Went over to work out some details of my impending retirement to the dark continent. While I was there I had the opportunity to take a red lechwe. Normally one of these would be simply too expensive but a good friend hooked me up with a hunt at a price I could not afford to scoff at. Taken with a .308win Sako wearing a USO optic and for the first time in my hunting in Africa, the rifle was not suppressed. Just a bare muzzle. 2 in the shoulder using Nosler Accubond's. The first one thoroughly disconnected the on-side shoulder bones from the rest of the constituent parts of the bugger and set the old boy's handbrake. The 2nd shot, while possibly being not entirely necessary, unburdened us of the whole "chase me, chase me" ritual and disconnected the heart from the other parts that were still connected to each other. When I got up to it, both front feet were over the head between the horns like it was expecting to be cuffed. Clearly it was feeling guilty about something. Chalk up one more hide and skull and another good time hanging out with friends.
Side story: South Africa is one of those special places where it's just safe enough across enough of it to be relaxing while being just off the rails enough to be properly fun and exciting. Upon landing in Johannesburg I was seated in the plane such that I was surrounded by 3 middle aged german couples who'd never been to any part of Africa before much less South Africa. It's all perfectly fine as long as you don't do anything truly stupid. Their whole trip had been planned by one of the gals who'd brought along the thing she used to plan the trip: a guide book which mentioned all of the neat stuff while mentioning exactly none of the realities of the situation. I glanced through at the sticky note'd pages for the hotspots they planned on visiting and noticed that the book was, if not directly misleading, clearly written by someone that probably enjoyed surprise buttsex a good deal more than most would. The Germans saw my taken aback-ness and asked for any tips I might have to add. As it was about midnight when we landed, I suggested that they get a room at one of the hotels on the airport grounds rather than go galavanting around Joburg after dark. They looked stunned, as if my concern for their probability of living long and happy lives was somehow a distinctly paranoid delusion. Because someone further forward on the plane was being arrested for being a drunken dick to the cabin crew we had a good bit of time to chat and I think that I and a friendly local who'd joined in to echo my admonition to exercise special caution after dark had finally managed to convey that while many parts of South Africa are quite nice and the people generally lack in true malice with most being friendly in a burglar-ish/beggar-ish kind of way; especially the Western Cape province which is still exceptionally nice in most spots and the people very warm and friendly with very little burglar-ish/beggar-ish overtones, Joburg is one of the more unlovely parts of Africa generally and it's best left to one side for first timers. I then gave them the most important tip I could: do not simply rely on GPS for navigation in South Africa. Ever. Instead to hit google maps, google earth, etc... and have a really damned good notion of exactly where they'd be going and how exactly they'd get there before ever heading out on any particular journey lest one end inadvertently up in one of the exceptionally unlovely parts of the country where things can get very exciting very quickly.
Side story: South Africa is one of those special places where it's just safe enough across enough of it to be relaxing while being just off the rails enough to be properly fun and exciting. Upon landing in Johannesburg I was seated in the plane such that I was surrounded by 3 middle aged german couples who'd never been to any part of Africa before much less South Africa. It's all perfectly fine as long as you don't do anything truly stupid. Their whole trip had been planned by one of the gals who'd brought along the thing she used to plan the trip: a guide book which mentioned all of the neat stuff while mentioning exactly none of the realities of the situation. I glanced through at the sticky note'd pages for the hotspots they planned on visiting and noticed that the book was, if not directly misleading, clearly written by someone that probably enjoyed surprise buttsex a good deal more than most would. The Germans saw my taken aback-ness and asked for any tips I might have to add. As it was about midnight when we landed, I suggested that they get a room at one of the hotels on the airport grounds rather than go galavanting around Joburg after dark. They looked stunned, as if my concern for their probability of living long and happy lives was somehow a distinctly paranoid delusion. Because someone further forward on the plane was being arrested for being a drunken dick to the cabin crew we had a good bit of time to chat and I think that I and a friendly local who'd joined in to echo my admonition to exercise special caution after dark had finally managed to convey that while many parts of South Africa are quite nice and the people generally lack in true malice with most being friendly in a burglar-ish/beggar-ish kind of way; especially the Western Cape province which is still exceptionally nice in most spots and the people very warm and friendly with very little burglar-ish/beggar-ish overtones, Joburg is one of the more unlovely parts of Africa generally and it's best left to one side for first timers. I then gave them the most important tip I could: do not simply rely on GPS for navigation in South Africa. Ever. Instead to hit google maps, google earth, etc... and have a really damned good notion of exactly where they'd be going and how exactly they'd get there before ever heading out on any particular journey lest one end inadvertently up in one of the exceptionally unlovely parts of the country where things can get very exciting very quickly.
