How this hunt came about........
After living for six years in Lagos, Nigeria, I was transferred to Houston at the start of 2018. Going back to Africa so soon was not really in my plans for this year. Around late February, I was in a meeting at work and my boss announced that one of us needed to go to Angola in July to do some training. Nobody jumped at this opportunity, so I volunteered. I had worked five plus years in Angola, so I was very familiar with the folks and operation there. Once I firmed up the dates I needed to be in Luanda, I contacted Wik Coetzee at
@Game 4 Africa Safaris to see if he had a week available, starting in late July. I figured if I was going to travel to Africa on a company paid business class ticket, I might as well go hunting while I was there! My daughter and I hunted with Wik in 2016 and knew we wanted to hunt with them again. Wik was booked up solid in late July, but could take us August 1-8, so we jumped on that.
This is a link to my 2016 hunt report:
https://www.africahunting.com/threa...me-hunt-with-game-4-africa-in-may-2016.29089/
I was able to book a flight from Houston to JFK, overnight in the Big Apple and then fly South African Airways nonstop flight to Johannesburg, about a 15.5 hour flight. Arriving about 8am in JNB, I had a 1 hour and 45 minute connection for my SAA flight to Luanda. I made it, barely, but my checked bag did not. I was in Luanda a total of 8 days and SAA finally got me my bag on Day 7. Good thing I had two changes of everything in my carry on bag. My biggest concern was all my hunting clothes. Plan B was go to a Safari Outdoors store when I go into Joburg. Luckily, didn't have to do this.
I departed Angola on July 28 and had a bit of a gap before the eastern cape PG hunt would start on August 1st. Just sitting in Joburg would cost a couple hundred bucks a day, so I looked into a short 2-3 hunt that was close to town. I contacted
@CAustin to check if Paw Prints Safari had openings for July 28-31. As it turned out, the AH group hunt that Charlie helped to organize was finishing up on the 28th, so yes they could take me for a short 2-1/2 hunt. Coming in right after the AH group, I was a little concerned about no animals being left and not a drop of booze at the bar, but this wasn't the case.
Paw Prints' camp is only about a 2 hours drive west of JNB, in North West Province and an area I had not been before. Due to the nature of this hunt, only 2.5 days, a full moon and me being fairly picky (looking mainly for bushbuck or monster kudu), I did not take any animals but still had a fun few days.
I returned to OR Tambo airport on July 31 and got checked into the City Lodge. I walked over to the arrival terminal to meet my daughter, Elise, who was flying in on the Delta flight. Walked back over to the City Lodge, got her checked into her room and then went to dinner. The next day, August 1st, we had an 11 am flight to Port Elizabeth on SAA, so it was a nice, leisurely morning. Colin Coetzee, Wik's older brother, met us at the PE airport and drove us to the lodge, which is just north of Grahamstown, a 2 hour drive on very nice highways.
Upon arrival at the Kudu Ridge Lodge around 3 pm, we were greeted by many familiar faces and showed to our chalets. After settling in and visiting with everyone, we decided to go do the standard trip to the range and see if we can shoot. We were again using the rental rifles, which are Sako 85 rifles in 7mm mag, topped with Swarovski 2-12 scope and a suppressor. Same rifle we used two years ago, with excellent results. I peeked into the gun vault room and counted about a dozen Sakos, from 270 to 375 H&H, some with and without suppressors. The 375 H&H has a Schmidt & Bender scope. An impressive assortment of rifles and scopes for sure! The Sako actions are extremely smooth and the trigger crisp. I shot twice from the bench and once off the sticks and the three hole pattern was under an inch. Elise followed and her group was quite good too. Tomorrow, August 2, we start hunting!
