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I did my first safari way back in 1977. The PH took me to a store where I bought a bottle of Scotch, two cases of beer, and a few bottles of wine. I suspected that was about right for the hunt. I killed my leopard on the 5th day. It seemed like everyone in the entire area (Northern Transvaal back then) somehow heard about it and came over that night to party and celebrate. I was certainly fine with that but the next day I realized that I now only had a couple of bottles of wine left to sip around the campfire on those bitterly cold evenings in early July. I have always felt the cruel pinch of want so it took me three long years to scrape together enough funds to hare it back to Africa. I brought with me this time a bottle of Champagne to open up on my July 3rd birthday. When that day came I still had not shot my lion so I never opened it that day. It takes me great pleasure to say that it got opened a few days later late at night. My lady and I then flew to South West Africa and hunted with Fritz Hein out of Okahandja. The hunting was fabulous and after a few days of excrutiating drama my wife nailed a big old kudu. I still remember us running up the great bull and everyone was cheering and shouting and Fritz was yelling, ' Champagne is on me!' We had more company and went through 7 bottles! Around 11:00 p.m. his two sons arrived on motorcycles and I hopped on the back of one and we took off for the springhare hunting grounds. (Their garden) I whacked one with my ancient 870 pump and had it mounted by a taxidermist in that fine country and mailed to me. The person did a horrible job, however, on that cool rodent. I can only surmise that he must have been drunk while doing it. On my first safari to Zimbabwe I met the most interesting folks and it certainly enrichened my life. A lot of them certainly did like to drink. On this trip I had brought along a 15 year old bottle of single malt and it was to be drank when I had gotten my buffalo or elephant. I was told not to leave it around as the camp manager would drink it all. The camp manager was 58 years old, looked much much older, and sadly was a very heavy drinker. He had a good job for a heavy drinker as there was a lot of booze around. He was incredibly interesting but after about 7:00 p.m. in the evenings he started to talk gibberish. Pity. The PH was a charming fellow who loved to go to bars, drink heavily and at the end of the evenings he would pick a fight with the biggest dude in the bar. (That sounds a bit foolish to me to pick a fight with the biggest guy?) I later talked to a famous outfitter who told me that he would never hire that guy for his safari business because he would often pick fights with clients. Not good, no matter what their size. I killed a buffalo bull one afternoon and on the long walk back to the bakkie one of the trackers dragged a pole on the ground for the recovery team to follow to get the buff. That night we were sitting around the fire having a cocktail when the PH said that the recovery team had returned. So we strolled over to look at it. They had brought out the body but had left the head in a tree! A lot of yelling ensued and the reluctant guys had to go back in the darkness to bring in the head. Soon after the PH said that we would take the buffalo three hours to Binga where it would be sold and they could pick up more supplies (booze, mostly) I was very reluctant as I only had ten days to hunt but the guy assured me that we would hunt on the way there and on the way back. He went on to say that he had friends there. And so we went. After dropping off the carcass we went over to the 'friends'. Nice people with servants and swimming pool but useless Zimbabwe money the lady told me. Mike and his friends started to drink and reminisce about old times. It was about 10:00 a.m. Around noon my lady and I were given some chicken to eat. The others did not want to stop drinking to eat anything. Around 2:00 p.m the lady of the house was wheeping about something or other. A bit uncomfortable. And daylight was burning - as was I. Just before sunset the PH came to me, totally drunk as a lord and said, ' Good news ! They want us to stay the night!' No bloody way! I had just spent a day on safari (with mostly borrowed money) watching those folks get motherless. To his credit the PH agreed that we could go back to camp then. The land cruiser had no doors on and with him driving and us two jammed in the front - the camp manager was in the back which was piled high with beer, mostly. He was sitting up there like a prairie dog on his little mound. All that delicious booze so close for his taking. Within a couple of hundred yards the PH damn near put us in the ditch! So Ol' Richard drove the three hours back to camp. A week later we were at a hunting camp called Kavija listening to two Americans tell of their great day of hunting. They had landed in Jo Burg a few days earlier with food poisoning from something that they said that they had eating on the Portugese airliner. They were so sick that they just wanted to go back home. Some doctor fixed them up at the airport - great doctors in South Africa. (Lots of them are now living here in Southern Alberta) Man, were they ever drinking! Amazing that they would even want anything like whiskey to drink after food poisoning? The next day I went bird hunting with a young guy. Another PH was not working that day so he came along. By noon he was so drunk that he disappeared in camp when we stopped for lunch and I never saw him again. I came back to Canada and told a few friends about how the Zims were such heavy drinkers. Three years later I returned to Zimbabwe. The PH did not drink at all. Safaris are so interesting and so much fun. | ||
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Especially if you never get drunk!  | |||
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I haven't had a drink or even a beer in 35 years. People don't realize what they are missing in life by needing to add alcohol to an activity. I'm up earlier, more aware, more functional and I believe I have taken the high quality trophies I have, due to the level of focus I put into my hunting. Formerly "Nganga" | |||
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I've never hunted with a PH that couldn't handle his liquor, but I had a few good chuckles while reading your post. | |||
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I've yet to have been on a hunt where the PH had too much to drink, I've seen a couple of clients that imbibed a bit too much. I did visit a very nice hunting operation near Brownwood, Texas, (they have really big deer and lots of them) for a dove hunt. After the hunt, doves were cooked over a bed of coals and everyone sat around a nice fire pit, some were sipping tequila pretty hard, others were just listening to the lies...I mean stories. The host had been doing the cooking plus some story telling and was a good bit ahead of everyone else in the sipping department. He was sitting in an iron chair at the fire pit and dropped a napkin, when he leaned forward to pick up the napkin, he just kept on going over right into the fire pit. No burns of any consequence but was pretty funny, he even laughed about it. He didn't get up to hunt the next morning. Karl Evans | |||
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. . . a scotch and cigar around the campfire with friends after a day in the field is a special time of the day. Not sure I would trust a PH that didn't drink.  Mike | |||
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Guys, I've mentioned this in detail before but on my very first safari the PH could not get out of bed until about 8:30 on the 1st morning. He then told me we were going hunting as he blew booze breath on me. After a somewhat intense conversation we did not go hunting that day. We did make lemonade out of lemons and the safari turned out quite well. Otherwise the rest of the PH's I've been around in camp have been pretty responsible. A couple drinks at night and maybe a small celebration when a lion, ele, sitatunga etc are taken. Mark MARK H. YOUNG MARK'S EXCLUSIVE ADVENTURES 7094 Oakleigh Dr. Las Vegas, NV 89110 Office 702-848-1693 Cell, Whats App, Signal 307-250-1156 PREFERRED E-mail markttc@msn.com Website: myexclusiveadventures.com Skype: markhyhunter Check us out on https://www.facebook.com/pages...ures/627027353990716 | |||
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I've never had a African PH or camp staff drink heavily. We always enjoy some scotch and a cigar or two but don't overdo t.. I HAVE had American "guides" get shit faced drunk and not be able to perform the next day - more than once... Pisses me off to no end... I'll stick with my African PHs - true professionals.... "At least once every human being should have to run for his life - to teach him that milk does not come from the supermarket, that safety does not come from policemen, and that news is not something that happens to other people." - Robert Heinlein | |||
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A drink or two after all the hunting is done. Maybe one when the jet lands after a long, hairy flight. | |||
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Thanks for sharing those stories, scruffy. Safaris can indeed be "interesting." I am reminded of a couple of Russians who were in camp one time when we arrived (in Namibia) and who stayed on for a few days after we started hunting. They never said hello to us or even acknowledged our existence. They did everything separately, by themselves. It was weird. The first night we were there, they drank together at a separate campfire until late in the evening. Long after we had hit the sack, they kept on pounding back the liquor. I know because I got up to take a leak at 3 AM and they were still in front of their fire drinking like fish. The next morning they did not come out of their tent. Their PH told us that "his Russians," as he called them, were out cold. We went hunting with our PH that morning, then we came back into camp in the middle of the day for a lunch break. We learned that even by lunch time the Russians were still in their tent, dead to the world! I asked our PH if they were there to hunt, or just to get drunk, or what? He told us that they hunted, but they drank way more than they hunted. They would get stinking drunk every night and not wake up the next day until around 2 PM. Then they would go hunting with their PH for a few hours, come back to camp, have a bite to eat and once again sit and drink together by their fire until they were both petrified. This had been going on for somewhere around ten days by the time we got there. Our PH (who ran the whole show) complained that they were drinking him out of every kind of liquor he had in camp. Vodka, gin, whisky, it didn't matter - they were drinking everything. He said he was going to charge them for it, because his deal was that he would provide only reasonable amounts of alcohol, but these Russians were drinking it by the bloody bucket! Anyway, the Russians finally left, and we had the camp to ourselves until a couple of Canadians (from Alberta) showed up toward the end of our stay. I later found out that both of the Russians had shot a buffalo. We did not shoot anything, and left empty-handed! Mike Wilderness is my cathedral, and hunting is my prayer. | |||
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+1 except replace "a scotch" with "a few bourbons." Before breakfast on the morning of my first Zim safari, I put a number of beers in the truck cooler (for lunch and the ride back to camp at the end of the afternoon's hunting). Shortly after, I caught a little man who worked for the operator unloading said beers. I jokingly told him there was plenty of beer in the main camp cooler, and as a result, no need to steal mine. He laughed and told me that no alcohol was allowed on the hunting vehicle. I also laughed as I started putting the beers back in the truck cooler. Just then, my young PH happened to walk up. Without saying a word, my PH tossed the last few beers in the ice chest before hopping into the driver's seat of the cruiser. The little man was waving his hands emphatically as we drove away. Phil Smythe and I proceeded to drink our fair share of beers together on that wonderful safari and on another years later. | |||
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Yep, a cigar and one drink a night for me. Company PHs love me as they get to drink all evening and mark them in the book as client drinks. Frank "I don't know what there is about buffalo that frightens me so.....He looks like he hates you personally. He looks like you owe him money." - Robert Ruark, Horn of the Hunter, 1953 NRA Life, SAF Life, CRPA Life, DRSS lite | |||
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These stories are why I will no longer share a camp. Only problem I've ever had was in Northwest Territories in Canada. Our guides were Inuit and Dogrib Native Americans. We were bowhunting caribou and there were a number of hunters in camp. We'd been told it was a dry camp, but some broke the rules and not only brought booze into the camp, but shared it with their guides. Created quite a few problems. Mostly for them, but for all of us. I hunt solo now. If I screw it up, its on me. | |||
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Something we completely agree on. Formerly "Nganga" | |||
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it’s a way over priced vacation that no one really cares about but yourself and you are paying for it. enjoy a drink and professional ph will join you in moderation in the company - it’s their job to be social most American hunters are lightweight relative to the russian clients some ph have to put up with and the biggest drinking clients i ever heard about where gaddafis kids - they drank more before lunch than any russian did over a day. Mike | |||
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as a guide and camp manager i had to sent back to civilisation some idiots that done that in a caribou camp .... | |||
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There is always plenty of booze in our camps. Personally I do not drink, and we have never had anyone - client or staff - drink too much. Everyone seems to enjoy a drink by the fire or at the dinner table. But, ultimately, if everyone has a bit of responsibility and drink in moderation, no problem ever occurs. | |||
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I’ll pass on the cigars. But on the three safaris I’ve been on, a drink or three around a fire at night is a great evening. I nor my hunting partner never got hammered, and we easily answered the call every morning and hunted hard all day. If I ever go back, drinks around the evening campfire will happen. And if others don’t want to drink, that’s quite alright. NRA Patron member | |||
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I go on safari to hunt, not drink, I can do that at home if I want. In the 18 days Ive been here so far, I think Ive had two beers with lunch. Guides getting drunk is not acceptable to me. | |||
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My personal rule while hunting is no drinking until the end of the day’s hunt when the guns are put away. After the hunt each day I’ll fire up a Cuban Montecristo and pop open a cold Tafel Lager around the campfire. If we’ve had a successful hunt that day, my PH Jan du Plessis will offer a Jaegermeister toast, but 3 beers is about my limit before heading off to bed. At my age (74) I just don’t have the desire to get wasted while on an African hunt. Jesus saves, but Moses invests | |||
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I enjoy wine and bourbon, but I find I drink less on safari than at home. Working to hard to stay thoroughly hydrated and a good day means I'm ready for bed earlier than at home too. That said, I'm also the first one up in the morning and making coffee... | |||
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I don't drink alcohol at all, but I enjoy the end of each day when others have a 1 or 2 drinks. They slow down, relax, tell stories and visit. Good times. IHMSA BC Provincial Champion and Perfect 40 Score, Unlimited Category, AAA Class. | |||
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It’s a mix for me In wilderness setting, I simply will not drink In Africa , some of those camps are nice setups and then I will have drink or two with others Overall, while hunting, I hit sack early, no late sittings... " Until the day breaks and the nights shadows flee away " Big ivory for my pillow and 2.5% of Neanderthal DNA flowing thru my veins. When I'm ready to go, pack a bag of gunpowder up my ass and strike a fire to my pecker, until I squeal like a boar. Yours truly , Milan The Boarkiller - World according to Milan PS I have big boar on my floor...but it ain't dead, just scared to move... Man should be happy and in good humor until the day he dies... Only fools hope to live forever “ Hávamál” | |||
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I have heard many complaints from PHs who say some clients like to stay late drinking. Forgetting the fact that a PH’s job does not end at the dinner table. So we have a rule in our camp. Once dinner and desert are finished, everyone off to their tents. | |||
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I hate going to bed on safari. One of my favorite things on safari is to sit around the dying embers of the fire after dinner and just talking with the PH and anyone else in camp. I really enjoy the conversations that people of varying backgrounds bring to the discussions and hearing all the different opinions and experiences of people with different backgrounds from mine. I know that everyone needs the sleep, especially after a long day in the field and an early morning start the next day but I genuinely regret having to end the evening conversations. Frank "I don't know what there is about buffalo that frightens me so.....He looks like he hates you personally. He looks like you owe him money." - Robert Ruark, Horn of the Hunter, 1953 NRA Life, SAF Life, CRPA Life, DRSS lite | |||
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The first safari I was on was with a Zim PH who is notorious for how much he can drink . He is also one of the hardest working PH's I have met and I consider him a real friend. We were hunting at Piet Hougaard's old camp in Mozambique and three other PH's stopped in around happy hour and drank all night ! I found it interesting as the stories were all the same as we discuss in Alaska, just different game. Our PH decided to make it an early night and went to bed at 6:00 am ! The trackers tried to wake him 30 minutes later with no response, but a 416 going off roused him and we had a full, and very good day of hunting. Every safari is an adventure ! I certainly wouldn't consider such shenanigans today but it seemed like a reasonable idea at the time and that evening was as enlightening and entertaining as most days on safari Anyone who claims the 30-06 is ineffective has either not tried one, or is unwittingly commenting on their own marksmanship Phil Shoemaker Alaska Master guide FAA Master pilot NRA Benefactor www.grizzlyskinsofalaska.com | |||
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Frank, Your post echoed my feelings. Those chats are great, especially when you may share a camp with others. Although not Africa, I’ve hosted many in Argentina. You learn the good guys and the bad guys easily. I’ve met many friends after the hunt while having a few. I’ve also met some I never want to be around. I meant to be DSC Member...bad typing skills. Marcus Cady DRSS | |||
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Interesting observations. I’ll say only that I always appreciate a post-prandial drink or two by the fire, as the wild night-dwellers come out, and voice their savage desires and complaints. But after a bit of that peace and wondering, I need no lullabies to coax me to my tent, a night of sound sleep, and whatever strange dreams my subconscious may conjure. Mike Wilderness is my cathedral, and hunting is my prayer. | |||
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Booze, women, drugs, it’s all the same. It’s fine, until it becomes a problem, and then it is a problem. | |||
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Couldn't the same be said for Safaris ? Anyone who claims the 30-06 is ineffective has either not tried one, or is unwittingly commenting on their own marksmanship Phil Shoemaker Alaska Master guide FAA Master pilot NRA Benefactor www.grizzlyskinsofalaska.com | |||
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Fits my experiences !
White Mountains Arizona | |||
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Days on safari are rich and fulfilling, but sometimes so are the nights ! Sitting around a fire with a favorite beverage in hand, with the night sounds of Africa just beyond the light, and listening to tales told by legends and future legends, beat reading books about Africa at home ! Anyone who claims the 30-06 is ineffective has either not tried one, or is unwittingly commenting on their own marksmanship Phil Shoemaker Alaska Master guide FAA Master pilot NRA Benefactor www.grizzlyskinsofalaska.com | |||
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458 Win. hit on something. Years ago, Craig Boddington spoke at the Houston Safari Club. Craig said that anyone who hadn't been to Africa shouldn't go because it was more addictive than alcohol, cocaine or heroin. I think he was right, but it was too late for me. The only thing that might have been more expensive is women. | |||
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I really don’t like the hard drinking culture that seems to accompany all forms of shooting and hunting, and indeed most Anglo Saxon culture. I enjoy a good bottle of wine or cider, but whole heavy drinking and thst you are deemed a lesser man unless you drink heavily I really don’t understand nor want to understand. | |||
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Agree 100%. Had some amazing campfire experiences
White Mountains Arizona | |||
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That certainly hasn't been my experience at all. Most everyone I hunt with will have a drink or two after the day's hunting is over ... always in moderation. I hung out with some guys back when we were young a stupid that drank to excess, and I certainly participated back then as well, but those occasions weren't centered around shooting sports. As grown men with responsibility, those days are long past, at least in the crowd I hand around with. But you can put me firmly into the crowd that enjoys a good scotch by the campfire, reliving the day's events and anticipating the next. | |||
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Everything involving alcohol must be done in moderation. Those who insist on regular drunkenness on safari are missing so much. I cannot imagine what they do at home. Mike Wilderness is my cathedral, and hunting is my prayer. | |||
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I'm sure I'm confessing more than I should, but in my view a safari is not a safari, unless there is plenty of quality booze in camp at the end of a long day. That said, I had a hunt in Zambia several years ago, and the outfitter asked in the questionnaire what kinds of liquor we preferred in camp. Notwithstanding the questionnaire, when we arrived in camp, there was not a drop of alcohol! Turns out the outfitter had shifted our hunting camp due to scheduling issues, and our substitute camp was owned and operated by a very devout muslim, who disapproved of alcohol, entirely. Two nights into our abstention program, and I completely freaked out and demanded that the hunter take us to the nearest liquor store, no matter how far the drive. We ended up driving to a "bush bar" that was about 2 hours away from camp, and I paid a stupendous amount for a box of assorted semi-drinkable swill. I thought I had learned my lesson, and stocked up in the duty free on all subsequent trips. However, on a trip to Zimbabwe a couple of year after the Zambia experience, one of the ph's got into our bottle locker while we were out driving, and drank half of our stores on the first day of the hunt. I won't name names, but my friends Gerry Valenti and Paul Coughlin will know exactly whom I am referring to. | |||
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Like Saeed, I do not drink. I enjoy going on Safaris with friends who are not drinkers either. We enjoy ourselves thoroughly without the need for alcohol. Occasionally, the PH and others will still have a beer or a glass of wine. I'm fine with that. As long as your drinking does not affect my Safaris in any way, that's your choice if you so imbibe. I have been on hunts where there were drinkers in camp. Most of them were respectful and did not impinge on the safaris or the hunt. There have been a couple of instances when it did, and I am not one to stand down. I recall a pheasant hunt a few years ago where I had arranged a group of 15 hunters, with an outfitter that I booked hunts with regularly. We arrived and were getting ready to hunt, when two trucks pulled into the parking lot and as the men exited their trucks they were drinking. I told the outfitter that they would either leave or we would and we would never book another hunt there again. The two trucks of drinkers left. | |||
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Booze can ruin a lot of things. I had a beer a few days ago for the first time since August of 2019. It was a Guiness in a can. I fixed the air conditioner in my Toyota Sequoia by swapping out some kind of fan under the passenger side dash, and saved myself about $500 worth of work. My father in law handed me the tools (mostly the wrong ones) and we got it done. He said I should drink a beer, and so I did. It was great, but I didn't really want another one. When I was in my 20's I was always the designated driver. Booze doesn't bother me, but I have liver issues from a genetic trait and I stay away from the stuff. Not sure if I was in camp that I would have a drink. Drunk PH or Drunk other clients and problems are an issue. I'd rather keep away from the entire lot. | |||
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