Since I've now learned how to post pictures (I think!), I wanted to share my hunt in a little more detail.
Going back a few years, I had been setting up hunts for my hunting partner, Tom, and me each year. We'd gone out West and to Alaska and Canada on numerous hunts and I told Tom that for 2004, I was going to let him make the arrangements for wherever he wanted to go. After a while, he informed me that his wife Cheri wanted to go to Africa. My (non-hunting) wife Marji said she'd like to go as well so the hunt was on.
Tom arranged for us to go to the SCI Wisconsin banquet where we met some outfitters and agents and began to get some ideas on where to go and what to hunt. The next year, Tom went back to the banquet and bid on a hunt with Peter Thormahlen. He was not the winning bidder but Peter contacted him and plans for a hunt began to form. We decided what animals we were interested in and went ahead and signed with Peter.
So, on June 12th, we found ourselves on a plane bound for South Africa, wondering just what was ahead of us as we struggled for leg room and tried desperately to get some sleep despite the excitement of our new adventure. We finally arrived in Johannesburg, sleep-deprived but ready for our Safari to begin.
The firearms were brought out and we waited with the other hunters to fill out paperwork. Thanks to this forum, we knew what to expect and we soon we through with the firearms office and were taken through customs. As soon as we went through the doors, Peter and his tracker, Pops (who is also taking the course to be a PH) were waiting for us. From that point on, we were treated like royalty. Our wives were welcomed with flowers and our bags were bundled up and off we went to the Land Rover.
After the long flight we were less than excited about a long drive but we also did not want to delay getting on our Safari. Peter told us a lot about South Africa and we peppered him with questions about everything we saw along the way.
Finally, just after dark, we arrived at the first concession near Hoedspruit. Peter had arranged for us to hunt there first because we wanted good Waterbuck and his main hunting area near Malelane was recovering from a Waterbuck die-off a few years back. This concession fronted on the Elephant River and the fences were open to Kruger. We were informed that a lion had walked through a few hours earlier and we were not to go far during the night because hippos walked on the lawn sometimes. We knew then that we were in Africa! We had a lovely dinner on the open veranda in the thatched roof lodge, surrounded by mounts of African animals. We then went off to bed in our individual cabins.
The next morning, the hunt began. My PH was Phillip Fourie, a young man who, to my wife's delight, was also a pretty good birder (Marji's main hobby). We began our hunt on the back of the Land Rover. (Throughout most of our trip, we used the Land Rovers to spot game and then planned and executed our stalks). We sighted in our rifles first. My main rifle was a .416 Rigby and Tom was using his .300 Weatherby. I was a little surprised by how hard it was to shoot off of the shooting sticks. I am comfortable shooting from bipods and other positions but I did fumble a bit with the sticks. Off we went on the hunt, Tom with Peter and me with Phillip.
We soon saw a warthog. He looked good to me but Phillip said he was not a big one. This pattern was repeated throughout our trip as I slowly learned a little bit about how to judge the various animals we saw. No shooting opportunities occurred but a face to face encounter with ny first giraffe was a highpoint of the morning. We met the women for brunch and they decided to accompany us on the hunt.
Phillip and Marji soon began identifying birds-eventually Marji reached 128 species for the trip. Phillip did not, however, forget about why we were there--the hunt! Soon I found myself following Phillip and the ranch manager Jonathon on a stalk to get a better look at some Kudu we had spotted. After looking at some tracks, Phillip turned to me and said, "If we see lions, don't run!" I kind of laughed and told him that I figured he could out-run me anyway but he then explained, "No, if you run, you are prey and besides-you've got the gun!" We finally got a look at the kudu--not big enough--and managed to not see any lions. We made a stalk on some Waterbuck but did not get a shot.
The next day started off very cold, even for us Wisconsinites! We saw many animals but had no shooting opportunities. Tom finally got his Waterbuck late in the day and even managed to fall in the river as they went to get it from where it had run. Luckily the crocs did not eat him.
The next day, we started near the river and worked our way up into the hills. We spotted a waterbuck that Phillip said immediately was the a good one. He ran off down the hill and we began our stalk. We got several glimpses of him but no shot. Finally we heard him run down the hill. We ran sideways on the hill to an opening and finally saw him standing on the opposite hill at 180 yards. I fumbled with those darn shooting sticks and the tracker grabbed my barrel and put it on his shoulder. I found the Waterbuck in the scope and shot--off he went, but only for 30 yards. My first African trophy!
We then began the soon familiar routine of taking a kazillion pictures--we even got a chance to take pictures together with Tom and his waterbuck since they had not yet begun skinning it.

Now it was time to move on. We took the long way and drove through Kruger, seeing many animalsand birds we'd not seen before. We ended up at the concession near Malelane. The first night we stayed at the concession but the manager had mistakenly booked another group there so we spent the rest of our time there in a delightful inn called The River House, on the Crocodile River. Our wives spent long days on the deck overlooking the river and Kruger.
The hunt started with us concentrating on kudu. We spotted many kudu as well as other animals (lot's of rhino including a few black ones) but none were big enough. As we came around one corner, we came upon a solitary Blue wildebeest. Phillip said he was a good one--did I want one? Well, as I told my wife (to her amusement), it was so beautiful that I had to shoot it! He gave me a head on shot and, without the shooting sticks, I managed to center-punch him in the chest. He took off running with Phillip's tracking dog, Champ, in hot pursuit but soon was down.
Tom got a warthog that day and we went to the River House for supper (an outstanding one which became the norm). We were surprised after supper by a performance by the singers and dancers from the local Swazi village, arranged by Peter. What beautiful voices they had! The only flaw in their performance was in having the poor judgement in inviting us to dance with them for the last dance--it's a sad thing to see pale white people with no talent trying to dance!
The next day we went after kudu. Tom shot one early and it went down but soon jumped up and made for the tall grass. Peter hit it with his .458 at that point and it went down again but jumped up and got into the grass. They tracked it the rest of the week (and are still looking for it) but have not found it. As Tom came back to camp, they jumped another nice kudu--Peter offered him a chance at a second one and after some reluctance, Tom decided to make the stalk.
Soon it was my turn. We spotted some kudu in the shadows. They were cows and a young bull. Another bull was farther in the shadows and initially Phillip said no, it's another young one. But as he turned to go, he said '"No, I'm wrong, that's him!" We went around the corner and came upon him again and one shot from the .416 and he was down. (I even managed to hit my nose with the scope so I guess that makes it 2 for 1!)

I'll submit this and continue my tale later........

Very nice!

You took some really beautiful specimens there, especially those 2 wateruck, congratulations.

More please!!!

The Waterbuck pic is awesome!!!

Dulcinea

Great story with just the right amount of humor.

So.....Tom and I had both gotten our kudu and it was time for impala and warthog for me. Tom and Peter continued to look for his first kudu while Phillip and I hunted Impala. We saw a lot of impalas and made several stalks but never saw a buck we wanted. Several times we ran into mama rhino and babies during a stalk--- that made us a little bit nervous. Finally we saw an impala that was big enough. he was standing in the shadows and his neck was the most visible part. rather than take the neck shot, I followed the neck down and shot where I thought the chest was. At the shot he sprang in the air and ran away. We tracked him for quite some way without finding hair, blood, or any other sign that I hit him. After one-shot kills on the first 3 animals, I was a little embarrassed to have missed but I was glad I didn't wound him.
So off we went, looking for more. By this time we had missed meeting up with Tom and the wives, so I managed to skip a shopping trip and native village tour. Marji was used to this kind of intense hunting behavior by now. Just at dusk we came upon some warthogs. Phillip said "Shoot the far one!" "The one on the left?" "No, the one on the far right" BANG! "That one?" "Yes! Good shot!"
Back we went to the River House for dinner and our nightly round of Amarula (That stuff is addictive!). The next morning we started back on impala. We stalked one herd of a hundred or so for several hours over quite a long way trying to get a shot at the one decent buck. I had the safety off 3 times and then they moved just as I was ready to squeeze the trigger.
Finally they moved off and we went to a different spot where we found 3 nice bucks. I had a quartering-away shot and took it with the 7mm. The impala ran off and we started tracking. We found no blood or hair at first but I remember having a good sight picture at the shot. As I walked along, an impala jumped up 30 feet away and took off. Since unharmed whitetails back home will sit tight like that, it took me a moment to realize that impalas don't do that and this had to be mine. By then he was pretty much gone and I flung a shot about 3 feet behind him as he disappeared. Champ, Phillip's dog, came flying by, hot on the trail. Phillip and David, the tracker, took off after them while I trundled along behind. Phillip, realizing I wasn't right behind them, came back and had me sit tight. Soon they came back. They had tracked the impala a half mile or so and lost the trail where Champ had fought it. We spent the next couple of hours looking but ran out of daylight.
The next day we were to leave--the trackers and Peter would look for the impala while we took a tour through Kruger on our way to Kimberly. (I know it's not on the way, but we wanted to see Kruger again) While we were in Kruger, we got a call from Peter--they had found my impala another quarter mile further. It had went quite a far ways with a bullet through the lungs! They are really tough animals, just like everybody had said!
Our next area was near Kimberly. Peter said he had better Gemsbuck and Eland there, plus it allowed us to see more of South Africa. The area was more like we had seen on the Discovery channel--grasslands with Umbrella thorns (or as the Africaans say--Haak and Steek Tree) Everything except the grass had thorns....
Peter had told us that we could each shoot a free bonus--a sprinbuck. He teasingly told us we had to shoot it at 300 yards. Phillip and I saw one and went up over the hill to look for Gemsbuck and see if we could get closer to the springbuck. We ended up 40 yards away. We told Peter later that it was 340 yards....

We dropped him off with the skinner and picked up the two wives for the next part. We all stalked a herd of gemsbuck for quite some time and distance before they all took off on us. As we were walking back, we ran into a small group and stalked them. After figuring out which Gemsbuck was which, I managed to use the shooting sticks and shot one. It was another frontal shot and the animal ran up the rocks. I took a running shot at it and was rewarded by that embarrassing ricochet sound as it hit a rock behind it. It disappeared in the rocks and Champ got away from the tracker and took off. Phillip was figuring that we'd find a dead dog there and we took off running up the hill. As we got there, the Gemsbuck was still alive, laying with it's head up. Champ was resting from the battle, unhurt and nestled under the Gemsbucks neck, the only place it's horns could not reach! We called Champ out of there and finished it with a final shot.
By then, Tom had shot an Eland, impala, and Gemsbuck! A very full day and all I had left was Eland.
The next morning we went out after Eland. Some Black Wildebeest gave us a circus show in front of the Eland and we picked out a Eland bull. The whole group was following me, since Tom had pretty much finished, except for a springbuck. Despite the pressure of a full audience, I did manage to shoot straight one last time....
The next day we went 2500 feet deep on a tour of the Kimberly mine. We were fine until we sat in a rescue spot and talked about sitting in the dark for days waiting for rescue...and we came home without free samples! I told the tour guide that at the end of a brewery tour we got free beer so we should get free diamonds at the end of a diamond mine tour but he didn't buy it....
On the way back we saw a pair of Secretarybirds and even watched one stomp a lizard and eat it--very cool! We got back in time to go out with Tom and get his Springbuck. He and Peter snuck up to within 150 yards so I guess he really didn't mean it when he told us we had to shoot them at 300 yards.
Our African Safari was pretty much over

We had a wonderful time and we're already planning the next trip. I'm thinking Zebra and Cape Buffalo might be in order.....

Peter's website is www.africatrophyhunting.com . We would recommend him without reservation and will be one of his repeat customers.....

Thanks for the story Joel. Very nice trophies!! Congratulations on a successful hunt.

BOWHUNR

Thanks Joel!
That was as fine a write up as I've seen. You have some wonderful trophies and memories, now I'm really fired up about my hunt next year!!! Thanks again.
Joe

Wow, is the only word that comes to mind! I cannot see a single animal I wouldn't love to claim as my own!
I hope you enjoyed all the touring too, most hunters seem to jet in, shoot, and jet out without getting to see the country and game without the pressure of the hunt.
Have you put a tape to any of the trophies? If so, how big were the kudu/waterbuck?

Actually, the only measurements I know ARE the kudu and waterbuck. The kudu was 56" and the waterbuck 31".

Joel, since you have developed a fondness for Amarula you might want to try a springbok. First a shot of Creame De Mint topped with a shot of Amarula and tossed back. Think you are drinking nothing but it will hit you. The name comes from the green and yellow colors of the RSA teams. Cheers.

I'll have to try that. I was amazed yesterday when I went into my local rural Wisconsin liquor store and found a bottle of Amarula on the shelf.......