1969 Tanzania Safari

Wow,what a childhood.
Thanks for storytelling.
Foxi

great pictures , thanks for sharing

Wheels said:

Tim,



Also ask your friend if he has photos of Keith. I don't have any. I am not sure if I could even tell you what he looked like if you showed me a photo now.

I am certainly looking forward to more photos and a narrative if he can provide it.


For the rest of you that have commented on my story about Keith Cormac, thanks. I am blessed to have briefly lived in "the good old days".

All the best.

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Hallo Wheels,
by fluke (right word ?).
I get a book,there was a hunting story inside about a Tansania safari (in the late 60ies I think).
The PH was called Keith Cormack.
Author of the book: Franz Schönmetzler "Kapitale Trophäen" published by Neumann-Neudamm/Germany
Here a few pictures from him(Front and middle, sitting).
Is this the PH, which we are talking from ?
He looks more than a teacher, than a PH(when you compare him with Jaco )
Foxi

lots of interesting stuff there wheels, and neat thread you started tim

The only picture in this thread that includes the PH, Keith Cormack, Is the one of the rhino.
Keith is holding the back leg. It is difficult to tell from this photo if it is the same person or not.

tim416 said:

The only picture in this thread that includes the PH, Keith Cormack, Is the one of the rhino.
Keith is holding the back leg. It is difficult to tell from this photo if it is the same person or not.

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tim i got the magnifying glass out and from the build and nose and wearing glasses, and the hair if you compare the partial photo on the page next to the seated photo and the rhino photo, to me i would say the person in the photos is the same .

Foxi said:

Hallo Wheels,
by fluke (right word ?).
I get a book,there was a hunting story inside about a Tansania safari (in the late 60ies I think).
The PH was called Keith Cormack.
Author of the book: Franz Schönmetzler "Kapitale Trophäen" published by Neumann-Neudamm/Germany
Here a few pictures from him(Front and middle, sitting).
Is this the PH, which we are talking from ?
He looks more than a teacher, than a PH(when you compare him with Jaco )
Foxi

Click to expand...

Foxi,

Thanks for the information. I think these are photos of Keith but I wouldn't swear to it. Body size seems about right. I don't remember him wearing glasses but he may have. It probably doesn't give me a lot of credibility to say I knew him and not recognize him does it. 44 years doesn't help my memory much....Alzheimer's?

I agree with spike.t, I think the guy holding the rhino leg is the same guy. Also the guy walking with his back in the camp photo seems to be the same guy as well.

The photo in the book with the oryx would have been in northern Tanzania. Oryx weren't in the greater Ruaha ecosystem. (wasn't I saying that about rhino a few paragraphs ago?)

Thanks for finding the book!

Is there a publishing date on the book? That would be interesting to know.

There are so many more books available in English on Kenya than on Tanzania about the old days. I have always wondered how many books were written in German about Tanzania and are not available to me since I am illiterate in the language or that were lost due to destruction by two world wars.

yup wheels it would be interesting to know what books there are/were in german published before ww2 on tanganyika/german east africa. i am with you on the fringe eared oryx being found in northern tanzania......cant both be wrong?????
p.s. wheels hurry up and sort a hunt with us so we can drink some beers and talk about your early years in tanzania, cheers mike

Since there is a parallel thread on another forum, I forget what I write where. I don't believe I have mentioned this here.

Major Cormac was Keith's father. (I never knew him) He was a marathon runner for either Scotland or the UK in the Olympics. Not sure what year. That is the story I have heard from a couple of old timers. George Rushby in his book written by Bulpin says something along the same lines about Major Cormac.

I am pretty sure this story was about Keith Cormac. I could be wrong and it may be about another one of the local hunters. (Don't you hate it when someone is telling a story and isn't positive of the participants?)

Keith was hunting on the Ruaha river. He noticed two or three hippos had been killed. A couple of days later he noticed a few more had been killed in the same area. A few days later he hears a big commotion a few hundred yards down the river and goes to investigate. An elephant has gone in a pool that is drying out and has caught a hippo and has drug it out of the water and is goring it. After killing the hippo the elephant goes back in the shrinking pool for another one and the hippo are scattering. He can tell by the way the elephant is acting that it is old and blind. After it gets out of the water Keith kills it. If I remember correct this was an old cow. Do elephants get dementia and go crazy too or was it just menopause?

spike.t said:

yup wheels it would be interesting to know what books there are/were in german published before ww2 on tanganyika/german east africa. i am with you on the fringe eared oryx being found in northern tanzania......cant both be wrong?????
p.s. wheels hurry up and sort a hunt with us so we can drink some beers and talk about your early years in tanzania, cheers mike

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Sable should be one of my next three hunts. After this years hunts I may be broke for a year or two though.
We will see what we can do. Zambia is certainly a country I want to hunt. Hopefully your public areas will be opened before long as well. Add on buffalo sound good to you?

I need you to fill me in on your Tanzania hunts. My knowledge is limited of the in-between years.

FYI. Our old game warden, Eric Balson who has been mentioned earlier in this thread, I believe opened/created the Lower Zambezi National Park. Isn't this down by where you fish?

All the best.

Wheels said:

Foxi,

Thanks for the information. I think these are photos of Keith but I wouldn't swear to it. Body size seems about right. I don't remember him wearing glasses but he may have. It probably doesn't give me a lot of credibility to say I knew him and not recognize him does it. 44 years doesn't help my memory much....Alzheimer's?

I agree with spike.t, I think the guy holding the rhino leg is the same guy. Also the guy walking with his back in the camp photo seems to be the same guy as well.

The photo in the book with the oryx would have been in northern Tanzania. Oryx weren't in the greater Ruaha ecosystem. (wasn't I saying that about rhino a few paragraphs ago?)

Thanks for finding the book!

Is there a publishing date on the book? That would be interesting to know.

There are so many more books available in English on Kenya than on Tanzania about the old days. I have always wondered how many books were written in German about Tanzania and are not available to me since I am illiterate in the language or that were lost due to destruction by two world wars.

Click to expand...

Hallo Wheels,

the publishing date is 2004,but no exactly date for the safari.
But I see the pics of the old VW Bus ,it must be in the 60ies.

A forgotten pioneer in East Africa was Konrad Schauer.
He had already 1903 (!) a travel and hunting agency in Mombasa and opened 1908 a Hotel in Kijabe Hill, in the neighborhood of the Uganda Railway on the tanzanian border.
He made the logisitc of the famous expedition from Teddy and Kermit Roosevelt in 1908.
What a time.
To bad,that this book doesn't exist for you in the english language.
It's a unbelievable rich source of information.

@tim 416
I'm leaving Bulawayo on the 8th of september.
To bad,that we don't met us.

Greetings from Munic
Foxi

Wheels said:

Sable should be one of my next three hunts. After this years hunts I may be broke for a year or two though.
We will see what we can do. Zambia is certainly a country I want to hunt. Hopefully your public areas will be opened before long as well. Add on buffalo sound good to you?

I need you to fill me in on your Tanzania hunts. My knowledge is limited of the in-between years.

FYI. Our old game warden, Eric Balson who has been mentioned earlier in this thread, I believe opened/created the Lower Zambezi National Park. Isn't this down by where you fish?

All the best.

Click to expand...

add on buff sounds good . about the lower zambezi nat park as far as i know it only became a NP in 1983 and was KKs private presidential play ground up till then, along with his place in the luangwa which is now a lodge . its called chichele presidential lodge.

Something about those old black and white photos of African hunts. Thanks you for sharing them. Very awesome and inspiring.

Foxi,

Schauer sounds like a person I would like to read about. It would be nice if Safari Press, Trophy Room, etc. would republish some books like this in English. If the copyright owners did a translation and issued an e-book would be another good option.


Spike,

You made me do some research here. "On Safari with Bwana Game" by Eric Balson on pg. 129 of the Limited Edition, Balson says.

"In 1972.....I had secured the position of managing director for an American organization, Wildlife Conservation International (WCI), to supervise the management and development of the newly gazetted Lower Zambezi National Park. Management of the park for twenty-five years had been entrusted to WCI by President Kaunda of Zambia."

I am not trying to say that the book is the tell all end all of the story but I wonder if KK let WCI spend the money to develop the park for his own use?

All the best.

Wheels said:

Foxi,

Schauer sounds like a person I would like to read about. It would be nice if Safari Press, Trophy Room, etc. would republish some books like this in English. If the copyright owners did a translation and issued an e-book would be another good option.


Spike,

You made me do some research here. "On Safari with Bwana Game" by Eric Balson on pg. 129 of the Limited Edition, Balson says.

"In 1972.....I had secured the position of managing director for an American organization, Wildlife Conservation International (WCI), to supervise the management and development of the newly gazetted Lower Zambezi National Park. Management of the park for twenty-five years had been entrusted to WCI by President Kaunda of Zambia."

I am not trying to say that the book is the tell all end all of the story but I wonder if KK let WCI spend the money to develop the park for his own use?

All the best.

Click to expand...

wheels i was thinking the same about safari press doing the same thing, ludo has the all the things to be able to do that. i am going off to find my copy of that book now! and probably as it would have been cheaper than the govnt doing it as they were bust most of the time he was in power....................

Nice to read these stories. I lived in Chimala, on and off, from 1984-2007. Did a lot of hunting in the Usangu area as a child and as an adult. As someone in the above posts "thought" is true, they have outlawed hunting in Usangu now. But there is still an "old" hunter in Chimala that remembers about everything about everybody. He is a beluchi named Sheklon. I don't remember his last name???

chimalaheath said:

Nice to read these stories. I lived in Chimala, on and off, from 1984-2007. Did a lot of hunting in the Usangu area as a child and as an adult. As someone in the above posts "thought" is true, they have outlawed hunting in Usangu now. But there is still an "old" hunter in Chimala that remembers about everything about everybody. He is a beluchi named Sheklon. I don't remember his last name???

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Yes, Sheklon is a good go to source for information on the area going back 60+ years.

Heath, I am pretty sure we know each other. If you ever check back on this thread, feel free to pm me.

All the best.

Great stories and photos. Reminds me of the days sitting in the back of my high school class room reading about the exploits of well known African hunters of those times. Thanks for sharing.

Fantastic pictures.
I like old hunting pictures. It was a great time for hunters.
Witold

I know Keith Cormack he is my dad. He owned a few farms in Arusha. He was PH and my grandfather owned farms in Chimala Mbeya.