I'm back after quite an adventure that saw a great week of hunting with Elangeni Safaris in the East Cape. Wonderful hosts and superb company and accomodations made for a most enjoyable trip to SA. Zimbabwe proved to be memorable in other ways. I was hunting with Lowveld Hunters/Jannie Meyer. We had the unfortunate experience of having an accidental fire (not war vets) destroy our entire camp on the Angwa River in Chewore. This happened while we were out hunting and we returned late one evening to a completely destroyed camp. The level of destruction was absolute. I was amazed at how little was left after the fire. The client support by Lowveld Hunters was absolutely oustanding under the circumstances. A client could not have asked for better. They really took care of me. I learned a lot and the experience will not soon be forgotten. More details later. Photos as soon as I can get the uploaded. Alan.

I'll try a pic. Here goes.

Nice Blesbuck!!!
It works show us more !

Greg

Amosgreg: Thanks. I'll try one more.

OK Alan
Your teasing us!
Stories to go with the pictures!

Nice Red! Your trophie wall is filling up fast!

Greg

Amosgreg: This was my first trip to SA. I couldn't have been more pleased with my hosts. It was a very well run camp. Accomodations were very comfortable and the food and dinner conversation was excellent. They are justifiably proud of their South African Wines. I have never seen so much game and the variety was amazing.
The weather was very cool and pleasant in the mornings and the afternoons were warm but not uncomfortable. We had some wind on a few days and some days were calm.
I used a 338 Win Mag and 210 gr. Nosler Partitions on everything. I was very happy with my choice of caliber and load. Shooting distances varied from 60-270 yds. I was zeroed at 2 1/2" at 100 yds. and this seemed to work just fine.
I was told to expect long distance shooting btu I also had opportunities for spot and stalk close in targets. The Gemsbok I took at about 60 yds. after 3 days of spot and stalk on the particular bull I eventually shot. We had blown stalks due to wind shifts, being spotted by other animals, being caught by dark, etc. After considerable effort, we finally caught up with him. He made for a very memorable trophy.

Contratulations! Nice stuff!

Rusty: Thanks. I'm sorry for the Photos of the Gemsbok. I'm really having problems posting them. I used the same technique as I did for the preceeding photos but it doesn't seem to work. I'll keep at it. Alan

Here is Alan's nice Gemsbok

Alan,

Nice trophies. Congratulations.

I deleted your posts with problem picture references (so as to "clean up" the thread. Hope you don't mind).

Regards,

Terry

Terry: Thanks so much. Sorry for the mess. I have some more photos to post. I'll try one more time and if that doesn't work I'll send them to you or Rusty for posting. Alan.

Alan,

I see you are using ImageStation (I also use ImageStation). If you don't want to post individual pictures, you can post a link to the "index" of your album.

Go to the opening page of your album, in the upper right hand corner you will see "View: Album I Index". Click on "Index" and it will open up an thumbnail Index of all your pictures in that Album. Just copy and paste that link.

Regards,

Terry

Terry: Here Goes: ImageStation homepage

Alan,

It worked.

Tell us about your black wildebeest. I really want one of those.



Regards,

Terry

Terry: Thanks. They really are beautiful in their own way. They were very wary. This particular herd was spotted and stalked, only to have the wind shift on us and they were off. We went around them again and approached from downwind using what cover was available, but they "gnu" something wasn't right. This bull turned and faced us, standing behind a lone bush at a distance of about 200 yds. He stood there for almost 1 1/2 hrs. We were just looking at each other. He blinked first and slowly turned broadside and walked from behind the bush. The 338 did its thing. They are tough animals though, and he took off, but not at full speed. We followed and found him still standing but obviously not feeling well. Another round finished it. I plan on doing a shoulder mount as I find them most unusual in appearance and I think he will make a nice addition to the collection. Alan.

Alan,

Congratulations on your successful safari.

Saad

I'm going to make my first trip to Africa next spring. I like Zimbabwe, but the political situation with our friend Mugabe has my wife worried. It also seems others are also, as some are dropping prices on safaris there. Since I've never been there, I also would like to know how expensive travel to your area was, especially once you've reached Africa from the USA.