Tim Blackwell
AH fanatic
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2011
- Messages
- 853
- Reaction score
- 2,612
- Location
- South Australia
- Website
- www.facebook.com
- Media
- 313
- Member of
- Australian Deer Association, Australian Association of Wildlife Artists
- Hunted
- Australia, New Zealand, Namibia, South Africa
Outfitter: @KMG Hunting Safaris
PH : Marius Goosen, Martin Neuper
Zimbabwe, Limpopo & Eastern Cape
The Background...
Back in 2019, Mark and I made plans with Marius from KMG for the “trip of a lifetime”, the Big Bull Safari. Mark dreamt of walking in the tracks of Bull Elephant, while for me it was all about Cape Buffalo. This was our third safari with KMG so we had every confidence that Marius was the man to put it all together for us.
It started as a simple 7-day, 2-on-1 hunt in the Limpopo region. With two more years of Covid cancellations, we planned and re-planned until the trip morphed into something much bigger. There were certainly times when we thought it would never happen. I’m not sure that we could have faced another year of postponement. But happily, this hunt is now run and won, so it’s time for the report!
This will take some time to complete as we’ll be doing it together stage-by-stage. There were 4 main parts of the safari in the end…
Part 1 – Zimbabwe Elephant Hunt
Part 2 – Limpopo Cape Buffalo Hunt
Part 3 – Eastern Cape PG Hunt
Part 4 – Mark & Steve hunt some more while Tim holidays!
So anyhow, we’ll try and get through it part-by-part!
First and foremost, I want to acknowledge the dedication, flexibility, and absolute commitment of Marius Goosen to make this trip happen. For three long years, and literally right up until we left home, plans were changing and evolving, and nothing was ever too much of a challenge for Marius. There was a solution to every hurdle thrown at us – and let me tell you, there was a few! I’m usually a guy who likes to have everything planned in black and white, so this took a little adjustment. There was even several airfares that were not booked at the time of departure, as we opted to leave them open-ended depending on hunt success or otherwise…our complete trust was with Marius and the KMG team, and it was well-founded.
So by 2022, the Australian Government had finally loosened the shackles sufficiently that we could again travel internationally. The third set of dates for the Big Bull Safari were pencilled in – August 10 to September 2, 2022.
I met Mark in Sydney after two flights from my home, on the afternoon of August 8th; and after several drinks at the Hotel Bar with a local friend, we called it a night, to be ready for the long-haul the next day. That was to be the first of several Qantas delays across the trip unfortunately, but we eventually got to O.R. Tambo where we were met by the Africa Sky representative to go and attend to business in the SAPS office, before we retired for the night. There was a group of US hunters at AS who had just finished their safari, it was great to chat to them over a beer before a steak dinner.
The following morning it was back to the airport where we met Marius off his domestic flight, and checked in together for our next flight to Victoria Falls, where the adventure began…I'll hand over to Mark for this part.![Wink ;) ;)](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/twitter/twemoji@14.0.2/assets/72x72/1f609.png)
PH : Marius Goosen, Martin Neuper
Zimbabwe, Limpopo & Eastern Cape
The Background...
Back in 2019, Mark and I made plans with Marius from KMG for the “trip of a lifetime”, the Big Bull Safari. Mark dreamt of walking in the tracks of Bull Elephant, while for me it was all about Cape Buffalo. This was our third safari with KMG so we had every confidence that Marius was the man to put it all together for us.
It started as a simple 7-day, 2-on-1 hunt in the Limpopo region. With two more years of Covid cancellations, we planned and re-planned until the trip morphed into something much bigger. There were certainly times when we thought it would never happen. I’m not sure that we could have faced another year of postponement. But happily, this hunt is now run and won, so it’s time for the report!
This will take some time to complete as we’ll be doing it together stage-by-stage. There were 4 main parts of the safari in the end…
Part 1 – Zimbabwe Elephant Hunt
Part 2 – Limpopo Cape Buffalo Hunt
Part 3 – Eastern Cape PG Hunt
Part 4 – Mark & Steve hunt some more while Tim holidays!
So anyhow, we’ll try and get through it part-by-part!
First and foremost, I want to acknowledge the dedication, flexibility, and absolute commitment of Marius Goosen to make this trip happen. For three long years, and literally right up until we left home, plans were changing and evolving, and nothing was ever too much of a challenge for Marius. There was a solution to every hurdle thrown at us – and let me tell you, there was a few! I’m usually a guy who likes to have everything planned in black and white, so this took a little adjustment. There was even several airfares that were not booked at the time of departure, as we opted to leave them open-ended depending on hunt success or otherwise…our complete trust was with Marius and the KMG team, and it was well-founded.
So by 2022, the Australian Government had finally loosened the shackles sufficiently that we could again travel internationally. The third set of dates for the Big Bull Safari were pencilled in – August 10 to September 2, 2022.
I met Mark in Sydney after two flights from my home, on the afternoon of August 8th; and after several drinks at the Hotel Bar with a local friend, we called it a night, to be ready for the long-haul the next day. That was to be the first of several Qantas delays across the trip unfortunately, but we eventually got to O.R. Tambo where we were met by the Africa Sky representative to go and attend to business in the SAPS office, before we retired for the night. There was a group of US hunters at AS who had just finished their safari, it was great to chat to them over a beer before a steak dinner.
The following morning it was back to the airport where we met Marius off his domestic flight, and checked in together for our next flight to Victoria Falls, where the adventure began…I'll hand over to Mark for this part.
![Wink ;) ;)](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/twitter/twemoji@14.0.2/assets/72x72/1f609.png)
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