My sixth time to Africa, first time for my wife and she’s hooked! She wants a cape buffalo next trip!

Dates: June 16 – July 8, 2023

Animals Hunted/Taken:

Wife: Blue Wildebeest (M & F), Kudu, Burchell’s Zebra, Gemsbok, Nyala, Impala, Black Impala, Black Wildebeest, Blesbok, Sable, Kalahari Springbok x 2

Me: Cape Buffalo x 2, Eland, Roan, Kudu, Vaal Rhebok, Cape Mountain Zebra, Fallow, Common Springbok, Black Springbok, Copper Springbok.

Guns:

Wife: Tikka 308 suppressed w/165 gr Aframe

Me: Eastern Cape: 404 Jeffery, 380 gr NF SS and 430 gr FPS; Stormberg Mountains: Borrow 300 Win Mag w/150 gr SSTs and wife’s 308


Outfitters/Travel: Gracy Travel, Khashana Travel, Stormberg Elangeni

I don't monkey with the photo posting anymore; Google album here: Pics

Summary:

My wife and I took a 3 week trip the summer of 2023 to South Africa. I’ve always focused on hunting, but we front ended the trip with sightseeing. With the exception of the first day of hunting, she had her own PH and hunted separately from me. She is a fantastic shot and easy client!

I will say the only mistake I made on the trip was choosing United as our airline. This was my decision and not Gracy’s. I wanted to try something different and they had the best route into Cape Town. Never again. Long story, but we changed to Delta on the way back. I’ve used Delta every other time to South Africa (4 times). Why I changed, no idea!

Brandy and Will at Khashana Travel are incredible – based in Dallas and Cape Town. They arranged all of the pre-hunting activities and in country flights.

We arrived in Cape Town the evening of June 17th and were greeted by our guide from Khashana Travel, Craig Berryman – another incredible individual! We stayed 2 nights at the One and Only Hotel down on the waterfront. A truly amazing property. We stayed in one of the suites on the island that is in the center of the hotel complex.

June 18th – Craig took us on a private tour of the Cape Peninsula, including a lunch at Harbour House. It was perfect weather.

June 19th – We toured the wineries in and around Stellenbosch and Franschhoek with Craig. We had planned to stay in Franschhoek the evening the 19th, but the recent flooding had us move from the Last Word Hotel in Franschhoek to their location in Constantia.

June 20th – Our checked luggage and rifles got delayed and finally met up with us the morning of the 20th at our hotel. Luckily, we had carry-on luggage to cover us. We were also fortunate that we had Apple Airtags in our checked baggage otherwise our rifles would have been stranded at Joberg. United had no idea where they were. We located them, using our Airtags, in the Joberg Airport police station. We contacted Bruce at Gracy, he got them on a plane and someone from Gracy was able to collect them at Cape Town airport and bring them to us. Africa magic! We had a courier take the rifles to the Eastern Cape and meet up with us in the Eastern Cape on the 26th!

June 20th – 22nd – We stayed 2 nights in a private cottage at Babylonstoren Wine Estate. Words cannot describe this place. We just wish we had stayed one or two more nights. Heaven on earth!

June 22nd – 26th – We spent 3 days/4 nights at Dulini River Lodge in Sabi Sands. This was absolutely fantastic. We saw everything (except cheetahs). It was amazing how close we got to the animals – feet away from lions, leopards, and elephants in open vehicles. I have to admit I was nervous a few times! We had our own private cottage with our own plunge pool overlooking the river. It was fantastic! I can’t imagine a better wildlife viewing experience.

June 26th – July 7th -

We spent the back half of trip hunting with Stormberg Elangeni at their Eastern Cape location outside of Fort Beaufort and their location in the Stormberg Mountains. This is the 4th time I have hunted with them since 2006, twice before with two of our kids and once with some friends. They are an outstanding team. They spent a few days with us in January after Dallas SCI. At both camps, they had additional guests – extended family and friends at the Eastern Cape location and some bird hunters in the Stormberg – so it was good times to be with large groups – felt like a big family holiday!!!

My PH was Josh Harris. He’s from the UK and works in partnership with Stormberg Elangeni on bird hunting and stalking in the UK (he took me on a personal hunt on his family’s lease in the UK in January 2024). Mark Smith was my wife’s PH. His personality and demeanor was a perfect match with her’s. And his wife got to join us for a few days at camp as well. He also had three tracking dogs, made things a bit easier for animals that ran into the bush! Both great, young PHs.

I won’t go into details on each stalk, especially since my wife hunted separate from me, but it was a great time. Both my buffalo were lone dagga boys and took one shot each in the heart – the first at around 125 yards and the second at 25 yards. We had several unsuccessful stalks into the center and edge of some good size groups in some really thick stuff.

One memorable day was three or four stalks into some thick stuff for buffalo – each time ending in us not finding exactly what we wanted. One the last stalk we looked long and hard at one old bull. Had we not had one in salt, we would have shot him, but I wanted one a bit different. So we decided to call it day as the sun was ready to drop behind the trees. I told Josh, “The measure of a hunter is not what he or her shoots, but what he or she doesn’t shoot.” He agreed and said we could have, but didn’t. Right then, from nowhere, a nice kudu walks out 40 yards in front of us. Boom!

The Vaal Rhebok was also pretty cool. I had never hunted one before and some folks spend many trips and days/weeks hunting them, sometimes with long hikes up the mountains. We arrived afternoon in the Stormberg mountains and decided to take a quick run out. We pulled off the highway, through a gate and spotted a male with some females in less than 2 minutes just a few hundred aways in a depression, not even on a mountain or hill. Quick stalk, belly crawl, and shot in high winds at 160 yards and he was on the ground less than 10 minutes from when we entered the gate. Sometimes easy is nice!!!

Very nice indeed. Like like a combo holiday / hunting trip type of adventure. My wife doesn't hunt but I think she would enjoy something like that.
The decor in the hunting lodge is fabulous. Absolutely love that.
In the pic of the camp chair is that a pan of hot coals underneath ? Did somebody's bum really need warming ?

quote:

Originally posted by 30.06king:
Very nice indeed. Like like a combo holiday / hunting trip type of adventure. My wife doesn't hunt but I think she would enjoy something like that.
The decor in the hunting lodge is fabulous. Absolutely love that.
In the pic of the camp chair is that a pan of hot coals underneath ? Did somebody's bum really need warming ?

The coals under the camp chairs was genius!!! It was quite cool in the evenings. The boma walls broke the wind (thankfully) but not the chill!

We also BBQ'ed the tenderlions from both of the buffalo - outstanding!

Thanks for the report and photos. It looks like you had a great time.

Congrats to you and your wife, Eric!

Terrific photo album, thanks for sharing.

Thanks! We took about 3K pics!

Well done. Looks like you and the "better half" had a great safari! Congrats...

What a great trip! Well done to both of you. I like going to South Africa with my wife and family too. Sandy and I have spent over 10 months in South Africa in the last decade hunting and exploring.
Thanks for the great post. Brian

What a super vacation/safari! Looks a fantastic place to hunt with one’s life partner. Congrats on all, and I mean ALL of your trophies. Are there any animals left alive in South Africa!!

Looks like you had a blast! Thanks for posting it.