DarDys Africa Trip

I want to thank the administrators for saving this post. They could have just deleted it, but I am glad they did not. I reread it, spelling mistakes, grammar errors, etc. and all, (I didn’t proofread it while hammering directly into the forum) and it was great to relive the experience.

As somewhat of a postscript to the story, instead of the mounts coming back in 8-12 months as forecasted, they were ready in only 3 months, so I had to get on the stick and finish a trophy room in the basement (actually half was turned into a trophy room and half a tiki bar called Key West North). It took me 6 months, but the results are great.

While the animals were at the taxidermist, they were measured for the SCI record book. The impala was 2.5 inches short of making the book, due to one side being shorter than the other. Because this animal was taken at a pretty good distance, there was no way to know that at the time.

The gemsbok ended up missing the record book as well — by 1/8th inch. With the degree of difficulty in finding this animal and the physical circumstances, as relayed in the post, I would have taken it anyway. Besides, that is a pretty small dimension to judge while things are happening fairly fast.

The kudu earned a bronze award and entered the record book at #260.

The Lechwe earned a silver award and entered the record book at #68.

The Steenbok earned a gold award, as the PH had predicted (man am I glad I took his advise and shot it), and it entered the record book at #64

But, of course, Nancy had to top me with her Copper Springbok which earned a silver award and entered the record book at #51.

So, 4 of 6 scored fairly well (I’m not really into that sort of thing, but it is nice to know). My hope is that the folks at Mayogi Safaries, Dirk and Arno, can survive the total shutdown of the hunting business. They were only able to hunt early last year and will probably not be able to hunt the traditional safari season this year due to restrictions on international travel. It is good that they are diversified business-wise, but I know they would rather be hunting than anything else.

I didn’t have any issues like that because I didn’t take a weapon, opting instead to rent a rifle. The logic behind renting was 1) we had a long layover in London during which we planned to leave the airport and didn’t want to have any issues in a non gun friendly environment; 2) I’ve had guns damaged, probably intentionally, during domestic flights and didn’t want to take the chance; 3) as extra baggage, I would not only need to haul it around (you have to recheck baggage between domestic flights in SA), but the baggage fee one-way was 2X the cost of a week rental; 4) during the height of safari season the wait for paperwork can be hours, requiring long layovers just in case; and 5) the exact thing your friend ran into — needing to grease the wheels of an agent.

What we did run into travel-wise was having a flight be late by 5 minutes and not being able to get our next connection because of the aircrafts doors closing 45 minutes before departure, even with the plane sitting right outside the ticket window. This caused an extra flight inbound; a 5 hour increase in travel time; and to have the last leg on the way home unconfirmed (only 6 flights could be booked) causing some anxiety if we were going to get stuck in Heathrow in the way back.

Another travel issue that we did not have, but others at the lodge did was their port of entry into SA. Like us, they flew into Cape Town, but the airport there would not process their gun paperwork, thereby requiring them to fly to Johannesburg, at last minute fare pricing, then to Port Elizabeth in order to get their guns in country.

I’m not sure if the same applies to archery equipment or not. It would be well advised to check with a reputable source such as SCI. In addition, check if mechanical broadheads are permitted if you use them because they are illegal in some countries.

I found the rifle to be adequate. It was a new Howa 1500 in 25-06 topped with a Schmidt and Bender 6X scope and a Bushman suppressor. They charged $100 for the entire trip, plus ammunition at cost, which was $25 per box.