My wife and I returned last night from an 8 day hunt with Elaine and Cornie Coetzee of CEC Safaris. We had a fantastic time and my wife took 4 animals on her first hunt. She shot fantastic and the performance of the 120 grain Barnes Triple Shock in 7-08 were hard for Cornie and I to believe.

This hunt was fantastic in many ways and I have much information I need to relay to members. First of all they hunt a huge area bordering the southern border of Etosha Park. Some of this area is tracts of 100,000 acres high fenced and other just cattle fenced.

The lodge is brand new and very comfortable. No expense was spared from huge solar panels, a $25,000 battery bank, a very modern kitchen to a complete meat processing operation.

I met Cornie and Elaine on my first trip to Africa in 1995. They were running the hunting camp for Jan Oelofse then.

This area bordering Etosha was settled long ago by German cattle and sheep ranchers and many of the farms are still owned by the original families. I met so many interesting people and saw so many pictures from the early 1900's to the present that I am unable to tell you about them all.

One thing I learned there has been a vicious war between farmers and lions going on for over 100 years. I met one 70 year old German farmer that can not remember how many lions over 100 he has shot with his enfield 303. The same 303 that he carried for 4 hours of constant walking through the bush 1 day and 3+ the next day while I accompanied him,Cornie and 2 other farmers. This war is still going on and I was in the middle of it for 8 days. When a lion crawls under the Etosha fence and enters a farm neighbors are called and the war begins. However these lions know everything about farmers and how to hide. Just for example, the 2 days of walking I describe above was through an area I guess as 1000 acres. This 1000 was part of an 100,000 acre farm. The lion had entered the farm at night and layed up in this tract surrounded by sandy roads. We started walking through this area in a line with 6 hounds ranging in front of us. With no luck that afternoon we came back before daylight the next day (which was my last day) to listen for roaring. We did not hear any so we started looking for tracks. The lion had walked out of that 1000 acre track,watered, wandered around and gone back into it. So again we searched for 3+ hours until I had to get ready to leave. I saw hundreds of his tracks and placed my 375 cartridge in several of them, it fit perfectly in his large pad. I have never been so amazed by an animal. But this is a normal event for these farmers.

I will have pictures soon. My wife did a tremendous job having never hunted in her life. I will give a further report soon.

Sounds fantastic.....I am looking forward to you pics!

Congratulations to you & your wife!

Regards,
Dave

Mike, I do so well know the truth about those lions.

Nothing on this earth is smarter or more wicked than a cattle-killing Etosha lion.

I spent a week of my life hunting and killing one of them, and it is something I don't know if I do or don't want to do again!

I anxiously await your full report and photographs!

mrlexma, you may be the best American to really tell us about these lions. Your adventure with Vaughan was breathtaking.

One note, do not take a cd of pictures in your carryon. I just found out that our cd with the pictures of the hunt was erased during the xray. I have taken 2 other cds of hunt pictures through with no problem. Elaine has the pictures on her laptop so she will load them on another cd and when she goes to Windhoek she will have them sent to me. So things will work out but there will be a delay.

One note about travel, this was my 14 trip to Africa and the best!!!! We flew overnite to Frankfurt on Delta, took the airport shuttle to the Holiday Inn Express, showered took a nap then went into town. At 10:45 p.m. we took the Air Namibia MD 11 to Windhoek. I can tell you that is the way to go. We sat in the 4 seat center section both ways so had all 4 seats. But even without that the seats are the largest and have the most legroom of any carrier. I have flown the 747 numerous times and the dreadful Airbus twice and the MD 11 has them beat easily!

Did you check your guns and luggage thru to Wind Hoek?

Any problems in Frankfurt?

Hello Terry,

Yes I checked my guns through to Windhoek and everything went just fine. You can't believe how good the 120 grain Triple Shocks performed.

quote:

One note, do not take a cd of pictures in your carryon. I just found out that our cd with the pictures of the hunt was erased during the xray.

CD's cannot be erased by Xray. Check the sites about images on CD and you will see that this does not happen.

Now back to hunting.

quote:

Originally posted by MLindsay:
Hello Terry,

Yes I checked my guns through to Windhoek and everything went just fine. You can't believe how good the 120 grain Triple Shocks performed.

Sure glad all went well for you.

Cunningham, You are smarter than me, I just thought that is what happened. I am just good at killing things. I wonder what is wrong, any ideas?

Thanks

Mike:

I have "heard" that they can be erased by X-ray of checked luggage, but not x-ray of hand luggage.

Congratulations, it sounds like you had a great time. I am looking forward to your report. My wife and I are headed to Namibia in September. I am taking a similar rifle to the one your wife used and I really like the BTX bullets.

Digital data (i.e. digital photos) cannot be destroyed by X-ray, but they can be damaged by subjecting them to a magnetic field. If the digital photos went through a metal detector, they could have been damaged, but it's unlikely the X-ray scanner would have harmed them. Some tests have indicted that the mild magnetic field caused by walk through or hand held metal detectors won't affect digital photos either. I would not willingly subject my digital photos to a magnetic field if I could avoid it, however.

This is exactly the opposite to the reaction of film, which can be fogged by X-rays, but is impervious to magnetic fields.

Here is some more info:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0412/04121602digitalfilmxray.asp

By the way, great trip!