Good hunting to everybody.
I will share my plans with you, gentlemen, as I feel that my wife does not make an audience, that I think I deserve. Plus, she often interupts me with one and the same question: "Am I going?" After that my speech turns into a dialogue, and, eventually I find myself in a listener's position. Anyway, I have mentioned before, that I make my living by planning other guys' hunting, and, I usually accompany my clients as very seldom they can speak English. Sometimes I get to shoot an odd buffalo too. I am not shy to say, that I got the best of everything. I even get paid for that. And, to crown it all: my wife loves hunting too, and, she loves Africa too.
Anyway, these are my plans for the 2012.
First, in April I am going to Zimbabwe with 2 of my oldest clients (for one it will be his 13th hunt with me). One guy will be hunting both big cats, buffalo of course and whatever he will have time for. His buddy wants to get a big leopard (Zimbabwe type), a buffalo + some plains game. The hunt will be in Matetsi 1. For my lion hunter I have chosen George Hallamore, as a PH. It's been a long time since George is not just Lou's son, he is one of the best in his profession in his own right. And, he handles 2-3 of my clients per year. For my leopard hunter, I am still waiting for Greg Michelson to give me his OK. Greg is an institution in himself, only really the baddest luck can stop him from getting a big cat; I really hope that he will answer my request. There is a problem though: as much as these 2 clients like hunting in Africa, they have never stuck it to the very end; and, this time they will not be in the bush for more than 2 weeks. I just hope that it will be enough. Matetsi Unit 1 is a very productive area; they only have 1 lion on quota and only 5 leopard per year.
For May-June I am planning a short annual trip to the Northern Cape with 2 first timers. And, I found that there's no better place to begin African hunting than in South Africa, or, Namibia for that matter. And, after a trip to Wintershoek Safaris my clients really become my clients as Wiaan van der Linde and his crew turn over backwards to create an experience of a life time. My wife had shot a nice eland there last year, bigger than mine.
In July there will be a trip to Tanzania. I am taking a father-and-son team to the Selous. The kid, thou 14, is OK, but, daddy thinks that just because he had made so much money then he can shoot better and he knows how to put together a good hunt. Once he was preaching something to me, and, wanting to prove that he knew what he was talking about, shoved the magazine into my face, and... it was my article. We changed subject. It will be a tough one. They will both be hunting leopard, daddy will try for an elephant, but, the problem is the same: the hunt will last not longer than 10 days. I just hope that the Phs will come up with some tricks. These 2 are capable of some "medicine": Richard Ramoni and Mike Angelides. Almost forgot, there will be their friend too. His 1st priority will be HONEY BADGER. And, I do not have good PHs with good track record on honey badgers. Sometimes it's a circus.
But, don't you think that I am complaining.
In September there will be a trip to Masailand with 2 guys that will stick it to the very end, all 21 days of it. And, they will enjoy every minute of a long safari. It will be their 1st trip to Tanzania; and, both are in very good physical shape, and, they shoot pretty well, and, they sincerely enjoy buffalo hunting.
There will be some shorter hunts too, in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and, possibly in Mozambique. My schedule is a work in progress. But, what does not change is how I end the season. Me and my wife end my season with Wintershoek in the Norther Cape, (this time she wants to beat my Sing Sing waterbuck), and, then we will go to Cape Town and spend a few days just watching the 2 oceans collide, sipping Kilkennys at Mitchell's. And, then the unpleasant part: we will have to fly back to Moscow with its traffic, cold, etc.. And, this is when I start planning for the following year with Cameroon and Ethiopia on the horizon. And, maybe even one of my tougher ones will want to go for a mountain goat, or a Dall sheep. No, gentlemen, life is not bad. But it definitely became more complicated after the September 11. Peace to those who...
