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- Dec 12, 2011
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- Minnesota, Texas, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, British Columbia, Argentina, Kansas, Macedonia, Australia, Tanzania, Iceland
My wife Ann and I went on our first African trip and had a great expieriance at Crusader Safaris operated by Andrew Pringle. We did 9 days in early April. Our PH was Mark and he was the perfect guy to team us up with. Not sure if it was planned or good luck but I had described to our booking agent (James) what we wanted and did not want... Mark was the right guy and he had in camp his expierianced head Tracker Clive as well as an apprentice, Patrick who was grass green but very enthusiastic! And of course Gismo the Jack Russel and real tracker of our merry little group. Mark met us at the PE airport and helped us get our guns and load up our luggage then took us on the 2 1/2 hour drive to camp. He pointed out several animals in the dark on the drive in. (the flight from Joberg to PE was on Africa time, but we had been warned and took it in stride) Everything else went very smoothly all through the 4 flights to get there. All our baggage and guns arrived with us. James had arranged for our gun permits to be handled in JoBerg by Henry Durhiem and he made that whole thing easy and fast... Henry also went the extra mile to get us all checked back in and pointed out where to grab a bite to eat and where our departure gate was.
During the hunt, Mark took us to 3 distinct regions and gave us a nice broad expieriance with different sights, smells, terrain and of course animals. We were the first hunters of the season on a couple places. He put us in front of a lot of game and had us hold back on a lot that did not meet his standards..... Heck we did not know what was good or not. I was told to expect a few great trophies, a few so so, and many average. I'm very happy with what we got.
More importantly my wife was happy! She went over half heartedly willing to shoot a Zebra but unsure how she would feel about it when it came time to pull the trigger. And she was very concerned that she did not want to spend 9 days staight of only hunting so I had communicated this as well and there was the option of going on a day trip with Julia, Andrew's lovely wife. Much to my surprise, Ann turned her down! When I looked at her with what must have been a puzzeled look, she explained that she was afraid she would miss something exciting on the hunt if she left! She took 5 very good animals herself and 4 were one shot kills (the scope was set a little low on the first). It is hard to discribe the emotion when she took the big fat Zebra Stallion in one clean shot (her second animal)... Her face was red and sweaty with hair falling across it from the physical effort of the stalk in the heat of mid day.... And she was lit up with the biggest most genuine smile that portrayed happiness, pride, reverence for the animal, and complete satisfaction with herself and the expieriance. She does not like killing but she loved the "hunt" and the total expieriance. She "gets it"... the difference between killing and the conclusion of a successful hunt. She understands fully that hunting is a natural and nessasary part of the Natural World that she is participating in the very essence of nature. She absolutely revelled in the hard work of walking across the plains, climbing mountains, sneaking through the thorn bushes, and stalking the river bottoms.... And the successes and failures of a good hunt.
Ann was also very into taking photographs and documenting all the different species we saw... She had a list of 20 from the evening drive into camp and the first day of hunting. Mark went out of his way to point out birds, tortouses and even stopped to get pictures of mountains and clouds. That was important to the sussess of Ann's trip and Mark understood that. We had a package of 5 animals and then wanted to add on Zebra, Eland, and Wart Hog but explained to Mark that if we came across good specimens of other species, we would do our best to aim carefully and squeeze the trigger. We took a pretty relaxed view and did not get too wound up about any particular species, Mark seemed to take care of any worrying about such details for us. We got everything we wanted except a big Wart Hog.... And several we did not know we wanted until we saw them.... Like a fine Mountain Reedbuck, my first African animal and one we just came across first thing the first morning... Mark spotted it, confirmed I really wanted to shoot any fine specimen and then said, "bring your gun, you need to shoot this Mountain Reedbuck!" That set the stage for a great hunt. I took 10 Antelope and a Jackal.
The only negative part of our whole trip was that we did a couple Photo Safaris after the hunt and then a lot of other "tourist stuff" including a drive on our own down the Garden Route. After expierianceing "the real thing first hand"... The rest of the trip was very nice, but somewhat "anti-climatic". Riding around in crowded game viewing trucks with a dozen tourists who do not have any idea of how ot keep quiet, circling "wild" life with 5 other trucks all vying for possition to get the best "shot" of animals that pose for pictures every day, simply cannot compete with being out on a real hunt for real wild animals. And the various nature reserves and parks, and even Table Mountain with their paths all laid out, cannot compete with climbing a mountain over loose rocks trying to get above a herd of Eland or sitting atop a rock escarpment glassing for Kudu.
I have to get back to to hunt Africa again soon!
Bob
During the hunt, Mark took us to 3 distinct regions and gave us a nice broad expieriance with different sights, smells, terrain and of course animals. We were the first hunters of the season on a couple places. He put us in front of a lot of game and had us hold back on a lot that did not meet his standards..... Heck we did not know what was good or not. I was told to expect a few great trophies, a few so so, and many average. I'm very happy with what we got.
More importantly my wife was happy! She went over half heartedly willing to shoot a Zebra but unsure how she would feel about it when it came time to pull the trigger. And she was very concerned that she did not want to spend 9 days staight of only hunting so I had communicated this as well and there was the option of going on a day trip with Julia, Andrew's lovely wife. Much to my surprise, Ann turned her down! When I looked at her with what must have been a puzzeled look, she explained that she was afraid she would miss something exciting on the hunt if she left! She took 5 very good animals herself and 4 were one shot kills (the scope was set a little low on the first). It is hard to discribe the emotion when she took the big fat Zebra Stallion in one clean shot (her second animal)... Her face was red and sweaty with hair falling across it from the physical effort of the stalk in the heat of mid day.... And she was lit up with the biggest most genuine smile that portrayed happiness, pride, reverence for the animal, and complete satisfaction with herself and the expieriance. She does not like killing but she loved the "hunt" and the total expieriance. She "gets it"... the difference between killing and the conclusion of a successful hunt. She understands fully that hunting is a natural and nessasary part of the Natural World that she is participating in the very essence of nature. She absolutely revelled in the hard work of walking across the plains, climbing mountains, sneaking through the thorn bushes, and stalking the river bottoms.... And the successes and failures of a good hunt.
Ann was also very into taking photographs and documenting all the different species we saw... She had a list of 20 from the evening drive into camp and the first day of hunting. Mark went out of his way to point out birds, tortouses and even stopped to get pictures of mountains and clouds. That was important to the sussess of Ann's trip and Mark understood that. We had a package of 5 animals and then wanted to add on Zebra, Eland, and Wart Hog but explained to Mark that if we came across good specimens of other species, we would do our best to aim carefully and squeeze the trigger. We took a pretty relaxed view and did not get too wound up about any particular species, Mark seemed to take care of any worrying about such details for us. We got everything we wanted except a big Wart Hog.... And several we did not know we wanted until we saw them.... Like a fine Mountain Reedbuck, my first African animal and one we just came across first thing the first morning... Mark spotted it, confirmed I really wanted to shoot any fine specimen and then said, "bring your gun, you need to shoot this Mountain Reedbuck!" That set the stage for a great hunt. I took 10 Antelope and a Jackal.
The only negative part of our whole trip was that we did a couple Photo Safaris after the hunt and then a lot of other "tourist stuff" including a drive on our own down the Garden Route. After expierianceing "the real thing first hand"... The rest of the trip was very nice, but somewhat "anti-climatic". Riding around in crowded game viewing trucks with a dozen tourists who do not have any idea of how ot keep quiet, circling "wild" life with 5 other trucks all vying for possition to get the best "shot" of animals that pose for pictures every day, simply cannot compete with being out on a real hunt for real wild animals. And the various nature reserves and parks, and even Table Mountain with their paths all laid out, cannot compete with climbing a mountain over loose rocks trying to get above a herd of Eland or sitting atop a rock escarpment glassing for Kudu.
I have to get back to to hunt Africa again soon!
Bob
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