I've been a lurker on this site for some time and have come to benefit from the informational postings on African hunting and travel topics. In an effort to contribute, I thought I'd post a report on my recent trip to the RSA which included both basic tourist activities and a short hunt. This was my third trip to RSA. I had bowhunted for plains game on two previous trips. The purpose of this trip was two fold, first and primary was to introduce my wife to South Africa, second was to sneek in a quick hunt for plains game and see how she reacted to that environment. On that last point I'm forever screwed since she ended up hunting and liking it. More on that later. First the basics.

Trip Dates: March 7- March 22 2006.

Booking Agent: Wendy Fourie, JW Adventures.

Hunting Lodge: Kikuyu Lodge and Game Reserve. Dates at lodge Mar 14- Mar 22.
PH's at Lodge: Scott Adcock for me and Raymong Schenk for my wife.

Other Activities: We rode the Rovos Rail from Pretoria to Cape Town Mar 8-10 and toured Cape Town Mar 10-14.

I know this is a hunting site but I've got to talk about the Rovos Rail. I'd never riden on a train of any kind. Brother if you're going to start this is the one to start with. The whole experience was simply impeccable. We arrived in Joberg on the morning of the 8th and transfered to Pretoria to the train station. Upon arrival, we were immediately greeted, our bags wisked away to our state room and escorted into the restored station to champaine, OJ, coffee, Tea, basically whatever you desired. A quick briefing as to train operation and we were off. The route to Cape Town took us through the Karoo, the wine country and finally Cape Town itself. The scenery is magnificent, the food wine and side trips are first rate. If you want to score some significant suck up points, take your wife on this train. http://www.rovos.co.za/



Upon our arrival in Cape Town we stayed at the Table Bay Hotel in the Victoria and Alfred waterfront development. We toured Cape Town for several days hitting all of the touristy sites. Table Mountain, Robbin Island, Cape of Good Hope, Stellenback etc...



On the 14th we flew to Port Elizabeth and were met by my PH Scott Adcock. Scott is a stellar guy and we had a great deal of fun through the end of our trip. Raymond Schenk was assigned to my wife as a tour guide so that she could take day trips while I hunted. I found the Lodge, staff and facilities at Kikuyu to be first rate. My wife always felt comfortable there and therefore I would assume most any man would feel bathed in luxury. Kikuyu is fairly large and has a diverse array of topography and game. They have exceptional Bushbuck habitat and hunting. I saw somewhere around 50+- (rams and ewes) during two days of hunting specifically for Bushbuck. For many of the other plains game I hunted other concessions, one near Graff Reinett in the Karoo called Samara (sp) and another un-named, unfenced 4,000 hectare sheep farm near Gramstown for Kudu. I've never seen so many damn Kudu and had the best time of the trip chasing those boogers up and down the ridges.

The most significand development of the trip was that, with four days remaining, my wife asked if she could go hunting. After picking myself off the floor and dusting off I quickly made arrangement for Raymond to take up the challenge. He quickly fetched a 270 and the next day spent alot of time on the range getting her set up. Over the next few days I found myself welcoming my wife to the company of hunters. Everybody in camp was encouraging and welcoming and I think in hindsight that this non-threatening environment encouraged her to participate. Over the years I've taken her with me to the deer woods but she'd never asked to hunt. On our last hunt day, my wife killed an Impala and a Blesbuck. She cried, was exilerated and experienced all of the sport I've long loved. I was very proud and very moved by her reactions. I'm also quite screwed. Two days back and I spent the day rifle shopping for my wife. She has a taste for Kimbers








One of the worlds newest hunters.




Ultimately I could not be any more satisfied with our trip. We would both return to Kikuyu without any hesitation. It's very likely we'll be booking again for next year...and she'll be packin'.

Cheers

Bob Langenberg aka Bamabow

Thanks for the report and the photos of the train and country side. Looks like a great
time.

Thanks for the report and pictures -- it supplied me with a much-needed fix.

That train looks much, much nicer than the last one I was on in N. America.

Went to the Kikuyu Lodge web site, what a beautiful place We will be hunting near there with Frontier Safaris in 3 weeks (near Alicdeale I believe). I'm "pumped" after seeing your pics! Who/where is your taxidermy being done?

Good report and photos. Thanks for sharing.

Bob,

Thanks for the report and congratulations to you and your wife on a great safari.

Regards,

Terry

P.S.
I cleaned up your photos for you. In the future all you have to do is copy and paste the URL from the IMG box on photobucket. No need to use the Photo icon in the AR message box.

Congrats on a great hunt and for introducing the missus to hunting! I think a man would have to search a long time to find a better hunting partner. The East Cape is a beautiful destination and a neat environment to hunt in.

Trapntrav,
The taxidermy work will be done by an outfit called Karoo Taxidermy. They are located in Graaff-Reinett. I took a tour of their facilities while I was there. They seem to be typical of SA taxidermists. I've always had the taxidermy done in SA, I know others disagree and that's fine. I've used a different taxidermist each time I've gone. I was happy enouph with what I saw at there shop and the prices seem comperable to my past experiences.

Thanks, I've got their info and a few others. We will most likely deal with the outfitters taxidermist (Bushmans River Taxi.) as long as their work is up to par when we check it out. I'll be happier than a pig in shit if I can get a Kudu like yours, how big is it?

I don't have a score sheet but the PH told me it was 48 and change per side. I'm not really driven by the scores, I'll sure as hell remember the stalk though.

Good luck on your trip. You're going to have a ball!!!

I enjoyed your report, especially the part about your beginning her new adventures. When you get a moment, I'd like to hear more about the Rovos Rail.

Kikuyu is a really nice property, I hunted there in 2001 about 6 or so weeks after they opened. The view from the lodge and the chalets above the lodge on the hill is one of the best I have seen in Africa. I took Cape Bushbuck, Cape Grysbok and Blue Duiker there. We wanted to try for Carakal (sp) but had no luck.

SBT,

The Rovos Rail consists of restored vintage rail cars.

I understand that the maximum number of passengers they take on any given train is about 75. They have dinning capaciy of 42 per dining car. For our trip which was Pretoria to Cape Town they configured the train with two sleeping cars, a lounge car,the first dinning car,the service car (kitchen laundry etc...) the second dinning car, multiple sleeper cars and the last two cars were the smoker's lounge car and the observation car a the tail end. Three full meals are served per day. Breakfast was served beginning at 7:00 and was served through 10:00. Lunch was served at 1:00-2:00 and Dinner was served at 8:00 PM. Breakfast and lunch were kind of come as you can. Dinner however was formal (coat and tie minimum for men) and was seated by chime promptly at 8:00. Meals could be had in your suite at any time day or night. Breakfast had a wide variety of cold cuts cheese fruit cereal etc... and eggs to order were available. Lunch and dinner usually had two or three entre choices with salad and dessert. The food was simply impeccable and each meal usually had a choice between fish, meat and pasta. They maintain a massive selection of wines and passengers are constantly offered drinks of whatever nature. On our trip there were two brief stops. One a the "Big Hole" in Kimberly where the diamond mines were. The second at a quaint little town called Matjiesfontein. Both were for only a few hours but it's nice to streatch your legs. Any time your off the train, you return to this.



Over all we found it to be terrific. It does take a while to get used to the movement of the train and in some areas it will damn near beat you to death because the tracks are used for frieght and commuter trains. For us that subsided once we were out of Joberg and into the countryside.

This was our suite.

Each suite had its own bathroom with shower which ws quite nice.

The dinning cars



The Lounge car


I hope that helps. My wife really liked it.

Cheers

Thanks Bamabow, looks like a great trip.

Bamabow, thanks for the report and pics.
I grew up down the road from Kikuyu and have hunted and fished on some of the properties before the reserve existed. It is pristine bushbuck and blue duiker country.Never hunted with Scott but I know him pretty well and he is a great guy.

Bob,

Congrats on a great safari. I hunted Kikuyu (and Samara--they we reintroducing cheetah when I was there) in May of 04. I also had my taxidermy work done at Karoo and was very pleased. Great place for sure.

Do you have the contact info for Scott?

I have been meaning to mail him a package but his address went through the washer rendering it unreadable.

Great report!
Glad you both enjoyed it so much!
You will have no problem returning to Africa now, but who`s gonna do the shootin` next time around..?

Thanks for the report! Very nice!

Sierrabrovo45

I've sent you a PM.