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Gene & Lee's African Safari
South Africa - April 28 to May 24, 2010

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY  

Introduction to our African adventure!

April 28 - Edmonton to Calgary

April 29 - Calgary to Frankfurt

April 30 - Frankfurt to Jo'burg

May 01 - Jo'burg
 

May 02 - Jo'burg to Livingstone

May 03 - Victoria Falls, Zambia

May 04 - Livingstone to Jo'burg

May 05 - Jo'burg to Hazyview

May 06 - Kruger National Park

May 07 - Kruger National Park

May 08 - Kruger to Pongola
 

May 09 - Pongola to Durban

May 10 - Durban to Cape Town

May 11 - Cape Town to Gordon's Bay

May 12 - Gordon's Bay / Gansbaai

May 13 - Gordon's Bay / Stellenbosch

May 14 - Cape Town to Jo'burg

May 15 - Jo'burg to Lephalale
 

May 16 - First day of hunting safari

May 17 - Second day of hunting safari

May 18 - Third day of hunting safari

May 19 - Fourth day of hunting safari

May 20 - Fifth day of hunting safari

May 21 - Sixth day of hunting safari

May 22 - Seventh day of hunting safari
 

May 23 - Jo'burg to Frankfurt

May 24 - Frankfurt to Calgary

Links

Sunday, May 23rd - Jo'burg to Frankfurt

We were up at 7:00 a.m. for our final breakfast at 8:30. We finished packing and again said our goodbyes. Rod decided he was staying in camp and in bed today as he had developed quite a fever overnight. Quentin and Arlene went out looking for a better warthog. Both hunters had booked an eight animal, ten day hunt and Rod was at nine animals by day six and Quentin was at ten. Don't know what they still hadn't shot but it couldn't have been much. And that just about sums up the availability of game opportunity at Cruisers. If you want to take an animal or more a day, it is entirely doable.

    
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We hit the road at 9:30 with PH Pieter and his wife Maggie. As it was Sunday morning it only took us 3 ½ hours to drive to our stop before the airport, Highveld Taxidermists. We spent an hour and a half touring the facility with one of the owners and taxidermists, Thomas. There were literally thousands of different mounts, poses and attitudes to look at and every conceivable species represented. The good thing is that we don't have to make up our minds for a while yet as our trophies won't be arriving here for a month or so.

    
    
click picture to enlarge

To summarize the hunt, I was able to successfully take the three trophies that were part of my package; a gemsbok, an impala and a kudu. As well, I took a waterbuck, a blue wildebeest and a warthog. And, there could have been other animals of opportunity but we'll save those till next time.

PH Pieter dropped us at the airport at 3:30. We checked in our luggage and received our boarding passes. From there we made our way to the SAP firearms counter where the attendant asked for our permits and passports. He looked at Harold, studied his passport, looked back at Harold and said, "This isn't your face on this passport." Harold was not amused at the guy's attempt at humour or the start of a shakedown and told him so.

Back on track our guy checked to see that the numbers on our permits and rifles matched, signed off on everything and accepted our rifles to be checked in as luggage. That chore done, we started off to find a place to grab something to eat when I noticed Lee's and my boarding passes both had my name on them. So it was back to the SAA counter to fix that small error.

Managed to track down a burger place and have something to eat, then made some last minute purchases. From there it was on to Gate A5 to wait out our departure to Frankfurt. We boarded at 7 p.m. and I had the same seat I had on the way here, 73D with no seat in front of me. We had dinner, did a bit of reading and dozed off and on throughout the flight.

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