There seems to be an increasing awareness among hunters worldwide of the attractiveness of Burkina Faso. Some of the French AR members have been hunting there for years, but the fact that Burkina hunting is always free range and the hunting ethic in most camps is fair chase, it is a chance to hunt in pretty much the same way it was done before hunting concessions were even thought of. While judging the length of horn on a Western Roan is something the guides there know how to do (think in centimeters), tape measures aren't in everybody's pockets. Being ready to take a sick or dying animal to the lower risks of contagion in the herd is part of the ethic; taking an animal with a single or broken horn is too; you figure out with the outfitter whether it counts on your quota or not after the fact. It's a French ethic, but fairly common in most of Europe as well. Short version: hunting there will "feel" a little different.

Your guide will probably be Burkinabé. He will know the terrain by heart and have that 6th sense of knowing where the animals are; he just knows and it can't be explained. He can track as well as any trackers you have ever seen, but he won't be the person you trade stories with in the evening, entertaining the clients will probably not be part of his job description.

That was a pretty long intro to what is just a bunch of photographs to follow. But I thought I would post this because I get quit a few PM's asking me about Burkina Faso, the hunting, the people, etc. I wanted to avoid duplicating the hunt report Forrest and I did last year, so no trophy pictures here, just random snapshots.

People photos:



Tribal scaring still occurs in Burkina Faso, as it does in many parts of the Sahel.





You can notice facial scars on the boy with the ball-cap as well as the girl to the right of him in the photo. In this case they are very discrete, just one small vertical on each cheek below the eye.


















Our guide Idrissa:

During the hunting season it is hot, dry and dusty. When processing my photographs I had to resist the urge to saturate the colors, add contrast that wasn't there, and generally make it look like vibrant colors are the norm. They are not. There is always a dingy horizon, caused even by the slightest wind which will raise the ever-present layers of dust. To get a photograph that has a chance of being evenly exposed across the light range pretty much relegates you to an hour after dawn and an hour before sunset. Hence the long shadows.










Vultures are a pretty common bird, wherever you are in Burkina. Most village and city centers have a market where meat is sold, and the vultures don't miss an opportunity.

When we stopped for lunch, in general at a waterhole where some shade exists, I did take some photographs.

















Siesta time