quote:

Originally posted by K Evans:
It was good to get to visit with all of you, glad y’all chose a hunt that was close to our place .
By the way, did you two kill any pigs?

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Spare a thought for me!

They are all supposed to be my friends!

I have known Roy and Rene for over 40 years.

And without any reservations, one cannot wish to meet a more down to earth, honest and genuine individuals, anywhere.

And by the looks of it, the others are made of the same cloth!

Glad I have friends like these.

quote:

Originally posted by Biebs:
The term "Motley Crew" comes to mind, but I guess some rock band already uses that name :-)

quote:

Originally posted by LV Eric:
It’s been a while since my last post(10 years give or take) everything has been great, I just got distracted. I’m glad to be back! I’ll be around frequently again. Thanks to Saeed I have my original screen name from day 1.

The timing of this thread is an amazing coincidence as it relates to one of my favorite stories which happened in my life. I’ve told this story to many many people who aren’t part of the hunting community as it’s just a remarkable coincidence itself and this threads timing.

Chapter 1 “Saeed”

There’s a little background to this story I’ll briefly go over as it ties into the story.


My whole life my dream was to hunt in Africa from the first time I remember seeing a “Elephant Gun” at the San Francisco boat show in the early 70’s. I was born in 66.

Along comes the internet and very early on I discovered AR, wow! Other people with the same interests as me, how cool is that?

Fast forward a year (exact time is fuzzy as this is over 20 years ago) I saw Saeeds 577 T-Rex, I happened to own one as well. So I found this thing called “email” and sent my very first email to Saeed. I remember that vividly. I asked him “did I do this correctly?”. A few days later I got a response “I think so”. That’s where it all got started. I met Saeed, I had no idea where he lived, didn’t matter. He had a 577 T-Rex. Happy days!

So over the course of time I got to meet a couple other members of AR who did as well, AR was alive and well. I made lots of friends here. Learned a lot about hunting. I had to get to Africa!

I haven’t forgot about Roy & Rene I’ll get there!


Chapter 2 “The Gym”


While the above stuff in chapter one was happening I was also going to the gym in Venice Beach Ca and had a very close friend who I trained with on a regular basis. We had traveled to Israel together and were just good friends.

One morning he mentioned he had met a girl he liked and she would be joining us for breakfast after the morning workout. Happy days, meeting new people is always fun.

We get to breakfast and the 3 of us are chatting away about all sorts of topics. She mentioned she was from Zim. Bingo! Now I’m very keen on hearing what she had to say. In Los Angeles the topic of hunting has to be approached carefully(except I don’t because I’m not a PC kind of guy). So straight away I told her that I have been keen on hunting my whole life. “My family is in that business” was her reply. Sadly for my friend we ended up locking into a hunting conversation for the rest of breakfast.


It’s clear where this is going. But hold on it gets pretty cool.


A month or 2 goes by and one morning my friend asks me if I’d like to go to Zim for Christmas. Do fat kids like ice creme? Or something like that was my response. Christmas couldn’t get here fast enough. This was September I’d guess, year was 2000.


Chapter 3 Zimbabwe


So December comes along and I’m ready to go to Zim and was in good shape, bags packed. I sent Saeed a email. Back then I didn’t use email often as not many people used it and the internet was small and cameras were still film. I told Saeed I was going to Zim (I knew he hunted there) and I’d give him a report when I got back. He replied to my email asking me who I was hunting with. I didn’t have a clue, I only knew Diana’s name. And when I replied to Saeed I couldn’t recall her name at that moment.


We get to Bulawayo go to the house and there are the Vincent’s. Roy Rene and Alan. I was reasonably well travelled and felt right at home at their house. Plan was to go out to their concession for a week during Christmas. We spent a few days at their home in Bulawayo.


Here comes the cool part(remember this is 23 years ago before social media, digital photography and all the connectivity we have these days)


About the 3rd day we are there Roy was in his office and called me in. I hadn’t entered that room as I’m not a snooper. So I entered the office to speak with Roy. He had a big collection of trophy pics on the wall dating way back to current from his hunts over the years. And there in the middle of the cololage of pictures on the wall is a huge photograph of Saeed with a sable.


I had seen that pic here on AR, I asked Roy “do you know this guy” as I pointed to Saeeds picture. He responded “of course he’s out favorite client, he’s family we’ve know him 20 years-why do you ask?” I said “well I know him too, I met him a couple years ago on the internet”.

So here I am the American guy in Africa talking about a mutual friend from Dubai. These days that wouldn’t be a thing. But back then it was a remarkable circumstance.


Chapter 4 the return home

I get home, sent Saeed a email “you’ll never guess who I met”


So that’s how I met the Vincent’s who are to this day among the best people I know and love. I just saw them before Saeeds most recent hunt. I see them at Christmas some years in Los Angeles. I’ve known them for 23 years now and will for the rest of my life. My mom(rip) met them on 2 hunts. My wife Kelly was there during the first Zim trip I just wrote about.

I have many great hunting stories with them to share and some other stores that aren’t hunting related which I’ll write about here sometime.

I wrote this on my phone. I apologize it’s not edited very well, I still haven’t learned to spell, hope you enjoyed my story.

Great to be back

Eric