When: August 3 - 11,2003 (8/4-8/10 hunting days)

Where: 1.8M free ranging acres adjacent to the Gemsbok National Park, 70 KM from the Namibia border in the Kalahari of Botswana. This location requires a bush charter either from Maun, Botswana or Jo'burg with a stop in Gabarone to clear customs.

Who: Safari's Botswana Bound, PB20, Maun, Botswana, +267-686-3055, saf.bots@info.bw
This was an SCI donated hunt for 2 hunters & 2 observers. My son and I were hunters and my wife & niece were observers. Wife hunted last day. Our PH was Gavin Godfrey, POB 24, Maun, Botswana, +267-680-01152, gavinbots@botsnet.bw .

Game hunted: Pkg. included Gemsbok, Springbok, Kudu, Steenbok, Duiker & Ostrich (all x 2). I bought a Hartebeest license after arrival, but was not included in the package.

Photos:

















Accomodations, Meals & Staff: Wonderful location near the Khaa airstrip and Khaa gate to the National Park. The camp was extensive with facilities to accomodate two simultaneous hunting parties, but seperated such that you would hardly know the other group was there. Each group even had seperate dining facilities. Very nice sleeping quarters in traditional safari walled tents on a cement pad with ensuite toilet, shower & sink with hot water provided twice a day. All furnishings & equipment were in good order and well maintained. Our mess tent was touted to have once belonged to Peter Capstick as testified by Robert, a PH in camp, who at one time was Capstick's tracker. Meals were excellent with more food servered than could possibly be consumed. The staff was outstanding, with a camp manager who saw to it that all details were always attended to. The bushmen trackers were phenomenal. Every time they set out on fresh tracks we ended up on our quarry. I can't say enough about the abilities of the bushmen trackers. Trophy handling was as to be expected. For a SCI donated hunt, we never were treated less than a full paying, direct contract hunt party. I was never encouraged to purchase additional animals or to inflate the tab in any way.

The Concession: The concession was divided into 2 Botswana Hunt Units (KD-1 & KD-2) which allows different hunting parties to hunt without seeing each other all day. Licenses are specifically assigned to a hunt unit. The area was Kalahari sand requiring heavy duty 4wd at all times. Open country with some rolling hills at times, Acacia and scrub bush. Most shots taken in the 200 - 300 yard vicinity. Winter at this time with very chilly mornings & evenings and pleasant middays. We saw abundant Gemsbok, Springbok, Steenbok, Ostrich and Hartebeest. We did see a few Duiker but were not successful in harvesting one. There were Kudu, but you had to work hard to find them and larger trophys were few between, although the other group in camp harvested two +/- 48 to 50" Kudu on KD-2. We also saw Eland, Wildebeest and allot of non-game wildlife on the concession. When there was fresh meat hanging in camp we had lions roam the camp at night. Our PH was excellent and picked out desireable trophies, but never pressured us to take a shot or animal we weren't comfortable with. This was a great family hunt and my wife was allowed to harvest a couple of Ostrich on the last day for the local villages with their licenses.

Costs: The SCI auction price was $ 7,500 which included all daily fees for 4 (meals & accomodations), daily laundry, ground transport, field prep of trophies, services of all staff and PH. Excluded were aircharter $ 2,240 which could be reduced if you sandwich between other hunting parties to share the in/outbound flight, gun permit $ 150, game licenses $ 2,100+, dip/pack/shipment of trophies $ ???, VAT $ 150/hunter, transport of trophies to Maun $ 100 and tips $ 1200. Our cost inlcuding the add on Hartebeest was $ 12,300 plus airfare to Jo'burg $ 8,700 and to Maun ~ $ 1,600. Total $ 22,600. We also went on a fantastic photo safari through the Moremi Game Reserve and Chobe National Park, which I highly recommend for a diverse African experience. We also made a day trip to Victoria Falls which was outstanding. With stays over in Jo'burg at Afton House, Maun and Kasane our total trip cost around $ 30K.

Conclusion: The hunt was fantastic with three of my trophies to score well in the record books. The add on trips made this a wonderful family trip of a lifetime which we will always have fond memories of. Going into it, if I had known how much it was going to cost I probably wouldn't have done it, but once committed, I wouldn't have done it any different. Well worth the experience. Next time it will be my wife and I and she can't wait to hunt too.

[ 09-09-2003, 02:08: Message edited by: Mighty Joe ]

Joe,

Sounds like a great time was had by all. I like the idea of adding a few days of being to a tourist on the end of the hunt.

Thanks for the report.

Regards,

Terry

All I get are red x's. I right click the icon and click "Show Picture" and still nothing. I guess this is to be expected with dial up.

Thanks for the detailed hunt and cost report. It sounds like you had a great time.

I think it is a very good example of how much a $7500 hunt REALLY costs!!

Mighty Joe,

Excellent report of a great hunt. Your price break down is rather an eye opener. Makes me rethink just what sort of African hunt I can *really* afford.

Regards,
Dave

Mighty Joe,

I tried several ways to get your pictures to post, but I can't get them to work.

Some picture hosting sites don't allow you to export pictures directly another website. You may have to just post a link to the pictures like you did originally.

Regards,

Terry

Interesting. I modified the post to include the pictures and now when I open this thread up I see the pictures in the body of the text. But, by your replies, you obviously can't see them.

To go to the site to see them, click on this link:

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/scott.holmes@sbcglobal.net

When that opens, click on the icon that says "Holmes K" and thumbnails of the photos will come up. Click on the photo and it will enlarge.
I still don't understand why you can't see what I see. Does anybody see the pictures? Or am I the only one?

With repect to the costs, remember those are for four people. I quickly realized that every decision I made was X 4 in $$$. My wife and I look forward to our next trip, but doing it for allot less. We stayed over in Jo'burg coming and going, we spent three nights in Maun and two nights in Kasane. Each of those nights cost around $ 150/night for accomodations for four people, plus meals. So, with proper planning, allot of cost can be reduced. We simply chose to do it the way we did so the trip wouldn't be a grind.

For just the hunter, you could land in Jo'burg and then jump on the charter to the Kalahari. And then back the same way. You would save four nights accomodations for four people that way. Plus you would save the round trip for four to Maun. But, we wanted to see as much of Africa as we could, so we chose a more extended and costly option.

Now, those are nice pics finally. I guess dial up isn't to blame after all.

Thanks a bunch. I really enjoyed the photos.

I assure you that one can have a fabulous time in Africa for a lot less.....but then I didn't take the entire family.

Mighty Joe,

Glad you had a good experience. I found Robert to be quite the gentleman and had our best interests at heart. I would not book a hunt with Pollack (SBB) ever again. When it was time to settle up, they charged us an additional fifty dollars a day, even though the contract said all fees were included. Amber said it was "new" and that we had to pay. She left it with the inference that if it wasn't paid, I wouldn't see my trophies.

There were other problems, but that was the worst.

Just out of curiosity, how many duiker did you see?

GlennB; Sorry to hear about your last minute surprise. I was there in August and didn't have that come up. Actually, I was anticipating pressure to add to the tab since it was a SCI donated hunt and I never felt pressured in any way to spend a dime more. In fact as I said above, we were treated the whole time as full paying clients.

Our PH was great, but in a way I wished I could have had Robert, simply to get to know him better and to hear more of his stories of his days as a tracker. Interesting fellow.

Duiker, hmmm. We hunted KD-1, except for the hartebeest which was an add on animal. We probably saw at least three duiker that week. There was a very nice one in an area about 600 yards from the airstrip, NW of camp. Each time we came through that area we saw the wind flag from the strip and saw the same duiker on three occassions, well, actually saw his butt!

As you know, there weren't too many duiker in the area. We did see some near the dry pans by the village (about 4 hours drive away) while hunting kudu. If doing that trip again, which I probabably won't, simply to see more of Africa, I definitely would pass on the duiker license.

How did you do on Kudu? I didn't get mine as I was holding out for bigger, although we saw some pretty nice ones. My 14 year old son took a young bull which he is having european mounted and the full skin tanned for his bed. Beautiful animal.

Without a doubt, that has to be one of the best locations for a trophy gemsbok.

Dear Mighty Joe

Thank you for your posting and I see that Mr Bevin has seeped across from his site into yours , unpleasant as it is please visit his again to see my response and my exposeing a conserted effort by him and his buddy hideing under the name Duggaboy to discredit us. Mr Hudson ( Duggaboy ) wanted to act as an agent for us which I declined , I can only assume this the reason they are attacking us one year later. Any person wanting a copy of the contract which clearly states licenses are excluded from the hunt can email me at saf.bots@info.bw and I will forward them copies immediatly .
One point worth mentioning is that it should be pointed out that your payment was to your chapter and that these funds were used for chapter conservation and hunting efforts in your area. We the outfitter only recieve a portion rebate - and we use this to pass on to the community village trust who in turn use the funds for orphan funds ( aids is makeing Africa a orphange ) shelter for the aged etc. all community projects.
Your hunt should not be degraded by the likes of Mr. Bevin and Hudson - your pictures tell the story . We offer first class wilderness hunts for the ethical , true sportsman hunter , our trophy quality is amongst the best in Africa and apart from Mr. Bevin our hunters report fun , affordable , wilderness hunts of great value.

Robert Ramajaga is a hunter from the golden era of hunting and hunted with Capstick , Cundill , Wright, and other great hunters and PH's , he is a credit to our company and Mr Bevin and Hudson state they did not want him as a PH for reasons I do not why - he is the PH they refer to as the one they did not want to hunt with. They say they wanted to hunt with me , yet I have yet to learn that which Robert has forgotten , I could never match his expertise in the bush ( his clients all harvested some of the best measurements - 44 inch gemsbok ,43 inch gemsbok , 17 inch Springbok , 25 inch Hartebeest, 29 inch Wildebeest to mention a few ) yes I can entertain around the camp fire and have giuded a few hunters to great trophies ( Who can forget Charles Berks 80 pound Elephant )
but I dont think I can match Roberts experience.

Hunters of your quality allways seem to be successfull and have a great hunt , I dont think this is coincidence or luck its a life choice.

All the best
with regards from
Graeme, Amber and Shane Pollock , Nicky and Gavin , Robert Ramajaga and the crew of Motsumi and Khaa camps

Mighty Joe,

Glad to see you were able to have yor plains game experience in a non-high fenced situation. Also I believe you did the whole thing right in trying to see as much of Africa as possible on your trip. Sadie and I always try to plan some touring before or after our safari.

I was also glad to hear a very positive report for Graeme Pollock's operation. Perhaps your report will shed some light on what type of experience most people have with SBB.

Will, sounds to me like the hunt *did* cost $7,500.00 -- for each of the four persons who went!

Re: the disgruntled poster who's dragging his gripe to this thread too: sour grapes are out of season! You should have handled your dissatisfaction at the time incurred, not a year or so later. It's obvious that SBB is in the clear, and you need to understand/accept the responsibilty of 'Caveat Emptor'.