My Life on Safari by Geoff Broom
Above average "PH written safari book". Boddington's help made the book fairly readable. Best parts were the descriptions of his early life and what spurred him to hunt rather than be a farmer/rancher in Zim. He was never an ivory hunter, but a PH for his adult life. I had the impression that Geoff and his son, Russ, were long time partners in Zim and Zambia, but learned that both have bounced from country to country due to opportunities or changes of government. It comes across very clear that Geoff has a loyal following of clients that like his style and the type of operation he runs. I got the impression that he never really made any money in the business and that his "pay" was getting to be a PH.

One note, the quality of the printing and the composition of the book is not as good as you would expect. The printing is crammed onto each page and there are limited pictures and no artwork.

He is a guy you or I would love to hunt with due to his knowledge and personality.

Overall, I rate this a 6 out of 10, could be a 7 if the quality of the book itself were better and made for easier reading. I recommend this book with slight reservations as there is no real new information or story types in the book.

A review by the African Gazette that may be of interest


A Life on Safari
by

PH Geoff Broom with Craig Boddington; published by Mission Trail Media, LLC
By Brooke ChilversLubin

Only several dozen names represent the real backbone of the modern safari industry. To a list that includes Harry Selby, Volker Grellman, Robin Hurt, Peter Johnstone, Danny McCallum, Mark Kyriacou, Basie Maartens, etc., the name Geoff Broom has its own proud place.

From Matetsi to Longido, Broom’s knack to know of knowing where to be and when, brought him a huge 35+-year safari career with hundreds, if not thousands, of trophy book entries by his loyal clientele. At 72, Broom can still be found migrating each year to the safari convention floor.

Perhaps the publication of his attention-holding 235-page autobiography indicates a readiness to slow down – if only for the sake of his darling, courageous wife, Susan, who has followed him through it all for 50 years. As too many PHs and their wives know, a lifetime entwined in the African safari industry is too often scarred by the leaving behind – often without notice or reason - of cherished homesteads, farms, hunting concessions and camps lovingly carved out of the wilderness – each lettuce leaf and marigold the result of an almost absurd amount of human investment.

Then the starting over, which at least allows you to offer a new destination to your clients. New campsite, new trails, the training of new staff, new garden, new landing strip; holding on through the forces of doom – natural or political - until it is time to call it quits – once again. The cooks and trackers you will never see again, the tomatoes that finally ripen then die from neglect when you’re gone. Although the Brooms have not been spared, they have often been blessed with fresh chapters of life.

It’s no surprise that Broom is the grandson of one the pioneers who accompanied Cecil John Rhodes to Matabeleland in 1890 (Jack Harvey lived to be 98, and was the last surviving Pioneer); or that the first dozen years of his hunting career were as an extension officer in the remote Tjolotjo area of then-Rhodesia, adjacent to Wankie National Park, controlling cattle-raiding cats and crop-stomping elephant while Susan raised the three babies – two daughters and the well-known PH Russ Broom.

A Life on Safari starts with Geoff growing up as a Ndebele-speaking, ostrich-egg- stealing bush kid who received his first rifle – a .22 Remington bolt action – at age seven; who progressively hunted bushbuck, kudu and Cape buffalo with his dad, shooting his first elephant by 15, learning that '“one good shot was worth 10 poorly placed ones.'†These wonderful chapters capture an African childhood that is now surely extinct.

By 1951, Broom took over the management a 60,000-acre beef ranch where leopards killed several hundred calves each year, which served to develop his skill as a '“cat man.'†In 1955, he heard the chirpy voice of the new telephone operator, checked her out, courted and married her. Broom’s entertaining ‘pre-PH’ stories include his hunting the elephants that moved into the ranch either from Wankie or from eastern Botswana during periods of acute drought. Equally good are his experiences ivory hunting in Mozambique with a Winchester .458, with ammunition that failed him dangerously, almost fatally.

But the definitive moment was when, in late 1960s, the Brooms acquired a huge game-rich ranch in the Matetsi and started sport trophy hunting there. The first clients paid $50 a day; that, plus the fees for about 15 trophies, added up to a $4,000 price tag for 21 days! This hilly paradise in north-west Zimbabwe, just south-east of Victoria Falls and north of Hwange National Park, held southern greater kudu, Livingstone’s eland, waterbuck, Cape buffalo, elephant – and great sable.

Eden on the land they had bought and developed and managed for ever-better trophies lasted about 12 years. When Mugabe nationalized it, Broom purchased the concession rights from the government each year. Then even that right was gone; and the Brooms would not be compensated for the loss of their famously beautiful home and expensive equipment.

After eliminating the idea of hunting in Congo/Zaire (see book excerpt), in 1980 the Brooms instead went on to become well-known operators in Zambia. Owning and piloting his own plane, the Brooms could operate four hunting camps: in the Lupandi area of the Luangwa Valley for lion, buffalo, kudu, common waterbuck, impala, zebra, puku and the very special Cookson’s wildebeest; two blocks to the west in Kafue for lion, sable and Kafue lechwe (back when you saw 3,000 a day and many trophies measured between 28 and 33 inches); and Bangweulu for its black lechwe and sitatunga.

Hunters went from Luangwa to Bangweulu and finished at Kafue. A 14-day hunt for a bag that also included lion, leopard, crocodile, hippopotamus and eland cost about $15,000. In 1986, it was over when an American oil exploration programme shattered the wilderness.

Broom went on to work with top outfitters in Botswana and Tanzania, developing his Masailand reputation during the years he hunted Mto Wa-Mbu and Longido. '“There was a wonderful balance of Masai people with their cattle and small stock and plenty of wilderness well-populated with all the Masai species, plus buffalo, lions, leopard, Bohor reedbuck…'†as well as several +/- 95-pound elephant trophies taken by his clients in the mid-‘90s. But the Brooms had their share of disasters in Tanzania, too.

The book ends with their return to Zimbabwe and is topped by Broom’s exciting Close Call stories and Notes on Rifles for Dangerous Game. These days, Geoff is mostly found in South Africa still carrying his Dakota .450 with 600-grain bullets. While he both admires and recommends all the classic large-bore Nitro Express calibres: “We are dealing here with slightly varying degrees of superlatives,†he writes.

The same can be written of the hunter - and the man - Geoff Broom.

“A Life on Safari,†235 pages with 15 pages of black & white photos, can be ordered for $49.95 plus shipping from www.craigboddington.com