INFLATION CALCULATOR


In 2002 dollars, that $3450 1956 safari is still a bargain at $22,294.77. What would a 21 day Tanzania safari cost today, without rhino?

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Quote:

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"You do not tip your white hunter."

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So when did all this tipping business start?

I bought a used book called "THE TRUTH ABOUT HUNTING IN TODAY'S AFRICA AND HOW TO GO ON SAFARI FOR $690.00" written by George Leonard Herter and Jacques P. Herter. Published in 1963.



Some excerpts: About the "Sportsman Lodge" in Kenya



"....You can also arrange a trip to get the rare narrow striped Grevy zebra from this lodge. for a 30 day hunt the price is $690.00 which includes staying in a motel, all meals, guide, transportation, etc. On top of all of this there is fairly good rainbow and brown trout fishing within walking distance of the lodge. This is a real hunting bargain for today's Africa. Unless you get your guaranteed game, you do not pay a cent and you do not have to pay any part of your bill until after you have killed your game...."



".....There at the Sportsman Lodge, elephant, cape buffalo and leopard are guaranteed. They not only guarantee leopard, but a trophy buffalo and an average elephant plus plains game."



"........Trophy fees/license:

Grant's Gazelle $1.40

Impala .70

Steinbuck .70

Topi 1.40

Thomson's Gazelle .70

Gerenuk 1.40

Dik-Dik .70

Common Zebra .70

Lion 4.20

Leopard 4.20

Buffalo .70

Greater Kudu 4.20

Bongo 2.80

Eland 2.80

Grevy Zebra 2.80

Elephant 14.00

Rhinoceros 14.00

Crocodile .70

Unlimited free birds"



<---Line to sign up starts over here!

If only time travel was possible.

". Published in 1963. "

ROTFLMAO

What do you think the prices will be 40 years from now?

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

TIME: With luck, you might get trophies of the Big Four of African game, together with plenty of lesser game, in as little as two weeks' hunting. But if your're making a trip to Africa, you'd be foolish to depend on luck. The best outfitters recommend that you allow three weeks for the safari itself, from the time you leave Nairobi until you get back. If possible, of course, allow more - but if you allow three weeks, you'll be about as sure as anyone can be, hunting wild game, that you'll get the trophies you're after.

Three weeks, then, for one safari. Allow two days in Nairobi, for preparations beforehand, two days in Nairobi afterward before emplaning. Add travel time, one and a half to two days by air each way between Nairobi and New York. Total: four weeks home to home, plus a day or two. Figure on the two days and call it one month.

MONEY: For the safari itself, one white hunter for one client, about $2,000. Two clients and one white hunter, $1,200 per client.

Say you go with one good hunting friend, your safari cost is $1,200. That covers everything on safari, including fourteen native helpers - everything except liquor and your ammuntion. You'll bring your own ammuniton. Add liquor. Add a few days' hotel expenses in Nairobi at about $6 a day, including meals. Add extras for tips and for clothes you'll buy in Nairobi. Call it $1,400. You do not tip your white hunter.

Add game licenses. These differ somewhat according to the territory and game. Tanganyika is representative. General license, plus special licenses to include all the Big Four, $450. Much of that is elephant. Include buffalo, rhino, lion, but not elephant, and the cost is about $250. All right, you want elephant, $450.

Add cost of taxidermy afterward. This will depend, obviously, on how much of what you get you want to keep. At a fairly generous guess - elephant tusks, rhino horn, buffalo head, lionskin rug, some antelope - say $500.

Add plane fare. Round trip New York-Nairobi costs $1,593 first class, $1,106.70 tourist. There is no tax to be added. First-class and tourist use same type of planes. On tourist flights you don't get free drinks.

Add it all, assuming you fly tourist. In round figures, $3,450. You can fly now, pay plane fare later in installments if you want to - twenty-five percent down, twenty months to pay the rest. You can postpone taxidermy, you can shoot your elephant with a camera instead of a gun-you need no license for that and no taxidermy either. But figure it without cutting corners at all - for the hunt of a lifetime, it's a bargain.

WHAT TO TAKE WITH YOU?

GUNS. you will want three rifles on safari - a light but hight-velocity one, caliber .22 to about .25; a medium, caliber .30 to .375; and, for elephant and rhino especially, a heavy, .450 to .475. You will want scope sights for the light and medium rifles - 2.5X is about right - but not for the heavy rifle; big game animals are shot at short range. You will also want a shotgun for birds. You can, if you wish, rent rifles and guns in Nairobi, but you will obviously enjoy shooting more if you bring your own. Do not bring handguns; you will have more trouble getting them through customs than they'll be worth. Do not bring more than the three rifles you'll need; you will be shooting with native gunbearers, and three sizes of rifle ammuntion to keep seperate and ready for you in the field are enough.

AMMUNITON: For a three-week safari you will want for the heavy rifle about fifty rounds of ammuniton, thirty solid and twenty soft; for the medium, 120 rounds, thirty solid and ninety soft; for the light rifle, 150 rounds, soft. For the shotgun you'll want 300 rounds Nos. 4 and 6. If you can give your outfitter enough notice, he'll lay in your ammuntion for you and save you the trouble of carrying it or shipping it ahead.

CLOTHES. Most of your hunting clothes you can buy in Nairobi. Get measured as soon as you arrive, and your clothes will be ready for you the next day. They are not expensive. You can get boots in Nairobi too, but you may prefer to bring your own. You'll be doing a lot of walking, and you want to be sure of having footwear you can depend on. Bring along a sweater or two. If you have woolen pajamas and a woolen bathrobe, bring them too; the hunting country is warm by day, but cool after sundown. Do not bring any large supply of underwear, handkerchiefs, socks and things like that; on safari, laundry is done every day. If you happen to have a sun helmet, leave it at home. In East Africa, sun helmets are jokes.

Regards,

Terry

[Taken from an August 1956 article in Field & Stream, as reprinted in the book Robert Ruarks' AFRICA.]


"A man always finds what he looks for in Africa, even if it's only himself." Robert Ruark

$690. was a slug of money back then....some things never change!

My family lived in Waseca, MN (home of Herter's Sporting Goods) during that time. George was considered an eccentric by his friends and either a madman or an @$$ by most others. We used to read his material any time we needed a good laugh.

I think most people left tips, unless they became very very close friends with the PH over a 2 month safari! I suppose that the amounts of money were huge by yesterday's standards.