10 days in South Africa

[grayghost]

Finally, after dreaming of hunting in Africa since childhood, a good friend and I boarded South African airlines on July 11th and left Dulles Int'l airport bound for Johannesburg, South Africa. My friend and fellow Tennessean, Brad had booked us for a 10 day Plains Game hunt with Bowker Safari Company out of Grahamstown, SA. The 17 hour flight was no problem, since we met many other hunters bound for the dark continent with hunting on their agenda. We experienced a 5 hour delay due to no fuel being available at Dakar, Senegal, so we had to back track out to sea, landing on Costa del Sol Island to refuel. Our plane landed in J'burg late, and our connecting flight to Port Elizabeth had just left. However, once we were in J'burg, we were met by representatives from both Gracy Travel (out of Texas whom we booked our flight arrangements) and Hunters Support (who pre-registered our gun permits) and things went very smoothly. Gun registration was no problem and getting our next flight to P.E. had already been arranged. (The small fee Hunters Support chages to arrange gun permits and other port of entry requirements was well worth it. We will use them again.) Our layover was less than an hour. We boarded our flight down to Port Elizabeth and made the trip in about an hour and a half. If I remember correctly, it was around 11:30 pm when we landed. Once we walked off the plane, we picked up our luggage and headed for the firearms station. There we were met by Meyrick Bowker. He and his brother Denham now run the outfit as their father Frank is semi retired, taking clients on an "as needed" basis. Meyrick had been kept up to date of our delay and was waiting for us. We loaded up our guns and gear and headed off to their ranch. Best I recall it was a two and a half hour drive, which went quickly as my friend Louis and I were filled with too much excitement to be sleepy. Meyrick answered a lot of questions and by the time we left Grahamstown, we were seeing game all over the sides of the highway. Duiker's, Kudu, Spring Hare, Steenbuck and the like were taking every opportunity to grab forage under the cover of darkness. We had to slow down a number of times to avoid collisions with game. I was as fired up as a fox in the hen house! Before we knew it we had left the blacktop highway (which I must compliment South Africa for their excellent roadways) and onto the gravel roads. We arrived at the Bowkers ranch in the early morning hours and after a quick tour of our separate rooms, we were both in bed as our wake call would be 6:30 am. Neither Louis nor myself could sleep. I guess we both woke up about every hour; looked at the clock and dozed off again; only to wake up within another hour. Finally, around 5:30 am, I heard Louis stirring around outside in the courtyard so I got up and dressed. He had already been in the dining hall and coffee was ready. We fixed us some toast and cereal and within the hour Denham, then Meyrick walked in. They laughed at our excitement, and shortly thereafter, we drove off in separate trucks (Toyota 4x4s) towards the rifle range. We were introduced to our Tracker/Skinners: Jackson was to hunt with Meyrick and I; Sundelay would be with Louis and Denham.....to be continued.