“My First African Safari” By Reed Thomas
Travel to Camp:
We started our journey to Africa by catching a flight from MSP to Amsterdam. The first leg of the trip was the hardest for me as I wasn’t sure what to expect. The longest plane ride I have been on before this was around 4 hrs long. With a 9-hour flight ahead of me and a lady next to me who kept letting her pet cat out of its carrier, I was fearing the worst for this flight. After many naps and a couple movies we finally landed in Amsterdam.
We only had a couple hours of layover, so we decided to take a nap on the airport couches for a bit. We eventually boarded our flight heading to Joburg. This flight, although longer, didn’t feel nearly as long as the last. We arrived in Joburg late and after checking into the hotel room we waited for our journey to start in the morning.
Hunting Day 1:
We woke up early and had the hotel breakfast which I must say was very good. Definitely one of the best hotel breakfasts I’ve ever had. So after we had filled up we got the text from Mario that he was there to pick us up. When we went to meet him in the parking garage we quickly learned that we were there on one of the coldest days they had in the last decade and just before one of the biggest snowstorms Joburg has seen in 12 years. Nonetheless, it wasn’t too bad for us Minnesota boys. On our trip to meet our other PH we bombarded Mario with questions which he was very glad to answer.
We met up with my PH, Craig, at the petrol station. We had a very brief meet and greet after getting some refreshments and headed to the town closest to the first property so we could pick up salt for the hides and some booze – only the essentials. Off to the first property we went and we were pleasantly surprised as I didn’t know we were going to be hunting in the mountains. Come to find out we were in the Waterberg mountains which I had heard of but never thought we would be there. So after taking in the scenery we made it to the front gate.
Upon arriving we saw blue wildebeest, impala, and white rhino right inside the gate. We snaked our way to the accommodations. I didn’t know what to expect when we were headed there because I have seen big lodges as well as luxury tents in other reports and videos. When we arrived we noticed that we will be staying in small cabins and the dining/cooking area was an outdoor area. We were informed that this property is more rustic and that Mario and Craig would be our PHs and our chefs. This made the camp feel more like the hunting camps we have back in the states. Craig and Mario told us to relax while they unpacked the truck, but my father and I were very anxious to get out hunting so to pass the time we walked around exploring the camp.
After a quick lunch we went to their range to test out the rifles. We tried out their 30-06s and Mario’s new .458. The 30-06 was a breeze to shoot but I was a little nervous to shoot the .458 as it would be the largest caliber I’d ever shot by a long stretch. I shot it once off sticks and once off hand. I will tell you it kicks like a mule off the sticks but wasn’t bad at all free handed.
Now, it was finally time to get out on the trails in search of some animals. Within the first hour of the hunt we had seen dozens of impala already, but none that met trophy status. We continued on until we saw a herd of blue wildebeest. Craig turned to my dad and I and asked if we were interested. I passed as blue wildebeest didn’t really do it for me but my dad jumped on the opportunity. He stepped off the truck and Mario set up the sticks. Mario said shoot when comfortable and my dad placed a perfect shot on the bull. The bull did a wide circle up the mountain but expired within short order. We went up to look for him and found him not too far away from the shot. The PHs and trackers lifted him down the mountain to a dry creek bed for photos.
After photos were taken the bull was loaded into the truck and we continued hunting. We reached a pretty steep incline that the truck had some trouble getting up. It wasn’t shocking considering we had 6 guys and a wildebeest in it. After some of the guys got out Craig was able to make some ground, I turned to look back to see what we were stuck on and we hit another bump and I almost fell out the back of the truck. Thankfully my dad’s arm stopped me from flying out, but I think I gave Mario a heart attack. Needless to say I will always be holding on tight while riding in the back of the trucks. We decided to drop the bull off at the skinning shed to lose some weight.
After dropping off the bull we drove around a little bit more but didn’t see much so we started back to camp. Right before we got back to camp we saw a herd of impala. A nice ram was spotted so I hopped out of the truck with Craig. We got set up and I took my shot. He spun around in his track and crumpled. I was so glad to get an animal on the ground so I didn’t have as many nerves for the rest of the trip. He was a beautiful ram and could not be happier with my first African animal. We took some photos with a sunset background and made our way back to camp.
Craig and Mario cooked up some dinner and we began discussing the following days game plan. The main reason for coming to this property was because I wanted to shoot a nice dark bull giraffe. This property was supposed to have a monster bull and we needed to find it. We had been searching for it earlier in the day and although we did see some giraffes, we did not see the dark one. The main concern was trying to find this bull early enough in the day so there was no spoilage of meat and so that the skinners didn’t have to work into the night. The plan was set for the giraffe and so with that arranged we decided to start celebrating the awesome animals we had harvested. We indulged ourselves with some Castle Lites, ciders, and Two Keys whiskey and cokes around the campfire. As we were swapping stories I noticed an animal come into the light of the cabin. I told the guys and they said it was a duiker, Mario looked through his binos and said he was a huge male. I took a look and knew I wanted to take one. They weren’t on my list of animals I wanted but they quickly gained a spot on the list after I saw how excited Mario got. We decided to drive around a bit more at dusk over the next couple days to see if we could get a nice one. After all the excitement we reluctantly went to bed and were looking forward to what tomorrow had in store.
Day 2:
Our first morning in the bush was fairly cold but the guys already had a fire going and had made us a nice cup of milo’s (hot chocolate), as my dad and I aren’t big coffee drinkers. The guys made a quick breakfast and we headed out to look for the dark bull. We drove around and saw some giraffes including another big bull who wasn’t the dark one so we continued searching. We continued driving around seeing Impala, Wildebeest, Zebra, and Cape Buffalo. We began to drive further up the mountain and the game manager spotted a dark Giraffe bull at the very top of the mountain. I have no idea how he saw it as you could only see the top couple feet of the head and neck which just looked like a dead branch from that distance.
Because he was so far up the mountain there was no way we would be able to get him off the mountain if we harvested him. So, one of the trackers was sent to push him off the top so we could get a better view of him and make a plan if it was the right one. The bull begrudgingly came down and headed to where we could see him better. He was magnificent and I was ready and excited to get going but he apparently was not the right bull!! They said this was a younger bull and the one we were going for was much bigger. I was shocked when they said he was bigger, but I trusted them. After seeing the last bull, we started down the trail again until we got a radio call from one of the workers on the property that the big bull was on the other side of the mountain. We sped off to get to the other side and all I could say was “wow!”.
There in front of us stood an absolutely massive dark bull with some cows. He dwarfed the cows and he looked black compared to them. Immediately we all knew he was the one but the game manager needed to confirm for sure by a scar he had on his right hindquarter. So we stalked up the road to get a bit closer and as we did that the cows ran off. The bull was wary but not too concerned by our presence. The game manager snuck up really close and confirmed he was the bull. We decided to use the 30-06 and to shoot him right at the base of the head/neck connection because we could only see the top half of his neck at this point. I got up on the sticks and now I started to get “buck fever”, or I guess “bull fever” in this case. I lined up the shot we discussed and went to pull the trigger. BANG!
The bull dropped like a ton of brick and for a brief moment there was relief. Then all hell broke loose. A clamoring of hooves was heard from the brush and about as fast as he went down he was back on his feet. He snorted a bunch of blood out of his nostrils and started running down the mountain. I scrambled to get out of the sticks to shoot again and ended up shooting above the bulls back. Mario carried the .458 and asked if he should shoot and Craig yelled “Shoot!” We both were slinging bullets at the bull until he went down about 50-60 yards away. We were all relieved he was down so quickly and started walking over to where the bull went down. When we got eyes on him he was still struggling on the ground so I put a coup de grace .458 round in the center of his chest to finish him off.
Walking up to this beast was truly surreal. I have never felt more emotions about an animal I had hunted than after harvesting this bull. I almost couldn’t speak because it was such an emotional roller coaster. I’ve never harvested an animal anywhere near this caliber and it was a lot to take in. My dad still talks about it every time he gets an opportunity about how amazing he thought it was. Mario and Craig told me he was a huge bull and that they don’t see them that big too often. We later found out that just the carcass of the bull weighed 986kg which made him the biggest giraffe Mario had been a part of hunting at that point in his career! I can attest that this bull had no ground shrinkage. We took in the moment and then positioned him for pictures. We could not prop him up otherwise he would have rolled down the mountain, so we stretched out the neck and began the photo op. After what seemed like hundreds of pictures the TLB was called so they could move it to begin the skinning and butchering. This was an interesting process that we watched for a while but in order to not waste hunting time we left the skinners to do their work.
We had a quick lunch back at camp and headed out to look for a kudu for my dad. We drove around for the remainder of the day and started making our way back towards camp. Darkness began to fall so hunting was pretty much over for the day, or so we thought. A bush duiker popped up into the headlights and walked just off the road. Mario looked through binos to confirm it was a male whilst Craig was getting me ready for a shot. It was a confirmed shooter so I made a quick snap shot. He ran off and I was not feeling very confident on the shot but the guys turned around and said he’s dead! I nervously approached where I had shot him and there was blood. We got on the trail and followed for about 20 yards to find him just inside the tall grass stone dead. My tiny 10 had officially started! He was a giant duiker similar to the one we saw the day previous. Mario was super excited (maybe more than I was lol!). It was such an amazing experience to shoot one of the largest and the smallest animals on the property on the same day. I’m sure the skinners were sick of me because they just finished the giraffe and then I had to bring them the duiker. We made it back to camp for some dinner. We indulged in some more adult beverages to celebrate a killer day of hunting and hit the hay.
We had a quick lunch back at camp and headed out to look for a kudu for my dad. We drove aro
Day 3:
We woke up again to a warm fire, light breakfast, and some hot milo’s. The plan for today was to focus on my dad’s list, as I already had three animals in the salt. We headed off to a dry riverbed to look for fresh sign or to see if we could bump into any animals. Kudu was the main focus until we heard the bark of a baboon. We headed in the direction of the bark and the terrain began to increase in elevation – fast! In order to be more stealthy, Craig and I stayed back and waited while Mario and my dad went off to search for the baboon.
They went up the mountain for a couple hundred yards when they finally saw a group with a big male sitting in the tops of some trees. My dad propped up on a rock to take the far shot. He shot and we could hear it hit the baboon even though we were further down the mountains. It was hanging out of the tree looking like he was done for and my dad wanted to shoot it again but Mario said to hold off as it looked like a good shot. It fell from the tree and we waited a bit. We made our way up to the shot site and found some blood immediately but no baboon. We began tracking and found that the blood trail was dwindling fast. We eventually only found specks here and there. We looked for it for another four hours determined to find it. We never did recover the baboon but it was pretty fun honing our blood trailing skills in a different terrain than the woods back home.
Feeling a little defeated, we went back to camp for lunch. We went back out to continue our search for trophies for my dad. We spotted a group of Impala deep in some scrub so Mario and my dad hopped out of the truck and made their approach. They were gone for a good amount of time when we heard a shot. The impala didn’t go far and Mario sent my dad back to the truck to share the good news with us while he dragged the impala to the road. The one problem was my dad got a little lost after the long stalk and ended up on a different road to us that was close to where the rhinos hung out! Craig and I found him fairly quickly though and albeit he was out of breath, he was unscathed lol.
und for the remainder of the day and started making our way back towards camp. Darkness began to fall so hunting was pretty much over for the day, or so we thought. A bush duiker popped up into the headlights and walked just off the road. Mario looked through binos to confirm it was a male whilst Craig was getting me ready for a shot. It was a confirmed shooter so I made a quick snap shot. He ran off and I was not feeling very confident on the shot but the guys turned around and said he’s dead! I nervously approached where I had shot him and there was blood. We got on the trail and followed for about 20 yards to find him just inside the tall grass stone dead. My tiny 10 had officially started! He was a giant duiker similar to the one we saw the day previous. Mario was super excited (maybe more than I was lol!). It was such an amazing experience to shoot one of the largest and the smallest animals on the property on the same day. I’m sure the skinners were sick of me because they just finished the giraffe and then I had to bring them the duiker. We made it back to camp for some dinner. We indulged in some more adult beverages to celebrate a killer day of hunting and hit the hay.
Day 5:
We got up for breakfast and discussed our game plan. We were going to split up; Craig and I were going after an Eland while Rey and my dad were going for a Kudu. Craig and Rey were joking with us that the SA springboks, the rugby team, were facing the New Zealand All Blacks at 9am and that we should get our animals by then. They laughed but you could tell they were half serious about wanting to watch the game, I guess it is a big rivalry and I definitely understand that being a football fan.
We headed our separate ways to start that morning’s hunt. Right away we found an awesome Kudu, so we radioed to Rey to tell him its general location and we proceeded to the other side of the property. We were driving and got to an opening where I caught a glimpse of a black spot and I knew right away what it was. It was the mop of a big eland bull. I told Craig so we stopped in some scrub and began our stalk up. I was told that eland can be very flighty so we made a very slow stalk through the brush. A half hour later we see the bull and he is slowly walking away from us. We get the sticks up and Craig says I can shoot when I’m ready. I shot confidently, hitting him right behind the shoulder. Craig was in the middle of saying “shoot him again” when I cracked off another shot dropping him in his tracks. I was shaking profusely, more than I had done with any other animal.
We walked up to the beast and it was huge. We got a call from Rey asking if we got him and found out that my dad had also shot a nice Kudu. He was using a suppressor so we didn’t hear his shot but they heard mine. Rey told my dad that I was a quick shooter and my dad told him that we had to be because we hunt a small whitetail property and we don’t want the deer to run wounded into neighboring properties. So very excited for my father, we headed over to them to check out the Kudu and to take pics. Once done with that we all headed back to the Eland for a photo op. The animals were loaded and ready for delivery to the skinning shed. The best part was that we were all done by 9:30 so we could catch the rest of the rugby game!
We celebrated at the lodge by having some beers and watching the game. The springboks unfortunately lost, but it was really funny watching Craig and Rey try to stay calm watching the game when they clearly wanted to yell at the screen. We had a nice lunch and continued hunting.
I sat in a blind over a watering hole hoping for a Warthog. No Warthogs were seen but tons of animals including a pair of bat eared foxes came past. I didn’t end up shooting anything, but my dad had some more success that day. He wanted a Gemsbok but the property did not have enough so he decided on a waterbuck or a Zebra. He didn’t see any waterbuck bulls, but did find a big herd of Zebras. He took a 150 yard shot and dropped a nice mare. We went to check it out and take pictures, and of course as we took pictures here comes a dandy Waterbuck out of the trees. We were both reaching our budget’s limits so we let him walk. Just another successful day in Africa!
Day 6:
Our main mission of the day was Warthogs. They had eluded us during the course of the safari which I thought was odd as I figured they would be everywhere. We set off in different directions to drive the property in hopes to see some. We were driving and I saw one off the side of the road. It was a nice boar but I was waiting for the go ahead from Craig. My tracker said “shoot dat pig” but Craig couldn’t see it as he was driving. It was there for only a couple seconds before taking off. No biggie, we will just find another. We keep driving and another boar runs across the road and disappears quickly. I am getting excited now that we are starting to see some. We get out and walk for a while and stumble upon a big sow. Unfortunately, this property didn’t allow the shooting of sows, if they did I would have gladly taken that big girl. We kept driving and saw a Jackal but like the Warthogs it was gone in a flash. My dad also had a boar run across the road but had no luck in relocating it. No warthogs for the morning.
After lunch we headed out again. We didn’t see any warthogs and I mentioned to Craig that I would shoot a Blesbok to finish off the hunt because we had seen so many of them. He had a great idea that my dad and I should try and double up on Blesbok. We radioed Rey and my dad agreed so we met up in the big field where we had been seeing them. The herd was out there and I told my dad to take the first shot. He lines up on the sticks and rips a 200yd shot and unfortunately misses. The herd ran off and my dad was disappointed. The PH’s said that we can go to the other field and we should be able to find another herd. We headed over that way and found another herd. I told my dad to try again. He shot nicking its back and with a swift second shot managed to drop it. I quickly grabbed the gun, lined up on the next one, but didn’t have a great rest and I shot over its back. I racked another bullet and now the Blesbok were running right at us! I find my blesbok and shoot behind it. The gun was out of ammo and I yelled, “give me the other gun!” I shot again, hitting it too far back but slowed it down enough for me to get a final shot that dropped it.
Finally, after all that piss poor shooting we had our double. My father and I were not proud of our shooting as we don’t typically miss like that but it definitely was an adrenaline fueled ending to an awesome safari. We took pictures with the sunset behind us and were ready to celebrate. We got back to the lodge and had a feast. We had cigars and cognac, thanks to the lodge owner, and all hung out telling stories. We eventually made it into the lodge where we played music, had some two keys whiskey, and shot some pool. It was really fun bonding with the PHs and we soon found ourselves up until close to 1am. We decided to stop the fun and go to bed as we had a long day of traveling ahead.
Day 7:
It was now our last morning in Africa. We got all our paperwork done and we settled up the payment. We packed and said our goodbyes to the camp staff. We couldn’t help but feel sad on the trip back to Joburg. But the whole time I found myself planning our next trip. When getting to Joburg we stopped at a local outdoors store and a local meat market. We picked up some meat snacks and some seasonings to bring home. We then ended up meeting one of the owners of Bayly Sippel, Dempsey Bayly, at a local coffee shop. He was very welcoming and thankful for us coming. We headed to the airport to say our final goodbyes to Craig and to head home.
I cannot put into words how much fun my father and I had on this trip. We still talk about it daily. I want to thank Bayly Sippel Safaris, Craig, Mario, Rey, the lodge owners, and all the camp staff for making us feel like family and for making this trip so awesome. I highly recommend Bayly Sippel Safaris if you are looking for a super fun, top-class hunting trip.