I never got back to this thread and added the story or pictures. Life gets busy and then you forget.
Well, let’s get this started. Usually, I’d just give you a quick overview, but the trip over had its moments, so I’ll share them with you.
Off to Botswana to hunt with Choronga Safaris with Theuns Marius as our trusted PH.
We flew on Ethiopian, a first for us, and it wasn’t the best of experiences. We DO NOT travel with firearms; I want to toss that out there before I go further. We travel with a double bow case each, with two bows inside of them.
Our first leg of the trip was from Houston to Chicago on United. From there we got onboard our Ethiopian Air flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We had booked the entire trip through Ethiopian Air and were assured that the two check bags were okay all the way through. Well, apparently United didn’t get that memo as they charged us for the second checked bags each. Okay, whatever, I paid it.
It was our first trip through Chicago, so that was a learning experience as we had to grab a shuttle bus and relocate to another terminal that seemed like it was miles away. But we made it to the plane in time. Trip over to Addis Ababa was uneventful, everything was okay, nothing special, just transportation with edible food.
Our layover in Addis Ababa was supposed to be an hour and half. Well, they cut that to 35 minutes and let us know a few days before we departed, but they assured me we would make the connecting flight.
We land in Addis Ababa, get off the plane and are standing out on the tarmac waiting on a shuttle to transport us to the connecting plane. This takes about twenty minutes. We finally board our next flight that is heading first to Vic Falls. With five minutes before takeoff, an employee with the airline rushes onto the plane and runs up to my daughter and I and asks us our names. At this point, we are now seated and have our carryon stuff stowed. She’s yelling at us to come with her, “hurry, hurry, come on, you have guns, we must open the cases.” We grab our carry-on stuff and we try to keep up with her, all the while trying to tell her we have bows, archery equipment, no firearms. She’s not listening, just rushing us into a waiting van with a driver. They are both yelling into walkie talkies as we began a race for the terminal. Halfway there, as I keep trying to tell her bows, archery equipment, no firearms, I raise my arms and I mimic shooting a bow and arrow. Her eyes get big, you can see the lightbulb go off in her brain, and she realizes what I’ve been trying to tell her. She starts yelling more into her walkie talking, the driver pulls up underneath the terminal, we exit the van, and she’s yelling at us to hurry and follow her as she is sprinting to the left. The van drives off, we are running after the crazy lady when suddenly another man appears off to the right yelling at us, “GO, GO, GO, back to the plane, it’s okay, it’s archery equipment!” So, we turn and sprint for daylight to find that the van is gone. She begins to yell more into her walkie talkie and about a minute later a shuttle bus slams on the brakes near us. We jump on and the race is on as we head back to the plane. We arrive at the stairs, the flight attendant is holding the door, we rush up the stairs and into the plane where every passenger is giving us the stink eye. We are out of breath but on the plane. Literally, from the time she yelled at us to get off the plane to the time we got back on the plane couldn’t have been more than seven minutes. Like an episode of Bennie Hill.
Now mind you, both of our bow cases have big decals that clearly state, NO FIREARMS, NO AMMUNITON, BOWS ONLY, with pictures for those that can’t read.
After all that, we take off and head to Vic Falls. We land there, we stay on the plane. A few people get off, a few people get on, and 45 minutes later we are airborne and heading to Gaborone, Botswana.
This is the last stop for this flight as it will drop us off, take on more passengers, then return to Vic Falls, as it heads back to Addis Ababa.
Due to COVID, every passenger, including the crew, must take a rapid test before heading to luggage pickup. That takes an hour. We finally get cleared and head downstairs to the luggage area. Our PH, Theuns Marius, is waiting for us with a big smile. We are so happy to finally be in Botswana and are looking forward to our bow hunting adventure. We see our two bow cases but not our actual luggage. A worker there finally tells us that they have no idea where our two pieces of personal luggage are, but she gave us a number to call in the morning. Frustrated, we leave and begin the three-hour drive to the hunting farm where we will be staying. We arrive well after dark and get settled into our tent chalets for the night.
The next morning, we take stock of what we have with us.
In each bow case we have one of my bows and one my daughters, just in case something happens to one of the cases, we have a backup set.
I advised my daughter, as she was packing before the trip, that it would be wise to pack some socks and underwear, at least one pair of hunting pants, a hunting shirt, etc. in her bow case just in case something like this would happen.
I took my own advice and packed socks, underwear, a pair of pants, and a shirt or two. I carried a light weight, pull over sweater with me on the plane. My daughter chose not to carry a jacket or extra layer with her on the plane.
For travel, I take the sights off each bow, wrap them in foam for protection, and pack them in the bow case. Arrows, release, broadheads all go in the luggage.
So here we are, our first day in Botswana, with four bows, four bow sights, no wrist releases, no arrows, no broadheads, and my daughter decided to ignore dad’s advice and had no clothes packed in her bow case. I, at least, have clothes to hunt in and a sweater. Mind you, it is in the low 40’s at night, high 60’s by mid-day, so you need warm clothes.
Luckily for my daughter, the farm owner, Stephen, has a teenage daughter about my daughter’s size and his wife brought Emily some clothes to wear. Not hunting clothes, but sweatpants, t-shirts, and sweatshirts. Theuns had an extra coat, so she wore that until hers arrived.
I had packed my shaving kit in my carry-on backpack, so I had my basic toiletries. Emily on the other hand had nothing with her, so again, Stephen’s wife came through like a good mom does and brought Emily some basic stuff to get by on until the luggage arrived, but if you have a daughter, you know how they prefer their own stuff, so Emily had no ‘hair products’ or ‘facial products’ for 4 days. I’ll circle back to this topic once the luggage does arrive.
We headed to Stephen’s house about 45 minutes away in Sherwood where we began calling the airlines. We finally learned from them that the luggage never made it off the plane in Gaborone and was now back in Addis Ababa. They assured us that it would be on the next flight back to Gaborone, which would be three days from now. Great, just great.
Okay, we have a plan for the luggage. Stephen’s wife will drive to Gaborone in three days to get the luggage. Due to the long drive and the dangers of driving at nighttime, she spent the night with friends in Gaborone and returned with the luggage on day four.
Now to ‘adapt and overcome’ for our hunting gear. Lucky for us, Theuns had his bow gear with him and there was a target at Stephen’s house. Theuns is about the same height as I am, so instead of me using one of his arrows and possibly having to adjust my sights on my bow, I just grabbed his Mathews bow and one of his arrows. At 20 yards, it shot dead on for me with no adjustments needed. With that bit of luck, I would hunt with his Mathews V3, his arrow with a GrimReaper broadhead, and use his release.
For Emily, Theuns cut one of his arrows to length for her and she used one of his RAGE broadheads, and I think she had her release? I can’t remember for sure on the release. Her bow shot that arrow setup at 20 yards with no adjustments required. We just needed to make her shots in the 20-yard range.
Now we are ready to head out that afternoon for our first sit in the blind with our borrowed gear and clothes. Emily was dressed more for a sporting event than a hunt, but oh well, you make do. She had worn a very expensive pair of solid white athletic shoes on the plane and that was all she now had to wear. It should go without saying that they did not stay white for long walking in that fine, red sand.
More to follow.
