SOUTH AFRICA: KMG Safaris Rocks!

@johnnyblues , @gizmo , @MAdcox

Guys, I've created a beautiful MONSTER!
I talk about all the different countries in Africa and show her pictures of new places and animals...then I get "honey, I want a Buffalo and a Leopard! Those Crocs are SO big, can we shoot one of those too? I also want a Warthog"

Getting the wives together, bad idea. I can't imagine the credit card bill that would result!

I'm not sure she will let me sneak off to Africa without her...

Edge
That’s a great problem to have. My wife loved Africa but still rolls her eyes when I start talking about it.
 
My wife just asks how much? Then she really gets mad...Then I hear the same old thing....we’re never going to be able to retire.. lol.
 
Have her call mine, they can commiserate with each other. While we keep talking Africa, obviously.

I was going to say the same thing. Hell let’s get the three of them together and while they’re distracted we can sneak off Back to Africa.

Just dangle a shoe catalog or pictures of Coach bags in from of them. Will distract them for hours, kind of like us talking about favorite rifles or grains of powder.
 
Just dangle a shoe catalog or pictures of Coach bags in from of them. Will distract them for hours, kind of like us talking about favorite rifles or grains of powder.
Unfortunately that don’t work with my wife(n). Try and come up with something else please!
 
Unfortunately that don’t work with my wife(n). Try and come up with something else please!
Well you can always try alcohol. What did you do to convince her to marry you? Maybe that will still work....(that's all I need to know...)
 
Well you can always try alcohol. What did you do to convince her to marry you? Maybe that will still work....(that's all I need to know...)
Oh man. Low blow! LOL. If you must know I lied a lot! LMAO
 
Africa Trip Notes

Background

Let me get this out of the way up front, @KMG Hunting Safaris is top notch. A huge thank you to Marius & Kim, Louw & Michelle and their three fine young boys, Nicole, Graham, Lindile and everyone else who made this trip something special for our first trip to Africa. They are “good people”. I can’t leave out the four legged companions; Flex, Rigby, Tasco, Zeiss and Stormer!

AFRICAHunting.com and KMG Hunting Safaris has changed our lives forever. My understanding and beautiful loving partner, Michelle, were married in Feb 2014. We did not have a chance to take a true honeymoon for a variety of reasons. When people asked where we were going on our honeymoon, we would reply “Africa, some day”. Year 2 rolled through and still no honeymoon, then I became hooked on this site and after reading some of the great stories decided to start exchanging e-mails with Marius Goosen from KMG. Sent a text to my wife at work asking if she was ready to go to Africa and she immediately replied. We were a go!

We selected the Victoria Falls/Plains Game Hunt to not only hunt together but to see one of the great wonders of the world and truly celebrate our marriage. My wife doesn’t hunt herself per se, she has accompanied me a few times to the deer stand and supports all my hunting activities and we truly enjoy preparing and eating wild game. She is now experienced with firearms and handles both rifles and pistols proficiently and is a very good shot. She wanted to be with me during the hunting portion of this trip, to enjoy every minute of our holiday together and capture our memories with a camera.

To give back to Michelle for never complaining the hunting portion was too long and in fact truly embracing the idea, I arranged a spa day with Marius’s wife Kim without Michelle knowing. I finally told her about the spa day I had arranged just a few days prior to departure, Michelle was enthused until she asked what I was going to be doing while she was at the spa. What else would I be doing, except hunting was my response! She didn’t like the idea of missing out on a day’s hunt, (Just bear with me on this fellas, you will see where it ends up) and not experiencing what Africa would share with us. Enough background info, on to the details!


Safari operator: KMG Safaris – Victoria Falls/Plains Game Hunt Package

PH Louw Pieterse (pronounced opposite of high)

Dates of Hunt: 19 - 27 June (ceased hunting on 25 Jun)

Holiday in Africa: 26 June – 1 July

Species List Targeted/Taken:

Kudu - Yes

Waterbuck (The Kudu and Waterbuck were my #1 animals) - Yes

Bushbuck - Yes

Zebra - Yes

Blue Wildebeest - Yes

Impala - Yes

Warthog - No

Blesbok - Yes

Springbok – No (my decision, we did not pursue)


Additional Species Taken:

Bushbuck (additional animal)

Common (Gray) Duiker


17 June, Day 0: Departure day!

We had decided to save a few dollars (penny wise and pound foolish rings in my ears as I write this) and drive the five hours to Atlanta from our home along the Florida gulf coast as the additional airline charge for the 45 minute flight leg was ridiculous. At this time, I wasn’t sure if I was going to bring my own rifles and figured one less leg was one less chance for the rifles to not arrive in Africa. At least that was my thinking at that time. I ended up choosing not to take one of my own guns with us having to transit Zimbabwe during our time in Africa, it was a tough decision but the right one.

The bags were over packed and loaded into the F350 and off we went, hard to describe the excitement as the anticipation that had been slowly building over the past 16 months was almost unbearable! We made the drive without incident and used the long-term parking available at the Atlanta Airport Marriott for the two weeks we would be gone. BE VERY CAUTIOUS with parking there, on our return, we discovered the F350 had been broken into. I wanted to put this up front while I had everyone’s attention.

We met up with Mike and Nakita (she will be referred to as RBF from now on) once through security who were on the Delta 200 flight and would also be the two other hunters @ Mpunzi lodge with us. It turns out they also were staying at the AfricaSky Guesthouse upon our arrival in Johannesburg as our flights to Port Elizabeth were both the next morning.

The 15 hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg is long and grueling but no wasted time with extra stops or plane changes. I thought the 14 hour trip from LAX to Sydney was long after having taken that flight 4 times within the past year, the extra hour makes a difference! We arrived on time, found our bags and were greeted by Gilbert, the driver from AfricaSky guesthouse. A quick 15 minute drive and we arrive at AfricaSky Guesthouse. Even in the dark, the grounds and interior were very nice. We all checked in and met for the complimentary dinner shortly after as we continued to chat and got to know each other. Michelle and I had an earlier flight out on British Air in the morning since we weren’t carrying guns and Mike and RBF followed later on the SAA flight. AfricaSky guesthouse was exceptional, from our driver Gilbert picking us up at the airport, to the accommodations and the wonderful meal. I highly recommend spending some time there. More to follow...

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This is excellent and thank you.
 
Just dangle a shoe catalog or pictures of Coach bags in from of them. Will distract them for hours, kind of like us talking about favorite rifles or grains of powder.
Won’t work with mine either, maybe a feedstore catalog and some horse magazines but the last thing in the world I need is more horses and Africa is waaaay cheaper.
 
This is an amazing hunting report. I like that you took the time to photograph everything! Thank you so much! wonderful read!
 
This is an amazing hunting report. I like that you took the time to photograph everything! Thank you so much! wonderful read!

Thank you! We had a great time and wanted to share not just the trophy pictures but the adventure behind the hunt as well as the other animals, birds, fauna and locations we visited.
 
12 January 2018

Coppersmith obtained all the US Fish and Wildlife permits and cleared the trophy crate through customs this week. The crate is on its way to the tannery!

Cost to ship from Port Elizabeth to Chicago and Coppersmith clearing charges and freight to the tannery... $1750

Total cost to date for dip/pack/ship/US clearance/ship to tannery: $3400

Ed
 
Mine hopefully is right behind you.(n)
 
Mine hopefully is right behind you.(n)

Edge did not even ask for express service, and his is still ahead of yours...:confused: Should have used H&C. Everything happens for a reason I guess.
 
Edge did not even ask for express service, and his is still ahead of yours...:confused: Should have used H&C. Everything happens for a reason I guess.
Don’t know Marius. They said they did not receive the permit from Limpopo yet. May not matter who had it.
 
Don’t know Marius. They said they did not receive the permit from Limpopo yet. May not matter who had it.

True. Nothing that anyone can do when it comes to working with government offices.
 

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