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My Africa Experience - 10 days, 12 animals, Countless New Friends, Memories for Life

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    My Africa Experience - 10 days, 12 animals, Countless New Friends, Memories for Life

    All,

    I originally had planned to try and get everything together and share all at once, but just don't think that's possible....I think trying to manage one writeup with a ton of pictures would probably be too tough to keep straight and drive me crazy....

    So anyways, I'm not talking about stretching this out for eternity, just over the next two to three days, add a little bit each chance I get until I'm able to share it all with you.

    So here we go....

    #2
    Bring it on, can't wait to hear about it.

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      #3
      The actual planning for this trip began about a year ago, although the desire had been burning for a lifetime. Growing up I had two mentors when it came to hunting and the outdoors. One was my Uncle Wilbur and the other was a gentleman from the church always known to me as "Brother Stork". Each one recognized my desire for the outdoors and fueled the fire by taking me hunting as well as giving me tons of magazines and books to read. I can remember as a young kid getting my hands on every one of my uncle's Outdoor Life magazines. I always took great delight when a feature on Africa was done, hanging on to every word of the story and soaking up each picture of this far away place . I remember flipping through black and white print pages of the books given to me by Brother Stork, slowly reading every line and imagining the actual colors of each of the many animals presented in the black and white printed photos. As time progressed, I vowed to myself that one day I would visit this beautiful place with a seemingly endless array of mysterious and exotic looking animals.

      Fast forward to present day and this desire only grew stronger to the point of bursting with each hunting television program, internet story, magazine article, and first hand conversation on bow hunting in Africa. Finally, the time was right and a trip would be planned. With the availability of resources at one's fingertips in today's times, researching and planning for this trip was enjoyable. After much research, which consisted of online stories, magazine articles, first hand conversations, hunting videos, etc., I decided to hunt with Dries Visser Safaris in South Africa.

      Discussions with Dries began about a year ago and I can't count the number of subsequent emails we had since the beginning. The pre hunt communication we had was unbelievable and very comforting for a first timer to Africa. Every single small trivial question I asked over the year was answered. This hunt began as a plains game but eventually talks evolved into adding a lioness. Lion hunting in South Africa has come under intense scrutiny in recent years with very much of it being definitely deserved. I talked to Dries about this and he explained to me that as in everything, there are good and bad hunts. Unfortunately, the poor practices by some can cast a bad light on all. I expressed to him my interest in hunting such a beautiful and magnificent animal, but only if done under a sporting method. The idea of hunting lion with a bow has always interested me, but unfortunately, lion hunting in the most distant, remote and wildest of places in Africa has always seemed and will probably always be out of my financial reach.

      Over subsequent conversations with Dries we discussed a respectable lion hunting operation in South Africa and a permit was secured. Dries told me about a concession available that is comprised of 46 thousand acres with the lion hunting taking place on about 10 thousand acres. The property was located about 6-7 hours west of Johannesburg a few minutes from the border of Botswana. This area is known as the Kalahari region. It is a very sandy desert type region. We would begin the 10 day hunt here and then drive the roughly 6-7 hours back to the Limpopo province area to conclude the hunting with plains game.

      The route from my home to Africa seemed to consist of many legs. The first leg was the drive from Corpus to Houston on Saturday afternoon. I stayed overnight at my mom's house and got up early for a departing flight from Houston Hobby at 8:10 AM. This flight arrived in Washington Dulles at 1:50 pm. From there, the flight was suppose to depart at 5:40 PM, but after close to a two hour holdup on the runway, it was finally off for the 18 hour flight to Johannesburg which included one technical stop in Dakar.
      After the long flight, I couldn't believe I had finally made it once the plane touched down. Prior to the flight, I had convinced myself that the 18 hour flight would be the single most worst thing ever experienced in my life...all in all, it really wasn't quite that bad. Luckily several movies along the way helped. I tried to sleep a little, but just couldn't. In total, I dozed for two hours or less.

      After signing for each of my two bows secured safely in their respective SKB bow cases, I was on my way out of the airport. At the front entrance, I met up with the representative from the Afton Guest house and after waiting for the other hunters to retrieve their firearms from the police station, we were finally off.

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        #4
        This is the Afton Guest House where I spent the first night.
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          #5
          After the long plane ride and airline food, which honestly wasn’t bad….but well, was still airline food, I was dying for a real dinner, but traveling in Johannesburg at night is highly un recommended and going out was the last thing I really felt like doing.

          The Afton Guest House has the perfect solution. For $20, a young South African gentleman offers to cook a ribeye with all of the trimmings. This meal absolutely hit the spot for this weary traveler. The steak, salad, bread and potatoes were absolutely awesome.

          Here is the area in which the perfectly timed ribeyes were prepared.
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            #6
            After dinner I enjoyed conversations with other hunters departing different directions the next day. One gentleman was headed for Mozambique for a buffalo hunt, two others were headed to Namibia for plains game and still two others were plains game hunting in South Africa. After much conversation and wishing each other luck, I finally settled in for the night after the long day.

            Unfortunately, anticipation and anxiety got the best of me and yet another night of little to no sleep as I only got 1 1/2 hours in before awaking early in the AM. I laid in bed waiting for daylight flipping through an endless supply of nothing on TV, and trust me when I say nothing, because the best thing I found on was South African rap videos.

            A shot of the bed and TV where I enjoyed the art of South African rap due to my insomnia.
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              #7
              When daylight arrived the next morning, I walked around the area of the Guest House and took some pictures, and got a picture took.....I was finally here!!!!!
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                #8
                While walking around the Guest House, I noticed security is of the utmost concern. The Afton Guest house has security guards at the entrance of the complex and this is the perimeter fencing. Notice the tall walls, electrical and razor wiring. This layout of tall walls, electrical, and razor wiring seemed to be the norm in most all places I noticed in Johannesburg.
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                  #9
                  While waiting for my PH to pick me up, this is where I spent some time that morning browsing through several African books available on a nearby bookshelf.
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                    #10
                    Here's a few other items around the Afton Guess House I found enjoyable.
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                      #11
                      Around lunch my PH arrived and after the meet and greet we loaded all my gear and headed out for the long drive to the lion camp. Antonie or "Anthony" Lotter would be my PH for the next 10 days. In addition to being a PH, Anthony along with his wife runs a very successful dip and ship business, SWIFT DIP in South Africa as well. Along the way, we elected to grab a quick bite since we had a ways to go. We both got a big laugh when Anthony said "Imagine that, you come all the way to South Africa and have McDonalds...."

                      We traveled across a mix of everything from large interstate highways, to average two lane asphalt, to seemingly hardly traveled small dirt roads. Quite a bit of construction was taking place along the way so the drive time was increased. I was fine as it gave Anthony and myself an opportunity to get to know each other and discuss the upcoming week.

                      We finally arrived and after a couple of hours meeting and greeting with the owners, staff, and other hunters in camp, we settled in for the night. Here's a few pictures of the lodge area we were staying in for the lion hunt.
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                        #12
                        Amazingly, as attractive and appealing as this appears, this is the old lodge and they are almost finished with a brand new lodge. Trust me when I say it is truly unbelievable to see something so nice in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, I didn't get too many pictures of the new lodge being finished.

                        Here's a few pictures of the inside of the lodge pictured above.
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                          #13
                          By now, you would think I would be exhausted and falling asleep standing up, especially with a bedroom like this awaiting you.
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                            #14
                            But unfortunately, even after just two hours the first night on the plane and one hour and a half at the Afton Guest House, I still just couldn't sleep. I was only able to slightly doze for an hour and a half. To be honest with you, I was just overwhelmed with anticipation and nervous energy.

                            Here's where I spent a large part of my night.
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                              #15
                              Keep it coming! I think you just expeienced my dream hunt. I'll be watching for the rest of the story.

                              Bisch

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