well how do you start a tale like this.....
from the onset of this adventure ,id had nothing but trouble infact two days before l flew out , l said if someone gave me the money that ive thrown at this trip ,id walk away .........
i wanted to hunt a croc with bow , and buggered if l could get any accuracy after twenty metres, with the AMS set up id ordered .
my shooters licence would've expired while i was gone , so i couldn't have brought my wifes riffle back home .
the import permits to do the same were over looked , and l had to do two trips to Melbourne in two days to get this sorted ,a 4 hour trip each way
l couldn't get accuracy with joysie gun ,a Thompson centre ,7mm rem mag.
the load my youngest son had given me was 10 grains over max load, he was using one powder and i was using ar 2009 ? think he was using ar2017 or 13 ?don't count on them being right numbers, i will get back to you on that, when next im on land .
once i got the reciepe right it was shooting like a dream , an inch and a half high and four shots into a two inch group at 110 metres off the sticks and the bipod.at 2810 fps
snowed under at the boat,
family all wanting to do something special , seeing my beloved , passed away one full year and a day when l flew out. all i wanted to do was get drunk and be alone .(selfish l know , but that's how i felt)
never had a drink until after tea that night
. then it was only one beer ,because l was driving the five hours to the airport , leaving at 2200.on the 26th september
the kids all came to see me during the day , i just told them to do what ever they wanted to do ,to celebrate (sadly ,for want of another word) i just wanted to finish chopping next years firewood, and burry my self in activity.
arguing with the parteners .
i can keep reeling everything that wasn't going right before i left for this adventure , but your getting the picture.
left home at 2200 so l could get the firearms clearance from customs done quickly as all the flights were booked way too close together , (note to self),both spiket and henry from riffle permits said that id be lucky to make the Lusaka flight on the way there , and extremely lucky to make it on the way back , the arriving flight was 140 minutes between and return flight was 1 hour
so get to the private parking place at 0300 ,no worries mate , twenty minutes later im outside the customs at Tullamarine ,thinking shit hot , no hiccups . everythings going good
a girl officer turns up shortly ,sees the firearm and the bow cases , and tell me to come straight through as it takes a while to get guns in or out of Australia.
chatting away about the trip , telling that this is the one my beloved wanted to do , and the sad events that had stopped her living a dream , sadly this girls father had passed away from cancer only seven months earlier , so had each others sympathy.
got all the relevant paper work out and f!@# me, theres a number wrong ....
im stuck here on the way out of taxstralia, with export papers ,that don't match the numbers on the gun ,
now this girl thinks im going to spin a bearing or something , all i could do was laugh at my own stupity. and that of the police who were just as stupid days earlier had the gun there for the import , which had the same mistake , and the more i think about it this mistake has been on a snow ball effect from the time my dearest wife first bought the gun several years earlier and the number has been put into the system like that.
the third number is an o on the paperwork and an 8 on the receiver.
we looked all over the gun to make sure, but alas it wasn't coming .
30 buck storage , and i turned and walked away.
this girl felt terrible , and was very appologetic, and said id taken it very well.
i emailed patsy and spike, and went to put the rest of my kit away at departures.
waited paitently and boarded the plane to Sydney
arrived at Sydney to find they hadn't put my bow on the plane in Melbourne , but they could have here in 3 hours ,
this l flipped my shit over , and tried to tell them i will be on my way to j/bourg in an hour and and five, they said that's ok sir , we can have it in j/bourg in three days ,
listen here you f!@#$%^ bonehead, i will be 6 hours north of Lusaka ,Zambia in three day ,in the middle of nowhere , how the hell do think you are going to get it to me there ,when i don't even know where ,exactly , im going to be on the copperbelt .
i stood there and put my hands on my head ,and closed my eyes , breathing long slow breathes , telling my self to just turn around and go home .
when i opened my eyes l had a clear circle of about ten feet around me and a heap of people just looking at me .
this made me laugh .
l apologised to the bloke l flipped at , pulled out my phone and emailed spike and patsy , asking if there was plenty of stones to throw at these bloody sable.
patsy answered that she would start sharpening up some sticks to use , but sadly once l left Sydney my phone or my ipad ,never picked up signal again till arrived back in Sydney.
last year i got them sorted to work all over on world wide roaming or something , and never got them changed , so dumbly assumed they would be still good to go ...........
NEVER LET ANYTHING GO , WHEN PLANNING YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE , EVEN IF YOUVE DONE IT SEVERAL TIME BEFORE .LEAVE NOTHING TO CHANCE , NO STONE UN TURNED !!!!!!
im telling myself ive been to relaxed in the planning here on this one, and are paying for it now .
get on the plane to j/bourg , thinking whats going to happen next .
get there , and realise no service and there sqwat l can do about it now.
looking for henry or one of his workers, and bugger me ,they aren't there, im walking around in circles thinking , ive paid for vip services and pre arranged riffle permits .
and he is a no show ! (theres an explanation coming on this)
so i ask some airport employer how to get to the Lusaka flight , a deal was worked out , and he took me there , l think he thought l was American , because when l paid him aussie dollars , he kinda looked confused .
but l didn't have time , so l gave him another lazy cray and left.
got the flight ,half expecting to be refused entry into Zambia over something stupid that id not done .
landed there in Lusaka , stepped of the plane at 2010 on the 27th of September , and thought holey snapping duck shit , its bloody hot . and that thought never changed until l got off the plane in Sydney a couple of weeks later.
walked into arrivals at Lusaka shook hands with the cheeky prick that been hanging shit on me on here and in emails aswell as over the phone for the last couple of years,
told him about the gun and bow , he said don't worry i will have something that you will like .
lets get out of here
cleared immigration, and this is where my frown is turned upside down !!!!
just remember you are still barred from the kitchen when you come back!!! 
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