Most of the family knows that a bunch of us went to Africa in 2007. Some of you know that I have been there two times prior. After visiting “The Dark Continent” and experiencing the adventure that is Africa, I wanted to share it with as many people as possible but mostly my best friends and family.
Some of the best times of my life have been with this group so naturally theses are the people I wanted to share my experiences. I felt a heavy responsibility to the group to show a good time after convincing them to spend the money, no small potato’s. The toughest sale was my niece Krysti and my dad. Krysti was on again off again at least 3 times before committing to the trip, I am glad she went, few people will share an adventure with their Grandpa as special as this. A memory of a lifetime! Both Krysti and Pop went as “non hunters” and were along for the ride as did my wife MaryAnn. The nice thing about being a non hunter is that it allows you to hunt with different people and see different animals and areas.
Recovering Bobby Stephens record wildebeest Bill, Bobby, Krysti.
Each group or hunter was escorted by a “Professional hunter” and his personal team of Tracker’s. The PH and his trackers job is to provide anything and everything that you might imagine. During a “plains game” hunt the trackers will hang a mile or so from the action unless called upon to track an animal or in my case while hunting Cape Buffalo Leopard, or any other dangerous game the trackers provide extra backup with very large rifles. While hunting the open bush country where one might encounter Elephant, Buffalo Lions or both Black and White Rino, the big guns might come in handy! We will revisit this subject again!
Hunting leopard over bait sounds much simpler that it is. As if it weren’t tough enough sitting TOTALLY silent in TOTAL darkness sixty feet form a chunk of Zebra that you know for a fact has at least one leopard feeding on it sometime during the night, you do it under the constant threat and worry of being discovered by lions or elephants, after all the lions don’t know or care that bait is for the leopards and not them. While sitting totally silent (and I do mean silent) with total sensory deprivation your ears search the night for sounds that might hint to the approach of whatever might be out there. Without fail you hear nothing! Until the bones start crunching on the bait, if a lion or leopard figured you out and decided to eat you instead you would know nothing about it until he had you by throat!
All of the hunting I have done all over the world barley prepared me for the night it all came together…the first time. I got plenty of advice and direction from buddies that have hunted leopard but they never warned me that the first time I would see one of the big cats would be thru the sites of my bow when the lights came on! When hunting leopard with a bow you sit motionless until you hear the cat on the bait. While he is busy eating the bait you draw the bow and aim in the direction of the target, then the PH turns the flash light on and looks at the cat to make sure it is a male, all the while I’m aiming at the cat, awaiting the command Shoot…or Do Not Shoot. Once the arrow leaves the bow…all heck breaks loose, roaring, snarling and brush crashing…but just for a second or two, and then total silence. The light goes out, and then total darkness! Tracking a wounded Leopard in the daylight is very dangerous…nighttime is suicide!
“Where did that arrow go? asked Glenn, My PH”
“I have no idea! Somewhere over there, that was the worst shot I have ever made!
Glenn radioed the trackers and we stayed in the blind until they arrived. After a short discussion, and I have no idea what they said because I don’t speak Shanngan, but I’m sure it was something like, ”can you believe that big tall sissy missed?” Careful not to venture to far into the night, a moment later one of the trackers returned with the news that he had found blood in a leopard spoor (track) indicating that the arrow had hit the cat. We tracked the wounded leopard about 50 yards into the African night before Glenn decided it was to dangerous, we would return in the morning.
The following morning we returned to the bait and blind and to everyone’s surprise the cat had returned sometime during the night and finished off the bait, the wound must be slight, Said Glenn the trackers followed the spoor into the bush while I located the arrow which had passed thru or grazed the leopard. Incredibly, the trackers were able track where the cat had made a 200 yard loop into the bush and back to within 30 yards of the bait where he laid for some time and watched the bait before continuing to feed. From my point of view it appeared that he was laying in wait hoping to ambush us as we attempted to track him. In reality the nervous cat probably laid and watched the bait, confused as to what all of the commotion was about he most likely watched until he was comfortable that the threat was gone. You see, the Lions will ambush leopards so they are very leery when approaching a kill. Three nights later I got another chance.
Different animals visit the water daily. Each evening, after the hunt we all met in the lounge and exchanged stories while sitting around the fire. By the end of the trip each of us had stories special and unique, everyone could relate because we encountered all of the same critters.
On Safari! You might see some cheetahs or maybe some Cape buffalo, Above is a White Rino but they have black ones too, but if you encounter one of those your on your own, they are so rare the professional hunters are not allowed to shoot them even in self defense.
As one might imagine there is a lot more story and adventure than I could ever tell in one small article. The story of Zimbabwe and it people is sad to say the least, their economic crisis is beyond the wildest dreams…or nightmares of any American. Up until sometime in the 70s the country was knows as Rhodesia. People in Africa Remember fondly the days of Rhodesia and speak of the days when the country was the “Bread Basket” of the continent, almost literally it feed the Dark Continent with its farming, cattle, and sheer industrial horse power. During it’s hay day the Rhodesian Dollar was stronger than the US dollar.
Rik Matthews decided that beer, soda and water might be nice to have during our travels. Our bus driver took us to one of the big hotels in Harare where we exchanged some of our South African money (rand) for a few Zimbabwe dollars (Zim-bucks) as I remember we got about 2.5 million Zim-bucks in 100,000.00 bills that was worth about 100 US dollars.
So there we were driving across Zimbabwe with a cool 2 million dollars to spend, the problem was there was nothing to buy. The first store we stopped at had a few bottles of water and that was it! Finally we did find a few bottles of beer and some soda pop at a little roadside store and bar…we made Rik go in while the locals gathered around our bus.
After a little coaxing Pop convinced this little guy to take some chocolate and in perfect English these girls said “Thank you very much sir”
During or stay almost all of the food and supplies were smuggled into Zimbabwe and paid for with foreign currency. Plain and simple, no one wants your zimbucks
Cemetery’s, are every place you look, the AIDs epidemic is very real. There simply are no old Africans in Zimbabwe, the county is run by 30 year old people.
How cute is this little girls hand made sweater?
Senuko employee housing
That is one tough birthday cake, does anyone have a chain saw?
Not many people can say that they have had a birthday party while in Africa. Someone let the cat out of the bag and told the camp host that Cindy and I had back to back birthdays during our stay so one night they baked us a cake…Well, really they iced a section of elephant dung and sang “Happy Birthday” while we tried to cut it, tough……..stuff!!!
With our Trip coming to a fast end we all discussed what had been of our favorite events or things that had happened. Curiously, Pop said “I hope the best is yet to come” Sure enough, we arrived at camp the last night to find the furniture cleared and most of the Senuko residents were on hand to perform native Shangaan dances and music.
Glenn later shared with me that the families asked if they could do a small presentation as a thank you for bringing the school supplies which we all brought in our luggage. It was a great show and we all thought it was the best part of the trip!
Why is this lady sitting behind grinning like that…maybe she will take us to America?
During our stay, team Cherzi visited Senuko Stadium from down the road forty miles.
Our guy’s put it on them 5-2 SENUKO The wart hog was happy when the game was over.
As the trip grew to a close we pondered the long journey home with some concern to the long bus ride back to Harare. Non of us were to excided about the bus ride back, originally the ride was to take 5 hours but it had taken us more like eight, that much time home plus any delay and we could miss our flight. None of us liked the idea of spending the night in and flying back to the US on standby. We had already paid for the bus charter so we decided to send our gear ahead the night before and charter two single engine Cessna 206s to fly us out directly out of camp.
Early the last morning the bush planes arrived on the dirt strip about a mile from camp where all of the trackers and PHs gathered to say “fair well.” You where a heavy heart when you say good by to these people, there is an uncomfortable sense that you are leaving a part of your family to the wolves… that is life in Zimbabwe!
After strapping into the seats the pilots completed their preflight check list and turned the noses of the Cessnas down the runway in single file behind PH’s racing their land cruisers down the strip ahead of the two heavily loaded aircraft to clear the runway of any Buffalo or giraffes that might run in the path of departing 206s.
The planes buzzed the tree tops at the end of the strip where the group of trackers and their families had gathered to wave goodbye. We all left a small piece of ourselves right then and there!
Thank you for sharing this trip with us Tracy. We learned alot of really neat things about Africa. Very entertaining as well as educational.
They have alot of help this year which is great!
A big thank you to Kellie Turley (Fireworks chairperson)
also to Bobby & Alonzo for opening their homes to all of us again and for all of their efforts in getting things going over there.
There will be more to come on this
These pictures are just from the first 2 days.
Thanks everyone for volunteering your time!
