Kalahari – Heat Wave (The Dark Continent 2021) Long and Pic Heavy
Over the last 10 years or so, I have made it my outdoors priority to hunt and fish in different places for new and exciting things. The experience of traveling to new places and seeing completely new things is addicting. In 2017, I experienced Africa for the first time and have desired to go back ever since.
My time there caused me to thoroughly be bitten by the African bug. The want to stand on the red soil and chase new amazing animals is really something you can’t describe unless you’ve been there.
In 2019, I purchased a hunt from my same 2017 outfitter that would allow me to bring my wife and both kids. This time instead of the Limpopo province of SA, we would be hunting the Northern Cape and that fit right into something different. Being able to hunt with my kids in such a special place is something that I never thought Id be able to do but it was something I knew I would cherish more than about anything else.
From the day I purchased this hunt it seemed like something was making it harder and harder to make this dream a reality. First it was 2020 COVID, then it was the SA Riots in July that clouded safety concerns, canceled flights, and in July COVID popped back in SA. My wife and I discussed that we weren’t going to get excited until we were standing at the airport ready to go. Well, we should have said until the plane lands in Johannesburg, because our 9:30am flight on Day 1 out of Charleston is canceled and delayed until the next day. The counter girls first response when I told her my destination was “ No one called you?” MFer, MFer, Mfer. … or something like that
Well now we must get new COVID tests and a whole different route through Houston that adds 10 hours to our trip. Awesome sauce……….. but at least we are on the way.
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Overnight Stay at the City Lodge at the airport in Joburg, and we are finally off on a cross country adventure!!!
Arrive at our first lodge of the week, and who doesn’t like a 5 star chef on a hunting Safari. A good rum and coke, A good nights rest and in the AM……SAFARI DAY!!
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Some people say that the first animal you take in Africa should be an impala. They are one of the most iconic and popular animals of Africa, and it was the first one we had the opportunity to go after. Carter was on deck first and had done pretty well recently with all of his shooting, but a spot and stalk in Africa, how do you know? Well sometimes you just do…
He did a fantastic job sneaking and crawling into position to make a 75 yd shot on a nice ram.
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Little Brother was not particularly happy that he wasn’t on the board yet.
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After a fantastic lunch, we were back on the truck to start looking for some Springbok. My wife was going to try to compete the Springbok slam. Africa gives you the opportunity to hunt something every day if you take what it gives you, but hunting specific animals makes things much more difficult on your time.
We saw a ton of different animals, and species that we wanted to go after, but nothing was quite right to make a good stalk on. Late in the afternoon, we stumbled on a very nice Black Springbok at a water hole. We had to wait him out for a long while, but she made a great shot and was on the board.
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Next day rolls around and Little Brother is no happier than he was at lunch time the day before. He needs some trigger time too.
Even for adults around here, shooting off a set of sticks is a whole different experience, so I brought a small rest and a spotting scope tripod in my bag to make it where he could handle the gun off the truck. He is only seven so Im sure most of you understand the difficulties of getting a small one into position to make a shot in stand. This is a 100% bigger challenge than that.
After a blown stalk or two and miss on a nice little springbok, we were finally able to get him close enough to a larger animal, by itself, that didn’t have the obstacles of grass or trees.
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Connection!!!!, and now we are smiling and talking trash to his big brother. Life is normal again.
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Originally Posted by cajunwannabe
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