I'm off to put a double rifle to one of its primary purposes, hunting elephants.

I'll be gone four or five weeks and I've got eight elephants lined up, one bull and seven tuskless. Also will be targeting a buff and a leopard and some other critters.

I've had a business issue crop up that more or less was squared away Friday night which almost cost me the trip.

I need to bring a sat phone and an int'l cell, but hopefully it will be for updates only and not anything too subsantative. Hope like heck I don't need to cut my trip short.

I'll be hunting in Zim, first 16 days with Richard Tabor of Roger Whittall Safaris for a bull and two tuskless as well as a buff and leopard in Chewore in the Zambezi Valley; then 10 days with Buzz Charlton in Chete, also in the Zambezi Valley, for three tuskless and then again with Richard for five days for two tuskless an nyala, a bushbuck and who knows at Humani in the Save Conservancy. The screwy shcedule is the result of a late opportunity and a late decision on my part.

Hope my legs hold up. Needed to forego my "elephant tracking fitness program" for two weeks to get the business issue resolved. Put on seven or eight pounds I don't need. But I'm packed and heading off tomorrow.

JPK