Pics from South Africa

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Mokwepa

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May 2, 2009
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Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa
Hi guys

Im a game ranger in SA and live and work with friendly and dangerous animals on a daily basis. If any of you are interested in any of the SA mamals, i can post pics that i have taken and answer any of your questions. Ive got quite a bit of experiance walking into and dealing with charges,of lots of nasty creatures although i havent hunted any of the big guys, only wildebeest, impal, kudu, warthog, bushbuck etc.

If you are interested, what do you want to see?

This pic is of our previous dominant male lion, Bartia male. He died last year after taking on a Buffalo at the ripe old age of 15years(very old for a lion). He did manage to kill the buff but died in the process. Hes fartherd most of the lions in Madikwe and was a favorite amongst the guides, except for the fact that he stopped warning you when you tracked him on foot, he would wait till you were right ontop of him then he would get mighty upset and take 10 years off your life and make you go home and change your shorts.:)
RIP Bartia #1

Dylan
 

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You work at Madikwe, or another park? My cousin was a guide at Pumba reserve for a little while, and had a lot of knowledge and stories to share with me when I get a chance to visit with him.

I've done some trips in Addo, Kragga Kamma, and a couple others that don't come to mind right now... haven't done Kruger though I would absolutely love to. I've also been to a couple farms to hunt, I shot an old buck (my first) when I was 15 there. I forgot the species, but the name is all that escapes me right now. The sensations and excitement I felt I remember clearly. I discussed with my uncle when I was there last November, we both had different recollections of what we were hunting that day. I have hunted Warthog also, but come home empty handed - no part of this was due to lack of game, only my reluctance to take what should have been easy shots. Uncle took care of those hogs =)

Here are a few of my pictures, and let me say to anyone considering travelling to South Africa that it is an absolutely amazing experience. I would recommend it to any that can afford it (last airfare was ~$1000 from Washington-Dulles), its a truly awe inspiring country. Please correct me if I am wrong but I think that may-august would be the best months to travel for hunting. The American Dollar is strong right now, it was somewhere around $1-10R when I was there last. You can ritz it up quite a bit without hurting the wallet too too hard.

Here are a few of my photos... a momma hog with her babies, and me and Duma. 3208342781_45254fc690.jpg 3208344661_4125f74813.jpg 3208345217_2da28846ed.jpg
 
Nice pics man. Yea warthogs are great to hunt, tuff little guys. I cant even count how many ive hunted. My brother in laws have some farms down the road and i get to hunt for free. When im in hunting mode, i hunt 3 to 4 times a week. Ill get some more pics up today.

I am the head guide at www.makanyane.com which is in the madikwe reserve.

I saw 19 lion this morning (4 adult females, 14 cubs, 1 dominant male) and 6 hippo and all the general game. Not bad for a morning. Going to try find buffalo this afternoon. wish me luck.
 
This is so wrong in so many ways. I think you should trade me places for a while to cleanse your soul, can't wait to see more pics. Just so you know I walked out my front door and saw a squirrel, a dove, a house cat that keeps getting into my trash, and a dead mouse. Top that(LOL)!
 
That lion pic is just cool. :D

Do those warthog, well, are they pigs/swine? Do they taste like pork? I ask because we have a little animal that looks like a pig, tastes like a pig (okay, a really DRY pig), but he's not a pig. Just wondering. If I found one in my trap, I'd be pretty freaked. LOL Seen some big tuskers, but them's some teeth on those babies.
 
Neat pics, guys.

And cheetahs are just incredibly cool. How docile/tame do they tend to be?

John
 
Not very in the wild, ive walked into a few and they just take off at high speed. They can be domesticated easily though. Ive even fed a wild cheatah a piece of steak, he broke his leg and was trying to eat my bosses dogs so i thought id be nice and give him a prime piece of meat. Our ecologist later darted him and fixed him up. He did make a recovery. He was the only cheetah that got a bit upset with me, i had to follow him on foot, in the dark untill the ecologist got there to dart him. Nothing serious though.

I had a cool drive tonight, saw lots of ele's, 2x brown hyena, +-8 rhino-one walked out while me and my guests were having our sundowner drinks, i got a cool pic of me with the rhino (ill put it on after dinner), and i also saw 2 lion kill an impala. Not bad at all, im very happy with that.
 
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This was the rhino that came to visit our drinks stop. He was quite a big bull and very confident. I got my guests back on the vehicle and gave Phil(guest) my camera to get some shots. He ended up staying there for about half an hour. He was well behaved and didnt cause any trouble.
 
Rattlers taste like, well, chicken. :D I reckon many snakes are good to eat. I ate my first one at an A&M Wildlife Biology Association dinner in college. I was sitting across from the herpetologist and grabbed some out of a container not knowing what it was, commenced to chomping on it, and the herpetologist says, "How do you like it?" I says, "It's good, like fried chicken, funny bones, though." I thought he was going to choke laughing. LOL Since then, I've eaten my share of 'em.

I'd draw the line at moccasins, though. They stink. I know it's a musk gland, but they're just too nasty. Ich.
 
Great pics!

It was pretty common and fashionable for upper crust Brits to keep tame cheetahs at the dawn of the 20th century. Ancient Egyptians trained them as "hunting dogs."
 
As far as best meals I have ever had, its a toss up between Warthog on a spit and Blue Wildebeest Sirloin. Any of the wild vension there is top notch; haven't eaten a piece of meat there I didn't thoroughly enjoy. The dried jerky-like meat you get there, biltong and droe vors is very delicious and as good or better than any venison jerky I've had here at home in Minnesota.

The Warthog is very lean, as is all the wild game you get there. When we cooked it on the spit we stuffed bacon chunk/spec into its sides to make it a bit juicier... The family there makes Kudu burgers often, most of the grilling/braii we did there was over wood which is a little different than here. Charcoal is used too, but I think that cooking over gas outside seems less common there than in the states. If you make the Kudu patties on a George Forman grill you have practically no fat run off, and its pretty good... though I might say that my American side of the family has probably a better handle on grilling tasty burgers than my SA side.

Mokwepa- My fam is spread pretty even between PE and Capetown, though I have some even more distant distant family in Jo berg. If I ever make it out near you though it sounds like it would be defiantly worth it to try take a trip with you... I've seen few lions and fewer hippos. What caliber/make of rifle do you use to hunt with there? What is that you have out in the picture with the Rhino? My cousins use .375 H&H, and .308... Uncle uses a suppressed .300 Win mag. I borrowed a .303 on my last trip when we were looking for Warthog.

Couple more pics of mine-
Red Hartebeest (fastest of the antelope/buck like animals I beleive) in Addo, and a Black Backed Jackal I saw on Robben Island. 3208326541_1b3b2c19db.jpg 3208326421_55cac53a14.jpg
 
Nice pics.
I'll throw my 2c worth in this thread and declare that the best meat I have ever tasted is ostrich steak, which I had at Hlalanathi resort in the Drakensberg.
Warthog is good, kudu biltong is great.
Pretty much any biltong is good. You can tell a true South African by how he automatically swerves towards a nearby piece of biltong!
 
When you get tired of that boring job, I have a nice exciting suburban home you can trade up to. :)

Thanks for the post and pics!

Geno
 
Is that your .375?

I have a two nice .35 Whelens (one slide-action, the other a custom Montana 1999), but I guess they'd be a little light for anything bigger than leopard. I've been wanting a 1917 in .416 Rigby for years.

John
 
My fam is spread pretty even between PE and Capetown, though I have some even more distant distant family in Jo berg. If I ever make it out near you though it sounds like it would be defiantly worth it to try take a trip with you... I've seen few lions and fewer hippos. What caliber/make of rifle do you use to hunt with there? What is that you have out in the picture with the Rhino?
Click to expand...

If you ever get out here again, get hold of me and im sure we could work something out. That is a CZ550 safari delux .375 that im carrying there. Legaly we have to carry 300gn monolithic solids in the weapon. The rifle is ok but i dont realy like them much. Its a tool of my trade, nothing special to look at. My personal rifle is a .375 that was semi-custom build. Its a CZ short stroke action, heavy bull barrel and a classic english style black walnut stock topped off with a Lynx 1-3.5x20 scope. Not a masterpiece but i love it. Puts 5 shots under and inch at 100m off a bench. Ill try put a pick up. The 416 is a great rifle hovever ammo is too expensive for me as i have to do a log book shoot every month, one day when im big and wealthy.....
 
We have to shoot at least 20 rounds a month to keep our eye in. We have to do certain exercises explained in "charge training" in the hunting section. I am a range officer in the reserve and sign the guides log books to prove that they have done their monthly shoot so that when the brown stuff hits the fan, no one can say that the guide couldnt shoot straight.
 
Wow, thanks for the photos. Africa looks like a wild and marvelous place. One of the places I'd like to visit before it's all said and done.
 
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