Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

The roller coaster takes a cool detour

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • The roller coaster takes a cool detour

    Joyce has round four of Chemo on Tuesday. The Neurosurgeon has allowed her to start slowly weaning from the clamshell for one hour three times a day. Epitome of simple pleasure------she took a shower without wearing the thing today.

    Since I have decided to retire in early 2015 and Joyce is doing so well with treatment we made a bold plan for 2015.

    We had to cancel the Mozambique hunt for Leopards scheduled for June of this year. The Professional hunter has been following Joyce's progress via email and Facebook. We already had a Bull Elephant planned for February 2015 i Zimbabwe with another professional. Since we won't have work constrains to return to, we jostled that date to April 1-14 for Ele and will then hang at Vic Falls for a few days and on to Pemba, Mozambique to hang on the beach for a week or so. We will then drive 10 hours into the Niassa Reserve in Northern Moz and hunt the Leopards we canceled.

    The Moz Professional Hunter sent a message to the outfitter we originally used to book the hunt and volunteered to take us in early. He told the outfitter, "I've been following Joyce's progress and she has balls bigger than most men I know". I guess that's a compliment. Anyway, what a trip to look forward to with no rush to get back.
    If it pays, it stays

  • #2
    That sounds like a great plan!

    It'll be interesting to hear about the side trips.
    "Faith is nothing but a firm assent of the mind : which, if it be regulated, as is our duty, cannot be afforded to anything but upon good reason, and so cannot be opposite to it."
    -John Locke

    "It's all been melded together into one giant, authoritarian, leftist scream."
    -Newman

    Comment


    • #3
      Awesome!
      Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live...
      Robert Southwell, S.J.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by scott View Post
        That sounds like a great plan!

        It'll be interesting to hear about the side trips.
        Really looking forward to the drives from Harare to the Zambesi Valley in Zim as well as the "side trip adventures" at the falls. There will definitely be NO bungee jumping. The 10 hour drive from Pemba into the Niassa will be interesting as well. At least 8 hours of it is true African wilderness.
        If it pays, it stays

        Comment


        • #5
          Happy she's progressing so well.
          May we raise children who love the unloved things - the dandelion, the worm, the spiderlings.
          Children who sense the rose needs the thorn and run into rainswept days the same way they turn towards the sun...
          And when they're grown and someone has to speak for those who have no voice,
          may they draw upon that wilder bond, those days of tending tender things and be the one.

          Comment


          • #6
            Very cool.
            It's been ten years since that lonely day I left you
            In the morning rain, smoking gun in hand
            Ten lonely years but how my heart, it still remembers
            Pray for me, momma, I'm a gypsy now

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Adam View Post
              Very cool.
              Always willing to hear any "must see's" you know of along the way. I'm jazzed about not being totally tied to a schedule other than the hunt dates.
              If it pays, it stays

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Michele View Post
                Happy she's progressing so well.
                Thanks Michele!! She took the brace off for 45 minutes while showering and getting dressed and eating breakfast. Started to feel her core tighten up so she went back into the brace. I'm proud of how smart she is being about this. She's doing great. The Chemo side effects lasted a little longer this go round but she's back to normal as of two days ago and the next round isn't until Tuesday. As she puts it, "I'm 2/3 done after that one".

                Just told my boss I'm done next January and he took it pretty well.
                If it pays, it stays

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Frostbit View Post
                  Always willing to hear any "must see's" you know of along the way. I'm jazzed about not being totally tied to a schedule other than the hunt dates.
                  Well, you've got Victoria Falls, as you mentioned. Hwange National Park is very nice, with some "luxury rustic" locales there if you want to stay a while, though I'm guessing you'll get about as much of that as you can handle for the rest of the time that you're there. And of course there's the Okavango Delta not terribly far away, but I seem to remember that you've been there before. Ditto the Kalahari.

                  I'm sure other stuff will come to mind for me over the next few days.
                  It's been ten years since that lonely day I left you
                  In the morning rain, smoking gun in hand
                  Ten lonely years but how my heart, it still remembers
                  Pray for me, momma, I'm a gypsy now

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Excellent read with lots of photos

                    This is a hunt report that reflects the exact time of year and location we will hunt in Zim. Bill is one of the better writers as well.

                    Enjoy!!
                    If it pays, it stays

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Got a nice email from the Mozambique PH. He told us that they have a nice little bungalow right on the Beach in Pemba and we are welcome to use it for as long as we like before and after the hunt. This just keeps getting better and better.
                      If it pays, it stays

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Frostbit View Post
                        Got a nice email from the Mozambique PH. He told us that they have a nice little bungalow right on the Beach in Pemba and we are welcome to use it for as long as we like before and after the hunt. This just keeps getting better and better.
                        Very cool.
                        May we raise children who love the unloved things - the dandelion, the worm, the spiderlings.
                        Children who sense the rose needs the thorn and run into rainswept days the same way they turn towards the sun...
                        And when they're grown and someone has to speak for those who have no voice,
                        may they draw upon that wilder bond, those days of tending tender things and be the one.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Frostbit View Post
                          Got a nice email from the Mozambique PH. He told us that they have a nice little bungalow right on the Beach in Pemba and we are welcome to use it for as long as we like before and after the hunt. This just keeps getting better and better.
                          Watch out for the sea snakes.
                          "Faith is nothing but a firm assent of the mind : which, if it be regulated, as is our duty, cannot be afforded to anything but upon good reason, and so cannot be opposite to it."
                          -John Locke

                          "It's all been melded together into one giant, authoritarian, leftist scream."
                          -Newman

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by scott View Post
                            Watch out for the sea snakes.
                            Tru Dat!!
                            If it pays, it stays

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Of course, Sea snakes can only get you if you are swimming or diving….

                              "There's something unusual about the relationship between man and beast in this place," says Derek Littleton, a resident professional hunter. "The folks here are generally docile, shy, self-effacing. Lions are generally wary of man, but here that's not always the case. They almost lord themselves over the people in some places. Lions do not take the same liberties with the Maasai, for instance. They'll attack them, too, but they're a damn sight less brazen about it."

                              Exacerbating the threat, there is a dearth of horned game in some areas, and in those places humans constitute the most convenient form of nutrition. The conventional wisdom is that man-eaters are generally old, infirm, or wounded. That does not apply here. There is a report of one lion on the Rovuma who is thought to be accountable for the deaths of more than 40 people. When they caught up with him, it was discovered he was only four years old.

                              Littleton has been following hard on the tracks of one of the most prolific predators in the area for more than a year now.

                              "He's a cunning fellow. Operates alone, moves into an area, and he's not shy about announcing his arrival by roaring into the night," says Littleton. "The villagers light fires, some sleep in tree platforms or barricade their homes, but he bides his time until things settle down. On one occasion, he broke through a door and attacked a child but couldn't bite through the heavy straw mat that shielded the kid."

                              Failing to breach the door on another hut, the cat leapt onto the thatch and went in through the roof to snatch a young girl inside.

                              "He kills, then moves a big distance, and it's hard work following him," says Littleton. "A lot of the ground is rocky and hard, making tracking tough, but I'm going to get him."

                              Anticipating an attack one night, Littleton waited outside a village but heard nothing.

                              "When I gathered my kit in the morning, I found a human shoulder bone a short distance away. He had eaten while I waited. He's a confident killer."


                              LINK

                              Derek Littleton is the PH we will hunt with in the Niassa Reserve. He told us two years ago when we first spoke with him that if we bagged out on the His/Her Leopards early he wanted us all to take a "classic Safari walkabout" with porters. Basically a moving fly camp to experience the bush even more intimately. He mentioned this to us as he said that he had read our hunt reports in the past and knew we would be the right fit for this type of adventure.

                              So Sea Snakes….we don't fear no stink in' Sea Snakes.
                              If it pays, it stays

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X
                              😀
                              🥰
                              🤢
                              😎
                              😡
                              👍
                              👎