I learned quite a lot about safari during the course of this whole Africa business.  It's a big undertaking, and one of the things I believe I did right was to allow myself plenty of time to anticipate and prepare for the trip.  By booking the safari a year and a half in advance, I was able to really take my time and enjoy the planning phase.  There are, however, a lot of things that I would do differently on a second trip.

Next time around I would probably book a June or July trip in January or February of that same year.  As I said, the year and a half was right for the first trip, but that long of a wait is really not necessary for subsequent safaris.  If I could swing it, I'd go out to Dallas or Reno for the big safari shows and shop around a little, although if I was heading to South Africa again I'd definitely go with Limcroma without hesitation.

I found that although I did a lot of hiking in preparation for the safari, I wasn't quite physically ready for everything that the hunt threw at me.  While I was able to walk long miles over rough terrain, which I can attribute to all of the walking that I did, I was not prepared to run in the soft African sand.  I struggled when we were chasing the blesbok to the point that I had to tell Zwei that I couldn't do any more running like that.

Given that I had a year and a half to prepare for the trip, I probably started my serious exercise a bit early in the process.  By the early part of 2007, I had grown weary of doing so much hiking every week, and my commitment to walking every other day faltered.  Looking back, I should have started off by going once a week, then gradually ramping up to three or four times a week in the months prior to the safari.

Another area of preparation that I didn't put enough time into was rifle practice.  I had a variety of shot opportunities on my hunt, but the only thing I practiced was 100 yard shots on a rifle range.  I hunted impala and kudu from treestands and blinds, and was well prepared for this kind of shooting.  But the warthog was taken on the run, and although I got him, I was not fully confident in the shot when I took it.

On the blesbok, I had a two hundred yard shot from the prone position; something I never practiced a single time.  Fortunately, the shot itself was true and it was just bad luck that the young blesbok I killed stuck his head in the wrong place at the instant of the shot.

With the gemsbok, it was a shot that I wasn't comfortable with and shouldn't have taken.  We'd been chasing the herd all morning, and the opportunity that presented itself was the first chance we had at taking one.  The brush was too thick though, and I've never liked frontal shots, so I should have declined and waited for a better opportunity.

I also wasn't comfortable shooting off of Zwei's shoulder.  The shots that I made that I felt good about were all either offhand or on a good solid rest.  I probably should have practiced shooting off a slightly unsteady rest to prepare myself better, and rather than just spending time at the range, it would have been worth my time to go down to my deer lease and practice shooting at targets in moderately thick cover.

I packed far too much "stuff" in my luggage, too.  Everyone I talked to said to just take two sets of hunting clothes and a similar number of outfits to wear around camp.  I took way too many camouflage shirts, an outrageous number of socks, too many shorts, and too many civilian shirts.  I took two pairs of jeans and never wore either of them.  Two pairs of hunting clothes and two pairs of "camp clothes" are plenty.  An extra full change of clothes in your carry-on bag is probably a good idea as well.

When it came time to leave Africa, I found that my baggage was so full that I hadn't allowed any room to pack souvenirs for the folks back home.  Leaving out some of the clothes that I took would have allowed me a lot more room, would have made my bags a good deal lighter, and would have also given me more room to take over a few shirts and hats for the safari camp staff.

I should have also taken some non-rechargeable AA batteries for my camera.  I was sick to my stomach when my battery charger exploded when I plugged it into the power converter, and with no regular AA batteries on hand I had to borrow a set of rechargeables from the Limcroma crew.  I could have avoided the problem completely if I had taken a power strip with me to plug into the converter, so there's another item that I'll be sure to take next time around.

A subsequent chapter in this journal will contain an updated checklist showing what I'd take and what I wouldn't on the next trip.

I also didn't take along enough cash.  Hannes had suggested that I bring around $400 US dollars, most of which would be converted to rands once I got to Africa.  During the safari itself, I seldom had the chance to spend any money, buying only an occasional drink here and there as the opportunity arose.  However, when it came time to tip the staff and hunting crew, I only had enough cash on hand for the camp workers. 

I learned from Eric, one of the professional hunters, that a good tip for Zwei would be twenty percent of the total of my daily rate.  This came to around $400 by itself, and while I had no problem at all with that amount given how hard Zwei worked for me, I did not have the money on hand to personally present it to him.  I had to send him a check later, which was a little embarrassing.  Doing it again, I'd take at least a thousand in cash.

Going in to the trip, I had paid my trophy fees and daily rate in advance.  I'd highly recommend doing it this way, knowing that the safari outfitter would refund the difference for trophies not taken, or accept an after-the-fact payment for additional fees incurred during the hunt.  For example, I added a blesbok to the bag at the end of the trip, and Limcroma had no problem waiting for me to get home to mail them a check to cover the trophy fee for that additional animal. 

The only other thing that I would do different next time is that I would go for a longer hunt, and add an additional animal or two.  Eight days wasn't enough given that we spent two and a half of those days looking for my gemsbok.  I'd do at least a ten day trip next time, or preferably even twelve days.  The extra time would be nice for finding a top quality kudu or nyala, or even for taking more pictures.

There are many things that I would do differently on a second safari, but most of all I am just grateful that I was able to take even one trip to Africa, and that my experience was largely trouble free and highly successful.