South African Safari June 2021

 And about a week after our annual prairie dog trip (see post below), Kathy, Alex, Nick, and I took off for a South African Safari with John X Safaris.

We left Indy to Newark to Johannesburg.  We spent the night in Jo-burg since we arrived too late for the last flight to Port Elizabeth.  We got up a 4 am to catch the flight down to the coast and then drove about 2 hours E along the coast to the John X Safaris hunting grounds, arriving Saturday about Noon.  We ate a quick lunch and then off to the range.

After proving our proficiency with the rental guns, we took a drive to the top of the plains (about 2,000' above sea level).  We saw a nice Impala that Alex shot.  First Day success!

Alex with his PH Martin inspecting the impala


The daily routine was to get up in the morning at 6:30, eat a light breakfast, then go hunt until lunch.  Back to the lodge for a meal then a quick nap.  We headed out again about 3 pm and hunted until sundown.  We returned for showers and cocktails before dinner at 7:30.  Then more cocktails around the campfire most nights.

The hunts went like this: drive to a location, get out the optics, glass for animals.  Once found, stalk them and try to get a shot off.  We were pretty successful at this - ended up with 13 animals including impala, kudu, baboon, ostrich, zebra, springbuck, blesbuck, bushbuck, and warthog (some multiples in there).  We saw tons more animals that we did not shoot including sable, cape buffalo, monkeys, jackal, blue wildebeest, black wildebeest, and giraffe.

We saw the gamut of temperatures.  It was 80 for the first two days and then the winds blew at 25 mph sustained on the third day.  After that, it was 60 for the high and 40 for the low with little to no wind on the last two days.  That latter bit?  Yep, that's how it was supposed to be the entire time as it is their winter down there.  Oh well, the weather is out of our control.  

Can't say enough good things about John X Safaris.  Easy to work with, fantastic guides, awesome people.  Only positive things to report.  If you are wondering about the price, it is very reasonable.  Flights are $2,500, a week's stay is about $2,500, and we each shot about 3 animals for another $2,500.  Taxidermy is not included and will have to be added, but you can make that as expensive as you wish.  And I'll tell ya this, you can't book a moose hunt or a caribou hunt for that price!  What would you rather do, take one animal for $10k or take 3 animals for $7.5k?  It was an easy decision for us.

Don't get me wrong, the 15-hour flight to Johannesburg is a very long flight.  Again, worth it.

You need to check out John X Safaris here:  www.johnxsafaris.com

You can also look them up on YouTube(R) if you want to see any of their videos.  They are on Instagram(R) as well.  Awesome stuff out there.

Alex with his baboon sitting atop a termite mound

Nick with his proper warthog

Nick's waterbuck

Kathy's kudu

My kudu, and yes, both Kathy's & Nick's kudus were larger


Comments

  1. Dave PorrillJuly 3, 2021 at 7:30 AM

    So help me here ... photo 3 ... which one is Nick?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dave PorrillJuly 3, 2021 at 7:32 AM

    I guess in the end, size does matter to the girls!

    ReplyDelete

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