope there are more reports to come. Thank you for the report!

 

[USN]

Well done Sir, thanks