So I get home after working 12 hours and I'm shuffling through the mail and there's a small package from Branson, Missouri. I kind of pass by it because I get cds and dvds all the time with continuing education on them. Nothing too interesting in the rest of the mail other than my new SCI Safari magazine which I set aside to read at work and go back to the small package and tear it open, out drops a postcard from Pierre' and Anneli telling me that this was the DVD of my plainsgame hunt this past spring in RSA with them! Boy was I surprised! I thought they were in Tanzania hunting, then I remembered reading about someone just getting back from a 21 day hunt with them and low and behold this fellow hunter is from Branson, Missouri!!! Now I'm just conjecturing, but if I had to take a guess at the guy's initials they would be none other than Allen Johnson!!! If it is, let me say a big thank you and I'll buy you all the coffee you can drink if you're ever in Leetonia, Ohio and if not then whoever else just got back from hunting with Pierre' and is from Branson, Missouri a thank you to you as well!!!
Anyhow, let me tell you how good I felt after getting that DVD and watching it. The whole time I was in RSA, Pierre' and his wife Anneli treated me like royaly. Most things I needed were done before I needed to ask and if I did ask for something special it was done as soon as was humanly possible. Considering I'm just a schmuck from Ohio that loves to hunt and worked and saved for a long time to make this trip happen I can't imagine anyone being treated any better than I was and then to go to the trouble to send me a movie of my safari I think qualifies them to be considered a class act.
I know there are an awful lot of very good professional hunters and that it seems like the majority of them really strive to put on a first class safari, but I feel truly blessed to have had the opportunity to hunt with Pierre' and Anneli. I can only dream of returning to Africa right now, but I'm already saving and working towards my next trip, whether it's for the big mountain reedbuck we didn't get a shot at and another kudu or a cape buffalo hunt in Tanzania.
Maybe there are other PH's that video tape a hunt and give the hunter a copy I don't know, what I do know is that Pierre' and Anneli (she ran the video and can really hunt) really made me feel special by this kind and generous gift and I can't wait to get back over there. Hearing Pierre's voice and Anneli's lovely accented voice really made me feel homesick which I can't explain to anyone here in Ohio, maybe some of you fellow hunters can relate.
So Allen, Ray, Saeed and everone else that so graciously helped me let me again say thank you. I have to go get some sleep now, we have a flock of 250 to 300 geese coming into a cornfield that was just cut for ensilage!!!Honey, we're having goose again!!!
Joe

I'm proud to call Pierr'e my adopted little brother (and don't really deserve to do so)... the first problem is that I now lust for my sister-in-law.

My second problem with somewhat of a boost from my public and heart felt praises of the folks is that now I find myself waiting in line to get a chance to hunt with them.

I'd really love to have the time to write a book about the amazing stuff that I've experienced on the several safaris that I've been fortunate to share with the van Tonders. God bless them both (Not just for hunting stuff, but Pierre's military experiences (which this old Marine-semi-warrior can only imagine) and Anneli's Fulbright Duke-trained legal mind, too!). They make whatever sacrifices you make to get to Africa worth every dime. And, if you're lucky, Richard, Anneli's brother, and who is a world-class PH, to boot, will be in camp keeping you in stitches continuously. 1115 and Lee Davenport will attest to his prowess and determination to get you on animals. What a team!

The Selous aside (if one can do that) I pine for the great wine, Moses' gormet meals, hippos grunting, discussion about Chirac, Bush, Kerry, Iraq, labrador retrievers, peanuts as a protien suppliment for third world countries.... Churchill's as a M.P., or as a batallion commander in the trenches, Blixon or Faulkner.. Maybe about Ghandi as a water bearer in the Boer war, you name it, they know it... They are well-read, articulate, infinitely manored, absoutely commited to your comfort and success... and they put up with me.

Anneli has a single sister. I think I'll write her tomorrow.

What a good feeling knowing one will be taken care of and memories of a lifetime will flurish..

Mike

Joe,
Anneli showed me the video before asking me to bring it back and mail it to you. You had a great hunt and did some very good shooting too.

Congratulations.

What Anneli is doing to video hunts for their clients is fantastic. Her South African accent on the video sound as she describes what is going on really adds to the authenticity.

Judge G & others,
Keep up the good PR and soon he will be charging double !

I think I can speak for Pierre and Anneli in their absense in that they and I very much appreciate your praise of them and I will see that this is brought to their attention...

BTW I see only slight price increases that are forced on us by the Tanzania Govt. and air charters, but we have discussed this and decided as opposed to price increases of any large amount that we will instead start double booking clients in our camps...

This has many advantages to all, you will meet new friends, have breakfast and the evening meal with them and some time before and and after that meal to discuss the day, guns, loads and all the things we love...

The short term hunters will be a great help to the long term hunter in that more and plentiful baits will be available, and the short term hunter will get to observe the really neat things that take place on a 21 day hunt such as the dancing and festivities after a Lion kill by the staff, the elephant kills if they wish and a mirage of other neat happenings...yet all will hunt alone and not come in conflict with one another unless, of course, they wish to meet for lunch in the bush someplace...A large group of course will have the camp to themselves as we can only handle so many at one time...The concession are very large and plenty of room without conflict..

For those that are booked for 2006, 2007 and now 2008 no price increases will occur...

We look forward to our future with all of you on AR, and have enjoyed the company of many of you..

Let me give you a little backgroung here...Pierre, Anneli, and I are very close, its not a business proposition, its a father son operation, He lost both his mother and father before the age of 12 and lived by himself and the help of neighbors until he joined the armed services.

He was severly wounded several times and served his country well, but don't expect him to talk about that part of his life. He lived in the bush for a time in a state of grief or just plain battle fatigue, until his brother in Law, and fellow PH Richard Lemmer saved him from himself.

After his coming back to civilization he became a PH in Tanzania and later married Richards sister Anneli, a wonderfully intelligent sweet heart that is highly educated yet can whip up a bush meal fit for a king... ,

Pierre struggled with his business for a number of years and with an inborn faith in God that just came from nowhere other than from within himself, and determined to make his bones in the hunting world, He and I met and on very rocky and funny circumstances,but thats another story in itself, and the rest is history...

He adopted me as his real life father and I him as one of my sons, not just word son, but a real flesh and blood son whom I love dearly...I have found him honest, hard working, loaded with integrity and loves his work, and for that I am proud of him and consider him the best of the best of todays PHs...and to be proud of one of your sons is the best feeling in the world, and I am proud of all my kids, they all have done well by me, and Pierre is included in all our hearts, when we speak of family...He has a real family of his own for the first time in his life...

Hopefully someday I can convience him to write a book, it would be of great interest to all who love the bush, the mountains, the places where we as hunters like to be.....

Thanks Ray.
Frank

I saw Pierre's character last year...First class..

Mike

I hunted with Pierr'e and Anneli last year and I couldn't have asked for anything to be better with the hunt or arrangements. I felt safe and extremely well informed at all times and managed to get what I went to Africa for. The preparation for and the experience of it all, the hunting and using my rifles and loads that I work very hard to get the maximum enjoyment from, then proofed them in the field. For me as a reloader and shooter-hunter that is what it is all about. ----- The thing that impressed me most about them was their devotion to each other and their employees. They love each other and what they do, (Pierr'e calls himself a jungle monkey) and also respect and care for all those they employ in the business. Pierr'e is a pretty good doctor and Anneli a very good nurse for their workers. Bottom line, they are good people that you can count on, through thick and thin. Good shooting.