A wish I had developed and nurtured over the last few years turned into reality in the past week here in South Africa. I have always enjoyed the writings of the old big game hunters, J. A. Hunter, Ian Nyschens, Ron Thomson. I’ve done several management/ cull hunts in Namibia and enjoyed them immensely. Oryx, warthog, blue wildebeest, red hartebeest, springbok were the main quarry species although I was lucky enough to hunt an injured eland on one trip.
The more I read about Buffalo hunting the more I wanted to do it. Becoming a OAP and realising that there were more years behind me than in front was an additional incentive. I read the advertisements in various online forums, here, Accurate Reloading and African Hunting. I’m sure outfits get bombarded with enquiries that fizzle out. Most of mine did for one reason or another.
However I contacted an outfit called Game 4 Africa Safaris in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Wik Coetzee the owner was easy to deal with and comprehensive in his replies to my questions.
Dates were agreed and a deposit sent off to secure the booking. Flights turned out to be a problem. Prices have risen dramatically this year and searching the internet wasn’t turning up any good deals. For some reason and I had been searching hard Lufthansa suddenly had a decent price, maybe the load factor was down
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The only bugger was when I rang the service center to book a rifle they wanted €250 each way for carriage ! Previously the rifle had travelled free in my “suitcase “. (Peli3220). The PH advised using a facilitator in Jo,burg to clear Customs. So I used one of his,a Sako 85 in 375 with a Swarovski 1-6x24 on top. A nice piece of kit I might add.
A couple of shots of the lodge, more later if I’m not boring you.
The more I read about Buffalo hunting the more I wanted to do it. Becoming a OAP and realising that there were more years behind me than in front was an additional incentive. I read the advertisements in various online forums, here, Accurate Reloading and African Hunting. I’m sure outfits get bombarded with enquiries that fizzle out. Most of mine did for one reason or another.
However I contacted an outfit called Game 4 Africa Safaris in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Wik Coetzee the owner was easy to deal with and comprehensive in his replies to my questions.
Dates were agreed and a deposit sent off to secure the booking. Flights turned out to be a problem. Prices have risen dramatically this year and searching the internet wasn’t turning up any good deals. For some reason and I had been searching hard Lufthansa suddenly had a decent price, maybe the load factor was down
.The only bugger was when I rang the service center to book a rifle they wanted €250 each way for carriage ! Previously the rifle had travelled free in my “suitcase “. (Peli3220). The PH advised using a facilitator in Jo,burg to clear Customs. So I used one of his,a Sako 85 in 375 with a Swarovski 1-6x24 on top. A nice piece of kit I might add.
A couple of shots of the lodge, more later if I’m not boring you.
. Hoping to do a mid aisian ibex hunt next year and not sure if I'll bother bringing it back if I get one as I have a good idea where it will end up.
