Safari in RSA April/May 2009

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David Heitsman abd I got back a week ago from our grand adventure. I'll let him tell his story. I will say that the trip back was absolutely BRUTAL. We're both sick from spider bites.

We flew Seattle to London and then on to Johanasberg. We had about a seven hour layover in London. We arrived in Johanasberg at around 7Am. Our outfitter. Francois, and his wife Cory were there to pick us up. The ride to the hunting area was 5 hours. add a few stops and it was 6 plus.

After a reasonable nights sleep we were up and at-em. We borrowed rifles as the paperwork for 3 counties(USA, Britain and RSA) was a pain. I used a very nice Sako in 30-06 and David got a pre 64 M-70 also in 30-06.

The game numbers were astounding. The slowest day I had was over 70 annimals. Many in the 300 plus range.

We made a stalk on a Kudu the first morning but he gave us the slip. I did get a very nice Warthog later that morning.


Michael my tracker.



We too the hog back to camp where the staff made short work of it. we had a bite to eat and bck out we went.

Now my PH, Johaan, had told me we would not shoot an Impala on the first day. Thera are some very big ones in the area and he wanted to make sure I got a dandy. We checked out a water hole with 50 or 60 Impala around it. Johaan and Michael started taling in Zulu and pointin at some rams. Johaan said to me that it was a very good ram. My response was OK lets make a stalk. 120 yard shot and it was over.



We saw a lot of Kudu but were they tought for me to see. Michael the tracker has an unbeleivable ability to spot game.

Can you see the Kudu in this picture/



He's 1/3 of the way in from the right. Just above the stick.

Here's another Kudu.



That ended day 1. Two down. WOW what a start.

Day 2 was more of the same as day 1. Game everywhere but we didn't find anything worth shooting.

[leadpillproductions]

id love to shoot a hog like that but man are they ugly

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Day 3

we were back in the area I shot the Impala. we saw a lot of Blue Wildabeest. I shot one from about 25 yards in the thick, and I mean thick, sh@t. We looked and looked and looked but didn't find any sign of a hit. They decided I had missed. I didn't think so. (we found him 3 days later) He hadn't gone 75 yard. We walked within 15 yards of him in the tall (9feet high) grass. I felt sick. In the mean time I shot a dandy in the afternoon.



here are some blesbok females we saw out in the open.



Day 3 was in the book and i had 3 annimals!

Day 4

Day 4 was going to be tough. We were concentrating on the spiral horns. I really wanted a bushbuck, Nyala and a Kudu. We new the bushbuck was going to be very hard. We were not seeing many as the were way back in the thick stuff. We made a stalk on one and I was set up 25 yard away and coul not see him bexause of the brush, shadows and sunlight. As he took off all i saw was a slight movement. I had been on him but there was no shot.

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Day 5

We headed back wher I had shot the wart hog on the first day. Michael spotted a nice bushbuck and the stalk was on. He was able to get us to within 40 yards. All we could see was the top 1/3 of his back as he was head down feeding. I thought he was a reck. He brought his head up and it was over.



Man was I happy!!!!

We saw Impala all over the place. Here's a young one.



Day 5 was over. Four annimals in 5 days! What would day 6 give up?

Day 6

Day six was spent in an area where wh had been seing some good Nyala. We had made several unsucessful stalks. We caught the herd coming back from water at about 1030 in the morning. A 20 yard shot ended my pursuit! We caught them in a small opening.

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Day 7

Kudu time. But they were very tough. I saw a lot of other wildlife to keep me ocupied.

Cape Bufalo


Seceratary Bird



I even got to shoot some african Quail.



We went in for lunch and decided to do a bit of fishing afterwards. As you can see I never made it to the river. Just as we were almost there this guy was located above the road.



Wow I was done. The 6 I had come fore in 7 days. I had scraped together a little extra in case there was time to shoot a few more. I got a Grey Duiker the next day. These little SOB's never seem to stand still.



We went over to another area that had a few fallow deer.

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For our last full day in Africa we went fishing on the Pongola Wildlife preserve. My god did we see some annimals. Here are a few.





We did manage to catch a few small tigerfish.




I'd do it again in a heart beat. It'll take me 5 years to come up with the money to go again. I'm working on it.

For those of you that are interested the outfitter is going to be in Abbotsford next January. David and I'll set up a display if you want to come and talk to him. First class folks and I would highly recomend them. We worked our buts off for the annimals we got.

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LP you're right. The hogs are extremely ugly. But I think they're so ugly they are cool.

[mark]

Looks like an interesting experience for sure! have to say it doesnt really call to me. When you say "worked our butts off", you mean it wasnt just a jeep cruise????
Looks like pretty open country to me!

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No it wasn't just a cruise.Some is open a lot is thick beyond belief. We had to drag a number of the annimals out for photographs (Kudu, Bushbuck, Nyala) Look behind these annimals and that will give you an idea how thick it is. Look behind the Kudu at the rockpile. We were climbing that stuff to glass into small openings to try and spot stuff. Look behind the live impala. Nasty thick thorny stuff. Most of this place is mountains. The flat open spots are on top.

[Blainer]

I'd been waiting for these pictures.
Great pictures!
Great story!
and worth the wait.
Good on ya both.