The airplane ride was waaaay long. Man, 24 hrs. long. A beetch of a flight.

Upon landing and deboarding I had to keep reminding myself that this was Shanga la. This is Africa! I'm here! I made it!

My American hero - Teddy Roosevelt (I know, what loser picks a president over say Deon Sanders?) had been here and written so much about it.

My revelation was knowing Teddy Roosevelt had spent so much time there and what his love of the country was.
Now it was my turn.

My first trip was a flight that arrived in Nairobi. Immediately I smelled wood smoke and it was a constant. Also, no matter what time of day people walking everywhere.

My first view of Africa was a view of Cape Town from the jump seat in the cockpit of a SAA 747. To say the sight was awesome would be an understatement. This was the first of 8 trips over the next 8 years and while I never went thru Cape Town the feeling upon letdown to landing was always the same,totally undescribable in written words,only in feelings.

My first trip to Africa was in 2004. I traveled to Joburg to visit a friend I got to know thru my trips around the world to the benchrest world shampionships.

Me and a friend flew from Sweden thru CDG/Paris with Air France. The catering staff at CDG was at strike and we couldn´t get a thing out of all the calls that was made every 10 minutes in the gate. Air France staff handed out sandwitches in the gate and soft drinks but since I work at the local airport here in Sweden I have had my share of "airline sandwitches" thru the years so I passed, a misstake it turned out Wen we boarded the plane (2 h late) I finally got the info in English that we had a 11 h flight in front of us without any food of any sort to be eaten

Two really hungry sweedes arrived in Joburg some half a day later! About 4 h after I sat my feet at African ground I shot a black wildebeest! My friend had been contacted by a guy he know that is a manager of a safari park and he needed to cull a few old and crippeled game. Me and my friend had a "kick-start" of the trip and returned to my friends place fried by the sun and the minds full new memories and experiences

When we left the truck that first day to sneak up to three slepping white rhinos with cameras I first heard the saying: Calibre isn´t important when getting close and personal with dangerous game, ALLWAYS BRING A SLOW RUNNER!

The trip was a memory that will last the rest of my life! Great hunts and great company! I was hooked on Africa, no doubth!

Hope to go back next aug for the fifth time and try to get my first buffalo!

Stefan

I landed in Africa for the first time in February 1972 and have been grounded ever since. No memories of the landing, but my earliest memory is of crocodiles. Large cattle killing crocs caught in traps on the Save river by my uncles and kept in a disused swimming pool close to the Msaize river on what was then Devuli HQ, now Chishakwe. I was 3 or 4...As I grew older I thought those crocs may have appeared huge because I was so small, but am assured by others that they were huge to people of all ages. I don't know what happened to them, maybe they conducted a canned croc hunt. Bloody crocodiles have been around ever since, in different forms....I will end off with the life story now. Is this hijacking?

David

While still on the BA 747 400 airplane looking out the window, and seeing blacks in camo carrying submachineguns on the ramp in Lusaka, Zambia, and being told not to take pictures or Video in the Airport! This was just after the dust was still settling from the Rhodesian bush wars, and things were a little tense!

..........................................

People without a chip on their shoulder.

That I had a huge hangover.

There really are wild Aardvarks.

My first revelation upon setting foot in Africa had to be the friendliness of everyone. As SG Olds said, "people without a chip on their shoulder". I knew certain obvious things to expect from readings and articles I have read but this stood out to me so much. I have been twice and it has been the same each time I went whether I was in SA or Zim.

That people weren't trying to use English to communicate. Afrikaans was first in RSA (and Amharic is first where I was born -- didn't hit the ground there.)

First thing may have been that there is a real risk of being involved in a car accident...crazy drivers, livestock, people and wildlife on the roads...etc.

Overall the things that hit me most came a little later.

The sadness of flying home combined with the joy of knowing that I was fortunate enough to be able to go changed me forever. I have never been the same and will continue to go as often as I can (which is really not often enough).

Another thing that hit me was that the old Africa I had read about and wanted to experience only exists in pockets that you have to seek out.

Africa can go from exciting to depressing in an instant. The range of emotions I have experienced there have had a powerful effect.

The highs and lows make you feel alive.

Being in a place where everything is new and different from what you know is like being a kid again. I suppose this is true of traveling other places as well but there is just something about Africa. The sights, experiences and amazing diversity of wildlife have all made me nuts for the place. It is the Garden of Eden for me.

I have found that safaris are dam expensive things but some of the best money you can spend in life.

Also for some reason beer tastes much better there

African time.

My first trip, it was rather frustrating. As a result of subsequent trips, I have come to the realization that it is a given. I have had a bit of an advantage getting used to it as my wife of 29 years is of Irish descent. Things happen when they are meant to happen -- relax --enjoy.

Love the Aardvark observation. I would add -- and, they dig really big holes that are hard on axles.

Doves cooing and calling. Everywhere.

Coming from Alaska where it is green most of the time when it is not covered in snow I was absolutely blown away at the amount of game in such a dry and parched enviroment that I found in the Zambesi Valley in mid August. Driving down the roads in the communal areas and watching the village children playing in the dirt without a single blade of grass in sight just freaked me out. how could this be the Africa of my imagination? What I found out was that there was game aplenty. You just had to know where to look for it.

Mark

After the long flight from Atlanta to Joburg, which followed the first leg of Phoenix to Atlanta, we made it through the airport quite quickly. OR Tambo seemed to have it's best face on for the World Cup last year and we just flew through customs and even the SAPS office. After perhaps an hour after landing, we found ourselves at the Afton Guest House.

After a most gracious welcome all too unfamiliar in the U.S. and getting settled in our room, I found myself out back in the garden, chatting with fellow hunters, smoking a mighty fine cigar, a cold Castle in hand and the sounds and smell of steaks cooking on the outdoor grill. By my side was the love of my life, the woman who in spite of all my faults loves me, my wife of then nearly 19 years. We for the first time in 12 years on a vacation by ourselves. We were without our sons for the first time since the oldest was born. While we love our boys, there was just something about being married and free from the responsibility of children for a couple of weeks that was special. My wife from a very humble background was just simply thrilled to be experiencing this and to be by my side to share it with me, and so was I. And the adventure was just beginning.

In a word.....perfect!

I think it was Craig Boddington who I heard say or read in his writing that you only get one first safari, and the memories of that are like no other safari. I'm quite convinced he is correct.

My first thought looking out the plane's window at the highlands of Namibia was how it looked very similar to the foothills of Central California from the air.

quote:

Originally posted by Fjold:
My first thought looking out the plane's window at the highlands of Namibia was how it looked very similar to the foothills of Central California from the air.

With or without Schwarzenegger?

When the door of the plane was opened in Dakar, the smells immediately made me think I was back in Southeast Asia.

I remember vividly the first evening just a dark hearing a zebra bray and thinking" holy $51t i am really here!!!!"

My strongest impression was the first herd of gemsbok I saw, there were 30 or so- was the abundance of game- and excitement at the possibilties. Still feel that way!

My first trip, my first impression, was like a kid in a candy store. It still is every time I am fortunate enough to get there.

As with 404WJJeffery, for me it was the sheer abundance of game.

On my first full day of African hunting, I killed a southern impala, a common waterbuck and a Cape buffalo.

And I saw hundreds of other animals, up to and including lion, hippo and elephant.

Like Dorothy in the Land of Oz, I realized quickly that I was not in Kansas anymore!

I think my first revelation was about 4 hours into my first Buffalo hunt. I had trouble concentration at the task at hand because my mind wondered so much about how the hunters of yester-year did this day in and day out and never had a luxury camp to go back to and had to pack everything they needed as they moved along the track to another spike camp. Carry their own water and food as they had no chef to prepare meals at the end of the day. How ammunition was one of the most valuable items they carried and how thier rifles were a prized and cared for commodity. And how I thought I had been born a century too late.

First time in RSA, the fact that there were herds of game alongside the roads. Driver would be driving along and say "Zebra on the right". A little while later "Kudu on the left". It was that way all the way to the lodge.
Landing in Arusha, it was the smell of mopane wood smoke as soon as they opened the doors to the airplane and thinking I'm baaaaaack!

It was a bit of a blur when we arrived at Oliver Tambo in 2007.

Not sure if this was a first, but I quickly realized I had no sense of direction. It took me a few days to realize that is was because the Sun was on the wrong side of me all the time.

I had never been anywhere in my life where the sun wasn't south of me all the time.

I'm here a life long dream come true.

Mike

My first safari and trip to Africa was in 1996 to the Okavango Delta. I don't know why I thought it would be thick jungle of vines like a Tarzan movie terrain. In stead it was beautiful golden grass and palm islands!

Regards, D. Nelson

Soon after leaving the Windhoek Airport with our PH, I was surprised at how similar the terrain appeared to where we hunt in Texas. Then a troop of baboons and two warthogs crossed the road.

I remember thinking this isn't Texas, WOW!! we made it to Africa.

All was pretty much as I expected it to be until day two of my first buffalo hunt. About midday I found myself with my PH, tracker and game scout in bush so thick you could barely see the man in front of you. We had buffalo on three sides of us. Some as close as 15 yards. Some I could see only part of, most I could not see at all. Their smell filled my nostrils. There was absolutely no wind. Except for the occasional grunt, snort and swish of tail, there was no sound. Suddenly, the herd exploded and I had buffalo running past me on both sides, seemingly close enough to touch. And then they were gone. And it was quiet again.

I had read of similar experiences. But this was mine. And it was real. Wow.

My first revelation??

That the One World Club at the airport serves very large beers!!!

When I first looked up and saw a giraffe starring down at me in Namibia I knew I wasn't in south Texas any more........

quote:

Originally posted by Fjold:
My first thought looking out the plane's window at the highlands of Namibia was how it looked very similar to the foothills of Central California from the air.

Me too. When we descended into the Windhoek airport I was nearly certain they'd turned us around and we were landing back in Albuquerque! Then like Mark said I was floored by the amount of game in such an environment. I immediately started wondering why we don't have Hartmann's zebras in New Mexico! Oryx do well here...

It didn't hit me until we arrived in camp...I'm HERE! FINALLY!

All those boyhood dreams, the endless reading, the years of doubt about ever being able to afford the time and money to go...That all vanished before my eyes as for the first time in many, many years I felt like I was someplace where wild things really can hunt me!

I was alive again and ready to really HUNT!!!

Mine was seeing the African continent at first light from the 747 and admiring all of the beautiful early morning colors in the sky. Second was landing in Capetown and seeing Robbin Island and Table Mountain. Third was getting off of the plane in Joburg and listening to all of these white folks speaking some foreign tongue that neither Bwanna or I could understand. Fourth was being greeted by the blacks at the airport and every one of them asking for money for a coke. Fifth was landing in Kimberley and seeing just how much Africa looked like Texas! The animal viewing didn't come until the next day and only after we had settled in at the lodge 25 miles outside of Douglas. Of course, our PH had to tell us as we drove to the lodge about the terrible accident that he and his wife had been in not long before that when they hit a Kudu at high speed and it came through the windshield and nearly killed the wife.

I landed in Tanzania on a moon light evening, cleared customs and headed for the Impala hotel. The smell of Africa hitting me full in the face as we drove towards Arusha was my first revelation. I had my head sticking out of the window for a few hundred yards like an ol hunting dog and it was wonderful. I will never forget it.

Quickly into the safari I could feel the racism or 'we are better then them" portrayed by the white PHs/owners and the trackers and skinners. Third safari was the same thing. It felt like modern day slavery, and I guess it is in a way. Aside from that, someone mentioned earlier, was the doves cooing. Thankfully we have Eurasian doves here for several months out of the year that sound similar and its a constant reminder of Africa.

That after all the stories, legend and lore... it seemed a bit like landing in Italy. And frankly a heck of a lot safer then many parts of L.A.

Kinda wondered what took me so long to ever get there.

On the first morning riding in the land cruiser, we came around the corner and I spotted my first giraffe. Not long after, we came upon a herd of zebra. That is when I knew I was truly hunting Africa!