Small Town News

Four locals experience African hunt

---

There are some people that might only get to travel inside the borders of Minnesota. Some are fortunate to get outside the United States.

Four area residents were lucky enough to go on "a trip of a lifetime" recently when they went on an African Safari hunt.

Rand and Bert Honl, Rob Lane and Nolan Majeski spent 10 days in South Africa on a hunt that they really never dreamed possible.

The safari hunt was an item on a Ducks Unlimited auction and the Honls decided to bid on it. The four-person package had a value of $20,000 and they were able to get the item for $6,000.

Majeski said he wanted to take part because he would be able to hunt animals you can't in the United States.

"You can't even see most of these animals in a zoo," Lane said.

Flying half way around the world over water wasn't the most thrilling part of the trip for the foursome. The trip was 10,000 miles and 20 hours in the plane.

They left Minnesota on November 10 and returned 10 days later. Their flight to Atlanta was delayed because of the hurricane at that destination. When they landed, they had little time to get to their flight to Johannesburg. They figured they were on the plane bound for South Africa before their luggage got off the other plane. They would be missing their luggage, including guns, for two days.

The outfitter was Steyn and Caracal Safaris at the Kunkuru Game Ranch.

The change is time zones affected the hunters' sleeping habits which meant they took naps during the middle of the day.

Getting up at 4:45 a.m. might have had something to do with it as well. After eating breakfast, they would be on the safari truck at 5:15 a.m. They would drive around until about noon looking for animals and then go back to the resort where they ate and took their nap. Then it was back to the hunt at about 3 p.m. until it got dark. After another meal and refreshments, it was off to sleep and back up early the next morning.

A professional hunter is assigned to every two clients at the game ranch.

The group didn't hunt any of the really dangerous animals. That would have been much too expensive.

Any animal that they shoot, whether they are killed or cannot be found, is subject to a trophy fee to the South African government. Small animals carry a fee of only $450 while animals like the sable carry a price tag of $12,000.

They also have to pay for boiling the heads and dipping the hides of the animals so they can be transported back to the United States. Those processes are done so they do not rot. They were told it would be about three months before the animals get to Minnesota but the hunters aren't looking for them until the six-month mark.

Bert Honl said he thought they were getting a cheap trip for $1,500 apiece when they purchased the hunt but he figures it will be costing him anywhere between $6,000$8,000 because of the animals he shot.

"It was well worth it," Rand said. "It was the hunt of a lifetime."

Lane said they incurred another expense in registering their guns with the South African police but that was worth it as well. Each firearm required 8-10 pages of forms to be filled out. The hunters hired people to register their guns for them. They provided them with the information which was presented to the police and those people also met the hunters at the airport.

All agreed that the animals in South Africa are quite a bit tougher than anything you find in Minnesota. They said the animals keep running until they are dead or you shoot them again. "They are really tough animals. There are so many predators there that they just keep running on instinct," Bert said.

It was an extremely successful hunt for the locals as they will eventually have 15 animals back home. Bert shot a gemsbuck, kudu, zebra and blesbuck; Nolan shot a gemsbuck, kudu and zebra; Rob shot a redhartbeest, blue wildebeest, jackal, impala and blesbuck; and Rand shot a kudu, waterbuck and impala.

They will be mounting the animals that they shot. The meat from the animals was either donated to a local tribe or sold to a meat market. Each night they also got to eat some of the meat from what they had sho.t.

"As a hunter, when we shoot something, we eat it," Bert said. "In this case we couldn't because we couldn't bring it home but it all got either donated or sold. Nothing went to waste."

The guides on the hunt were meticulous in their duties. "When you shot something, it would take them at least half an hour to prep the animal," Bert said. "They would get the trees and branches out of the way so they could get the perfect picture for you."

Added Rob, "If there was dirt on the animal, they would wash it off."

Bert added that the target for an animal was about the size of half a paper plate. "If you didn't hit it in the right spot, you weren't going to find them."

The seasons in South Africa are the complete opposite of Minnesota as they were having spring weather at the time.

Bert tried his hand at bow hunting which didn't yield good results because it was too wet. It rained four or five nights in a row. Usually, they fill small ponds with water to lure the animals out but that wasn't the Case when they were there. "I went out one time and didn't even see a thing," he said.

They hunted in what is called the bush. It is basically bushy trees, nothing much over 20 feet tall.

Lane recalled an interesting event that occurred that didn't even involve hunting.

The first night at the ranch they got into their hut and found that the door was sprung and couldn't be shut. They left it open and, after supper, a woman came around and told them to make sure their door was closed because of the snakes. They got the door shut and were kicking the beds and checking everywhere to make sure no snakes had gotten in.

Near the end of the trip, a snake had gotten in under the door and found its way into the bathroom. Not a welcome site to the hunter who found it.

The huts were constructed of block walls but the roofs were grass. The services was impeccable. The rooms were cleaned every day and their clothes were washed and folded.

If anybody thinks this isn't a small world, they might want to think again. While sitting in the bar one night, they met four hunters from Texas who knew a beekeeper that the Honls know from Texas as well.

The game ranch encompassed 6,000 acres and was about four miles wide and 12 miles long. They were a little disappointed when they first arrived to see that the area was fenced but later found out that would be a positive. It was a big enough area that they rarely had to hunt in the same place. It took them about 4-5 days before they recognized terrain that they had been on before.

They explained that if the area wasn't fenced, every animal would be dead. The fence also wouldn't be able to stop a rhino that wanted to see what was on the other side and animals like the zebra would be able to jump over the fence.

Among animals that they saw but didn't hunt were rhinos, giraffe, sables, lions and cape buffalo.

Lane said that all of the rhinos had their horns cut off. "That's strictly because of poaching," he said. "Poaching is really bad over there."

"We were told to climb a tree because they will come after you," Bert said of the rhino.

Rob said he encountered a rhino at about 30 yards. Rhinos don't have very good eyesight which turned out to be a good thing. "The guide was snapping his fingers and and the mom squared up on us. He told me to get behind a tree. I thought, 'Are you kidding?' The tree was the size of Bert. He started waving his hands and the rhino must have thought he was bigger because it finally turned away."

The gemsbuck was one of the more dangerous animals that the group hunted. It's long pointed horns are used as a weapon. They explained that its first instinct is to run. But when backed into a corner, it would put its horns right through whatever is in its way. They said many tracking dogs have been killed by the gemsbuck because they aren't dead before the dog gets to them.

The memories from the trip will last them their entire lives and all feel they will never get tired of talking about it.

"I got to go to South Africa. Everything about it was great," Bert said. "I got to go hunting with my dad. I go to hunt with friends. You can't beat it."



Copyright 2009 Winthrop News, Winthrop, Minnesota. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2010 Winthrop News Winthrop, Minnesota. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

More from Winthrop News