Honeymoon Safari to South Africa

[EddieWalker]

We booked the trip to South Africa before I proposed, so we decided to make the trip into our honeymoon and planned the wedding for the Saturday before we where to leave. We had the wedding at our pond.









Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

We had a 12 hour layover in London, so we took the Underground into town to see the sights.







Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

We flew into Johannesburg and then caught a small plane to Bloemfontein where we where met by our PH. PH stands for Professional Hunter who is a licensed guide that was with us every day.

The lodge is out in the middle of nowhere along the Oranje River



This is the view we had from our room









Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

This was my second safari to Africa. First time I went to Namibia back in the 90's. I've also hunted Canada, Alaska, New Zealand and most of the Western States. On my New Zealand trip I decided not to bring my rifle with me and borrow one from the outfitter. This worked out great and made travel a lot easier. So for this trip, we left our rifles behind and borrowed what the outfitter had. Once we where there, we realized this was a mistake. Karen is very used to her youth model rifle and struggled with the full sized 6.5 mm Mauser that the they had for her to use. I used an 8mm Mauser that was alright, but not what I'm used to. While we got it done, the lack of familiarity with the rifles and not practicing with shooting sticks made it harder for us to get close enough for the shots we where comfortable with. If possible, I always tried to find a more solid rest or even shoot offhand instead of using the sticks. Karen is still new to hunting and it was a big challenge for her to get into position for a shot.





And one with their tractor which was parked next to the range




Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

When booking the hunt we told the outfitter what animals we wanted and he plans on where we need to go to get them. Some where on his property, others where on farms of people he knew in the area and some where quite a ways away. We planned on hunting two separate areas, staying one week at the first and then 4 days at the second before going to Addo Elephant Park to spend a few days doing a photo safari.

First animal for me to hunt was going to be the black wildebeest. I saw them in Namibia on my previous safari, but was never able to get close enough for a shot.









Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

There where some Bushman paintings on the walls of a cave on the ranch that we where able to see





Karen's first animal is going to be a common springbok





They where very alert and every time we tried to sneak within range of them, something spotted us. There are so many animals there that it's hard to not bump into one that ends up taking off and scaring off the ones you are trying to get to.

Every evening we had a fire. They had the best fire pit. It was elevated two feet and perfect for resting your feet on and feeling the heat of the fire.



Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Steenbok are pretty common there and they have permission to hunt a sheep farm not too far from their place that has good quality animals. The farms there are all huge. 7,000 acres on up. This farm was on both sides of the road and while driving to the gate where we would start hunting, we spotted this guy right off the road. He was just standing there 20 yards away. We stopped, and he laid down in the grass to hide from us. If we where not so close to him and we hadn't of already seen him, we probably never would have seen him. My PH got very excited and said to shoot him, he was massive. The difference between a big Steenbok and a massive one is measured in less then an inch.



He's HUGE!!!



Then we drove to another farm to hunt Red Lechwe. We saw several small ones and females before mine stood up, walked over the hill and then disappeared in the grass. All they have to do is lay down and you will never see them again



We spent an hour trying to find him without any luck, so we started walking towards where we thought he had been heading. He didn't get up until we where less then 50 yards away. Fortunately he only ran a short distance before stopping to look back.



After getting back to the ranch, we decided to just sit under some brush and wait to see if the springbok would walk past us. It's a place where we had seen them numerous times and hoped that since they where not there, they might head back there before dark



We where still getting comfortable and breaking sticks that where in our way when all of a sudden, there they where!!!! Karen was facing the wrong direction and had to do the slow motion rearranging herself game to get lined up with the biggest ram. It all worked out perfectly!!!! Her first African big game animal



When a springbok dies, it relaxes a gland and or muscle in it's back that allows the hair to stand up like this. It's probably lasts five minutes. It slowly opens, then remains open for a little bit, then all the hair lays down again. As far as I know, this is the only animals that does this.

Eddie

 

[oosik]

Congratulations to the both of you!! What an interesting place and a great adventure. The very best to you both.

 

[deerseeker001]

Eddie congrats to you and your Wife great pictures.

We booked the trip to South Africa before I proposed, so we decided to make the trip into our honeymoon and planned the wedding for the Saturday before we where to leave. We had the wedding at our pond.

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Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

There where quite a few eland on the ranch where we where staying, but nothing of trophy quality. My outfitter called around and talked to a guy with 10,000 acres of very rough land who said he had some good bulls on his land. We drove about an hour to get there and arrived just after first light. The owner of the ranch had sent his guys out to look around and try to find some of their good bulls.




When we got there, they had found one really old bull with massive thick horns that where fairly long, but not record book long. I've shot quite a few animals that qualify for the different record books but entering them has no appeal to me. I like to know what the minimums are to get into the books just so I know if I'm looking at a quality animal or not





The bull was all alone and mostly hidden behind a large yucca type tree. We had to crawl into position several times before finding the right spot where I could see his head and front shoulder.



The shot wasn't very far, but after having hunted eland before in Namibia, I know how hard it is to get one once they start to run. 2,500 pounds of pure muscle that loves to run up and down the steepest mountains it can find. The angle was pretty steep and I was aiming at his front shoulder. Most guys would them and then you spend the rest of the day and sometimes two days trying to find them and get another shot. My PH wanted to make sure that the shot broke his shoulder more then anything else. At the shot, he just dropped. The bullet hit a little high and broke his neck. Best miss of my life!!!!!



Eddie