What First Spurred Your Interest in Africa?

[JakeH]

What did it for you? What first gave you the itch to visit the Dark Continent on safari?

For me, it was a Craig Boddington article in American Hunter when I was no older than twelve. It detailed him hunting Cape Buffalo or as he referred to them in his article, “the dagga boy”. Ever since then, the dream of hunting Africa has been on my mind.

How about you?

 

[sestoppelman]

Reading Robert Ruark's Horn of the Hunter in the 60's did it for me. Much later Capstick was the final driving force that put me over the edge. I was older then, in my early 30's, good paying job and safari was really taking off. Zambia buff hunts were being offered for $2500. I ended up in Tanzania for my first hunt, never forget it.

 

[MikeNC]

I think being a Hemingway fan first got me interested in Africa . I had dreamed of hunting Africa for so long it’s hard to say what finally convinced me it was what I wanted to do , but Capstick definitely pushed me to want to go to the Luangwa Valley and Ruark threw gas onto the fire Hemingway lit. There were of course various other books and stories, it took years but I finally made it to the Luangwa!

 

[MikeNC]

Reading Robert Ruark's Horn of the Hunter in the 60's did it for me. Much later Capstick was the final driving force that put me over the edge. I was older then, in my early 30's, good paying job and safari was really taking off. Zambia buff hunts were being offered for $2500. I ended up in Tanzania for my first hunt, never forget it.

Capstick can probably be blamed for a lot of safaris!

 

[Ryan]

Articles in bowhunting magazines in the late 80's. Always kept the idea in the back of my mind from then on, keeping the idea going reading Capstick's books and various other articles.

 

[wesheltonj]

T Roosevelt and Hemingway. Mainly Roosevelt.

 

[Rickmt]

A friend said come with me and I liked it a lot! Never thought I would travel to hunt in such a far away place.

 

[JakeH]

A friend said come with me and I liked it a lot! Never thought I would travel to hunt in such a far away place.

To have a friend like yours!

 

[JES Adventures]

There were so many influences, one built on the next.

I used to spend Sunday evenings watching Mutual of Omaha‘s Wild Kingdom with my Grandmother. That got me intrigued about wildlife and the wild, unspoiled places in the world.

Next, I went on a grade school field trip to the Buckhorn Hall of Horns at the Lonestar brewery in San Antonio Texas. There I saw the first shoulder mounted elephant I had ever seen in my life - I was hooked! The museum was amazing with hundreds of species, both life size and shoulder mounts. At that point, I put 2 & 2 together and realized that my dream and goal was to go on an African Safari.

Finally, in high school I would regularly buy Sports Field Magazine just to read John Jobson. His stories about African hunting sealed the deal and I was there on my first Safari at 22 years of age. BTW -All on my own as we are from humble, working class stock. I worked two jobs while in high school and college.

My Mother always told me if you have a goal, write it down and read it every day. I bought a map of Africa, pinned it to the wall next to my bed when I was 18 years old and looked at it every morning when I woke up . It only took me four years to get there.

God is great!

 

[Eric Anderson]

Some crazy guy from Rhodesia and his Afrikaner wife rented the tenant house on my family farm for 5 years while he and his wife were studying at the Southern Evangelical Seminary.

When he and his wife moved back to RSA, they invited me to visit. The rest is history.

 

[tarbe]

Watching Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies in the 60s.

 

[bilmcc]

Wally Taber presentations, Outdoor Life stories, then Fred Bear films, then Frank Buck, Carl Ackley, Osa & Martin Johnson, and eventually Hemmingway and Ruark. I knew someday I had to go.

 

[Brent in Az]

When I was a teenager, my Dad was always reading about Africa, and the African hunters of yesteryear. He would get books from the library, or used book store. I found them intriguing, and would patiently wait for my Dad to finish the book, so I could read them.
I think the first one I read, was Jim Corbett's Maneaters of Kumaon(sic)? Karamojo Bell. Ruark and others I can't remember.

 

[Shootist43]

I dreamed about it but never thought it possible. Then I heard it was about the same price or less than a guided Elk Hunt in the U.S. but with a far greater probability of harvesting animals. I attended a SCI Exhibition in Kansas City where my son and I talked to a number of Outfitters and got quotes from some of them. We later found a better price on the internet and a buddy introduced me to a friend of his that had been to Africa twice. As luck would have it he used the same Outfitter we'd already booked with. Two months later I joined AH. Been hooked ever since.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

As a kid in the 1960s, watching Marlin Perkins and his sidekick, Jim, on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, the John Wayne movie, Hatari and the short lived TV show, Cowboy in Africa with Chuck Connors.

As an adult, I went to work in Angola for five+ years. Didn't have a lot of spare money at the time and 4 kids either in college or getting close to college, but made my first hunting safari on a cancellation PG hunt to Namibia.

 

[Brent in Az]

As a kid in the 1960s, watching Marlin Perkins and his sidekick, Jim, on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, the John Wayne movie, Hatari and the short lived TV show, Cowboy in Africa with Chuck Connors.

As an adult, I went to work in Angola for five+ years. Didn't have a lot of spare money at the time and 4 kids either in college or getting close to college, but made my first hunting safari on a cancellation PG hunt to Namibia.

I used to have a Cowboy in Africa lunch box when I was a kid

Wild Kingdom was a great show.

 

[WAB]

Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom probably got it started. That and growing up on a farm, spending a lot of time in The wilderness of Northern Canada, and those great gun writers of the 70’s. I never had a chance!

 

[sierraone]

Jack O'Conner in Outdoor Life in the sixties, American Sportsman in the 60's. Hemingway and Roosevelt books in the 80's and attending my first Dallas Safari Club Convention in 1990. It still took a long time to get there.

 

[JES Adventures]

Watching Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies in the 60s.

Dang I forgot about Tarzan, part of the influence.

 

[Brent in Az]

Every once in awhile, the outdoor magazines had a good African hunting story in it also. I was always checking the mailbox for the Outdoor Life, and Field & Stream, to show up.