Finding this site over a year ago rekindled a desire from my childhood to hunt in Africa. I've been trying to get a plains game hunt set up for over a year. Today, I finally sent my contract to the outfitter and bought my airline tickets.

I'm going to Namibia in 6 weeks!!!!

Congratulations! Where are you heading?

Drummond

I'll be hunting with Shona Adventures.

I hope this is just the first of many trips to Africa.

dla69,

You're screwed now!!! Once the African bug bites, you'll have the disease for ever!!!

Good luck on the hunt!!!

Have fun. Don't worry to much about anything and just take the days as they come!

quote:

Originally posted by graybird:
dla69,

You're screwed now!!! Once the African bug bites, you'll have the disease for ever!!!

Good luck on the hunt!!!

I hope you're right. That would mean that I had an outstanding hunt.

The anticipation and planning should be just as enjoyable as the actual experience and the memories thereafter. Record them all.

Do yourself a favor and keep a journal of what you are doing to prepare, i.e.:

Record the reasons for your gun and ammo selection. List the reasons you want to take particular animals. Memorialize why you chose your "country" and P.H. Scan a target of load development.. jot down why you chose a particular camera, clothes, airline

A lady friend gave me a leather-bound journal for my last safari. I kept my promise to keep a journal leading up to my trip... but I didn't quit there. I kept writing thoughout the experience and even when I came back. I find it fun to look at what I expected and planned for and to compare what I recorded that happened, then reflected upon when I returned.

Someday I'll use what I wrote to do an anatomy of a safari for my grandchildren to read. I have comments on planning, of course, stuff at the airport, food enroute and at camp, thoughts about folks met, sunsets, folks on the row with me on the planes, customs officials, every darn thing... and of course daily reports of what happened while hunting and, of course, how this particular safari changed my life for the better.. as they all do.

Try it. You'll like it.

I think that a collection of vignettes are priceless to keep your safari alive long after you've returned. Trophies are great and sipping a toddy with a good cigar while a Kudu or a dagga boy look down on you is just fine, but I think it all is greatly magnified if you are reading the exact thoughts you had while making those memories.

Enjoy!!

Thanks for the advice. I plan on taking a journal and making daily entries. I hadn't considered documenting the pre-trip stuff.

Unfortunately the previous posters are correct.

Rather than "getting it out of your system", you will become infected and find that you will live for the next safari.

Every time I land in Africa I am tempted to kneel down and kiss the ground.

Oh gosh! You have gone and done it now! No matter how many more African hunts you take, there is nothing that can ever compare to that first one. You have just taken a laxative that will never allow you to sit still again!

Judge G is absolutely right. I didn't keep a journal while on my first and, so far, only buffalo hunt, but started writing notes about it as soon as I returned, as I wanted to make sure I'd have something to jog my memory as the years go by. Even though I was, and am, only in my mid-fifties, I'd noticed some details of past events weren't coming to mind as quickly as I had always assumed they would.

The notes evolved into an article that was published in a friend of my father's magazine, as well as Ganyana's - no money involved, but kind of neat. I just had a visit from one of the guys on the hunt, and he reminded me of a couple of things I'll make notes of, for future reference.

DLA69, I'm on the road now, but I'll PM you when I return. My wife is from Greensburg originally - you might have known her or her brother. We still go up there a couple of times a year.

Congrats! I made my first trip in 2007, I haven't been able to think of much except getting back! My 2nd trip will be this August and I am going crazy waiting!

The Journal is a great idea!

Congratulations... I can't improve on what advice you have already received. I wish you all the best on your upcoming adventure. Good hunting and shoot straight!

Congrats, practise practise and then practise some more.

I ventured into the 21st century last year. I took my laptop and a web cam. Each evening I would take about 5 to 10 minutes and record the days events etc. I have not editeded it and probably won't just share it with friends in its raw form. I am planning to do the same this year but will get a more compact laptop, I guess what they now call a notebook.

quote:

Originally posted by Die Ou Jagter:
I ventured into the 21st century last year. I took my laptop and a web cam. Each evening I would take about 5 to 10 minutes and record the days events etc. I have not editeded it and probably won't just share it with friends in its raw form. I am planning to do the same this year but will get a more compact laptop, I guess what they now call a notebook.

I've been toying with whether I would take my computer or not. I hadn't considered using my webcam as a video journal.

If I don't take the computer, I could use my MP3 player as an audio recorder.

Thanks for the idea.

dla 69, welcome to the party! You will enjoy Namibia!

Don't fly you will be infected by the africanvirus, and you have to fly again and again.....;-)

..

Congrats - that's the hardest step - booking the first time - all the rest will be easier!

practice shooting off sticks and congrats
Its your first but won't be your last.
Like some said nothing like your first trip
Taking anyone? My 1st trip I went to SA. My wife and 13 year old daughter went. We all had the time of our lives and have the greatest memories.
If you can take the wife or someone special in your life.

quote:

Taking anyone? My 1st trip I went to SA. My wife and 13 year old daughter went. We all had the time of our lives and have the greatest memories.
If you can take the wife or someone special in your life.

I'd love to take the family, but the wife isn't interested and the kids are still a little too young. So I'm going alone.