Well I’m finally here!!!!  I’m in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. This is not my final destination, but it is home for a couple of days until the rest of my hunting party arrives. 

My trip took a total of 30 hours 31 minutes and 26 seconds to get from my house in North Carolina to the hotel in Port Elizabeth! I took my truck, 3 air planes and a taxi cab to get here.

This is a beautiful town and I’m glad I get a couple of days to get over the jet lag and do some site seeing.

THE PLANE FLIGHTS

The plane flights were smooth. A short 1 hour flight from Raleigh to DC, a 20 hour flight from DC to Johannesburg with a refueling stop in Dakkar, Senegal, and then a 2 hour flight from J’Burg to Port Elizabeth!

The flight from DC to J’Burg was not as bad as I anticipated, but I did have 2 screaming kids that sat behind me on that flight. They were both under 2 and they were both screaming before the doors on the airplane were shut! I watched 3 movies from DC to Dakkar and then I took a sleeping pill and slept for a while on the next leg of the flight. After I woke up I still had time to watch 10,000 BC before we landed in J’Burg.

Here was my home for 20 hours of the trip!

I think if I had one more flight I might have gone POSTAL on somebody!!!! Like I said, it was a lot of traveling, but not as bad as I had prepared for! Still, I had not done that much flying in 2 days since I was in the Marine Corps back in the 90s.

Once I got to Port Elizabeth I had to catch a cab to the Hotel. The driver told me to hop in while he loaded my bags. Well I did and to my surprise I hopped in the driver’s seat!!!!! That’s when I found out that they drive on the wrong side of the road down here!!!  Since I’ve been here I’ve also found that they walk on the wrong side of the sidewalk also!!! If I die on this trip it will not be from an animal mauling!!! I am sure it will be death by vehicle. I keep looking the wrong way thinking the coast is clear when I’m trying to cross the street. The cars are coming from the direction I’m not looking. I have learned to find someone else who is crossing the street and walk beside them. This will probably save my life!!!

My hotel is Ocean front. I have a beautiful view of the Indian Ocean. Even though it is winter time down here, I have yet to put on a long sleeve shirt. The locals are walking around all bundled up like they are going to freeze to death, but it is a nice break from the 100 degree weather we’re having back home.

The city is beautiful and I’m going to go do some exploring while I have a chance. I’ll leave you guys with a few pictures of the sights.

Sunset over Port Elizabeth

Shark Rock Beach

Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Back in 2004 I went on a Mule deer hunt with Bill. For those of you that don’t have the background informations on Bill’s hunting style, please read Shoot the Deer Bill!

We were hunting outside of Sundance, Wyoming!  Bill had a Mule Deer tag and an Antelope tag in his pocket. With a little coaching by your’s truely Bill, with a little belly-aching, went ahead and shot his antelope. That left him 5 days to chase a quality Mule Deer.

Once again on the next to the last day of the hunt I find myself having to beg Bill to shoot another trophy.

This hunt was fun and in beautiful country. Yes, we had a 2 1/2 hour drive from camp to get to our hunting grounds, but they were full of game and the landscape was gorgeous!! We had been glassing some hills and we spotted a mule deer laying in the shade. The guide said he was one of the bigger mule deer he had seen on the lease and we were running out of time and if Bill wanted to harvest a deer we should put on a stalk for this deer.

Bill took a long look at the deer and said he didn’t think the deer was quite big enough!!!! I reminded Bill that the guide said that the guide said the deer was one of the bigger ones left on the lease. Once again he started whining about he didn’t know if he wanted to shoot the deer or not!

Finally after several minutes of arguing, Bill finally agreed to shoot the deer. We made the 1 1/2 hour walk to the back side of the hill he was sitting on and set up within 100 yards of where we thought he would come down the hill.

We were there about 20 minutes when I heard the guide say, “there he is!”

I got a few seconds of pre-roll and told Bill, “shoot the deer!”

I was a little nervous that Bill would not shoot, but as soon as I gave the command he shot without hesitation!!!!

Below is the deer Bill did not want to shoot until we talked him into it! 

Back in 2002 I made my first trip to Mexico. I would be hunting with one of the owners of an Outfitting service called Whitetail Adventures. His name was Bill and I had been on several hunting trips with him.

A little background Information to help this story:

Two weeks earlier we had been hunting in Saskatchewan for whitetail. We were hunting on an Indian Reservation so Bill had several tags he could use on this trip. The weather was very warm for October in Canada, it was in the mid 40s for highs. You just don’t get much deer movement when it is that warm. The next to the last afternoon we spotted an HUGE black bear in a cut oat field. I talked Bill into checking the bear out since we had a bear tag. The wind was perfect and we stalked to within 75 yards of the bear. 

Living in Eastern North Carolina I get to see plenty of world class Black Bears and this one was right up there with the ones we had back home so I tell Bill to get his rifle ready. I wanted to get some good, steady footage of the bear and then I wanted to get Bill to harvest the bear. Well, one problem, Bill didn’t want to harvest the bear. After a long drawn out conversation I could not get him to harvest the bear.

Long story short, when I got back to the lodge I showed the other owners of the outfitting business the footage of the bear Bill would not shoot and they were a little upset. One even told me if it happened again for me to grab the rifle and shoot the animal!!  By the way, the bear that Bill would not shoot ended up weighing 632 pounds and made Boone & Crockett. 

Back to the story in Mexico:

Like I said, it was my first trip to Mexico and it was our first afternoon to hunt. We were sitting in a couple of tower stands and had been watching several young bucks come in and out of the brush, when I looked up and all I could see were tines coming out of the brush! The deer came out at 325 yards and began to graze. 

Well as the old saying goes, you’ll know a good one when you see it!

I got Bill’s attention and he glassed the deer with his binoculars while I was getting some footage of the buck. The deer actually fed to within 80 yards of us while I was filming. Without looking at Bill, I told him “Shoot The Deer!” A few seconds went by there was no shot! Once again I said, “Shoot The Deer Bill!” Once again no shot!

I look over my shoulder to see Bill with his binoculars still in his hands! I asked, “Did you hear me Bill, SHOOT THE DEER!”  I was getting angry with him and I was raising my voice. I was scared we were going to scare the deer off, but once again Bill was not cooperating. 

He told me he wasn’t going to shoot the deer because he did not have any brow tines! Once he said that, I about blew a gasket. I told Bill that the chances of us seeing another deer that big on the trip was slim to none! Once again Bill said he won’t shooting the deer because he didn’t have any brow tines!

Finally I said, “Give me your rifle!”

Bill said, “Are you serious?”

I said, “Yes I’m serious, I will shoot that Buck in a NY second, GIVE ME THE RIFLE.”

Bill said, “Nope I’m going to shoot him.”

BANG!!!!!

Long story short, the deer scored 157″ as a 7 pointer and the next closest deer shot that year on the ranch scored 141″.  Bill told me he would have never guessed that deer would be that big! I told him he needed to take up picture taking, because he sure wasn’t a hunter!!!!

Here’s a photo of the deer Bill didn’t want to shoot!

Yukon Sunrise!

Yukon Sun Set

Creek That We Got Our Drinking Water From!

Fog Rolling Into The Valley We Were Hunting!

Very Beautiful Sunset!

Yukon Bathroom!

On My Way To Camp In The Cesna 206!