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The following is a brief overview of our time at Shi-awela Safaris:

July 6, 2005, after 30 years of dreaming about it, my son and I went to Africa to hunt.  I have thought about a trip such as this since I first started reading Hemingway and Ruark as a teenager.  No matter what happens it is bound to be a grand adventure for the two of us.

We hunted with Shi-awela Safaris in the Limpopo region of RSA. Shi-awela is owned and operated by Ken & Jo Ball, and Ken is the 5th generation of Balls raised on this property. Ken’s parents are also on the property and Ken’s father, Dennis, was a very renowned cattle breeder until as he says 20 years ago I had an epiphany one night and realized that native animals were meant for the land not cattle and within a month I was no longer in the cattle business.

Shi-awela is 10,000 acres of solid bush veldt and it was some of the most enjoyable hunting I have experienced.  It was essentially one big sticker bush (everything has a thorn) with little openings here and there. While there may have been a 2.5 meter fence around the perimeter of the property, all of the animals are free roaming and naturally reproducing on the property. The only time animals are introduced is to broaden the gene pool. As a matter of fact several years ago Ken’s Eland and Gemsbok population suffered severely when the property was subject to a black frost and their preferred graze was eliminated, Ken decided not to reintroduce the Eland and reduced the Gemsbok hunting until they could naturally increased their population.

Shi-awela is less of a business and more of a passion for Ken and Jo and you are made a part of their family while you are there. This was extremely important to me as not only was I realizing a 30 year dream but I brought my 9 year old son with me.

There is always discussion about the appropriateness of bringing children on a trip like this and now that I’m back all I can say is having my son with me made this trip one of the most special times of my life. From the time we arrived at the Afton house, then at Shi-awela until the time we left, the enthusiasm and kindness shown to my son was amazing. Ken and his father and our PH all took a very special interest in Michael, and Ken made sure that he took Mike out on his own, just the two of them, on numerous occasions.

The hunting was great, but the event that made this trip was my son taking his first game animal ever, mid day of the second day when he made a perfect shot on a wonderfully old gnarly Warthog. I will never forget the look of absolute amazement on his face, nor my coming close to having a heart attack when he made the shot. Now Mike had been practicing his shooting for the past year and while he has gone bird hunting with me he has never carried a firearm.   2 weeks before we left he confided to his mother that he didn’t know if he wanted to hunt.  Mike and I had a conversation and I let him know that we didn’t need to bring a rifle for him if he didn’t want to and that if he did it could stay cased until he decided to take it out. Mike told me he wanted to take the rifle and asked if it was ok to just shoot at targets and I said sure and then he asked if there were rabbits or squirrels because he thought he could hunt something like that but that he didn’t want to hunt a Zebra.  Mike went on to take two Impala rams, also one perfect shot each. I think I have created a monster, because he is asking how soon we can go back, and he has decided that he no longer wants to be a ballplayer when he grows up but a PH.

For me, my Blue Wildebeest will always be special. My PH Nicol Martin and I required 2 hours of crawling around in the bush in order to put me in a position to end the hunt. We had hunted this solitary bull on and off for 5 days before we were able to take him and he was a wonderful old bull well past his prime with worn down horns and full of character. What a great hunt!

Well I won’t bore everyone with a blow by blow but it was absolutely a dream come true. I have promised my son that if he continues to do well in school we will come back for his 13th birthday in 2008.

As an addendum we were not able to wait for 2008 but are retuning to Shi-awela in 2007 thanks to the SCI Low Country Chapter Online Fundraiser.

Michael Andelbradt

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Last modified: 01/05/09