South AFrica Safari - 2008!

[WoodOx]

Well returned late yesterday from My father and my safari in the Limpopo Province of South AFrica - a truely amazing trip.

Ill do a day by day run down with associated photos.

The trip started two Sunday's ago with me realizing that we had missed out flights connecting to London. I had somehow managed to think we were supposed to leave on Monday...

We caught up to our London to Joberg flight and were in South Africa by Noon, May 20th.

Day 1 Found us hunting the the equivalent of our Alpine, the highvelt:

[WoodOx]

Day started off with a nice Wildebeest for my father:



Following that hunt I made a difficult stalk over the prairie for my BLesbok, who ended up scoring quite well - would make silver award in SCI if I entered it. 190 yard shot:



After that we took a few hours, had a lunch and watched some Springbok (africa's official animal, like our beaver I believe) and decided one was an older male to go after. Following an intense and quite stalk through a nice patch of trees concealing us, I made a 45 yard shot through this fellow's shoulder:

[WoodOx]

We took a few hours to decide what my father wanted to hunt next, either a red Hartebeest or an Eland. He decided on the latter; here are some photos of the herd earlier in the day, his eland, and the herd following his kill:



His Eland - weighing almost 2000 lbs:



Herd later that evening:

[WoodOx]

Here are some other nice shots of the highvelt area I took prior to our departure back down to the Savannah region or 'bushvelt':

Wild Ostrich family:



Nice couple of herds; springbok in upper and blesbok in lower:



Fleeing black wildebeest:

[WoodOx]

Next day we headed back down to the bushvelt, through the Drakkenburg Mountains:



No other animals that day, nor the day following until the evening. I was sitting on a waterhole when this fellow came in solo:



The next morning my father took a nice bushbuck at 300 yards - unfortunatley I wasnt present and that photo is on his camera. We met for lunch at this 2002 year old baobab tree:

[WoodOx]

Later that evening we same more game, but didnt take any:



Day 4 was a cold day, but with mass animal activity. It started with my 54", deep curl Kudu:

[WoodOx]

Following that, we returned back to camp and saw other hunters were having equally as much luck:

An old male giraffe:



Butchering area with impalas and waterbuck:

[MIL720]

A dream vacation.Very nice and well done...

[WoodOx]

After a nice snack and break, I ran into this old female warthog. Typically you dont take females, but because she was 12+ years old, too old to have piglets, and her tusk size, I took her at about 100 yards:



We continued hunting and found that impala were everywhere. After a few spoiled stalks I got this decent ram, running quartering away at 100 yards:



Following this nice ram, on our way back to camp we heard zebra calling and decided to try a stalk. It ended successfully with this beautiful mature stallion:

[WoodOx]

My Father took a nice waterbuc that evening - six animals in one day, highly successful even for Africa!

Day five found us in Kruger taking a break and allowing the skinners to catch up; some photos of kruger:

Drakkenberg mtns:



Yellowbilled hornbill: