June seems so far away. By the time I get back to Zimbabwe, it will have been almost exactly a year since I smelled the Mopane fire with a sundowner in my hand. Since I heard the "Go-away" bird. Since I heard the soft voice of one of the campstaff trying to wake me up gently. Since I got to see all of the things that I don't get to see here at home.........
The roars of the lions at night. The coughs of the leopard. The elephants trumpets. The disgruntled hippos.
Why do I live here and not the place my heart calls me to...........

And when you try to explain Africa to somebody who has never been.

Ain't that the truth. I tell all my friends that seem to be jealous of me going to not EVER go to the Mistress.

I think I got one up on all of you.

We got so many kids come over here to shoot - many have never shot before.

Once they start shooting, and see all the safari photos we have all over the walls here, apparently all they tell their parents is they cannot wait to grow up and go on safari!

Saeed, My friend.
As long as they can afford to spend the money we spend, it's ok. If they are poor, don't get them started. Africa never gets out of your system Sir.

I'll be scratching my itch in June! It's been 4 years since the last trip and the itch is quite severe!!!

I am within days of making a deposit on my first ever trip for PG to RSA. 10 days and my wife is coming along!

Can you miss something you have never actually experienced?

I think so.

I have been to africa, in the bush, just not with a rifle.

I have spent the last 40 years hunting with a rifle in the U.S.

I connect the dots and....I miss it.

None of you have even the foggiest of ideas how much you will miss it when you know for absolute sure you will never go back. I was lucky enough to make 8 safaris to Zimbabwe and make some wonderful friends (actually a second family of Zimbabweans as they accepted me as one of their own as my wife had just passed away before my first trip) shoot most all the game they have except Lion and store up memories that I will have till my death. As I sit here now and look at the Tusks on the coffee table (not big around 47 and 43 lbs)I can even feel the recoil as I fired the 416Rigby and hear the trumpet and furor of the herd scattering as we were right in the middle of them. I knew then it was the last one and I had to savor it which I did. And here at 80 I still do. In my mind each season I still prepare and imagine 'what if' knowing that health,age and finances are the reality of what remains of my life. So have at it and enjoy to your fullest, even if you don't deserve it you really do. I'm with you fully for the whole trip.

Zimbabwe,
I hope I meet my maker before I get to that point, but if I don't, I also have the "memories" to look at. At least you did it as long as you could.

It's been 2.5 years since I was home & another 1.5 years before I go there again.
I was born in the USA, but Africa is home.

I'm one of the few lucky american souls how has got to live here. when I'm away I miss it everyday. At the airport in Nairobi they say welcome home in kswahilli. because there belief is everyone in from africa. so your coming home

6 weeks and counting. this is the first year i have had 2 African trips in the works( Namibia in June). I CAN'T WAIT TO GET BACK!!!

quote from tarbe:I am within days of making a deposit on my first ever trip for PG to RSA. 10 days and my wife is coming along!

Tarbe, there is still time to save yourself!!! Take it from one who alreadt has the desease. Once you are infected there is no cure. You can only alieve the cravings and daydreams by going back adain and again. Your friends will say behind your back "Don't ask him about AFRICA, we'll never get out of here." You will start looking for bigger calibers. Then the "Double Berrel Fever." Next you are addind a wing on the house for the trophies.

If you do go, just take consolation that there are lots of us on this forum who can talk you down when you get the shakes. I find that sometimes a glass of Amarula and acopy of "Months of the Sun", "The Green Hills of Africa", or "Horn of the Hunter" will get me by a severe episode, at least for a while.

Bob

quote:

Originally posted by venda axe:
Your friends will say behind your back "Don't ask him about AFRICA, we'll never get out of here." You will start looking for bigger calibers. Then the "Double Berrel Fever." Next you are addind a wing on the house for the trophies.


Bob

Holy Crap!! My picture's on that dictionary page.

In all reality it takes 2-3 years for me to save enough to go on any kind of African adventure.
There are lots of other places I want to visit so I have put Africa on the back burner for awhile. There just one problem. I cant stay of this damn forum! My wife even ask me why I torture myself.
To quote my Romanian friend "its a sickness"

Zimbabwe,
I hope you have friends at home that you can sit and trade stories with, but even if you don't, you have them here. Think how much duller your life would be today without those amazing memories, and be glad time has not taken those memories.
Stay well,

Mike

+1 All the above.

Haven't been there yet but already infected!!!

First you see the sunset.
Than you take your first trophy.
Then you plan your next trip - usually on the flight home.
Than you tell your family how great it is.
Than you tell your coworkers and friends how great it is.
Than you start looking at "stopping rifles".
Than you go again.
Than you tell people how much better it was the first time and how it is all going to hell and your children will never experience it.

Happened with our Grandfathers,our Fathers, it's happening with us and will happen with our Children.

Rick - when did you turn into such a romantic?

Seriously, when I pour myself a dram of 18 year old single malt and close my eyes, I can drift away back to Zimbabwe. There is nothing like the smell of a mopane fire anywhere in the world. Add the hyenas howling, the lions roaring all night, and the "camp leopard" coughing as he wanders up to the skinning shed to see if the boys left him any scraps, and you have pure paradise in my mind. I fly back to Zim on 19 August to hunt with Mike Payne in the Save Conservancy - how about you?

after 19 trips the magic still calls

I finally made my first trip over last May.........and I've thought about it every single day I've been back. You guys were right.....there's something about it you just cannot explain to people who have never been. I'm hoping to head back, to Namibia, this May. Ain't nothing like it.

Was in Zim in 2012, SA in 2013.
Going back to the Limpopo in SA this summer.
The above posts about the call of the birds, the trophies and the sundowners and everything else really brings back memories.
I am counting the days.

I will have been on 6 safaris before 40...I feel very lucky to have hunted a good bit "in my youth". 2015 the big 40..and with that I hunt the largest game on earth...bull elephant!

Ed

Dave,
I'm leaving the 16th of June so I will be smelling the Mopane fire before you will.
Romantic? ME??? I'm just homesick, that's all.
I never should have taken the first trip. I'd of been a lot of money ahead. Damn, it's still over 4 months away and already I'm getting ready. Only packed and repacked my gear once so far.
Butchloc.
If I get to make/afford 19 trips, I will be a lucky man. Good on you
JGR
I thought I was the only special one. Dang. No, all of us that have been there yearn to go back. Hell, on the first trip over, before we ever left, I asked my wife if she could live there. When I woke up, I felt better.
df06
We all are.
505ED
I don't think I can afford a bull yet but hopefully someday. Good for you

Yes, like everyone on here I miss Africa and if I was in the appropriate income bracket I would go back once or twice a year. There is no doubt that Africa has a certain magic that is unique, especially the truly wild places where you can hear the lions roar at night, as well as the night sounds of leopard, hyena and hippos down by the water.

But I would be lying if I didn't say that I feel just as strong a tug from other wild places up here in Canada's north where I can go and never see another human being for weeks at time. Where you see the fresh tacks of a grizzly along the shore of the lake, where the fall colours are absolutely brilliant in the crisp cool air, the white manes of caribou bulls as they trot through the tundra and the grunts of a rut crazed bull moose. The cold clear waters you can drink right out of the stream.

That beckons to me just as strong.

Skyline, I hear you. As much as I enjoy Africa, the snowy North is such a special place. Nothing in the world beats tracking in the snow... And when its zero degrees ( C or F), then you really smell, and enjoy, that campfire! God bless all hunters.

that, of course, assumes you can find something to burn- not to mention, of course that it need to be dry. both criteria are in short supply on the tundra! tundra hunts are past my desires as i have gotten older. been there done that, have the frostbitten toes to prove it....but Africa?? i will continue to go until i am physically unable.

My two favorites-

"Africa is undoubtedly a most fascination wild mistress. She gets a tenacious hold on most persons; bewitching, magnetic, that is almost irresistible, and once experienced, is NEVER lulled into forgetfulness."
May French Sheldon 1891

"And, so if you meet a hunter who has been to Africa and he tells you what he has seen and done, watch his eyes as he talks, for they will not see you. They will see sunrises and sunsets such as you cannot imagine, and a land and a way of life that is fast vanishing. And always he will tell you how he plans to go back."
Author: David Petzer

quote:

Originally posted by JGRaider:
I finally made my first trip over last May.........and I've thought about it every single day I've been back. You guys were right.....there's something about it you just cannot explain to people who have never been. I'm hoping to head back, to Namibia, this May. Ain't nothing like it.

JGR: If you decide to hunt with Jan du Plessis at Sebra Hunting Safaris you'll have the time of your life. I've hunted with him twice and am going back with him in 2015 to hunt with my granddaughter.

It's been a decade sense I've been to Africa. I had conceded that I would never be able to return. But somehow I’ve found the means to rekindle the dream. Just paid my deposit! Zimbabwe 2015!

I was looking forward to hunting with Sebra, but it's not working out. Sent you a PM.