Listen to me. I got back from my 2nd Africa trip in October where I spent a month in Zambia and Zimbabwe. I've had very close interaction with the wildlife there. VERY close. Close enough most people would need new shorts. If you dig deep enough you can find some fly by night operation that'll take your money and send you out on your own. They don't care. They just made enough money off you for them to live for a year. I ran into one guy trying to get consession rights on a GMA in western Zambia that would sell you his dead grandmother so to speak. Real slippery bastrrd. I know this because I sell African travel. I go scout out safari camps before ever sending a client there. You need to understand that when you go there you're not in America anymore. You're a guest in someone else's land and you will conduct yourself as such. Going out on a bargain basement hunt with no PH is extremely stupid. Just as going on photographic safari in a national park without a lisenced safari guide is stupid. People do it. Most of them come back. Some get eaten and some get turned into strawbery jam. Being in Africa is like being on a forign planet. You don't know what you're walking on or walking with. Just the fact that you're in the southern hemisphere messes with your sense of direction.
The next point I'm getting at;
The countries of southern Africa are poor. Real poor. Tourism bring in much needed funds and gives the native people a source of income other than poaching and destroying the native habitats of the animals that we love to see and hunt. Without tourism money most of the native people have to live on what they can meaning that they put up snares, cut down forests, over fish waterways, etc... Destroyed habitat= no animals= no tourism money= starving people. It's a really big problem that threatens the economic sustainability of those countries. Spending money on your trip is the best thing you can do to promote conservation in southern Africa. Don't be cheap. If you want not to spend much money, go to SA and kill a game farm animal. That's what most people do and don't even realize it. I know. I've seen behind the curtain, so to speak.
A lot of African countries don't have enough system to have a efective DNR equivalent. You put money on the table and get what you want. It's sad but it's reality. SA is pretty good but there's a lot of Mickey Mouse crap there to buy. Most of it has been hunted out and restocked with game farm animals. Make sure you know the product you're buying. Also before your hunt, take your first 3 days on the continent and go on guided walks. It's a much more pleasent experience to have someone explain to you the flora and fauna. Then you'll have a new apreciation and understanding for what you're hunting and have a much richer experience as a result.
Topic: Do you have to have a guide (Read 2574 times)
