I had always looked at hunting in Africa as an exotic experience that I would never be able to afford. I assumed it would take tens of thousands of dollars and I’m just no the guy. Last fall, my dad came back from a trip to Colorado where he had met a guy who hunted Africa frequently. They began to talk and when it was discovered how reasonable it was to hunt in Africa dad made a joke about us going and how he wanted to (it’s been a lifelong dream of his). I can be rather bull headed sometimes, within three days of that I discovered this wonderful site through my research and it was off to the races. I decided to hunt RSA to cut down on travel. Through my searching I found Henry Griffith Safari’s and i invited a couple other people to come as well. With my father, my cousin, and a friend (along with his wife) we booked our trip and it was wheels up in the last week of August.
Don’t forget I’m a newbie and I made some newbie mistakes. I didn’t use a travel agent (why spend the extra few hundred dollars when I can find the flight cheaper than they) so we flew United going from Houston to Newark and then on to Johannesburg. Our flight from Houston was delayed but we reached Newark with about ten minutes to spare. Only to find out that the plane departed twenty minutes early (my cousin who had a different flight, was on the Newark flight already). My cousin had begged them to wait for us but no dice (guess who won’t be flying United again…nor through Newark either). We were able to get on the same flight the next day and arrived in Johannesburg to meet Henry, my cousin and some nice people who worked for riflepermits.com. It was late so exhausted we drive the five hours to Henry’s which is in the north of Kimberley and south of Vryberg. We arrived at the lodge, ate a quick snack, and then it was to bed. After waking up we had a huge breakfast and then it was off to the range to sight in guns (now it started getting exciting)
After we left the range (an old diamond mine in the woods where, due to the diamond mine, there was a nice open spot to shoot with several convenient backstops). We set out for the plains but before we got clear of the woods we jumped several Red Hartebeest and my cousin took the first kill of the day. After a small stalk, he was able to get around the opposite side of a stand of trees and killed the hartebeest as it came out the other. His 28 nosler seemed to do the trick.
We finished driving out of the woods and headed onto the plains, where we were able to able make the most of our trip over the next few days.
Don’t forget I’m a newbie and I made some newbie mistakes. I didn’t use a travel agent (why spend the extra few hundred dollars when I can find the flight cheaper than they) so we flew United going from Houston to Newark and then on to Johannesburg. Our flight from Houston was delayed but we reached Newark with about ten minutes to spare. Only to find out that the plane departed twenty minutes early (my cousin who had a different flight, was on the Newark flight already). My cousin had begged them to wait for us but no dice (guess who won’t be flying United again…nor through Newark either). We were able to get on the same flight the next day and arrived in Johannesburg to meet Henry, my cousin and some nice people who worked for riflepermits.com. It was late so exhausted we drive the five hours to Henry’s which is in the north of Kimberley and south of Vryberg. We arrived at the lodge, ate a quick snack, and then it was to bed. After waking up we had a huge breakfast and then it was off to the range to sight in guns (now it started getting exciting)
After we left the range (an old diamond mine in the woods where, due to the diamond mine, there was a nice open spot to shoot with several convenient backstops). We set out for the plains but before we got clear of the woods we jumped several Red Hartebeest and my cousin took the first kill of the day. After a small stalk, he was able to get around the opposite side of a stand of trees and killed the hartebeest as it came out the other. His 28 nosler seemed to do the trick.
We finished driving out of the woods and headed onto the plains, where we were able to able make the most of our trip over the next few days.
