brushmore
AH fanatic
This is the first installment of my hunt report for my time at Tootabi Hunting Safaris. I went with the “Ugly but Beautiful” package listed last year in the deals section here. This trip was a huge deal for me. I suffered from medical issues in the past that would have prevented me from taking a trip like this. But thankfully just recently they were able to treat my condition and I wasn’t going to squander my second chance at life so I decided to fulfill a dream I had since I was a young child and go on an African Safari! I took my oldest daughter Sarah with me who is now hooked on Africa and hunting maybe even worse than me!
Day 0:
The journey to Port Elizabeth had a few bumps. We were a bit delayed in our journey because of issues with the runway in JFK, which resulted in spending 16+ hours in the plane and missing our connecting flight. This was my daughter’s first time on an airplane and we discovered that my daughter is just like her mother and gets airsick. Luckily it was not so bad and she didn’t need to use the complimentary barf bags until we landed in Jo’berg. The only issue was that we were going to miss our connecting flight to Port Elizabeth because of the delays in JFK. Thankfully our representative from Henry Rifle Permits went above and beyond to make sure we got on the very next flight out. They certainly weren’t hired to do that and I can’t thank them enough for the help with that. They made a customer for life that day, that’s for sure.
The flight to Port Elizabeth was uneventful except that biltong and airsickness don’t mix and I’ll leave it at that. We met our PH Lammie and his tracker Atti and airport. Lammie is an ex-cop and a great PH. Lammie met Atti when he was still in the police when he used his tracking skills to crack a case. They made an excellent team.
First thing I noticed when we arrived at the main lodge was the big electric fence to keep out the monkeys and baboons. It reminded me of the movie Jurassic Park and I wondered if we would get overrun if the power went out. (Turns out the answer is no because of “load shedding” power outages in South Africa are a daily occurrence). We met finally Loodt in person and he showed us around. The lodge is even better looking in person compared to the pictures on Tootabi’s website.
After a short rest first on the agenda we would go and site in the rifle and then go on a mini game drive. I was a bit nervous since I wanted to make a good first impression. I took my first shoot off the top of the bakkie. High one inch and to the right by just a little bit. Lammie was happy with that but I felt that wasn’t my best. Next shot I felt was better but Lammie couldn’t see it on the paper through the binos. Lammie got to the target before me and turned around with a big smile on his face. The bullet hid dead on center. Lammie said, “We are done here. If you shoot like that on the hunt we will have no problems.” Next Sarah I took a few practice shots off the sticks. I was absolutely amazed that these plain old sticks held together with some rubber were way more stable than my expensive store bought Trigger Sticks!
After the time on the range we to a short drive to farm that raises animals for game preserves. This is where Africa really came alive for us. We saw giraffe blesbok, zebra, giraffe, eland, and several other plains game up close form the bakkie. All of this was just incredible but was just the beginning.
Afterwards we went back to the lodge and watched some “African TV” (that’s a campfire for the neophyte) before dinner. Here we met Loodt’s parents. They are really wonderful people, as you will see. I was sitting around the fire relaxing after one of the longest days of my life when Lammie got up to get more firewood and he jumped and said something in Afrikaans and everyone jumped out of their chairs. At this point I knew zero Afrikaans but I knew that something was up and I followed along. Next thing I notice Loodt running off into the bush with a fire poker try to beat what I finally noticed appeared to be in the dim fire light a 1” fire hose wiggling around. Whatever it was made a quick exit and once the excitement died done my hosts let me know what just happened. Turns out that was no fire hose I saw but a big puff adder!
Thankfully things calmed down for dinner and we had some of Warbird782’s eland. It was fantastic! That night, even though I hadn’t slept for what seemed for a week it wasn’t easy to fall asleep because my excitement meter was pegged for what was in store for the next day!
I will provide more details later. Next up – Day 1 Sarah’s Impala and Warthog #1
Day 0:
The journey to Port Elizabeth had a few bumps. We were a bit delayed in our journey because of issues with the runway in JFK, which resulted in spending 16+ hours in the plane and missing our connecting flight. This was my daughter’s first time on an airplane and we discovered that my daughter is just like her mother and gets airsick. Luckily it was not so bad and she didn’t need to use the complimentary barf bags until we landed in Jo’berg. The only issue was that we were going to miss our connecting flight to Port Elizabeth because of the delays in JFK. Thankfully our representative from Henry Rifle Permits went above and beyond to make sure we got on the very next flight out. They certainly weren’t hired to do that and I can’t thank them enough for the help with that. They made a customer for life that day, that’s for sure.
The flight to Port Elizabeth was uneventful except that biltong and airsickness don’t mix and I’ll leave it at that. We met our PH Lammie and his tracker Atti and airport. Lammie is an ex-cop and a great PH. Lammie met Atti when he was still in the police when he used his tracking skills to crack a case. They made an excellent team.
First thing I noticed when we arrived at the main lodge was the big electric fence to keep out the monkeys and baboons. It reminded me of the movie Jurassic Park and I wondered if we would get overrun if the power went out. (Turns out the answer is no because of “load shedding” power outages in South Africa are a daily occurrence). We met finally Loodt in person and he showed us around. The lodge is even better looking in person compared to the pictures on Tootabi’s website.
After a short rest first on the agenda we would go and site in the rifle and then go on a mini game drive. I was a bit nervous since I wanted to make a good first impression. I took my first shoot off the top of the bakkie. High one inch and to the right by just a little bit. Lammie was happy with that but I felt that wasn’t my best. Next shot I felt was better but Lammie couldn’t see it on the paper through the binos. Lammie got to the target before me and turned around with a big smile on his face. The bullet hid dead on center. Lammie said, “We are done here. If you shoot like that on the hunt we will have no problems.” Next Sarah I took a few practice shots off the sticks. I was absolutely amazed that these plain old sticks held together with some rubber were way more stable than my expensive store bought Trigger Sticks!
After the time on the range we to a short drive to farm that raises animals for game preserves. This is where Africa really came alive for us. We saw giraffe blesbok, zebra, giraffe, eland, and several other plains game up close form the bakkie. All of this was just incredible but was just the beginning.
Afterwards we went back to the lodge and watched some “African TV” (that’s a campfire for the neophyte) before dinner. Here we met Loodt’s parents. They are really wonderful people, as you will see. I was sitting around the fire relaxing after one of the longest days of my life when Lammie got up to get more firewood and he jumped and said something in Afrikaans and everyone jumped out of their chairs. At this point I knew zero Afrikaans but I knew that something was up and I followed along. Next thing I notice Loodt running off into the bush with a fire poker try to beat what I finally noticed appeared to be in the dim fire light a 1” fire hose wiggling around. Whatever it was made a quick exit and once the excitement died done my hosts let me know what just happened. Turns out that was no fire hose I saw but a big puff adder!
Thankfully things calmed down for dinner and we had some of Warbird782’s eland. It was fantastic! That night, even though I hadn’t slept for what seemed for a week it wasn’t easy to fall asleep because my excitement meter was pegged for what was in store for the next day!
I will provide more details later. Next up – Day 1 Sarah’s Impala and Warthog #1
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