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When you give your passport to someone to stamp. make sure the one you get back is yours. Call you credit card companies and tell them where you will be when. Also make copies of your CC, both sides. Write down the international phone # for them. Just my .02 cents worth. Enjoy your trip. | |||
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There are no stupid questions. The advice given in this forum is well versed. Go and embellish the sight and sounds of Africa. Taste the culture and smell the smoke. | |||
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Pack one half of what you were going to take and take twice the money. Take a good and complete set of meds and a long lasting, lower power LED flashlight. Turn off the roaming on your cell phone. Put work and the rest of the world on hold and enjoy your trip without interruptions. Cheers, Steve | |||
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Turn off the DATA on your cell phone also - the data costs overseas are very high. Flashlights - bring several, keep on clipped on your back pack at all times. If there is a power outage, fire or other disaster, it will possibly save your life. Especially at some third world countries where electrical service is not as reliable as here in the states, or in a hotel, where it may be hard to find your way out in a fire. Cameras - bring one each, that use the same batteries and chargers, bring a couple extra cards for the cameras. A couple USB thumb drives are also nice for sharing pictures. Along with my IPAD, I got a flash card to iPad adaptor so I could load pictures direct to iPad. Ipad - great for bringing movies and books on plane, great of killing time while stuck en route. Also has note pad function, great for keeping journal. I also bring headphones ( travel a lot ) that allows me to ignore a less than polite seat mate. Or, you to watch movie without waking wife up. If you are not flying first class, buy a couple sets of eye blinders, they help a lot sleeping thru multiple time zones. First class usually has these in your seat. I've always got an extra just in case. For me - I always bring a bottle of hot sauce - sometimes camp food is a bit...... plain. A thing of Tony Chacere's seasoning is always welcomed by the cook as a leave behind. I also like a box of Emergn C powder, it's vitamin C powder that mixes into water like Koolaid, I can also report that it is OK when added to vodka on the rocks! Again, bring enough to share. All that above. fits into a lunch bag sized bag, mainly in your carry on. Don't carry on the hot sauce, TSA will take it away from you, pack that. The rest of the advice you got here is pretty spot on. Master of Boats, Slayer of Beasts, Charmer of the fair sex, ...... and sometimes changer of the diaper..... | |||
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This video is better IMO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23eimVLAQ2c Hunting: Exercising dominion over creation at 2800 fps. | |||
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I don't won't to piss off the bowhunters and I see you are carrying a bow. But here is my thing. You are in Africa for your first time. Why do you want to spend it sitting in one of those Mamba pits for hours on end? Get out and walk around. Make some stalks with a rifle. Or a bow if you are good enough. I hunt, not to kill, but in order not to have played golf.... DRSS | |||
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On my first safari to Africa I had taken a very lightweight, quick drying shirt. It was a favorite of mine, but when one of the PH's staff tried to iron it, they totally ruined it. Using a very hot iron to kill parasitic eggs is very common and many expensive synthetic materials don't take well to extremely hot irons. Better check your hunting togs and make sure they can withstand river washing and hot irons, or else make sure they are handwashed and air dried only. BH63 Hunting buff is better than sex! | |||
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The one piece of advice I would give: unless you are ABSOLUTELY sure you will make only this one trip, DO NOT MOUNT EVERYTHING YOU SHOOT. Rule of thumb, if it's a common pg species, take photos unless it's truly exceptionsl and even then consider a Euro mount with a flat skin. If it's a desirable PG species, Euro mount is fine unless it's exceptional in which case go with a shoulder mount. I can predict that as a bowhunter, you are not going to take anything exceptional. You will be doing well to take a "representative male". Taxidermy and the associated shipping is hugely expensive and stressful and you will soon need to add to your house if you mount everything. If you ever move (most people move 12x), you will regret having a wall full of mediocre mounts. You are young and have a lifetime of African hunts ahead of you. You will shoot a half dozen impala, warthog etc during that time. Don't mount the first one you shoot. Russ Gould - Whitworth Arms LLC BigfiveHQ.com, Large Calibers and African Safaris Doublegunhq.com, Fine English, American and German Double Rifles and Shotguns VH2Q.com, Varmint Rifles and Gear | |||
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Russ, I wish I could have read this 10 years ago. I hunt, not to kill, but in order not to have played golf.... DRSS | |||
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"I strongly suggest you don't take or wear ANY quick dry garment in Africa because pretty much none of them can be properly ironed and if it can't be ironed with a HOT iron the bot fly can lay it's eggs on the damp garment as it's being sun dried and then you can end up with a bot fly larvae in your body....... and if you don't know how unpleasant it is to have even one of those horrible things dug out of your body, just watch THIS Every single item you take/wear/launder in Africa should be ironed before you wear it & cotton is the best option by a country mile." Very good advice for general African hunting. However, the Eastern Cape is a pretty safe place. Some (not all) areas have pepper ticks that can give tick-bite fever, but I have never even seen a bot-fly and have been living here for over forty years. | |||
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Taxidermy is horseshit! We don't hunt for taxidermy we hunt for memories, if you can get past the trophy aspect of it you will have a much more enjoyable experience. I have been screwed twice by expeditors and trophy shipments and I have neither shipment in my hands today and have quite caring about it. Hunt because you like to hunt, it is a safari not a museum collecting expedition. | |||
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Agreed. I travel in tan dockers, tan or olive green shirt, hiking shoes, and a medium weight fleece jacket. I also care a change of shirts, socks, and underwear in my carry-on. DSC Life Member NRA Life Member | |||
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Take doxycycline for tick bite fever. I got it there. If you think you may have it the doxy will help quickly. As stated keep binds, melds, flashlights, cameras in carry on bag. Bring extra camera. Give it to PH and ask him to take photos of you, especially candid ones they will be the best of trip. Take more photos than you think you need. You will be thankful in the end. Relax and let it flow don't stress, it all works out well. | |||
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Take a bunch of LifeSavers candies and some chewing gum for the PH/trackers. They love 'em, but hand out sparingly! I gave one of my trackers a handful of LifeSavers one morning and he ate them all in about 5 minutes. | |||
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Everyone has different opinions on taxidermist mounts, but to me each mount means much more to me than just a head of an animal I've killed. For example I have two shoulder mounts of Cape Buffalo (hopefull 3 by the end of this year). Each mount is a reminder of the buffalo as an individual, and the circumstances that brought us together on the day of the kill. For one head, it is also a reminder of the leopard who stuck his head into the "tree house" one night as I was sleeping and then stared at me for a couple of seconds, and then, just as silently disappeared. Without the tracks on the ground below, I might have thought it just a dream. It is a reminder of the 4 bulls who peeled off from the herd, and except for the sharp eye of the PH, might have ambushed us from behind as we moved slowly through the thick tangle of brush and trees following the herd. It is a memory of the 70+ year old tracker "Chatzi", who lived alone in a small hut, surrounded by teams of dangerous animals. A man who seemed to know that "his" buffalo did, even before the buffalo. He once put me behind a tree and told me to wait there. Within 30 minutes an entire herd of Cape Buffalo was walking straight towards the tree. Not wanting to become one with the earth, I leaned out from behind the tree to move the buffalo in a different direction, when they were less than 40 yards from me and the PH. The other buff mount brings back the memory of the sharp smell of buff, on a tortuously hot day in Zimbabwe, as we tracked him and two other bulls, up and down steep ravines, moving so ever so close, yet unable to see anything other than a few square inches of black, hide lying in the thick, dusty brush. It is a reminder of drinking a cold Castle, as I relaxed before the final stalk; the three bulls lying out in the middle of an opening, with my bull, lying under the single tree. I had asked the PH "To let two old men, enjoy the afternoon, before the final stalk". The memories of sitting in the shade on top of a little ridge, sipping my beer and anticipating what comes next, while the PH anxiously keeps an eye on the bulls through his binos, will stick with me forever. Finally, feeling sorry for the PH, I said "Let's finish this." and together we leopard-crawled through the dry, knee high grass until no more than 30 yards from the resting bull. Knowing something was up, the bull came to his feet, broadside, but with head turned facing us. I shot, the bull humped up for a second, and then I shot twice more, putting the 400 gr Barnes solid into his shoulder. As I reloaded, the bull locked onto the sound, gave a short bellow and charged. "He is coming." I said quietly to the PH, who never took his binos off the wounded bull. At less than 20 yards, I raised my rifle once again, but suddenly the old bull fell. The trackers gave out a shout of joy, as the bull gave his last mournful death bellow. The hunt was over. That is really the beauty and value of a hunt IMO. The trophies are wonderful reminders that can take you back in time to those simple days of kill or be killed. But mounts are expensive and take up wall space. I guess it is mainly a matter of how important are those individual animals in regards to your lifestyle and passions. BH63 Hunting buff is better than sex! | |||
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I like to take the individually wrapped Werther's caramel hard candies in my pack. I hand them out periodically during the day. DSC Life Member NRA Life Member | |||
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This is exactly what goes on in my trophy room with many mounts! Thank you for explaining to me as well as others! Best regards, D. Nelson | |||
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When I was younger I longed to have rooms and rooms of taxidermy filled to the ceiling. We have some, we have some skulls but the taxidermy went from being the reason I hunt to an after thought. To me it is about the experience, and I know too many people who have had bad taxidermy or too much taxidermy ruin their experience. I have a photo of the baboon I took on the run at 500 yards as he ran left to right across the hill in front of me. It was the best shot of my life, "dumb luck" played a major part of that shot. I'd like to have a flat skin of him, but he and the other 24 members of that safari were taken from me by a crooked expeditor 11 years ago, a long with a ton of hard earned cash (who steals from a military enlisted man on active duty?). Coppersmith tried to make it right, but it never materialized. The odds are better now, but still pretty good you will go back to Africa several times. Eventually you'll have enough DT's (dead things) to fill up the house. The cost of taxidermy is enough that you'll spend as much or more on the taxidermy bill than you do on the hunt. It may be that connection that you are trying to preserve. I don't see it that way, I don't need the physical reminder in the form of a stuffed member of the African wildlife club to remind me of that moment. Too much effort is placed on taxidermy by first time hunters, and they are better off concentrating on going back to Africa and getting a stack of skulls or flat skins made with the animals. They can use what they saved to bank roll another safari. I would say it depends greatly on the person. Some people are hunters, and some people are shooters and quite a few people are collectors. I have probably been all three in my lifetime. | |||
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Thanks again for all the helpful comments. . . It's been fun to read, as I go about planning. We're very excited, and it can't come soon enough I'll weigh in on this taxidermy issue. . . Even though I'm only 34, I'm only moving twice more (I've moved like 14 times already through schools, marriage, etc.)--I'm moving to the hill 1/2 mile from my present house when my wife and I finally build our dream home, then I'm moving to the nursing home. . .  I like taxidermy, but I'm very fluid. I have a pretty much equal amount of skull mounts v. shoulder mounts. As I kill more stuff, my standards of course change. I killed a good whitetail last year that I would have mounted without hesitation 5 or more years ago, but I just had a skull mount done, as I have several bigger on the wall. I am not pre-planning on mounting anything from this trip. I'm going to take it as it comes. For example, I don't have a great desire to take a blesbuck, but probably will if the opportunity presents itself (I don't plan to turn down much ), so I'd probably get a skull mount if I killed one. However, if I kill a kudu or bushbuck with my bow, I'm getting a full shoulder almost certainly Thanks again. Enjoying the thread | |||
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If you do carry an iPad, get the Apple adapters to download your pictures to your iPad. that way, you can look at them on a big screen AND, more importantly, have a back up of your SD card (pictures). Apple to SD card http://www.apple.com/shop/prod...d-card-camera-reader Apple to USB http://www.apple.com/shop/prod...o-usb-camera-adapter Hunting: Exercising dominion over creation at 2800 fps. | |||
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