ZIMBABWE: Elephant Hunt With Nyamazana Safaris

[Witold Krzyżanowski]

Good luck.
Witold

 

[AfricaHunting.com]

 

[Nyati]

Good luck !

 

[jacques smith]

Holy crap, my feet hurt just looking at the map. Be strong he's going to make a mistake

 

[johnnyblues]

Stay strong!

 

[mrpoindexter]

I am trying to keep up with my journal, but limited bandwidth is keeping me from being able to upload photos. I will put up the first day report as soon as my safari is completed.

I will say this though: Courteney Selous FTW!!!

 

[jasyblood]

Looking forward to it!

 

[cpr0312]

Looking forward to it. Are you also leopard hunting the same area?

 

[AfricaHunting.com]

 

[mrpoindexter]

There were no available leopard permits. Also, a leopard hunt is really a lot of work and the elephant hunt is not exactly easy. I am having a hard time just keeping up with a daily journal.

We are up every day at 4:30am and don't get back to the camp until 7pm or later. I cannot do any real writing while we are driving due to the very bumpy roads and when we park, it is time to walk. The work day is 14-15 hours per day. Between the time zone change, air travel, business trips immediately preceding this hunt and the hard push every day, I am utterly exhausted physically and not much better mentally. That said, I am having a great time.

I am making plans with Wayne to come back in 2019 for leopard, as he is already booked for 2018. I am wanting to do a daytime hunt with a bow, as I will be filming it for television (or a web channel if it doesn't get picked up on a broadcast network) and night hunts don't film as well.

 

[cpr0312]

Best of luck!! Pulling for you

 

[SWARA]

@mrpoindexter hope you finally managed to catch your breath after your marithon and that you will be able to fill in the blanks on your report. I would love to hear how it all turned out.

 

[jacques smith]

I also would love to hear it. I'm trying to set up hunt with Wayne for ele for next year and need to see how many miles were involved as opposed to blue lines. It must have been many cheers
Jacques.

 

[mrpoindexter]

OK, sorry for the delay. Had to get the photos off my phone, which was giving me some trouble. I will be putting up one day's worth of my journal each day, starting with the pre-trip so you have a couple days until I get to Zim.

 

[mrpoindexter]

Pre-Trip: China & India (May 15-22)

After finally conceding defeat in my quest to obtain a bow permit to hunt elephant on safari in Zimbabwe, I have resigned myself to accepting that I will be on a rifle hunting safari.

I pack my Mathews Halon bow for plains game and leave my Monster Safari bow and the GrizzlyStik Tembo arrows at home.

I am headed to Shanghai first for a food show, then to Chennai, India, for a nut conference and finally to Africa. With the stops in China and India, I know that I will not be able to bring a rifle and am mildly concerned about my bow.

Having to pack for business meetings and a conference as well as my hunt, I cannot bring toys for the children in Africa so the kids in Zimbabwe will not be able to get the happy meal toys I have amassed from my five month diet of McDonalds in preparation of my trip. I resolve to bring them to Namibia in July. I barely had enough room to pack some bison jerky and protein bars to last me until I get to Africa.

Rather than focus on the effort I made on the archery side that now looks wasted, I can be happy about all the weight I have lost – nearly 29 pounds since December and who knows how much I lost prior to that.

The food show goes well, with several customers remarking on the weight I have lost. One customer even shows me a picture from October that makes me sick at how fat I was.

[A picture of a photo of me in October 2016, before my diet (weight unknown)- good lord I let myself get fat!]

[A photo of me in May 2017, a week before my hunt and much thinner]

Leaving China, however, caused some issues when they confiscated my hunting knives as I was LEAVING the country. Even when I mentioned they were made IN china, it did little good. I didn’t argue any further considering they were cheap and my bow, which they have said nothing about, was not.

[Note that the knives clearly show that they were MADE IN CHINA!!]

While in India, at lunch I overheard a couple people from South Africa talking about a hunter who got trampled. I immediately perked up and interrupted their conversation for details. Apparently, a PH named Theunis Botha was killed by elephants in Zimbabwe. I told them I needed all the information they had, as I was headed to Zimbabwe in two days. “What for?” they asked and I replied “To hunt elephant.” The awkward silence I think was them trying to figure out if I was serious or showing a bad sense of humor.

A bit of searching on Google showed nothing about it, but it was already being discussed on AfricaHunting.com. A day later, it would end up on Drudge Report but for now, I knew enough. A herd of elephants charged his hunting party. One attacked him, and then another picked his body up, was shot and killed by another in his party and fell on top of Theunis, crushing him - scary stuff. The only thing more disturbing than that was to see the celebration for his death from the anti-hunting people online.

I mention to several people about the hunt. Some are excited to hear about how it turns out and others are not so enthused, but I don’t think any of them wish me to be killed by the animals.

Later that day, I attempt to pay for a drink in the hotel with my rupees left over from my previous trip to India as I rarely exchange my currency back at the end of a trip. I am told that India printed new 500 rupee banknotes and no longer honored the old ones, which are now completely worthless. I guess they are preparing me for Zimbabwe.

With India finished, I shower, change, pack and head to the airport just one hour after the gala dinner is over. I am lucky to have that hour; otherwise I would be flying to Africa in my tuxedo. As I check in to my flight, there is a computer system crash and I cannot check in electronically. The airline has to write out my boarding pass by hand. I head to security only to be denied entry for what appears to them as an obviously fake ticket. Thankfully, Etihad airlines staff comes over to sort it out. I fly to South Africa, eating the last of my bison jerky I brought with me from home on the plane.

[Hand written boarding pass on ETIHAD Airways]

 

[Royal27]

OK, sorry for the delay. Had to get the photos off my phone, which was giving me some trouble. I will be putting up one day's worth of my journal each day, starting with the pre-trip so you have a couple days until I get to Zim.

It's about time!

Been waiting impatiently for this one.

 

[cpr0312]

Looking forward to more! And yes you have lost quite a bit, congrats on that!

 

[LivingTheDream]

I love the made in China line...Lol. Can't wait to hear the rest of the story.

 

[jasyblood]

Looking forward to more Mike. Keep it coming!

 

[jacques smith]

Nut Convention! I thought that was in Dallas @ AH dinner! Please continue