How much time in African bush?

[Trident-za]

OK, trying this poll thing out.... and hoping to have a question more meaningful than the usual "what color shirt do you like" type question....

So, how much time (in total) have you spent in the African bush... I'm talking about time in the wild, not time spent visiting African cities.....

[Haiw]

I never even set foot on Africa.

[Trident-za]

Personally, I've spent probably in excess of 12 months in the bush, in total. This includes a fair amount of time with no tent, shelter etc. etc. I've had 2 run-ins with a hyena on foot (less than 20 yards), 3 with an elephant, and 1 with a lion. Been charged by an elephant twice (on foot). Been less than 1 yard from an angry rhino, and been chased by a hippo.

Please let me know how much time you've spent in the "bush", even if you've had no close encounters - curious as to how many of you actually know anything about Africa ;)

[Trident-za]

For the record, there are millions of South Africans who have never been in the bush, either.... it's not actually an issue of "manhood" ;)

[Haiw]

*waits for people to mention female african bush*

[Rantanplan]

I never even set foot on Africa, nor I have the intention to set a foot on it.

[Dalleer]

Well , I'd be interested of going to visit places like that after I finish schooling here..

I've been thinking about going to see Vietnam , maybe places like South - Africa as well, etc. And I've got this weird idea of going to see Afghanistan for myself too..

But at least Vietnam is one of my "interests" at the moment..

[earl]

I've never, but my dad spent quite a bit of time in some camps (of varying quality/comfort). He's a helicopter pilot and was usually working with oil or mining companies on exploration ventures - Gabon, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Madagascar. I grew up seeing the slides of these places, way more fascinating than any children's stories - especially Madagascar. One day maybe I can set foot on the dark continent.

[Trident-za]

I never even set foot on Africa, nor I have the intention to set a foot on it.

Why not?? It's an amazing plave, if you avoid the "cities". Seriously, if you spend 3 weeks in Botswana in one of the "nice" places, it will be the best 3 weeks of your life.... they dont charge +$1000 a day, per person, for nothing ;)

[Ratamacue]

Yeah, I've never been to Africa, though I certainly think it would be cool to go there.

[earl]

One time he had food poisoning (the acute kind where your veins turn dark red through your skin). He was in severe pain and had to fly out of the camp to get to the nearest capable doctor. And he was in Gabon in the mid 80's during a coup - i think the leader of the existing gov't was assassinated.

[Flagg]

Personally, I've spent probably in excess of 12 months in the bush, in total. This includes a fair amount of time with no tent, shelter etc. etc. I've had 2 run-ins with a hyena on foot (less than 20 yards), 3 with an elephant, and 1 with a lion. Been charged by an elephant twice (on foot). Been less than 1 yard from an angry rhino, and been chased by a hippo.

Please let me know how much time you've spent in the "bush", even if you've had no close encounters - curious as to how many of you actually know anything about Africa ;)

I've spent lots of time in the bush......just not in Africa.

To be honest, a non-touristy extended trip through Africa is my biggest travel goal.....I want to hunt and shoot every animal on the continent...with my camera.

I've heard Kruger National Park is good, but that other places may offer greater density and diversity in game.

Where would you recommend going Trident?

[penna]

Personally, I've spent probably in excess of 12 months in the bush, in total. This includes a fair amount of time with no tent, shelter etc. etc. I've had 2 run-ins with a hyena on foot (less than 20 yards), 3 with an elephant, and 1 with a lion. Been charged by an elephant twice (on foot). Been less than 1 yard from an angry rhino, and been chased by a hippo.

Please let me know how much time you've spent in the "bush", even if you've had no close encounters - curious as to how many of you actually know anything about Africa ;)

I've spent lots of time in the bush......just not in Africa.

To be honest, a non-touristy extended trip through Africa is my biggest travel goal.....I want to hunt and shoot every animal on the continent...with my camera.

I've heard Kruger National Park is good, but that other places may offer greater density and diversity in game.

Where would you recommend going Trident?

trying to be a Roosevelt or a Hemmingway :P ?

[Trident-za]

One time he had food poisoning (the acute kind where your veins turn dark red through your skin). He was in severe pain and had to fly out of the camp to get to the nearest capable doctor. And he was in Gabon in the mid 80's during a coup - i think the leader of the existing gov't was assassinated.

2 Things: (i) who exactly is "he"?

(ii) Nobody ever said Africa was an "easy" place to visit :) Apart from a number of cities and/or areas, it REALLY is the "dark" continent (even in my very modern province, you can drive 1 hour and find people who have never seen CNN, BBC or heard of Iraq etc.).... I'm just staggered that so many people who have an opinion on how Africa should be run politically and from an anti-terrorism point of view have never actually "seen" Africa.

I love this place... where else can you find hundreds of square miles of wild bush that have never been seen by a white person? It has ****loads of problems, of course... but apparently all the people with the "answers" to those problems have never seen the place.... odd.

[flickme]

Never been to africa, hope to go some day.

[Trident-za]

To be honest, a non-touristy extended trip through Africa is my biggest travel goal.....I want to hunt and shoot every animal on the continent...with my camera.

I've heard Kruger National Park is good, but that other places may offer greater density and diversity in game.

Where would you recommend going Trident?

Personally, I'd recommend Botswana... awesome place. You can, of course, have a "wilder" experience and see more things by going to the Congo etc., but Botswana is a nice mix of modern vs wild - you will never be more than 300km away from an electrical appliance, and if something goes wrong and you need hospitalization, you will never be further than a 3 or 4 hour flight (assuming you can radio a helicopter, of course).

Kruger Park is nice - but overrated, and waaaay overpriced.

[ChuckThunder]

OK, trying this poll thing out.... and hoping to have a question more meaningful than the usual "what color shirt do you like" type question....

So, how much time (in total) have you spent in the African bush... I'm talking about time in the wild, not time spent visiting African cities.....

Spent four wonderful years in Tanzania.

[Flagg]

To be honest, a non-touristy extended trip through Africa is my biggest travel goal.....I want to hunt and shoot every animal on the continent...with my camera.

I've heard Kruger National Park is good, but that other places may offer greater density and diversity in game.

Where would you recommend going Trident?

Personally, I'd recommend Botswana... awesome place. You can, of course, have a "wilder" experience and see more things by going to the Congo etc., but Botswana is a nice mix of modern vs wild - you will never be more than 300km away from an electrical appliance, and if something goes wrong and you need hospitalization, you will never be further than a 3 or 4 hour flight (assuming you can radio a helicopter, of course).

Kruger Park is nice - but overrated, and waaaay overpriced.

How are things in Angola Trident?

Do you think it could develop into a tourist friendly destination?

Does it possess the same wildlife diversity as SA?

[ChuckThunder]

OK, trying this poll thing out.... and hoping to have a question more meaningful than the usual "what color shirt do you like" type question....

So, how much time (in total) have you spent in the African bush... I'm talking about time in the wild, not time spent visiting African cities.....

Spent four wonderful years in Tanzania.

And only about 2 months TOTAL on safari.

[Flagg]

Personally, I've spent probably in excess of 12 months in the bush, in total. This includes a fair amount of time with no tent, shelter etc. etc. I've had 2 run-ins with a hyena on foot (less than 20 yards), 3 with an elephant, and 1 with a lion. Been charged by an elephant twice (on foot). Been less than 1 yard from an angry rhino, and been chased by a hippo.

Please let me know how much time you've spent in the "bush", even if you've had no close encounters - curious as to how many of you actually know anything about Africa ;)

I've spent lots of time in the bush......just not in Africa.

To be honest, a non-touristy extended trip through Africa is my biggest travel goal.....I want to hunt and shoot every animal on the continent...with my camera.

I've heard Kruger National Park is good, but that other places may offer greater density and diversity in game.

Where would you recommend going Trident?

trying to be a Roosevelt or a Hemmingway :P ?

I used to like Hemingway(still enjoy his writing), until I learned how much of a d!ck he was.

[Trident-za]

How are things in Angola Trident?

Do you think it could develop into a tourist friendly destination?

Does it possess the same wildlife diversity as SA?

Angola probably HAD more wildlife diversity than South Africa... not too sure about now, although it's probably still quite good (Angola was once regarded as THE richest place in Africa, in terms of resources). It certainly had amazing fishing in the last few years (under exploitation? who wants to go fishing in a war zone?) You could catch more big fish in a day in Angola than you could catch in a year in South Africa. I'm damn sure it will be an amazing tourist venue.... once they get rid of the landmines and unexploded ornidance. Don't know how true it is, but I heard that it would take 100 years of full-time work by demolition guys to "clear" Angola of landmines. With the limited info I've heard from the BTDTs... thats probably an understatement. Democracy can come at a really steep price sometimes....

In short, Angola is an amazingly rich country (oil, diamonds, wildlife etc. etc)... but most people are too scared to go there, and I don't blame them. In order to "free" the country from communism etc. the opposing forces have effectively destroyed the place for decades to come. Sad really... apart from the loss of mineral/natural/wildlife riches, the political and military consequences of their "freedom" will be felt for decades to come....

[ronin2172]

i spent a week on the masai mara game reserve in kenya, if that counts...mind u i wasn't roughing it or anything...but it was still awesome

[earl]

One time he had food poisoning (the acute kind where your veins turn dark red through your skin). He was in severe pain and had to fly out of the camp to get to the nearest capable doctor. And he was in Gabon in the mid 80's during a coup - i think the leader of the existing gov't was assassinated.

2 Things: (i) who exactly is "he"?

That was my dad when he was in his 30's. It was supposed to follow up my first post (which maybe you missed) but two other people posted while I was typing. All because we have no edit button.

[Trident-za]

That was my dad when he was in his 30's. It was supposed to follow up my first post (which maybe you missed) but two other people posted while I was typing. All because we have no edit button.

My mistake.... I read the first post, but never "connected" it with the second. I bet your dad has a story or two to tell :)

[earl]

Do you have any photos you can share? I'd like to see them.

[Trident-za]

Do you have any photos you can share? I'd like to see them.

I have about 500 photos, and about 3 hours of video footage (including lions hunting, Cape Hunting Dogs (VERY rare) etc. ). Unfortunately, all my photos were taken with the old-age non-digital type camera, and I don't have a scanner.

[Jack Mehoff]

American women like to save/trim their "bush", thank god for that......um wait, what bush are we talking about?

[Lt_Crooks]

never been , hopefully next summer if GOD willing

[Ria]

Never been, unfortunately...I would absolutely love to go. One day... :)

[moughoun]

been to lovely Liberia, saw a good man die, never want to set foot in it again

[mr.x]

Never, but i have a good friend who lived in Ethiopia for several years during the war, does that count for anything?

Seriously though, Africa is one of the many places I want to visit before I die.
My wife and I have been talking about it for the last several years but as of yet have not made concrete plans (she was laid off for a looonng time so $ for luxuries was short).

[Gatling]

Mr X i've been a couple of times to Ethiopia and I loved it , and I would certainly recommend you that country ten times over Kenya .

[walford]

I was around a jungle but it was in the Panama Canal Zone for a couple of years as a military dependent.

Weird animals. Red ants with big heads that cut inch-wide trails right through the grass. Blue land crabs that feared no one. Spiders the size of a man's hand spread out. Scorpions that would crawl into your shoes at night if you were camping [we were told to always dump our shoes before putting them on when I was in the Cub Scouts]. You could watch it rain across the street while you were dry.

[Seiyuuki]

Just any place I can get a nice, relaxing drive and see some lions and cheetahs and elephants and stuffs.

[Ze]

ive been in the aussie bush. that count?

[EvanL]

personally ive never hooked up with a black chick.. but if shes hot enough then why not?
p-)

[Hullebullen]

Not one day...but a couple of years ago at a bar in Tel-aviv this black dude wanted to introduce me to the "real" africa. Luckily a danish friend saved my naive ass from a potentially painful experience... :oops:

[Royal]

Love Africa, but havn't spent enough time there (other than a couple Ops - where I spent way too much time, bit like Moughan, but there's nowhere I wouldn't go back to other than the stretch of riverbank where I met an angry hippo. Give me lunatics with guns anyday :P )

[Sir Zach of R.]

personally ive never hooked up with a black chick.. but if shes hot enough then why not?
p-)

I was gonna say something similar but everyone got to it before me. :(

[Red]

Trident thats a good question. Aside from military tarining,i have spent a total of 8 months in the Bushes doing things ranging from camping to hunting.I have seen some of the weirdest things on earth in bushes.

[walford]

there's nowhere I wouldn't go back to other than the stretch of riverbank where I met an angry hippo. Give me lunatics with guns anyday :P )I heard somewhere that more people get killed by hippos in Africa than by any other wild animal.

[cut]

live in Africa (Gabon) as a kid. Went on a few trips into the african bush, but I was too young for it to really count.

[cut]

*lived

bring back the edit button!

[ikurinturbiini]

Funny that I should find this thread waiting after my holiday. Just got back from Mother City and Jozi where I did some stocking up for Xmas. Where are you from, Trident? Done your time in SANDF?

I live in East Africa and I've spent something like two months (job-related) in the bush in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda, and that's not counting my holiday safaris. Basically, I find African bush life a major pain in the ass. I find outdoor life much more enjoyable in Europe (Scandinavia, that is) and North America. Less disease, less bandits. But you can't beat the wildlife.

My all time fav: Selous game reserve, Tanzania. Bigger than Denmark, totally untamed. You have to fly in. Most time of the year it's inaccessible. Makes one feel small.

[ikurinturbiini]

there's nowhere I wouldn't go back to other than the stretch of riverbank where I met an angry hippo. Give me lunatics with guns anyday :P )I heard somewhere that more people get killed by hippos in Africa than by any other wild animal.

You heard right. Hippos are deadly, you better not get caught between a hippo and water.

[Phil642]

I've been in Center Africa for a few days and in North Africa for a lot more and i go back frequently there.

And in CCCP for two month witch was worst than African's jungle p-)

[Falco]

Went to South Africa back in 95 and spent some time visiting the bush, nothing too serious since we aere only there for seven weeks. It was pretty nice.