INTERNATIONAL TRIPS
2010 Arlen & Cathy Schade- South Africa Trip
One of Arlen's life goals has been to do an Africa Safari. After several significant negative health events, he prepared for the trip by doing three months of physical therapy and arranged for a handicap hunt through Bullseye Outdoor Adventures. The hunt and camera safari was guided by Erik Terblanche, the owner of Amanita Safaris. The staff, service, and facilities at Amanita Safari were excellent. The dinner entree was always a delicious game back-strap.
The hunt was in the northern portion of the Limpopo (formerly Northern) Province of South Africa. The area does not receive a lot of rainfall and the vegetation is primarily thorn bush. Due to Arlen's physical limitations, the hunt was planned to be primarily by vehicle and from archery blinds. He hunted from May 16 through the 22nd in 2010. He harvested an Impala, Blesbok, Gemsbok, Blue Wildebeest and a Zebra.
Arlen and Cathy did a camera safari in Krueger National Park on May 23-25. Their goal was to see and photograph the big six. Cathy took impressive pictures of lions, elephants, rhinos, hippos, a cape buffalo and a number of other animals. . Most of the pictures of park animals were at distances of 10 to 30 yards. The large male lion was about 15 feet.
Advice & Lessons Learned
Don't take too many clothes. They do laundry every day in the hunting compound.
Don't take your rifle. Ask the outfitter to provide you one. He'll want $50 per day. Just tell him that's the difference on selecting him as the outfitter and he will provide the rifle at no cost.
Do not fly through Europe. There's a good chance that your rifle or bow won't make your connecting flight. Take the direct Delta flight out of Atlanta or any major US airport with a direct flight to Johannesburg.
If you get a malaria protection drug, ask the pharmacist if there are sunshine restrictions.
Take good a sunscreen lotion
Take insect repellant
Take a 10 day hunt and reduce the time pressure
Arrange to have your horns and capes dipped and shipped to an approved taxidermist in the US
Add South Africa coverage to your cell phone before you leave
2007 Bob Kolowith & Jerry Bloom - South Africa Trip
Bob Kolowith and fellow Club member Jerry Bloom visited South Africa from June 27, 2007 to July 9, 2007, combining both wildlife photography and plains game hunting safari. With its vast system of national parks, wildlife reserves and private game farms, South Africa provides a great opportunity to encounter one of the most diverse large mammal populations in all of Africa. Mbabala Safari offered a unique opportunity for 1 on 1 spot and stalk photography with the Professional Hunter (PH) leading the stalk and providing rifle backup, if necessary.
Bob and Jerry travelled to Mbabala Safari concessions in both the Northern and
Eastern Cape Provinces, travelling over 1500 miles in South Africa by vehicle and light plane. The Northern Province concession was adjacent to the Limpopo River near the town of Ellistras in thornbush country. The dense, dry cover made still photography difficult; however, the greatest photo opportunities in the Northern
Province were captured with a high power camcorder. While they were in the Northern Province, Jerry harvested a great Kudu and warthog. Bob harvested a trophy impala between close encounters with Cape buffalo and a South African Spitting cobra.
The two large Eastern Cape Province concessions totaled over 150,000 acres near the town of Aliwal North in high desert and mountain country. This region was well suited for spot and stalk photography. It was also a good hunting area and Bob harvested a nyala, eland, gemsbok, Blue wildebeest and a springbok in the Eastern Cape. Jerry harvested a gemsbok, impala and bontebok. Bob produced two videos to document the wildlife photography and hunts. The trip videos were presented at the Club's General Meeting in December 2009 - an excellent presentation!
2006 Mike Estes - South Africa Trip
Mike Estes and his wife, Karen, visited the Northern Province of South Africa from June 9 to June 23, 2006. Mike hunted with Mbabala Safari on property adjacent to the Limpopo River where it forms the border with Botswana. The Mbabala Safari is a private concession and the ranch is owned and managed by a Professional Hunter (PH) and his father. The ranch is about 15,000 acres and is surrounded by a tall (8' to 10') fence that is electrified near the ground (bottom 2' to 3'). The purpose of the fence is to restrict access by poachers and to keep the larger game animals from leaving the ranch. Warthogs dig passages under the fence and smaller animals like duiker can enter and leave the property whenever they choose. The owner manages the larger animals and if the ranch has an abundance of one type of animal, they may trap and sell them to other game ranchers or may cull the herd and sell the meat to the local butcher.
Mike hunted plains game and birds for five days before he, Karen, Lon and Barb Rainey (Kennewick, WA), and Larry and Mary Wolfgram (Pendleton, OR) toured Kruger Park and the surrounding area for the remainder of the trip. Mike harvested kudu, gemsbok, zebra, impala, and warthog, helmeted guinea fowl, and three species of francolin (Crested, Natal, and Swainson's Spurfowl). Other plains game that was available to hunt included sable, Cape buffalo, bushbuck, waterbuck, nyala, steenbuck, and duiker.
Mike and his Kudu
Mike with his Gemsbok
Mike with his Burchell's Zebra
Mike with his Helmeted Guinea Fowl
Mike and an Impala
2005 Paul Kison - Namibia Trip
Paul with his Gemsbok
Paul with a Kudu
Paul and an Impala
Paul and the Left Handed Warthog
Paul Kison arranged a hunting trip to Namibia and began his journey on April 17, 2005. He flew from Pasco to Atlanta, then to the Sol Islands, from there to Johannesburg and then to Windhoek, Namibia on the South Coast of Africa. Namibia, according to Paul, is probably one of the safest countries to visit. Credit cards are accepted by only a few places except at large cities and some restaurants. Personal checks, however, are usually accepted. He hunted at Jan Oelofse's Mt. Etjo Game Lodge located 180 miles north of Windhoek, Namibia.
The Mount Etjo Hunting Preserve located in north-central Namibia is a privately owned hunting area. Jan Oleofse owns 90,000 acres which are fenced to keep his animals inside the preserve and keep predators out. He also has access to approximately 200,000 acres of adjacent property for hunting purposes. He has another 9,000 acre parcel on which he is developing a herd of sables and nyalas for future release on his ranch. Jan has a pride of lions on his property and provides their food supply by cropping inferior quality animals on his ranch. Jan has purchased breeding stock for many of the animals available for hunting on his ranch, including black rhinos, sables, and elephants. Jan is a very conservation minded individual and one of the reasons for establishing the hunting preserve was to protect some of the species being over harvested in Africa.
After 37 hours of traveling, Paul arrived late in the day at the Mt. Etjo Safari Lodge and found the hospitality and food service to be excellent. The facility has three lodges with a staff of 85 permanent employees and is a 90 square mile area surrounded with 10 foot high fences. Besides hunting, some of the visitors vacation at the lodge and view the wildlife in the area. A lake inhabited by 17 hippopotamuses is adjacent to the Safari lodge and in addition there were 19 elephants on the lodge property. One of the first things that Paul did was to sight in his guns - rifles were required to be 30-06 or larger. While hunting they traveled in 4 wheel drive vehicles made by UNI. Ostriches were everywhere in the area and 8 to 9 feet tall. There are many Springbuck on the property and were of very good quality. Paul succeeded in harvesting a Gemsbuck that was first on his list. He also harvested a Kudu, Impala, Springsbuck and a `left handed' Warthog (a left handed hog roots with his left tusk and as a consequence it is the shorter tusk). After his hunt, Paul toured South Africa and visited Capetown where he saw the Cape of Good Hope.
Paul with a Springbuck