My sense is that 2021 is going to see a major uptick in African safari activity.

Major.

I think there is a ton of pent up demand out there.

Vaccinations are being administered in vast numbers.

Airlines are flying to and from Africa with greater assurance and regularity.

What are folks who could go, if they wanted to do so, actually doing?

Hunting seasons are open, or will be soon.

Question:
Are you going to Africa for a safari this year?

Choices:
Yes, I am going.
No, I could go, but prefer to wait.

 

I am not leaving the USA until I can re-enter without a negative test.

My fishing group has been cancelled twice on a Brazil trip. I will not get stuck outside of America.

I'm going.

I am not worried about it.

With decent internet and phone, I can work remotely as easily from Botswana as from home.

I’m retired so I don’t really care if I get stuck. I’m going.

Working on details for Zambia as we speak, a rollover from last year. If things change, a new variant or whatever, we'll make a plan!

From what I've heard, travel plans for all over are way up. People been cooped up for too long!

Booked as usual for later in the year.

And will try my best to go.

Things are looking better - except for that bastion of utter political stupidity, Europe!

Heading back to Niassa in October.

Heading to Dande in about 3 weeks!

I don't have a plan.

We have been in the USA for 2 years, which is the longest we have spent in a long time.

I am supposed to deploy to Afghanistan or Iraq this fall. If I go I'll fly home through Africa and borrow guns and go in April or May of 2022.

If not I'll concentrate on hunts at home.

I went in October last year as soon as Namibia opened. There was some risk involved, of course, but travel policies seem to have gotten worse, not better. I didn't need a covid test to get back home last year. I am glad I went last year.

I will go once I don't need a test to return. I've been fully vaccinated, but still have issues with some of the restrictions now in place.

Bill

I’m going in October. I’ve had COVID back in January (for me, it was largely no big deal other than being very tired for a few weeks), and if I have to get the vaccine in order to fly, I will. I’m hopeful that by October things will have returned more or less to normal, at least as far as travel is concerned. As long as I have cell service and internet, I can work almost anywhere.

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
I’m retired so I don’t really care if I get stuck. I’m going.

Retirement rocks doesn't it!!

quote:

Originally posted by Bivy:
Heading back to Niassa in October.

Jealous!! Where and with who?

I'm in South Africa now! Finally!

We'll see how it goes, getting home. Getting here was a piece of cake.

I had been away for too long!

Going to Zim in August

I flew back from Uganda on Emirates yesterday. The mask order was very lax on both outbound and inbound flights.

"I am not leaving the USA until I can re-enter without a negative test."

My sentiments as well. I'm really anxious to do another Cape Buffalo hunt but I'm not willing to take the chance of being stuck in Africa due to a positive or false positive test result. That coupled with the increased travel time due to no more direct flights from the US to Africa is causing me to sit on the sidelines for the second year in a row.

All the available flights I've found go through Europe or the mid east with at least one connection/layover. Total travel time is almost double what it was when direct flights from the east coast of the US were available. Spending 25-30 hours in coach wearing a mask is more than I want to endure.

I'm getting my second Phizer vaccine tomorrow but that doesn't help with the current travel restrictions.

quote:

Originally posted by Frostbit:

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
I’m retired so I don’t really care if I get stuck. I’m going.

Retirement rocks doesn't it!!

Well, I'm retired and went to Zambia in Nov., Costa Rica in Feb. and am headed back to Zambia in June. It is more of a hassle with the tests and paper work but once you get there it is well worth it.

quote:

Originally posted by Bama15:

quote:

Originally posted by Frostbit:

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
I’m retired so I don’t really care if I get stuck. I’m going.

Retirement rocks doesn't it!!

Well, I'm retired and went to Zambia in Nov., Costa Rica in Feb. and am headed back to Zambia in June. It is more of a hassle with the tests and paper work but once you get there it is well worth it.

Good attitude.

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
I’m retired so I don’t really care if I get stuck. I’m going.

Same here. I will be in the SAVE in June.

quote:

Originally posted by jjbull:

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
I’m retired so I don’t really care if I get stuck. I’m going.

Same here. I will be in the SAVE in June.

A fantastic time of year to hunt in the SVC. Have a great hunt.

I'm going if Mauritius opens up. New bookings aren't as brisk as I thought they might be and there's an err of caution when I talk to some folks. The fear of getting stuck in quarantine in some third world country seems to be the issue. On the other hand many operators didn't have a lot of quota available as they had to absorb the roll over clients from last season. It continues to be a weird period of time in the hunting biz.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Ahrenberg:
I am not leaving the USA until I can re-enter without a negative test.

My fishing group has been cancelled twice on a Brazil trip. I will not get stuck outside of America.

+1

I went to Zambia in 2018 & 2019. Had a hunt in South Africa canceled in 2020 due to COVID, which has been rescheduled for 2022.

So, I guess I lost two years of safari for 2020 & 2021. That may not be a bad idea. I am hoping by 2022 there will be no masks, no COVID testing, air travel back to normal, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Ahrenberg:
I am not leaving the USA until I can re-enter without a negative test.

My fishing group has been cancelled twice on a Brazil trip. I will not get stuck outside of America.

I can arrange that but it will cost you! Haha.

Just returned from Uganda with Jay. Plan on Botswana in June...

Tim how did the re-test work to get back to the US?

Easy to find a clinic over there to do it or??

I can't speak for Uganda but the Covid test leaving Zambia and Zimbabwe is very easy, organized and no hassle for hunters. In most cases hunters will have to stay one extra day to get the test processed though.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by Lhook7:
Heading to Dande in about 3 weeks!

Headed to Dande next week.

I did a short trip to Bahamas earlier this year, right after I got vaccinated, and let's just say you had to be determined to get there. Covid test before, during, and prior to return. Masks in the airports and on the plane. I saw some gate agents descend on one poor guy at the gate in Fort Lauderdale who was eating a sandwich with his mask hanging on his ear. You would think he had a gun or something. So I am not getting on a plane until they exempt people who have been vaccinated from all these hoops. I would like to get down to SA and Botswana sometime this year to look at property. And I don't really care to spend two days on planes and in airports ... right now that's about all you can get.

My brother got stranded in Namibia last summer .. he spent 6 months there before he finally got a flight out. My wife tells me that a South African guy is working as a janitor in the church because he is stuck here and can't fly back. Gov't is a blunt instrument.

I've been putting off a trip for three years now and Michel Mantheakis has been kind enough to keep extending me. I cancelled in 2018 and 2019 because I changed law firms and simply had no time to take off, and in 2020 because my partner had health issues, although that would have been cancelled because of COVID anyway. But I'm going to Tanzania in August come hell or high water.

I get my second shot tomorrow, so that shouldn't be a problem. And while I'm far from retired, I've been working remotely for a year now, so if I get stranded, my only impediment will be that I'll be working from a laptop and not have multiple screens, but if it's for longer than a week or two, I'd set up a whole office wherever I am. Might be a problem once the courts open up, which should be soon, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

My African addiction is far overdue. Travel may be a pain, but I'm going.

quote:

But I'm going to Tanzania in August come hell or high water.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

I am going to Zim in August. I have had the vaccinations through the VA and hope that by August that will suffice without the testing.

quote:

Originally posted by drongo:
I am going to Zim in August. I have had the vaccinations through the VA and hope that by August that will suffice without the testing.

Same here, though I am scheduled for the second Pfizer shot in two weeks. It will also be nice to be completely off the grid for 3 weeks in August.

Wish I could be off the grid. For years, the Firm wanted me to carry one of their Sat phones, but I refused. I wanted to be off the grid. But now, camp has WiFi and I have international package on the phone. I used to just say I could not be contacted, but in 2017, I told a couple of key client contacts, my one main partner and my secretary that I was actually reachable during the time I was in camp -- IN THE EVENT OF AN EMERGENCY.

Well you can figure out how long that secret lasted. I insisted on shutting it down at 1:00 a.m. my time every night so I could hunt in the morning. That was about the time the resident baboons started their antics. Modern communications are miserable. Between the electronics and the baboons it got pretty fatiguing.

They all know I'm reachable now. Fortunately, the associates are still afraid of me -- I hope. Clients and partners, not so much.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Wish I could be off the grid. For years, the Firm wanted me to carry one of their Sat phones, but I refused. I wanted to be off the grid. But now, camp has WiFi and I have international package on the phone. I used to just say I could not be contacted, but in 2017, I told a couple of key client contacts, my one main partner and my secretary that I was actually reachable during the time I was in camp -- IN THE EVENT OF AN EMERGENCY.

Well you can figure out how long that secret lasted. I insisted on shutting it down at 1:00 a.m. my time every night so I could hunt in the morning. That was about the time the resident baboons started their antics. Modern communications are miserable. Between the electronics and the baboons it got pretty fatiguing.

They all know I'm reachable now. Fortunately, the associates are still afraid of me -- I hope. Clients and partners, not so much.

I absolutely, positively, refuse to deal with any work while on safari.

I have a sat phone and call home every day.

My sat phone is off, unless I am using.

That is it.

Someone once insisted that he wanted to reach me "in an emergency"

Took him to our pool area, where we have a large African drum.

Told him to beat it until he gets my reply!

I would , love to go back to Zambia for about a month with a full bag list. However at my age (84 yrs) I doubt I will ever go out of country again.
I haven't even been hunting in North America in four years, so I guess it is a thing of the past for me!
Good luck to all you guys who will be lining up your sights on a big Buffalo, and getting back home without a travel problem. I'm Jealous! Have fun!
........................................ MacD37

I am going. Set up to go to Mozambique (Niassa) in September.

quote:

Originally posted by Frostbit:

quote:

Originally posted by Bivy:
Heading back to Niassa in October.

Jealous!! Where and with who?

I will be hunting with Cabassa Safaris, and, at this time, I believe it will be in R3.

I hunted just outside the Reserve in Marangira with them in October 2018. It was a fantastic trip, and I'm looking forward to introducing my wife to her first taste of African wilderness.

This is a personal decision being thought over individually or family wise.

It is not that most on here would be able to afford to take a trip to Africa or some other country out side of the USA. The decision to travel is a personal decision based on the knowledge that they are looking at and mulling over.

Some older individuals who would like to make the trip, are concerned about their health, getting stranded in a foreign country for who knows how long. Could you afford to be stranded in a foreign country, maybe yes, maybe no, it would depend on the individuals.

If I was still working, the short answer would have been "NO". Communication today makes it easier to stay connected world wide. However being on vacation taking phone calls, or doing your e mails is not a vacation. And if you spend 12 hours in your office now they would expect 12 hours when you are away.

When I was working, pager, cellphone, and computer were a given it did not make any difference where I was going to for vacation, you had them with you, that was part of the job's expectations. I remember taking hunting trips to Alaska and taking my cell phone and computer along on the drive up and back (sometimes we drove and other times we flew). The phone and computer were in use when I was not driving, taking care of questions from the different bosses. It did not trouble me at the time as I knew that when I made the bush plane office, I would be leaving every item in the vehicle.