you're been out all day. sun, wind and bumpy riding. enough to get a man wornout but now you look up towares the sky. its red and pink and orange and purple. it gives the feeling of peace. the glow from the mopane fire and the wisp of smoke drift upwards into the color There are sounds of th night. hippos talk. the zebras with their weird barks. the baboons sheik at a passing leopard. at all jumbles into a quiet. and the sky, its colors are beginning to become muted, softer and darker, as you start the long walk toward your tent the color disappears into the horizon, into the bush, into the peace of night You're a hunter, yo0u understand the peace, the life and the death. you're one of the few that have seen the sky at the beginning. its rush to bring the daylight. and again at its end the sky brings you an understanding of sky. its start and its finish sleep well know that your sky will be around for another day

I hunted Zambia in 2018 & 2019, and was booked for SA for 2020, but it was of course canceled by COVID-19.

I miss Africa already and your post reminded me of that.

Good memories of the hunts, and sundowners around a mopane campfire.

Plus, I have new rifles that need to be introduced to the dark continent...

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Originally posted by surefire7:
I hunted Zambia in 2018 & 2019, and was booked for SA for 2020, but it was of course canceled by COVID-19.

I miss Africa already and your post reminded me of that.

Good memories of the hunts, and sundowners around a mopane campfire.

Plus, I have new rifles that need to be introduced to the dark continent...

my thoughts precisely!

That is why I go....

We all go for the hunting and the beautiful variety of animals and to try out our new firearms, clothing and hunting gear and gadgets. But, for me, it's so so much more than just the hunt. It's the people, the places, the sunsets/sunrises, the geography, the campfires, the differing languages and religions, the different constellations in the Southern Hemisphere, the various cultures and ways of life, the histories of the areas that I hunt, the day to day routines of others (i.e. their dress, gathering wood, water, cooking, their huts/homes, watching them move through their various forms of transportation to other areas-bicycles, the masses of people on buses, ox-carts, beat up trucks and cars, motorcycles, on foot, etc.), the different and delicious foods and drinks, etc. etc. etc. that make me want to return time after time after time. It's talking with my PH, my trackers, skinners, cooks, maids, drivers and local villagers about them and their lives and their own life experiences. Damn, it's easy to get homesick for Africa and its people and animals!

I have a picture just to my left of the red African sunrise through an acacia tree. I remember taking that photo and I remember hearing in the distance the song-response singing by the women from camp. Barely audible, but just enough.
I have goosebumps right now.
kh

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Damn, it's easy to get homesick for Africa and its people and animals!

Amen brother!