What made you know that you must hunt Africa someday?

[Buff-Buster]

Great thread..... For me it probably started with reading all of the Tarzan trilogies by Edgar Rice Burroughs when I was very young. (not to mention Johnny Wiesmuller in the old Tarzan movies) Then the old Field & Stream, Outdoor Life and Sports Afield articles I would read in the county and school library. Finally Hemingway, Roosevelt and Capstick sealed the deal. I only dreamed and had it on my bucket list until 2003. My Dad passed that year. He was my hero and the hardest working man I ever knew. He had alot of the same dreams but never took the time to realize them. I made a promise to myself to not make the same mistake. The next year I went on my first safari to the Eastern Cape. While he couldnt be there with me in the flesh, he has made every trip with me in spirit. Africa changed my life forever and I will always be thankful for all of those that lead me to her bosom.

 

[Rob404]

Nothing like waiting for that first safari to happen. Good luck!!

Thanks Planning and equipment gathering is half the fun

 

[A.Sharpe]

The old safari movies I watched on Saturday mornings as a kid in the 60's . I have dreamed of saving the beautiful girl from the charging Rhino and the attacking Lion. Then having visited Rhodesia in the mid 70's I knew someday I would return. Now as I am in the latter years of my life , I long more than ever to go and follow the track of the buffalo........"I have lived , because I have hunted the cape buffalo."

 

[BigSteve57]

This may sound overly simple & uninteresting but I've always wanted to see Africa. Perhaps it was the Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom shows mentioned in earlier posts that I watched as a kid with my parents that started it.

But why did I do it this year?
Mostly it was hearing in my mind the sounds of: tick-tock, tick-tock...

 

[sestoppelman]

I am surprised by all the references to MoO's WK with Perkins. I watched that show too but it had nothing to do with my desire to one day hunt Africa. It didnt even occur to me until the first mention.

 

[BigSteve57]

I am surprised by all the references to MoO's WK with Perkins. I watched that show too but it had nothing to do with my desire to one day hunt Africa. It didnt even occur to me until the first mention.

I always ASSumed that a hunt in Africa would be beyond my means. However more recently it could be that I came to realize that a hunt in Africa wouldn't be that much more expensive than a hunt in Maine, Alaska or Wyoming. So for me that factored in to it too.

 

[lwaters]

I always wanted to hunt Alaska or Western Canada and never thought much about Africa. When I retired and finally had the time and money I was shocked of the cost of Alaska. I started checking out Africa and found it is a bargain. YOu can hunt alot more animals for less money than Western Canada or Alaska. I am going on my second trip in May of next year and can hardly wait. Also my wife I know would not be to comfortable on a Alaskan hunt. In Africa she is treated like a queen. Candlelight dinners wine and great food and for what it cost her she would spend more if she ate her meals out and stayed in a motel in our home town. Great place Africa a guy better do it while he can.

 

[gi jane]

My dad. I tagged-along on his buff hunt and after about three days of tracking, walking and stalking he asked if I could ever hunt a cape buffalo. Damn, whenever my dad gives me a challenge I HAVE to take it. So a month after I got home I booked a buff hunt with my teenage son. First time I ever hunted aside from the zebra I took with my dad on his hunt. Baptism by fire is what I was told the experience was. Just being in Africa was enough to make me feel life was worth living, but hunting a buffalo was enough to make me go crazy.

 

[Heym 88]

For me it was living in Africa as a military dependent, then add in reading all of Capstick's book, then add buying all my African rifles, and finally retired, daughter almost done with college. Im working on one more double in a .470. Then hopefully by 2015, I'll be there.

 

[Nyati]

Books, safari movies, my interest in wildlife, being born in Africa.

 

[Diamondhitch]

being born in Africa.

:crazylol:

 

[Mtgoat]

I honestly don't know. I went on my first safari this year. In the end, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision while at SCI in January. Prior to that, I had thought about all of the logical reasons to go and could think of plenty of reasons not to go. I've hunted all my life and I've hunted in some really out of the way places in North America. I have traveled widely around the world. In the end, it just came down to an impulse. I just wish that I had started sooner.