SCOPING THE SAVANNA

For those hunters who have never experienced Africa and perhaps haven’t yet been bitten by the allure of making tracks on the Dark Continent, I suspect that there are few things more annoying than listening to someone who has been there drone on and on about how magical the experience can be. I’d guess it’s like being at an already awkward party where everyone is struggling to make small talk and someone breaks out one of those “I guess you had to be there” stories.

There was certainly a time when I, too, couldn’t have cared less about sitting on a plane for countless hours, trekking through the heat to find an animal I didn’t know the name of, all the while hauling special gear that I bought especially for the trip—gear that I might never use again. I liked my Midwestern whitetails and northern black bears, highlighted by an occasional elk hunt.

And then, I went.

But for the sake of your patience, I’m not going to get into all that emotional, ancestral and historical stuff (at least,