| Cazadero |
| (.375 member) |
| 13/08/16 12:07 PM |
The first time I saw Africa
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August 12th.
The traditional opening day in Scotland [and for sportsmen around the world],
- and 10 years ago today (in 2006) the lights of Dakkar in Senegal were the first time Alicia and I saw Africa.
When was your first time?
When are you going back?
| Rule303 |
| (.416 member) |
| 13/08/16 05:40 PM |
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Re: The first time I saw Africa
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About 1500hrs local time Saturday 5/10/2013 from 35,000feet. The Eastern section of South Africa looked much like the Western section of Australia that I had left a few hours prior.
Going back, hopefully 2018.
| Rockdoc |
| (.400 member) |
| 14/08/16 01:48 PM |
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Re: The first time I saw Africa
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7th Feb 2011. Into Dar Es Salaam. Then flew around in a PC12 for a week, then the big wigs went home and I stayed
Loved the place, especially being in the bush, where I spent quite a bit of time, working.
Driving through Mikumi was first time I saw elephant, buff, giraffe, zebra, Impala, hyena etc. etc.
| Ripp |
| (.577 member) |
| 15/08/16 01:28 AM |
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Re: The first time I saw Africa
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August, 2004---Zimbabwe..hunting buffalo and leopard...while the guide and operation in general was a fraud..still didn't take away from what Africa had to offer...could spend the next few days describing that first trip..along with the others..the sights, sounds, and smells of the always present smoke in the air...
Been on 3 other hunts there since and always the same--incredible place to be/see and experience..
Headed back in January of 2017--Cameroon...
Ripp
| larcher |
| (.416 member) |
| 16/08/16 05:00 AM |
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Re: The first time I saw Africa
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february 2003 in Burkina Faso. As mentor the former head of game dpt when Burkina (Mali, Ivory Coast) was a french colony. I felt incredibly excited and as well a pupil the first day of school. I'd love to feel again this incredible emotion.
| Kano |
| (.300 member) |
| 16/08/16 08:48 PM |
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Re: The first time I saw Africa
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Quote:
7th Feb 2011. Into Dar Es Salaam. Then flew around in a PC12 for a week, then the big wigs went home and I stayed
Not many PC12 in the region... There was one parked at Kajjansi (HUKJ) around that time. Was it the same?
| Rockdoc |
| (.400 member) |
| 17/08/16 09:03 PM |
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Re: The first time I saw Africa
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Quote:Quote:
7th Feb 2011. Into Dar Es Salaam. Then flew around in a PC12 for a week, then the big wigs went home and I stayed
Not many PC12 in the region... There was one parked at Kajjansi (HUKJ) around that time. Was it the same?
I don't know. Based in Dar, Jacques was their Chief Pilot. Used to run into him occasionally around Masaki etc. Will try and find details of Charter Co. I think it was owned by owner of The Slipway.
Is a very nice aircraft!
Cheers, Chris
| Rockdoc |
| (.400 member) |
| 17/08/16 09:08 PM |
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Re: The first time I saw Africa
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Coastal Aviation
Cheers, Chris
| 93mouse |
| (.375 member) |
| 18/08/16 01:02 AM |
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Re: The first time I saw Africa
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Namibia September 1995 - never meant to be - all I wanted was a moose hunt in Alaska but ended there - all the rest is history...
| xausa |
| (.400 member) |
| 18/08/16 05:50 AM |
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Re: The first time I saw Africa
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September 1971, met at the airport in Nairobi by Dave Williams, my PH, taken to Ker, Downey and Selby offices, introduced around (met Donald Ker), then off to the New Stanley Hotel. Next day, left for Tsavo National Park for several days of acclimatization, the picked up at the park by Dave and crew and off for five weeks in the bush. Unforgettable.
I had attended the Game Coin International convention in San Antonio with John Buhmiller and his wife, where I had met Dave and several other PH's. I signed up with Dave and he stopped off in Nashville on his way home and spent some time with us there. (He learned of the birth of his first child, his daughter Tana, over the phone from my house.)
By the time Dave picked me up at Tsavo, I was pretty familiar with most of the more common animals and their Swahili names, and I continued to work on my "Up Country Swahili" the whole time I was there, so that I was soon able to go on stalks with only my gun bearer, who spoke not a word of English.
The characters in the photo are, from left to right, me, Kuri Bhai (Dave's gun bearer), Kaoli (my gun bearer), and our guide, a native herdsman. The cheerful soul up front is Sabuni (soap!?), the tracker. Kaoli still looks a little subdued. He was standing behind me when the shooting stopped and the dust cleared, after a few exciting moments when the rhino charged.
| BB416 |
| (.275 member) |
| 18/08/16 07:56 AM |
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Re: The first time I saw Africa
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Namibia 2014.. Hunted plains game and came away with some beautiful trophies ...was to go back this year but a change in fortunes saw an end to that ...will get back there some day
| pondoro62 |
| (.224 member) |
| 18/08/16 10:43 AM |
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Re: The first time I saw Africa
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Gambia 2008, flew in over Banjul, non-hunting vacation.
NitroX
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| (.700 member) |
| 18/08/16 02:46 PM |
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Re: The first time I saw Africa
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First time was not a hunting trip though I wished it would be. Not sure of which month, maybe October (?) or August (?). 1988. Flew into Nairobi. Later travelled through Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, into Zimbabwe, to and fro Zambia and Zimbabwe, then down to Botswana. Re-entered Zimbabwe and flew home. Missed out on travelling into South Africa, but money was getting short. Kicked and till kicking myself for not going out hunting with a Zambia acquaintance and doing some hunting for buffalo, leopard or lion, hippo and some plains game on his or his mates residents permits. Unbelievably cheap, but these guys needed hard currency as well. Planned to come back the next year and do it. Did not manage it for a number of reasons, but also because I had some doubts on how I would get the trophies into Australia. To the UK was no problem, but the Australian gov't at the time was again causing problems. My doubts were what sort of documentation might be available. Now I would do it in a instant, just for the hunting alone. Stuff the trophies.
Next time was my honeymoon to Zimbabwe. Hunted plains game in 1994, plus visited sites in Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Back again in 2002 to South Africa and Zimbabwe, and then 2006 to South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Now its 2016 .... long drought in between then and now ... would go again tomorrow if I could.
***
Keen to visit Kenya and Tanzania again. Visit the NW Frontier of Kenya, Mombasa again, Lamu. The Highlands I particularly liked, maybe the highlands around Mount Kenya. The Lake. Of course such places as Ambroselli and the Maasai Mara, but as historic places such as Tsavo. The Muzzie issues in Kenya make some of this more difficult.
As for Tanzania, would love to hunt buffalo there. But as visit the Serengetti. Did not get there last time, but did get to the Mara in Kenya, the only difference is the border line. Ngorongoro Crater of course, worth visiting again. Would love to get able to walk up Mount Kilimanjaro. Would need lots of exercise and preparation for that though ... Visiting Zanzibar would be nice too, as long as again the Muzzies aren't chopping heads off there again. Even visiting Selous would be great.
Must convince the wife a trip is a good idea oneday.
But then less adventurous and more civilised stuff only ...***
As for a future hunt. Cape buffalo and other assorted beasts in Mozambique is at the not top of interest list. And from there or elsewhere, Sable and Nyala, plus a host of other stuff. The trophies are the biggest thing, the hunting and safari life is the attraction.
***
Other dreams ... Uganda, to hunt where Bell walked. CAR. Cameroon. And other wilder places of Africa. My ambition in the mid-1980's was to travel extensively in South, Central, East and Northern Africa. Did get to travel Kenya to Zimbabwe, and later other parts of Southern Africa, but still the dreams of other places exists ...
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NitroX
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| (.700 member) |
| 18/08/16 02:54 PM |
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Re: The first time I saw Africa
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xausa,
A dream time and you are one of the originals to have hunted there in the 1970's and in Kenya when it was still possible.
Only this week I was thinking, I was there first in 1988, now almost 30 years ago, or will be in two years time. Thirty years before 1988 was the 1950's and one of the golden ages of safaris in Africa. How it changed between 1950's and 1980's and again to the 2010'. What will it be like in the 2040's? What will be gone? I won't be around to see it though.
To me, the golden ages of Africa, in a hunting sense, were the late 1800's when it was truly unexplored in many parts by European man, then prior to WW1. %he times of the ivory hunter. Then the 1920's and 1930's, the true first golden age of client safaris. The again in the 1950's when Hollywood made safaris famous. But still intrepid guys were able to make money from ivory hunting. Using multiple persons licenses. Persons such as Dawkins, here from SAust.
Each decade or two, the shine seems to slip that much more. Got to get back again.
| pondoro62 |
| (.224 member) |
| 24/08/16 09:57 AM |
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Re: The first time I saw Africa
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Imagine walking into the Lado between 1902 and 1908...hunting/poaching elephant with caracters like William "Bill" Buckley and the like...oh my..
| larcher |
| (.416 member) |
| 20/09/16 04:49 AM |
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Re: The first time I saw Africa
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Quote:
february 2003 in Burkina Faso. As mentor the former head of game dpt when Burkina (Mali, Ivory Coast) was a french colony. I felt incredibly excited and as well a pupil the first day of school. I'd love to feel again this incredible emotion.
Today we attended the funeral of Rene Boutonnet, this great friend who introduced me to Africa. A wonderful and competent man, we'll miss him
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NitroX
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| (.700 member) |
| 30/10/23 05:29 PM |
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Re: The first time I saw Africa
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More NitroExpressers need to chime in.
I'd love to journey back to Kenya and Tanzania. Could instill climb Kilimanjaro? View My Kenya. Hopefully stroll the sunset sands of Zanzibar.
I'm shocked to see how big some of the cities have become. Mombasa a sprawling mass. The beautiful highland dales covered with a cancerous growth.
Maybe this time I could journey to the still wild with shuftabandits North West, Maybe not with the wife! She doesn't like camping. I think doing the luxury 5 star experience might actually be disappointing. Wild and barefoot, the way to go. Maybe I could take my swag.
| Cazadero |
| (.375 member) |
| 01/12/23 12:42 PM |
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Re: The first time I saw Africa
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Times have (inevitably and in this case - unfortunately) changed. Too many "hunters" think that going on Safari means driving around in a Bokkie [in South Africa] and shooting animals [from the same] while some Ted Nugent (draft dodger) rock music plays in the background. They think that this is "hunting." Take that stupid compensator off of your rifle (and maybe the scope) and experience and learn what it means to walk, stalk, track, and get closer to the quarry - and maybe leave unsuccessful but not dissatisfied. Real hunters need to take a stand on this. Otherwise ranch (fenced) hunting of pen-raised [put and take] animals shot at the water hole or feed trough will become the new norm and be seen as acceptable. Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and a few other places still offer the chance at the real thing. Go now, before it's too late.