Christensen Family African Hunting Adventure
Part 1 of 4
This family vacation started in February of 2019 at our annual Mid-Michigan fundraiser. Eight months before the show I had taken my older son Elijah to Africa on an amazing hunt with Marupa Safaris. At the annual fundraiser my wife Sara and I got to discussing the possibility of doing the same sort of trip when our younger son Ivan was eleven, the same age Elijah was on the 2018 trip. By the end of the fundraiser a contract was written and signed and a deposit was applied to our hunt. Our dates would be during June and July of 2022.
Between February 2019 and June 2022 a lot happened in the world. The most obvious disruption to the world was Covid-19. But through it all our plans to fly to South Africa never changed. By November of 2020 our dates were set. Over that time Marupa Safaris and all African outfitters weren’t able to get any clients from the United States due to travel restrictions. Finally, in May of 2021 the restrictions began to lift and by the time we traveled in late June of 2022 all restrictions were lifted in both the United States and South Africa.
Months before we left for our Safari our family tried to get prepared for the adventure. The main focus of our preparation was getting comfortable shooting from shooting sticks. In South Africa the majority of the shots are taken from the standing position on shooting sticks. The reason for this is the vegetation is too high to get into the prone position and it is very difficult to use any tree or bush for assistance in steading your rifle because they are sparse in places and they all have thorns that will tear you up. The saying goes everything in Africa either has horns, thorns, teeth or claws.
Once the end of June arrived we all felt confident shooting from sticks and were excited about our adventure. Our travel to South Africa was fairly uneventful, besides our first flight from Grand Rapids to Newark getting canceled a week before our departure. The airline company wanted to book us on the same flight time the following day, but I wasn’t going to lose a day of our safari, so I was able to get us on an earlier flight on our original departure date. The only problem was now instead of a two-hour layover in Newark we would have a thirteen-hour layover. Not ideal, but we made it work.
When we arrived, after our fifteen-hour flight, in Johannesburg we cleared customs relatively quickly and were met by Reinardt, our PH for the hunt. Elijah and I knew Reinardt from our trip in 2018. We knew he was an energetic guy that loved hunting and being out in the bush. I was excited to hunt with him and looked forward to the memories our family would make with him along the way.
That first night we stayed just outside of Johannesburg. Reinardt explained the country of South Africa was load sharing. This is the processes of certain areas being without power for several hours at a time, and it just so happened the city, minus the airport was out of power for the time being. When we arrived at our bed and breakfast type lodge the power was out. We quickly settled in and we all fell asleep fairly quickly. Around 10:00 pm the electricity came back on and several lights in the room were on. After quickly turning them off I was back to sleep.
We arose around 4:30 the next morning to the power being out again and a frost on the vehicles and grass. We drove from Johannesburg to the Northwest Province where I would be hunting lion, but that is another story…literally.
After completing my lion hunt we drove to the Northern Cape, near Kimberley, for our plains game hunting. We arrived and got settled into the amazing facilities Marupa Safaris have. The lodge was newly constructed in 2019 and everything about it was fantastic. From the spacious rooms to the amazing showers, this place was top notch. We had a great meal and then Pieter, the owner of Marupa Safaris, and Reinardt asked if we wanted to do some night hunting. Of course I was ready to go, but Elijah and Ivan were still a bit tired from all of our traveling so they stayed behind.
Sara and I, along with Reinardt jumped into the back of Reinardt’s Land Cruiser while Pieter drove us around. Our intended target that night would be jackal, I brought an electronic game call to entice them to show themselves. But along the way to a good area for jackal we were also looking for duiker and steenbok. Wouldn’t you know it, before getting to the area to call for jackal we spotted a very nice duiker. This was one of the animals in our package so I made quick work of the small antelope and had my first animal in the Northern Cape down. Our jackal efforts didn’t produce anything so we started our way back to the lodge. Spotting a nice steenbok, we stopped and Sara bagged her first animal of the Safari as well.
A highlight for us this evening was watching Reinardt catch a springhare with his bare hands! As we were driving we noticed the small kangaroo type animals hopping around in certain places. Reinardt had Pieter stop the truck and shine the spotlight on one of the small creatures. He then snuck up towards the back of the springhare. I figured he would ease his way toward the big eared, rabbit like African animal, but I was wrong. When Reinardt was about ten yards from the motionless animal he sprinted and jumped with both hands reaching for it. He had caught the springhare! He walked it over to us so we could see. The powerful back legs, making it difficult to hold at times, proved to be a good defense. After we saw the creature and Reinardt let it go we could observe a large scratch on Reinardt’s hand from the hind feet claws of the springhare.
The next morning was chilly, a theme we would have to get used to as every morning in the Northern Cape was in the upper 30’s to lower 40’s. The wind was blowing a bit harder this day, as we made our way to an area known to hold black wildebeest. These are an interesting animal for sure. It is said that when the gods made the animals of Africa they used the left over pieces for the black wildebeest, with its’ long blond tail, forward sweeping horns and big tuft of hair on its’ nose.
When we located the herd, they were three to four hundred yards away. We stopped the truck behind a thick group of bushes and Ivan and I followed Reinardt in through the bush toward the animals. As we came out the other side Reinardt set up the shooting sticks and asked who was shooting first. When I looked at the distance of the shot I told him I would be up first. The animals were over 200 yards away and there was a big herd of them. I was hoping Ivan’s first African animal would be a bit closer and in a smaller group to identify easier.
As I settled in on the sticks I knew with the wind and distance this wasn’t going to be a chip shot. Reinardt did an excellent job of getting me on the right animal. Both the male and female black wildebeest have horns and for someone like me, who doesn’t see them often, I would have extreme difficulty determining the difference. Once I was on the right animal and he was standing without any other member of the herd in my shot path I sent a bullet flying. By his reaction it appeared to be a good shot, but he ran off with the herd. As we watched them we saw he didn’t separate from the herd which usually isn’t a good sign.
We pursued the herd and I was able to get another shot at the bull. This one appeared to be a better shot because as the herd took off he separated from them, but I still had to shoot him again before it was all over. If you don’t want to be humbled by hunting an animal you might want to steer clear of the black wildebeest. As I found out, this large animal has a small vitals zone for its size and is beyond tough. At any rate, I was able to harvest a very nice old bull with huge bases and gorgeous sweeping horns.
After lunch our plan was to try to get Ivan on a hartebeest or a gemsbok. The first group of animals we came across were hartebeest, but unfortunately for us, fortunately for them, they spotted us as we were attempting to stalk them and took off. Once back at the truck Reinardt took us to a different part of the 5,000 acre property. We drove to the base of a koppie (these are decent sized hills made of tons of rocks in the otherwise flat lands of the Northern Cape). Reinardt got out of the truck and asked if we wanted to climb to the top. Of course we were in, and Ivan and I followed him to the top. This is where Reinardt was able to instruct Ivan to make an excellent shot on a beautiful gemsbok bull. But if you want more detail on this story you will need to read Ivan’s article on pages 22 and 23.
After loading Ivan’s gemsbok in the truck, we started driving towards the skinners shack. Within the first mile of the drive I spotted a duiker in some thick bush. I quickly notified Reinardt and after assessing the small animals’ horns, Elijah was up. Reinardt and Elijah put a short stalk on the animal and then the sticks were set up. One shot later the duiker was riding along with us to the skinning shack with Ivan’s gemsbok.
We dropped the animals off at the skinning shack and as we were heading back to the lodge we spotted a group of springbok. Reinardt stopped the truck to assess them and quickly found a male worth taking. Elijah set up for the 220 yard shot. At the report of the rifle we could see the animal was hit as the herd took off but the springbok Elijah shot didn’t go with them. Elijah had his second animal of the trip and his second animal of the day. After pictures were taken we drove back to the skinners shack and dropped it off.
An interesting side not with Elijah’s springbok was when we got to his animal the white hairs on its back towards its hind quarters started to stand up. This happens sometimes with springbok. It was truly an amazing sight and we were able to take several pictures of Elijah and his ram with the hair on full display. Reinardt also encouraged us to smell the yellow area in the middle of the white plume on hair. At first I was hesitant thinking it was some sort of joke played on clients, but he assured me it was no joke. When I smelled the area I was taken back. It smelled just like cotton candy.
That evening’s meal, like most meals we had, consisted of animals we had taken on the trip. This night was gemsbok and black wildebeest back straps. We were never lacking exceptional food during our safari and getting to eat animals we harvested was an additional treat for our family. We were always excited to see whose animal we would be trying each day.