African Safari - Day 1 - TRAVEL 16/17 AUG

I leave Mulberry at 10:30 am on Sunday, 16 AUG 2015.  I pick up RePhil in Reagan and we continue on to the Indianapolis International Airport.  Our flight to Atlanta leaves at 2:30 pm.

This was the first time for me to take a gun out of the country.  I have traveled with rifles before, just not OUS.  However, the girls at the Delta counter checking us in - they had no clue.  They were trying to read up on the rules.  As yes, I know before you say it, we hunters are supposed to boycott Delta.  But we booked through an agent BEFORE Delta came up with their lame rules about not transporting trophies.  We finally get checked in and hope our guns make it.

We had a 3 hour layover in Atlanta before boarding our next leg - 16 hours.  Take a look around the internet and you can find all kinds of details about Delta's Flight 200 from Atlanta to Johannesburg.  The longest continuous flight on the planet.  At least we had "free" drinks and movies.

On our flight was the South African Shooting Team.  They had just competed in a rifle match in Ohio (Camp Perry would be my guess).  They all shoot .308 caliber - at least that's what they told us when we asked.  And, they came in third.

We arrive in Jo-burg at about 4 pm local time on Monday, 17 AUG.  Customs is a breeze.  It takes our luggage about 30 minutes to arrive.  We grab it and head out to meet our Professional Hunter (PH).  Instead, the owner/operator is there to greet us, Jacques Senekal.

We all head on over to the South African Police department to retrieve our rifles.  Even though we are the second and third person there, after an hour, we are still there.  Everyone else has come and gone.  Not sure what the problem was.  Eventually, we get our paperwork and rifles and leave.

The trip from the airport to the camp is supposed to be 2.5 hours.  However, since we spent 60 minutes with the police, Jacques makes up some time.  The speed limit was 120 kph (75 mph) on the highway.  We average 150 kph (93 mph).  The trip takes less than 2 hours.  We make camp by 9 pm.

We meet one group of hunters from Billings, MT who are leaving Tuesday.  The other two hunters in camp will leave Thursday.

We all have a late dinner together.  Then RePhil and I unpack and sleep.  Total travel time door-to-door is 28.5 hours.  That's a long day.

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