Well, today I should be returning to Canada from my 10th safari .. up to my hips in new hunting sagas ... and perhaps even a photo or two of the great wide kudu bull (that just has to be 1/2" smaller than the 58" bull that my wife shot on the Devuli in '92) I really should shoot some day .. But some times things go south ... I returned in late July from a buffalo hunt in East Arnhemland in far off Oz ... The food was scarce, tasteless ... and the travel overland back to Darwin took two days ... without hotel rooms available in Darwin I even spent a couple of those last two days sleeping at night in the old truck .. My wife and I arrived back in Canada and I must say that unlike my normal 6 weeks of loafing in Namibia every year .. and showing up in Canada heavily tanned and rested ,,, I arrived back exhausted. Walked into my house that night and found a note from my grown up son saying he had been tossed out of his brand new house by his wife and was now living with us .. Aaarrgghhhh !!! So the next week was spent trying to get him a new place .. recovering from the 15 1/2 hour jet lag .. getting everything ready for Namibia ... A doctor had given me prescription for a powerful antibiotic because he thought my cold was getting close to bronchitis .. and had also taken me off a prescription medicine and given me an older style drug ... (Acid Reflux stuff) ... I reckon that it was like the Perfect Storm ... even though my regular doctor had just given me my annual check up and I'm well in such things as blood pressure and cholestorol and such ,.... I really couldn't keep my food down ... Margaret and I left for Frankfurt .. clutching my tickets worth nearly $7,000 ... I arrived in Frankfurt dehydrated .. throwing up any time that I ate ... and knowing that the remote bush .. 6 hours from Windhoek by road was no place to get better ... I told my wife that we had to go back ... She was thankful .. I was just so sick .. Air Canada was nice enough to fly us first class back .. (not that I could enjoy the goodies but the seat was the best ..) and today .. three weeks later they still haven't found my two gun cases even though I tell them every few days that they are in the lockup in the Windhoek airport where my friend saw them as she waited in vain for us to get off the jet ... I got back to Canada .. hid myself in my house .. told no one for about 5 days that we were back .. I just wanted to get better .. took about 5 days for the sense of humor to return .. maybe another three or four days for the food to stay down and my appetite to come back .. Three weeks later I am better now than before I left for Australia . I did the right thing and I suppose stuff like this happens occasionally .. Oh, yeah .. A week ago last Tuesday a big fire swept through the property where we have our little hunting camp ... just missed our camp .. turned much of that area into a moon scape and killed a lot of game ... Who knows .. if we had been caught in it .. might have been fried ... To those on safari or about to go .. enjoy .. and don't worry about me .. I'll be back ...

Get Well

And start planning for next year.


TerryR

Sounds like you had a bad day at blackrock! WOW! Get back on your feet, and in the woods, that's the best cure there is for your long term health! Get well, and go hunting.

Hope u get well soon, Sounds terrible maybe u should skip Aus next time and keep to Africa

Get well soon!

Sounds like you made a good decision to turn back.

I hope you get feeling better.

Hope you're feeling better soon. Sounds like a heck of an ordeal.

Recently read an eamil report on another bush fire in Namibia - are they worse this year becasue the heavy rains last year???

Phil

Scruffy,

You know, everything happens for a reason. Get well regroup and hunt next year.

Better tomorrows for sure!

I forget the exact names now, but there is a pair of very sucsessful British mountain climbers, now retired, who only made it to the top of 12.5% of the mountains they attempted.

Sucsessful?? Yeah, they made it to retirement. When the weather went to shit they always said, "Hey bro', let's get off this 'effing mountain." And they did.

Alex Lowe, George Mallory, Rob Slater (my climbing instructor and occaisional partner) and many other extremely talented climbers, famous and unknown lie dehydrated on the rocks or crushed in the crevasses across Pakistan, Nepal, China and India.

You just had a sucsessful expedition .

Nothing like a familiar bed after an adventure of any length.

LD

Well put LD ...

My thoughts are with you...I am still sitting at home nursing a Kidney Stone attack that started with surprise on the date of departure for Mozambique, August 17th...since then I have delivered one small horny stone and a monster 6.5mmx7.5mm stone last Sunday evening...no hospitals and no pain killers!!...since then 5 more minute stones with no symptoms...all due to the hot Seattle summer, not enough water...and one of my wife's nurses sending wondeful berries for us to "enjoy!!...along with the Costco peanuts and peanut butter...and summer iced teas...I mmy not travel this summer...my partner starts the hunt (delayed)on Tuesday...with or without me...ain't fun!!...and PH had a cancellation so there would be a buff tag available along with my hippo and croc...and a lion and leopard my partner is going for...still wiping tears!!pissing and moaning...and that's no pun!!

Potential kidney stones and broken bones--always good reason to take some Percocet on hunting trips away from civilization.

Whoever said, 'Timing is everything,' while correct, is a real jerk ...