Travis Dove
AH member
Unfortunately, I have some bad news to share…. Last July I had an opportunity to take my family on an amazing African Safari hunt. I purchased the “Friends of NRA – Bayete Group hunt” the previous October. We were all super excited and all looked forward to a once in a lifetime hunt together. Once we made the trip over the pond into Johannesburg, we were greeted by a really cool driver and we headed north for about three hours, which took us to Kuche Safari… We had no idea what to expect or how the whole process worked. Once we were there we were treated like family. They were extremely respectful to the women of the camp which made my mom right at home!! My brothers were grinning ear to ear and my dad was almost in tears because he was so happy!! We loved it!!
The Animals there were amazing!! We saw all kinds of trophy sized animals and they were all over the place!! Coming from Colorado, I had a decent idea on how to track…. Sheeeezzz!! I had no idea!! The trackers at Kuche were absolutely, awesome!!!! Hands down I don’t know how they do it!! The PHs took extremely good care of us and the hunting lodge was perfect for our family and had all kinds of character. Koos and his team were awesome!! And South Africa was a Blast!! go there you won't regret it!! Honestly, we can’t wait to get back!!
The unfortunate part of the trip was about three months after we got back to the states. We found out that none of the money that we paid to Bayete went to pay Kuche Safari, the landowners, the PHs, staff, or anyone else it was supposed to go to!! This infuriated my entire family!! We were all sick that the people that took really good care of us, did not receive a dime for our wonderful trip! I called St. John at Bayete and asked him what was going on. From that point on he has made countless promises to take care of the situation and make sure the staff and landowners were paid and our trophy’s were not going to be held up in South Africa. This was a complete line of crap!! He has been stringing me along for 6 months now and still has not paid Kuche Safari for our stay at his amazing hunting Lodge. April 21st was the last date St. John gave me that things were going to be taken care of, and he didn’t call or anything to keep us updated. I am sure he has already spent the money and Kuche/Staff/Landowners will never get paid. And we will never get our animals.
I also know there are two other groups that will have their trophies held due to Bayete not paying…Once I tracked them down after countless hours of research and calling the wrong individuals with the same name, I was able to find out that they had no idea of the situation and that Bayete had not informed them of anything. If it wasn’t for other social media sites, I would have had no idea what was going on… Extremely poor communication from Bayete…
From what information I know, Bayete owes Kuche Safari over $38,000. That is a lot of money!! And I pretty confident that this will end up in court, and that my group and the other two groups will end up in court as well with St. John... that sounds like fun...
If you have already purchased the Bayete Group hunt I am sorry… but I would much rather be out a couple thousand dollars than 25 thousand dollars. And I sure the hell would not want to be part the mess that I currently am in…. Just call Kuche Safari direct... I assure you, they will take care of you.
Another bit of advice, if you go through Bayete be sure to take good pictures, because it is quite possible that will be the last time you see your animals. If you have purchased a Bayete Group hunt from “Friends of the NRA” or any other way, I suggest you PM me so I can give you more details on what might happen, or ways of not getting scammed, if you decide to use the Bayete Group as your outfitter...
The Animals there were amazing!! We saw all kinds of trophy sized animals and they were all over the place!! Coming from Colorado, I had a decent idea on how to track…. Sheeeezzz!! I had no idea!! The trackers at Kuche were absolutely, awesome!!!! Hands down I don’t know how they do it!! The PHs took extremely good care of us and the hunting lodge was perfect for our family and had all kinds of character. Koos and his team were awesome!! And South Africa was a Blast!! go there you won't regret it!! Honestly, we can’t wait to get back!!
The unfortunate part of the trip was about three months after we got back to the states. We found out that none of the money that we paid to Bayete went to pay Kuche Safari, the landowners, the PHs, staff, or anyone else it was supposed to go to!! This infuriated my entire family!! We were all sick that the people that took really good care of us, did not receive a dime for our wonderful trip! I called St. John at Bayete and asked him what was going on. From that point on he has made countless promises to take care of the situation and make sure the staff and landowners were paid and our trophy’s were not going to be held up in South Africa. This was a complete line of crap!! He has been stringing me along for 6 months now and still has not paid Kuche Safari for our stay at his amazing hunting Lodge. April 21st was the last date St. John gave me that things were going to be taken care of, and he didn’t call or anything to keep us updated. I am sure he has already spent the money and Kuche/Staff/Landowners will never get paid. And we will never get our animals.
I also know there are two other groups that will have their trophies held due to Bayete not paying…Once I tracked them down after countless hours of research and calling the wrong individuals with the same name, I was able to find out that they had no idea of the situation and that Bayete had not informed them of anything. If it wasn’t for other social media sites, I would have had no idea what was going on… Extremely poor communication from Bayete…
From what information I know, Bayete owes Kuche Safari over $38,000. That is a lot of money!! And I pretty confident that this will end up in court, and that my group and the other two groups will end up in court as well with St. John... that sounds like fun...
If you have already purchased the Bayete Group hunt I am sorry… but I would much rather be out a couple thousand dollars than 25 thousand dollars. And I sure the hell would not want to be part the mess that I currently am in…. Just call Kuche Safari direct... I assure you, they will take care of you.
Another bit of advice, if you go through Bayete be sure to take good pictures, because it is quite possible that will be the last time you see your animals. If you have purchased a Bayete Group hunt from “Friends of the NRA” or any other way, I suggest you PM me so I can give you more details on what might happen, or ways of not getting scammed, if you decide to use the Bayete Group as your outfitter...