From the critters to the facilities to the staff to the companionship it was an absolute blast and I can't wait to do it again...my 5th "Once in a lifetime" hunt! Here are few pictures from our trip.
We spent the first couple nights at Afton House and did some touring with our friend Bennie Lottering from Aardvark Adventures for You (AAFY). As always, the Afton House was great!
We spent the next two days touring Pilanesburg National Park and we stayed at Manyane Resort. The park is about 150,000 acres and hold most of the common plains game species, about 200 elephant and tons of white and a few black rhino. Interesting...In the brochure they tell you approximately how many animals of whatever species are in the park except for the rhino. Bennie said they have rangers assisnged to all the rhino watching them...you just don't know they are there.
Here are few pictures of the resort and the park.
Here is a snapshot of the arrow impact.
More pics please!
I had a lot of fun playing around my GoPro this trip. I usually mounted it on the reverse side of wherever we thought game may be feeding or drinking. Got some great video!
Sooooo...on the third day we switched gears and chased Nyala! I shot my bull that afternoon. It was nerve racking! He came in with a bunch of kudu and a younger Nyala bull. For nearly 30 minutes (my Gopro's battery ran dead) he milled around not offering a shot. Finally he stood still long enough at 25 yards for me to put an arrow into his chest.
This was my Nyala blind...
Some elephant pics from video in the park.
Great stuff, a real day maker.
I don't have the pictures to post...but my two of my hunting partners shot a civet and honey badger. The night huntnig was great this trip...something that the PH's at DVS put a lot of effort into. I plan doing some myself...next trip!
For those of you read Craig Boddington...in his book "Mt. Kenya to the Cape" CB chronicles his first 10 years of African hunting. Willem's father was Craig's PH on his FIRST safari in Africa in Kenya. This hunt is of course documented in that book. Willem recently was Craig's PH on a buffalo hunt in Moz.
Writer...you are more than welcome. I realize that a lot of folks that lurk here will not be able to experience a trip to Africa. I know I am very, very fortunate that I am able to go every few years. I'm not weathly by any stretch...I'm a cop with 4 kids...I just make these trips happen one way or another and I'm lucky I have a supportive wife who knows it's a passion you can't just drop.
I was shooting a Mathews Drenalin (70lbs) this trip, Easton Wildgame arrows and G5 T3 broadheads.
Looking at some of your pictures....I need to invest in a better camera for next trip.
How long do the batteries last in your GoPro, if you are in video mode? What type of batteries do they use?....and knowing that temperature will affect battery life, what was the temperature?
Jake...The batteries that come with the GoPro are made just for the GoPro. If I left the GoPro OFF all day but left the WIFI feature ON (so I could turn it on remotely) the batteries would last all day. I would just turn the GoPro on and off and record as I wanted. IF you leave the go GoPro turned ON and RECORDING it will only last about 30 minutes on a full battery. So I would just turn it off and on whenever I wanted to record something. The temps were in the 40's in the morning and probably 78F during the day...so I don't think the temps affected anything.
There are two ways to acitivate the GoPro remotely...either with a remote control that comes with it...or an APP on your phone. Both are through WIFI emitted from the GoPro unit.
The reason my battery went dead during the Nyala hunt was because I turned it on and hit record when he came in and it took forever to get a good shot...so they went dead at some point. Plus...I had already used it some that day so the batteries were a little drained.
Thanks for taking us along on your latest visit to Africa.
Cub...Nico left a couple seasons ago. He is managing a new private farm not far from Thabazimbi. I got to see him this trip and we caught up a little. He was my PH in 2011. He and his family are doing very well!
...thanks for sharing.
Any idea if the nick in that rhino's ear is done for identification purposes, perhaps when the animal was sedated? Where were you when that photo was taken?
Bake
Please keep me posted about where you're going, and when. I'm not ready to put down the deposit, but it's only because I'm not sure where I'm going or when...but I AM going.
[email protected] (pms don't work for me, sorry)
