I described what I wanted to Butch and he strongly recommended Valley Bushveld Safaris near Uitenhage South Africa (Eastern Cape). www.bushveldsafari.com I was interested in plains game hunting for me, a very comfortable lodge since Joan was coming along as an observer, and some opportunities for touring and sightseeing for non-hunting days. I booked a package with Kerneels Sholtz that included 6 hunting days for six species, two touring days, and 9 nights.
Butch also put me in touch with Debbie Trinidad of Custom Travel. www.customtravelafrica.com They specialize in African Safari travel arrangements and we worked out a couple of days touring in Cape Town after the hunt plus all of the internal flights. We handled our own international flights as we wanted to use some promotions on Delta.
On May 23 we left Cincinnati and flew to Atlanta where we made a connection to a direct flight to Johannesburg. We arrived there on May 24 at 5:00pm and were met by the Afton House. www.aftonguesthouse.com The Afton House was recommended by Debbie and they specialize in assisting hunters as they arrive in Jburg. I chose to rent a rifle from my outfitter so we didn't really utilize all of the services of the Afton House but it was still nice to be met upon arrival.
In the morning, we had breakfast and they took us back to J-burg airport for our flight to Port Elizabeth.
The lodge is located on a 1200 acre private farm owned by Kerneels and Vanessa Scholtz. They raise chickens and ducks, have a swarm of dogs/cats, and breed game animals like impala, nyala, kudu, waterbuck, blue wildebeest, bushbuck, sable, duiker, and blesbok. They also have a giraffe roaming the property and are expecting the delivery of 3 more any day now. And there are other critters ranging freely like monkeys, bat eared fox, black backed jackal and lynx. Our room was under the thatch in the picture.
The lodge was very comfortable with a huge great room and veranda.
Every evening the nyala would come up to feed and water just off the edge of this veranda.
Shortly after arrival, Arnold ran us down to the range to sight in the rifle that I would be using for hunting. More on that later.
You would think that an animal this size would be hard to miss but we only encountered the giraffe a couple times. This was right on the driveway one morning.
This is Kerneels. In addition to running the farm, running the lodge, and running the hunting outfitting business, he is also a production specialist at a local Goodyear Tire factory. He and Vanessa make their guests feel like part of the family during their stay. We had great food and super hospitality.
Our guest room which was large and comfortable.
The fireplace in the main lodge.
Depending on the animals that we were hunting, properties were selected that were between 15 minutes and 2 hours drive from the lodge. The outfitter/PH make arrangements with the property owner to allow access for the hunt. The landowner typically receives a trophy fee and retains the meat from the animal.
Unlike elk and deer, these animals are active during daylight hours. The typical method is to find a high point and glass to find an animal. Then a stalk is planned taking into account the wind and cover. Normally the PH travels with a tracker and often the landowner supplies his own tracker too.
As with all of my hunting trips, there was drama and a few miscues. I'll go over them in a day by day account. This was the first animal taken - a trophy Cape kudu.
Joan came along as an observer on 4 of the 6 hunting days. This impala was taken on the second morning.
Warthog on day four morning.
We decided to take a zebra as an addition to the hunting package that I had purchased in advance. It was taken on day 3.
Gemsbok (Oryx) was taken on day 3 afternoon. This was one of the more difficult hunts.
We spent one whole day stalking blue wildebeest without success. I finally took one on day six.
Joan was a good sport riding in the truck and observing while Arnold and I went off chasing animals in the bush.
This was a stalk for the gemsbok - there was much less cover on this property and they didn't want to let us get very close.
The hunting vehicle - the trackers usually rode up in the back and tried to spot game while we were on the move.
We made several trips into Kirkwood. It is a huge citrus area and those are orange groves behind us.
We had beautiful sunrises and sunsets. The weather was typically highs around 70 and lows around 50.
Almost all of the cover had thorns of some sort. We were surprised by the cactus. In general, the area was much greener and had more hills than we expected. The cover was a lot like south Texas.
After the hunting was done, the lodge manager, Nico, took us touring for two days. This was our touring vehicle.
Our first stop was this cheetah rescue farm. They also had other cats like lions, leopards, caracals, servals, and meercats.
Some of the cheetahs were completely tame and could be petted. This one was purring for Joan.
One of the leopards. The zebra that I shot was delivered to this facility for food for the cats. It turns out that two young lions had my zebra for their 2nd birthday dinner.
We toured in a vehicle like this one.
It allowed us to get very close to the animals like these blue wildebeest.
Zebra.
They had two white rhinos. A couple of years ago, their horns were poached from this property. During nighttime, a helicopter came in and darted these animals and surgically removed the horns. That's better than killing them for the horns but it is still a crime. Pretty sophisticated criminals.
Hippos in the water hole.
Elephant drinking while hippos play.
That's the male over Joan's shoulder.
Giraffes out in front.
After dark, we had dinner inside the bouma (enclosure). The food was cooked on the lapa (wood fire).
Nico and I enjoying the warmth of the fire - it was cold that evening with very clear skies.
Malcom, our local guide, really thought that I needed to have this picture taken with these huge kudu horns..
We probably saw 200 elephants - many of them very close. A couple walked by the vehicle within a couple of feet.
This huge bull had giant tusks. He had been relocated from Kruger National Park to expand the gene pool in Addo.
Nico drove and Merideth joined us. She was another lodge guest from Colorado. You can get some idea how close we were to this cape buffalo.
We flew from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town on this turboprop.
In Cape Town we stayed on the waterfront at the Cape Grace Resort. Joan enjoyed afternoon tea on the day that we arrived.
On June 4th, our 37th anniversary, we took a driving tour around the Cape and down to the Cape of Good Hope. The weather wasn't great - rainy, windy and cold but it cleared for awhile at the lighthouse. We start the trek home in the morning. We go Cape Town to Jburg to Atlanta to Cincinnati. We've had a great trip and I will try to write more on the hunting when I have time - maybe on the planes.
Last morning walk before heading to the airport. These protea flowers are native to this area. We saw them growing wild at the Cape.
Our hotel - the Cape Grace. The weather was testy. We took an umbrella on our stroll.
A rainbow in front of Table Mountain after a shower.
30 minutes later it cleared. We dodged one more downpour on our walk back to the hotel. Packing up now to leave for the airport.
This link takes you to a post about the touring that we did in addition to the hunt. At the end of that post are the links to each hunting day.
This is a very nice post. I really enjoyed reading this post. and I also like the pictures that you have shared through this blog. Thank you so much for sharing this lovely post. Horseback hunting
ReplyDeleteThank you Shawn.
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