Sandy wants to do something with the back yard that includes a fire pit, a place to sit and cooking facilities (maybe with a wood fire).

Since some of my very best memories of Africa are watching the red sunsets pale to purples and pinks by a mopane fire with a Scotch in my hand, I'd like to show her a few that you folks may have experienced.

If you have a picture, please post one and then come to St. Simons Island and enjoy a drink with us when we decide finish our Africa in Georgia.

I just wish that I'd have Lou Hallamore around to tell me about the woman who got hit in the head with an axe and kept on cutting up an elephant, Brent Hein telling about the "dead" lion that resurrected or Pierr'e van Tonder jumping into ANC camps in Tanzania.

I don't need any pictures of Walter with sausage, though.

Got some pictures, folks and add a good story you at your favore fire pit?

Sitting in Chirisa with Phillip of ITS enjoying sundowners. Cameraman Ryan Cox later joined us and regaled stories of the prankster Buzz and Myles are! Glad Phil had a sense of humor but not as twisted as them!

Judge,
My wife's family is from the Brunswick area. If you end up building your braii and firepit area I will have to sneak away from the inlaws for a sundwoner next time in Georgia.
Hunteratheart, that photo of Phillip Smyth and yourself should be on a brochure, beautiful.

Here is one from last year at Matetsi. PH's Guav Johnson and Tinie Kok, my wife and friend in the background.

Judge,

You will need flat stone, grey cement and a couple hundred river pebbles. Depending on your weather a half or full wall with built in braai is a common design if you enjoy outdoor cooking.





Some of the best to be found are in Zim and RSA and I am sure some of the lads will help you out with ideas here.

A plough disc with welded handles is a good base for the fire and makes cleaning up ash easy.

Not looking for a builder are you?

Oftentimes my favorite place for a sundowner is really pretty simple and not very elaborate.


It's the location and not the amenities....


And the people you are sharing the camp with....


Who make the memories special and the sundowners
all the better!

Not exactly a traditional braii, and it's not quite finished (still needs the stone hearth and remove forms), but this is the outdoor fireplace I built for my wife last week at our place in the Hill Country. We are both looking forward to some nice relaxing evenings around it.

Ernest,

My favorite sundowner place but difficult to replicate in a Geogia backyard.

Mark

Of course it's all in what you want to do. The setting is never a substitute for good company or good single malt.
Here is the setup we enjoyed in the Selous

And here is what we have at home

Sometimes you just have to make do.

If you'd like to see a very well done replica of an African brie/BBQ area, all done in stone, check out Wendy Lou Game Ranch near Stephenville, Texas. Mike Odell, the ranch manager is a great guy. The place is owned by a South African. I go there for meat hunts- - discounts on broken-horned eland. How else can you enjoy eland steaks at home in the USA? The ranch is larger than many high fenced operations in SA or Namibia. Cheers!

Hard to beat sundowners on the Zambezi:



My soon to be favorite place for sundowners will be Karunga Camp in Dande East where I will be two weeks from today:



But the reality is that anywhere you have cold Castle and good friends is a great place for sundowners:

quote:

Originally posted by bwanamrm:
Oftentimes my favorite place for a sundowner is really pretty simple and not very elaborate.


It's really the location and not the amenities....


And the people you are sharing the camp with....


Who make the memories special and the sundowners
all the better!

Nice looking place(first and second pic).Where is i?I like places that have hills,and forest and are dry with no mosquitoes.

Bwanamrm,

Great picture and simple is best. Nice mix of natural materials.

Favorite place for a sundowner?
It has to be this place.. My place...

quote:

Nice looking place(first and second pic).Where is i?I like places that have hills,and forest and are dry with no mosquitoes.

Shootaway,
The first picture is in Chewore North at Chifuti's fly camp at Maritsoro Gorge. The second is Mungari Camp in Mozambique, Coutada 11 run by Mark Haldane's Zambeze Delta Safaris. The last picture is my dad relaxing by the Luangwa River in John DuPlooy's Nyaminga camp.

Thanks for the compliment Andrew.

Mike,
I have enjoyed a sundowner or six at Karunga Camp myself a few years back! I hope you get two 70 pounders!

quote:

Originally posted by hunteratheart:
... regaled stories of the prankster Buzz and Myles are! Glad Phil had a sense of humor but not as twisted as them!

Apparently you don't know Phil very well! He must have been on his best behavior!

Ernest I don't have any pictures handy but the best fire pit (to my mind) was in RSA. It was shaped like a Banjo. They would build the fire in the round area and they had grates to set over the neck part and would just shovel the hot coals in to the neck with the grates for cooking. It was very nice. I am thinking of doing the same in my yard and I have a large piece of steel about 2" thick which I have used in the past as a flat top in addition to the grates.

This is the best I have seen to date.

Uitspan Hunting in Namibia Michael and Tienie are wonderful hosts as well.

quote:

Apparently you don't know Phil very well! He must have been on his best behavior

I'm just glad Ryan didn't mention about the bound monitor lizard under the covers in bed or super glue in the boots until the end of the hunt! Didn't need Phil getting any other ideas. Screaming "lion" and tucking/rolling while we were walking along was bad enough.

I'll take any of them...so long as my brother is there too...

Ernest, how about a Brai, like those from HomeFires.com.za?

Man just about anywhere! Here is one from 2011...We were in SOuth Africa, it was cold, and we had hunted hard---very hard...one of my fav. pic's Louis van Bergen and myself just setting quietly looking at the bush tv....very relaxing!

Lemco's Samayanga camp with friends Rick & Kathi Klimes, Wayne Williamson and Terry Fenn. End of an amazing trip on top of sundowner rock!

quote:

Originally posted by Blacktailer:
Of course it's all in what you want to do. The setting is never a substitute for good company or good single malt.
Here is the setup we enjoyed in the Selous

On the banks of the Lungonyo River with the springs beyond the left side of the photo. The Ngwara camp is no more since the springs dried up and the block has changed hands as of this year.

Mark, that's a very nice picture.

Mike, in the grass just below the railing in that Dande East pic, I startled a very large monitor...well, more like we startled each other. That thing was big!