Recent content by npaden

I guess I lied on the power to weight ratio. May have to see if I can find some torque to weight ratio information instead. The 1988 FZR 1000 had 135 hp and weighed just under 500 lbs. The FE 501 only has 45 hp and weighs just over 250 lbs. The FE 501 sure has a hard time keeping its front...

My first vehicle was a 1978 Honda Hawk 400 that I purchased in 1986. Since then I’ve had a GS650 Suzuki, 1984 Honda interceptor 1000, Kawasaki Vulcan 700, Yamaha FZR 1000 then went to dual sport with a Suzuki DR 650, then Yamaha WR250R and my current bike is a Husqvarna FE 501. It has the...

Mentioning taking pictures of other things made me remember a few more and some that my wife took. Look at this picture and tell me how high do you think a giraffe can reach? Evidently this tree's leaves are highly preferred by giraffes because there is a very definite browse line on it. I...

That's my hunt report. If anyone has any questions I would be happy to attempt to answer them. It really was a wonderful time and the Slabbert's are EXTREMELY wonderful people. It was like being part of their family when we were there. Truly amazing experience. For my first ever guided hunt...

About 3 weeks after we were back I got a message on Whatsapp that they had found the zebra that Eli had shot. Based on when they found it it looked like it had lived for at least 2 weeks after he had wounded it. Very tough animals but not tough enough to survive a shot that as far as we could...

We have already been discussing the possibilities of going back to Africa. We've done some great vacations to Fiji, New Zealand, Caribbean, 49 states including Alaska and Hawaii and typically we don't go back to someplace we've already been. There are way more amazing places to go see than we...

A few more pictures, poky and scratchy things. This is what our pants looked like most days. These were like small cockle burrs except they were also sticky like they had glue inside them. This was the worst tree. The big white thorns really weren’t too bad, but if you look really close...

A few pictures from the lodge. There were 4 rooms available, we stayed in the one on the end. The roof was thatch inside and outside. Not sure how thick it was. We stayed in the room on the end. The gathering area of the lodge was a big open L shape with a large table, a bar area and a...

Pieter ended up putting a tape measure to Eli’s gemsbok and my kudu. His gemsbok was 39” and 39.5”. Not quite 40” but Eli says 39.5” rounds up to 40” so he is going to still say it was a 40”er. My kudu measured 56” on one horn and 54” on the other. I guess I will average that and say it was...

Day 10 – Last ditch effort. I didn’t sleep very well that night with anticipation. Kind of odd because I had slept fine the night before and I had thought that was going to be my last day, but for some reason I was too amped up to sleep well last night. The original plan had been to just hang...

Day 9 – Last day! We head out about the same time as normal. It was very different to be the only one riding on the bench. Tefferi was riding in the back and Pieter was driving. Mornings were about 50 degrees but it still was a little chilly with the wind driving out in the mornings. No...

Day 8. Looking for kudu on the river property. We head out about 15 minutes earlier than we had been and it still isn't quite light yet. We see Jewel already parked where we quit the sable tracking the previous evening and chat with him a bit then start out. We haven't gone a couple hundred...

I accidently got Day 5 and 6 combined in that last post. I thought that was quite a bit of action for one day! Day 7. We are back at it first thing in the morning. We still haven't sorted out someone to hunt separately with Eli but they are working on it. They (Eli and Cathy) ride with me...

Okay, on to day 5! I had some rough notes but I'm remembering quite a bit of the details as I go back and type this up. I also took quite a few pictures and it helps to go back and look at those and the timestamps on them to help me piece everything together. If someone is looking for a brief...

Dinner that night was bushbuck stew. The lodge had WiFi but South Africa seems to be blocked by a lot of different internet sights so I wasn't able to get my email or post on Hunttalk. I really didn't have enough time to post anyway as we were pretty much going from dawn to dark every day with...