BOTSWANA: Two Weeks Hunting In The Kalahari With Kanana Safaris

[BRICKBURN]

The note from the freight forwarder in this mornings email.

"We would like to confirm that we have received payment, thank you.
Formal notification of your flight details are to follow soonest."

Oh, so close. I won't start yet though.

 

[BRICKBURN]

I have copies of all my permits in hand for all the trophies. Pages and pages and pages.


I have final an Airwaybill Number and flight numbers. I woke up to find it in my email. Yeah!


The trophies are outside Africa and are sitting in Luxembourg as I write this.
One leg down.

Then they get the joy a milk run tour of Scotland, Los Angeles, Seattle and finally home.

Apparently nothing has changed in the CFIA process, same fees and notifications.

Been waiting 3 years and change for these Botswana trophies to arrive. Looking forward to this.

 

[Clayton]

...Looking forward to this.

I guess you are looking forward to the arrival. Probably more than a little anticipation. Glad for you.

 

[cpr0312]

Will you be watching them on flight tracker, haha? I know your looking forward to them arriving. We all look forward to many pics

 

[BRICKBURN]

I have been rearranging space in anticipation of how to manage the

 

[Clayton]

LOL, several times. Just so long as it works.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Did they arrive on the scheduled flight last night?

07:30 Time to roll the dice......

If you can believe this one.... I was told to call back after 08:00 and there is no agent available in a 24 hour warehouse.

08:04 Time to roll the dice....
Still no one. But, the fella looks up the AWB. No sir, we do not have it.

Really?


I smell


Then it dawned on me. This was the same voice that had the trophies in LAX getting probed by USFWS.




It is time to find someone else who can operate a computer.

I decide to call the airline directly.

I get someones mobile phone number and I am directed to their website to trace my shipment. Who would have thought that you could do that in this day and age.


Punch in my AWB number and....
Sort through the log:
RCF 13 Aug 02:24
NFD 13 Aug 02:30

Interpretation of NFD:
"Freight and Documents ready for pickup"

Two more small hurdles. The tax man and the CFIA.

Back to my weekend and waiting for the government inspectors to head to work on Monday.

 

[Clayton]

By now I'd have to have a JD without the water.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Bushmills 21 year old. Maybe after the electrical is done a whole batch or margarettas

 

[Clayton]

Salt ain't good for our blood pressure.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Salt ain't good for our blood pressure.

I just use Lyme juice, no salt. We are too far from Mexico to have real recipes.

 

[Ridgewalker]

I'm exhausted from all this great story. I sure hope my taxidermist in SA doesn't turn out to be this much of a problem. When I toured their facility, everything looked great.
We are planning to put all 5 hunters trophies (28 animals) in a container and ship it over. Hope that's the right decision?

 

[BRICKBURN]

I'm exhausted from all this great story. I sure hope my taxidermist in SA doesn't turn out to be this much of a problem. When I toured their facility, everything looked great.
We are planning to put all 5 hunters trophies (28 animals) in a container and ship it over. Hope that's the right decision?

We considered shipping by container. They have to be crated anyway.
By the time all was added and the tales told air was better.

One country, one safari, is a little different than occurred in the end with my shipment.
Three countries, eight different locations, imports and exports, permits and transport.
Made life interesting.

Tomorrow, we see what the inspection brings.

 

[Ridgewalker]

Best of luck Brickburn! Hopefully all the concerns and worries will have been a waste of time.
I'm working on my 70th year and it's finally getting a little easier to overlook some things I can't control.

 

[BRICKBURN]

I was out Kayaking all day yesterday and enjoyed the sunshine. Perfect day.

 

[Ridgewalker]

I kayak fish, but I have only white water rafted and canoed. I love fishing from a kayak though.

 

[MMAL]

It is Tuesday, where is the update!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great story and I see where you learned to love hot water bottles like I do now.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Two of the five crates loaded.

Most are safely home, one crate has a little further to travel before it is home.

Half, literally of one of the crates. I can not believe how they can pack it all in.
( I was particularly surprised with the art of one of the packers inside the crate. A Swastika)
I'll be having a chat with the Manager.

The Blue Duiker made it to a temporary resting place on my printer.

I have some work to do on the Tetris Puzzle.

The Sable Bushbuck and Caracal look great.

Quite happy to have it all home and almost wrapped up.

 

[BRICKBURN]

We have unloaded everything but one crate.

There have been a few trophies that were swapped with someone else's.
Zebra with the wrong names on them and after a little Sherlock homes work, which is not really hard when you have taken good photos in the field, we have figured it out.

We have one rug still missing in action. That is, the proper rug and pattern has not found its home. Who knows when that one occurred.

"My" Red Hartebeest had shrunk nearly 5.5 inches. I thought we had some crate shrinkage. (As someone had already taken a shine to my largest Gemsbok while in transit and it never arrived in South Africa.)

When I put it beside my Namibian trophy it was dwarfed, which seemed very strange. A friend came over and immediately recognized his trophy and was wondering where the really big one at his house came from.
The smaller guy has gone home and we are waiting for final migration of my Botswana Hartebeest.

All in all, three years and who knows how many transfers all of my trophies that made it to the taxidermy in RSA are accounted for.

 

[Clayton]

Terrific!