PHOENIX PHIL
AH ambassador
Good afternoon from Kasane, Botswana. I'm just starting this report a bit late and well into our trip. It also starts on a somber note. Please forgive me for doing such in a hunt report, but I find it a bit cathartic in doing so.
This trip was close to being postponed. At about 3am on Sunday morning, June 21, I was awakened by my cell phone buzzing. I answered the phone seeing that it was a Pinal county sheriff's deputy calling. The deputy was delivering the news no parent ever wants to hear. A few hours prior my younger son Justin had taken his own life. I cannot tell you in words the depths of grief this caused and only other parents who have lost children can comprehend.
While Justin had some troubles when he was in high school, he seemed so on his way in his adult life. He was only 23, but in his chosen profession he was excelling. He had so many friends who loved him too. He had also just started a new job and was doing well financially. All seemed to be going his way. We just don't understand why this happened at this time.
With just a little over a month before we were to depart for RSA and our next safari, we gave much consideration to postponing our trip. I won't bother you with the details, but due to a number of logistical challenges, first and foremost the limited time our older son had to interrupt his training schedule with the U.S. navy (he enlisted last October) and all of our family members living in another state, we decided it was just too challenging to have a funeral service within the time frame we needed. As such we decided to have a celebration of life service at later date when schedules could be more easily aligned.
With that being the case, Donna and I decided to move forward with our trip, that we needed the time to both grieve and heal. So we found ourselves traveling to Austin, TX to meet up with our friends @AZ_KJ (aka just KJ) and his wife. We would travel the next day to DFW to catch our Qatar Air flight to JNB. We arrived at about 9am at Tambo with all luggage and firearms. Using the VIP service from Riflepermits.com we breezed through customs and quickly had our permits. Soon we were on our way to a property in the NW province that I have not hunted with @JKO HUNTING SAFARIS previously.
I need to wrap up this first post as we are about to continue our afternoon here on photo safari at Chobi National Park in Botswana. I will explain our itinerary later. However a hunt report post without any pictures is always a bit of a disappointment, so I'll share this photo from the evening of our first day of hunting.
This trip was close to being postponed. At about 3am on Sunday morning, June 21, I was awakened by my cell phone buzzing. I answered the phone seeing that it was a Pinal county sheriff's deputy calling. The deputy was delivering the news no parent ever wants to hear. A few hours prior my younger son Justin had taken his own life. I cannot tell you in words the depths of grief this caused and only other parents who have lost children can comprehend.
While Justin had some troubles when he was in high school, he seemed so on his way in his adult life. He was only 23, but in his chosen profession he was excelling. He had so many friends who loved him too. He had also just started a new job and was doing well financially. All seemed to be going his way. We just don't understand why this happened at this time.
With just a little over a month before we were to depart for RSA and our next safari, we gave much consideration to postponing our trip. I won't bother you with the details, but due to a number of logistical challenges, first and foremost the limited time our older son had to interrupt his training schedule with the U.S. navy (he enlisted last October) and all of our family members living in another state, we decided it was just too challenging to have a funeral service within the time frame we needed. As such we decided to have a celebration of life service at later date when schedules could be more easily aligned.
With that being the case, Donna and I decided to move forward with our trip, that we needed the time to both grieve and heal. So we found ourselves traveling to Austin, TX to meet up with our friends @AZ_KJ (aka just KJ) and his wife. We would travel the next day to DFW to catch our Qatar Air flight to JNB. We arrived at about 9am at Tambo with all luggage and firearms. Using the VIP service from Riflepermits.com we breezed through customs and quickly had our permits. Soon we were on our way to a property in the NW province that I have not hunted with @JKO HUNTING SAFARIS previously.
I need to wrap up this first post as we are about to continue our afternoon here on photo safari at Chobi National Park in Botswana. I will explain our itinerary later. However a hunt report post without any pictures is always a bit of a disappointment, so I'll share this photo from the evening of our first day of hunting.
Last edited:
