Adventures in South Africa--Paul's Dream

I've never felt the need to include a disclaimer on any posts but I'm going to now. This post contains photos of dead animals. Nothing gruesome in my opinion, but you have been warned.

The trip to South Africa was a safari and not just a photographic safari. Paul is a hunter, and he tells me every hunter's dream is to hunt Africa. So these photos are of the animals he shot while in South Africa.

With one exception, the Red Hartebeest, each was killed with ONE shot (not the same shot, they each got their own) which means that there couldn't have been much suffering. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a dedicated animal lover. I am not a hunter, but I am a meat eater. I have been known to tell anyone who criticizes hunters that the animals my husband has 'harvested' had a better life AND death than anything you buy in the supermarket.

I will also tell you that none of the meat from the animals he shot was wasted. Yes, the heads were sent to a taxidermist and are mounted on the walls of our our game room, and the zebra skin was made into a rug. But the hundreds of pounds of meat was used to feed many people. We weren't allowed to bring any of the meat home but we did have some of each while we were there.

In addition to feeding his own family and the hunters and non-hunting guests like me staying with them, Erik, the professional hunter, provides food and shelter for the Africans who work for him. He also sells some of the meat in Johannesburg at a discount to people who can't afford to buy it in the stores. On his ranch they have a huge meat storage building where the meat is kept frozen. While we were there two women came by with a refrigerated trailer and took away many, many pounds that Erik was donating to a nursing home.

So here we go.

Paul with guinea fowl. Tillie, Erik's wife, and the ranch cook, made a wonderful guinea fowl pie from some of these birds.

Paul and Erik with Paul's Greater Kudu.

Me and Paul with the Blesbok. I was with him on several hunts/stalks but I turned my head for the shot. I am always fascinated to see the animals up close but not until they are dead. I can't deal with anything hurt.

Paul and Erik with the two trackers. This is a Gemsbok. These animals have been known to kill a lion.

Paul with his Blue Wildebeest, also known as a Gnu.

With his Red Hartebeest.

With the Warthog. Only the tusks came home from this guy.

Paul and his Impala.

Paul and his Burchell Zebra.

That's the end of photos I'll post of our safari in South Africa. Paul and I have traveled a bit and hope to do more but I don't think anything will ever top the adventure of this trip. We talk about going back some day but in the meantime, we've got other places to go and things to see. Thanks for your comments on all my posts about this trip. It's been fun for me going through all the photos and remembering what a great time we had.

Adventures in South Africa--Animals!

Here is the bunch of photos taken during our two weeks on safari in South Africa. We were in the Northern Province near the Limpopo River which separates South Africa from Botswana.

Eric, the professional hunter, took us out one day on the Limpopo in this boat for some sightseeing and a picnic. He docked the boat on the other side, we jumped off and said "We're in Botswana!"

Can you spot the monkeys in these next two photos?

The animals we saw in Pilanesberg National Park were wonderful but seeing them in this environment was even more amazing. Eric has 5500 acres of land which is fenced with miles of roads cut through it. As we drove the roads we spotted animals everywhere including warthogs, rhinos, impalas and giraffes. The giraffes were my favorite. A bull can be 18 feet tall and weigh 1500 pounds. They only feed on leaves from the tops of trees so we often saw their heads peeking through as we drove along.

This guy spotted us, watched for a few moments and they he was off!

We were driving along, turned a corner and this is what we found. We stopped and he stopped as if he was posing for photos. Check out the guy in the back of the second photo.

Paul was there to hunt, of course, and I stayed behind for most of the hunts. Below is group of warthogs around a watering hole.

Erik employs two African trackers, Piet and Joseph. Here is Piet at the top of a spotting tower. He's using a walkie talkie to direct the hunters towards animals he can see.

Here is Joseph and Paul stalking something.

Paul and Erik heading back to the lorry during a hunt.

Piet and Joseph were incredible trackers. They could look at dozens of tracks and tell what the animal was, which way it was headed and how long since it had passed by. The sticks you see them carrying are shooting sticks used to make a tripod to rest the gun on if necessary for a shot.

This is a blind situated at a water tank. It's called The Pizza Oven 'cause it gets pretty hot in there at midday. A couple weeks earlier a black mamba, one of the deadliest snakes in Africa, came slithering into the blind as hunters sat there. Fortunately Erik spotted it and they got out before anyone was bitten. Only two hunters fit in The Pizza Oven, and I spent some time with Paul watching and waiting.

This herd of wildebeest came through as we sat in The Pizza Oven.

This guy was my favorite. We saw him several times over the two weeks we were there. Erik estimated that he was 18 feet tall. Poor guy was missing most of his tail.

This water tank was about 5 feet tall so this gives you an idea of just how big he was.
Take a look at the thorns on this tree.

This is a termite mound. We saw many as tall as 5 feet.

This is a the remnants of a termite nest after an aardvark had lunch.

Come by next Monday for the final installment of our Adventures in Africa and see the culmination of Paul's dream hunt.

Adventures in South Africa--Pilanesberg National Park

Less than two hours drive from Johannesburg is Pilanesberg National Park. The Pilanesberg Game Reserve is extremely beautiful with rolling hills and an extinct volcano which is now an expansive lake. Throughout the park thick vegetation contrasts sparse brown grassy fields, where herds of zebra and various species of antelope can be seen and tall giraffes stalk along the horizon.

The abundance of game on the reserve is the result of Africa's biggest game relocation project from the 1970s. Critics use this to argue that the game park lacks in authenticity. The fact that this was a preserve made me happy because it's obvious the animals are protected. They are also in their natural habitat and wild. This is not a petting zoo!

Rhino, leopard, lion, buffalo and elephant make up what is called Africa's Big Five. The Pilanesberg Game Reserve is home to all of them. Pilanesberg is a prime location for viewing lions. These stately creatures can often be spotted padding along the reserve's roads.

Despite our best efforts and sharp eyes, the day Paul and I were there we were weren't lucky enough to see any lions. There were no cat sightings by any of the people we spoke to that day. We were told that many visitors to the park spot whole prides of lions on game drives. The elephant and giraffe populations are large too, and we were fortunate enough to see many, many of both.

We took an escorted ride through the park in an open lorry like the one in the picture above. Our guide rode up front and had a loaded high-power rifle on the dash of the truck. Before starting out we were given instructions about some of the more dangerous animals we might encounter. He told one story of a tourist who had been attacked by a lion. Whether it was true, who knows, but we paid close attention to his instructions.

Soon after we headed out, as an elephant came toward the truck, the guide told us to basically stay seated, be quiet and don't take any photos because he had the power to overturn the truck if he felt like it. Sure enough he walked right along side the truck with his eye level with us. It was obvious he was looking into the vehicle as he walked by. The photo below of the elephant walking away was the only one I got of him!

This car was ahead of us. You can see that the elephant has the right of way in this environment.

This was a "maternity herd" of elephants, just mothers and babies. We watched them for a long time as they fed on the vegetation. They don't just munch on the trees, they wrap their trunks around them and yank them out by the roots. We've all heard elephants on television and maybe even in the zoos, but to hear mothers call to their babies in the wild is something I'll never forget.



The giraffes were my favorites by far. We actually watched two bulls fighting. They look so graceful as they swing their heads around but then they use them as mallets on each other. We could hear the sounds of them striking each other.
Here they were on the move across the grassland. I love that the one all the way to the right was looking straight at us. My favorite shot of the zebra all in a line. In the back is the lake in what was a volcano.

You have to look closely but here is a mother hippo and her baby resting along side the water. They weren't cooperating that day, and we didn't get a better view than this.

Below is a wildebeest often referred to as a gnu. The folk lore in Africa about the wildebeest is that when God was done making all the animals, he had parts left over and made the wildebeest.

As we rode through these hills we hoped to see lions but no luck that day. Here is a herd of Tseebe, a variety of antelope.