Update your preferences / Unsubscribe

Contents 

• Editorial by Richard Lendrum               (Scroll down to read)
• Wildlife column by Dr. John Ledger
• Book Review: In The Salt by Ken Bailey
• Campfire Thoughts & Reminiscences   Ch 9 by Neil Harmse
• Hurry up and “Wag n Bietjie”: A Kalahari Leopard 
  by Ryan Phelan
• Springbok Slam on a Short Timeline by Michael W. Mills
• Dugga Boy! A Zambian Adventure by Stuart Ward

Editorial

Game Animals of Africa: The Poster

15 years after my first attempt at an animal poster (very poor one I might add),  it was time for a well overdue update.

So, I contacted Michael Brett, the map guru (cartographer is the fancy term these chaps use) and friend, and along with a fair amount of searching and designing, we got a neat plan together. Not only the hunting countries, the areas, parks and everything you need if you are interested in this magnificent continent – but also 111 different animals and some of the more impressive, or distinctive, sub species. All onto a single poster. From Aardwolf to Zebra (actually there’s a few different zebra) and over 100 different animals in between.

It’s a beautiful reminder, and for many, I hope, a wonderful informer, of Africa’s diversity of game animals. Not surprising, when I hear hunters at Afton say they’re coming out to hunt serval, caracal and civet, I get excited. Not because they aren’t hunting the big, iconic species that everyone generally does, but because they understand that there is equal excitement and interest in all our game – and at 111 on this poster, there’s a lot!

I hope it helps broaden your interest, whets your appetite, and ultimately, motivates you to get back and start adding to your list.

Regards,
Richard Lendrum

Campfire Thoughts & Reminiscences Ch 9

One of the most frequent questions I am asked by people venturing into the bush on a trail or hunt is: ‘Do we have to worry about snakes?’ To be honest, there are snakes all over, even in suburban gardens, but they do their best to avoid contact with humans. Over the years I have spent in the bush, covering many miles on trails and hunts, my incidents and encounters with snakes have been relatively few and, as mentioned, these reptiles do their best to keep out of our way.
 
My first serious encounter was on a day in the late 1960s in the Waterberg. I was working on a geological survey and when it was almost midday, I decided to sit down and have a sandwich for lunch. I found a convenient tree log to park on while eating.

Hurry up and “Wag n Bietjie”

Max was back! Back on his fourth adventure with Hotfire Safaris, this time in the vast Kalahari of Botswana. The quarry, a leopard.
 
We had ten days booked to search over a million acres of Kalahari in Unit KD6 for a majestic leopard, and we teamed up with good friend Adrian and his awesome hounds for the hunt.
The ‘Wag-n-Bietjie’ bush has small, black, hook-thorns that grab and hold you – the ‘wait-a-bit’ bush. Hurry up and wag-n-bietjie, aptly describes the ebb and flow of hunting leopard in the Kalahari bushveld. The highs and lows, the slow, frustrating nothing-happening periods suddenly broken by frantic, crazy, adrenalin-pumping action.

Springbok Slam on a Short Timeline

Africa is a place that grows on you. The more I experience Africa, the more I want to return. Planning for my Africa 2022 trip started before I completed a hunt in 2021.
 
Fast forward a year, I’m in South Africa with my wife, Greeta, and long-time hunting partner, Bruce. After a few days in the Limpopo Province, attempting to add to my Tiny 10 goal by hunting klipspringer and duiker, then seeing the biggest kudu I’ve ever seen in the wild, a 59” brute, my attention turned to the Karoo and the main focus of the safari—springbok.

Dugga Boy! A Zambian Adventure

Hi-Ho!  Today we journey off on a special hunting safari first conceived at SCI Reno 2019. After many SCI conventions and missed schedules, we were finally able to connect the dots. You see, Sylvia’s passion for safari and Zambia really lit the fire for Jeannette and I. So, eschewing the standard single base camp system established for years, PH Derick and Sylvia van Staden (Derick van Staden Safaris) have arranged a Hemingway Green Hills adventure exploring by diesel Toyota LandCruiser a variety of game terrain, river crossings and camps across thousands of wilderness square miles. It is “simply not done this way old boy” since the early years. But with a goal set to hunt and fish, we with double rifles, shot guns and rods in hand, they drew a ranging course through Zambia’s West Petauke GMA, then onto the Kafue Flats and that is where we will go.  We shall see!

Featured African Dawn Members

Adroda Safaris

Adroda Safaris provides its clients with the opportunity to hunt across southern Africa in large, diverse habitats and free-range concessions offering true fair-chase hunting.

African Safari Trails

African Safari Trails is a family-owned professional hunting lodge in the heart of Namibia, in 18,000 acres of privately owned bushveld northeast of Windhoek

Namibia Safari Corporation

Namibia Safari Corporation entered the international trophy-hunting world in 2001. The 109 000-acre family-owned hunting ranch is in the malaria-free Khomas Region, two hours from the capital city of Windhoek.

Shamwari Safaris

Shamwari Safaris – Zambia ‘The Real Africa’ Zambia is renowned for its free range hunting, with vast tracts of land put aside for both animals and controlled hunting adjacent to National Parks.