What First Spurred Your Interest in Africa?

[ack]

Jack O'Connor in Outdoor Life as well as "I Married Adventure " by Osa and Martin Johnson..Ruark's "Horn of the Hunter" as well as knowing there was more to be discovered outside of N.C.'s mountains...

 

[crudeoildude]

well it started out for me back when my dad would carry me on his shoulders while hunting because my leg were to short to keep up,we would all harvest our annual deer and antelope,meat for the upcoming winter,but then I got to watching marlin Perkins every sunday afternoon and then seen Hatari, and then I found Capstick,He was the main culprit.got very heavy into reading every thing I could get my hands on cause my Gramma told me you can go anywhere in the wourld you want even if its only in a book,Well It never happened and four arterial by-passes and 13 arterial stents in place,its probly not going to happen,BUT I can still dream and Im not dead YET.

 

[Adrian]

When I was a kid growing up, we had no TV. I amused myself with books, climbing trees and making dens. I used to go to my Grandmother's house and remember a TV series called 'Survival' and can remember sitting open mouth in front of her TV watching cheetahs taking down gazelle, lions chewing on an unidentifiable carcass, vast herds of antelope across grassy plains, crocodiles sliding into African rivers and then their invisible menace under the water.
Tarzan films were also a favourite.

One day I was shopping with my Mum and we went to a bookshop and she said I could choose a book. I went to the kids section and a series of books jumped out at me. The cover art was exactly what a young boy wanted and the title had the words 'African Adventure'. My mind was made up.

Years later in 2015 I went to Africa on my first African adventure and in my luggage was the same book that gave me many happy hours of reading.

 

[mark-hunter]

@Adrian
in post no 31, I also mentioned documentary serial "Survival", it seams we grew up in same time (I am 1971, born)!
Cheers!

 

[Adrian]

@Adrian
in post no 31, I also mentioned documentary serial "Survival", it seams we grew up in same time (I am 1971, born)!
Cheers!

I didn't read every post and missed that! '72 for me.
It was a good series back in the day, here's a trip down memory lane.....

 

[Bruce]

For me it was easy.. Born in Rhodesia and my father took me fishing from the age of 3 and hunting age 6...from then on, it's all History!!

 

[spoonieduck]

I can't remember not wanting to go hunting especially to Africa. Back in the late 1960s-early 1970s two young Americans had a great idea and I learned about it. They decided to make Africa affordable and went to farmers and other private individuals to see if they would take sports hunters out on their farms. He was able to get a fair number of people in Old Rhodesia, South African and, then, Southwest Africa [now Nambia] to agree with their plan. They put together brochures with a list of animals. I was poor as a church mouse but saved some money and went on a three country trip, just at the time Rhodesia was suffering its bush war. I even saw a little action. Things were remarkably cheap by our standards. I remember having to agonize whether to spend $500.00 for a sable bull that turned out to be 40 inches, the smallest I've ever shot.

It was paradise with just a few friends hunting including the farmer. I went back many times over the years and even bought into a ranch over there. But everything changes and it's a very different world now. If any of you all can remember the names of those two Americans, I'd like to hear them. I believe that they are the ones that transformed the nature of hunting in Southern Africa which means that many of you all, including professional hunters and outfitters,, benefited by their insight.

 

[Petey J]

An ex-girlfriend was the first one who really planted the seed. She talked about really wanting to go, even tried booking at one time and basically got laughed out.

I guess I'd always thought of it as a rich man's thing, even though I knew a couple guys who'd been. But figured I'd never afford it. But then I started researching and realised, this really is doable. And the more I researched, the more obsessed I became. I've bought a rifle for plains game (Ruger No. 1 in .30-06, needs optics). Built my own tripod shooting sticks (still refining). Worked on a library. Setup spreadsheets to compare outfitters on apples to apples packages. Run multiple flight itineraries to compare airfare. Looked up taxidermy pricing and considered different mounts.

Then I joined AH...

And you all have just made it worse (THANK YOU!).

Ultimately it would have never worked between the ex and I. And I'm now happily married to my amazing wife whom I think I drive nuts when almost every day I'll start a conversation with "I was thinking about Africa and...." Yet she still wants to come along as an observer. The ex and I still occasionally communicate. I've even reached out to suggest maybe she would be interested in traveling together, since it's her fault, and I'm forever grateful (if I won the lottery, I'd even pay for her trip).

 

[steve white]

for me it was reading Capstick...

 

[Atombomb]

I'd have to say cartoons started it... Jungle Book intrigued me, then Marlin Perkins and Wild Kingdom... Like many of you, I got Capstick's books and videos, and while they might not have been entirely non-fiction, he wove a story that hooked me. Since then, I've read many other author's, been to DSC and SCI conventions, and talked to many hunters and PHs. I'm lucky enough to be going on my first safari within a year or so.

 

[Rick Cox]

Tarzan of the Apes. Outdoor Life. Then a raft of very vintage books I used to order from the library in Chetwynd. Couldn't say who they were. It was a long time ago.

 

[dan donnelly]

I guess with me it started with Outdoor life and Field and Stream articles I read as a child who had absolutely no interest in anything but the outdoors. I have always loves hunting and anything to do with the wild. Must be in my DNA.
I have not yet been to Africa but hope to. I am still not interested much in anything but hunting, fishing and the outdoors

 

[ve7poi]

I guess with me it started with Outdoor life and Field and Stream articles I read as a child who had absolutely no interest in anything but the outdoors. I have always loves hunting and anything to do with the wild. Must be in my DNA.
I have not yet been to Africa but hope to. I am still not interested much in anything but hunting, fishing and the outdoors

Thankfully I have made several trips but it all started the same way.
I have made some great friends there and plan to just visit them when all this coved finally runs in coarse.