You are better off not carrying large amounts of cash and do not carry more than one credit card or debit card along with a photocopy of your passport. If you have larger amounts of cash on you, carry only a small amount in one front pocket for purchases, the rest in another front pocket, so you aren’t flashing a big roll. If possible leave surplus cash, passports and extra cards, in a secure vault at the hotel, B and B or wherever you are staying. If there is no safe place to leave your valuables consider a Safe Deposit box at a nearby bank. Remember that you can have no more than 4 numbers in a PIN or they won’t work. Also, have your card that you plan to carry with you limited to $100 for cash advances. That way if a mugger forces you to withdraw from an ATM you limit your downside. The cash withdrawal limit is separate from your purchase limit so it won’t interfere with buying things with the card. If you are mugged DO NOT resist. These people are desperate and while they generally don’t harm their victims they are often armed with knives or machetes and are not afraid to use them to avoid being caught.
Canadian dollars are nearly impossible to pass on the economy but U.S. dollars and Euros are easy to use. Just make sure you aren’t getting shaved on the exchange rate. Business should be easily willing to match or exceed what the bank is willing to give you as this is money they can ship offshore. Also, many places will waive the 15% VAT (Value Added Tax) if you pay in cash, Rand or other. Be aware that you can recover a lot of the VAT you pay for goods, but not services, by applying at the airport. You must do the airport process to ensure recovery.
http://www.southafrica-newyork.net/c...%20refund.html
My final thoughts on Air Travel to far away places. I am 62 years old, in very good health overall and overweight. I would not travel this far if I could not go Business Class and I have been of the same mind since I was about 40. The ability to stretch out completely and sleep on a 16 hour flight, or even on a series of 5 to 6 hour flights is a very big plus. Having the extra leg and shoulder room is great. The meal/liquor services and top notch service is a nice to have, could live without that, but the extra room and ability to sleep, to me is a got to have. If I was Thirty years old and as skinny as I used to be, maybe economy would work, but even then, Business class is a whole bunch better. It makes enough of a difference that my brother upgraded his economy return ticket from Joberg to Toronto, at a cost of $2,000 Canadian because he could not face the idea of 16.5 hours from Addis to Toronto in steerage, after 5 hours from Joberg to Addis. All in he could have paid cash for a Business Class round trip from Edmonton and have paid less but it was not a real large difference and well worth it for the added comfort. When saving and budgeting for a hunting trip to Africa I suggest you seriously consider the cost of Business class, at least for the long haul section, as part of that budget process.
If I went to South Africa again I would likely go through Frankfurt, Dulles or Heathrow but Addis does make for a good adventure if you have never been there and I wouldn’t be against going through it again if the price of the flights were right. Also, we weren’t flying with guns, so where you fly through makes a big difference if you are taking your own firearms.
Arrival in South Africa
The day before we left for South Africa I got a call from Stuart Pringle, Pringle’s Legendary Safaris -Outfitter and PH.
https://www.africahuntingoutfitters....s-south-africa He said that due to some personal obligations he was not going to be able to meet us at the airport but that he would send his partner Nathan Regal to meet us and that Stuart would meet up with us in a couple of days. Now I am not a big fan of last minute changes so this didn’t land very well, but given we were so close to take off, there wasn’t much for options.
We arrived in Joberg spot on time at 13:30 July 25. Got through baggage pickup and customs with no delays or issues and made it to arrivals. No PH with a sign saying Dean and Mark. Go to the information counter that was right there and ask them to page Nathan from Pringle’s Safaris; they don’t make announcements. Lovely!
Find a chair to look up some numbers and make some calls. In the meantime Mark heads outside for a smoke. On his way back, runs into Nathan who is just arriving. Apparently he got the days mixed up, thought we were arriving the next day, and drove like a bat out of hell to get there to pick us up. Now as we found out later, he was really moving, he drives 140 to 160 kph normally so it turns out he was doing near 200 to make it from his home in Welkom to Joberg, 1 hour 45 minute drive, in under an hour.
We had a pleasant drive to his Dad’s place, “Farm Thelma Odendaalrsus”, just outside the town of Welkom. The town was originally built by a large gold mining company as housing for its management workers but has since been sold off to private ownership after the mine changed hands. It is still quite a pretty little town but the parks, golf course, public areas and schools have gone downhill.
Joe’s home quarter was a truly lovely Oasis, with great guest rooms, great food, nice cozy bar and the best display of mounted African game I have ever seen. Joe started the farm in this location in 1952 and in addition to farming and guiding, has been a taxidermist since 1960. Nathan has followed in his footsteps.
A Surprise Tale of African Done Taxidermy
After getting settled into our rooms and having a beer at the bar, Joe and Nathan took us for a tour of the taxidermy shop and tannery that is on the property. It is a truly impressive operation, and employs over 15 people. They mount over 1400 head a year and process over 3500 capes/skins a year. A copy of their price sheet shows their prices are very reasonable, and the work is truly outstanding. (A few examples, full shoulder mount of a Wildebeest $380 CDN, Pedestal mount $400, full animal mount $1,500, tanning of cape $270. Kudu in the same order, $500, $550, $2200 and a Euro mount $200, tanning $280. Shipping boxes for pedestal mounts run $400 per plus the actual shipping costs. Even with boxing and shipping, this is considerably less than the cost to have the skulls and capes sent to Canada and mounted here as you will still have $180 to $500 in tanning costs on each cape, processing of the head and some shipping costs. It is easy to see from the above that the head mounts are not a lot more than the cost just to have the cape tanned.)
All mounts are done on fiberglass forms. Those that are custom or unusual they sculpt the new mount in clay, make a form and then pour a Fiberglass form for the mount. The realism of the mounts and their life like poses comes from having observed thousands of the animals in the wild. I was also greatly impressed by how long the mounts remain new looking. There were mounts in the Bar that were over 40 years old and they looked like they were done yesterday. I have seen quite a bit of African Taxidermy and none ever came close to this for quality. A lot of it was quite honestly pure crap.
The work I saw at Joe’s is right up there with the very best done anywhere.
If you still want to have your own Taxidermist do your mounts, they will also handle the prepping of capes and heads for shipment to anywhere in the world they can legally be sent.
Joe Regal Taxidermy
Joe@joeregal.co.za +27 057 354 3166 Bus +27 082 701 0963 Cell
