NEWSLETTER 2024

Good day y'all. What a privilege to be putting out this newsletter after 31 years in the same business!

In January 1994 I started Bush Africa Safaris after a year wandering the world with a backpack, ending up working as a meatpacker in the wilderness of Alaska.

This 6-month experience in the Alaskan range was the inspiration to return to my homeland and home grounds, with a thirst to offer the African safari and hunting grounds to prospective clients.

 It was a slow beginning, but never doubted my mission and direction.

On the dirt track along the way I picked up a wonderful wife, friend and partner, Terina. Along came our amazing children and co-workers, most of which are still with us.

On the journey thru our lives and business we met so many clients and friends, which all enriched our lives and grew our business. We've had enormous pleasures in showcasing our products, make dreams come true and saw the smiles on the faces. It has always been our mission to satisfy our clients expectations, and show them the wonders of our world, with the African countryside and wilderness as the backdrop.

With many changes in our lives and business the last 24 months, I can report that it has been one of our most successful and enjoyable seasons ever. There was a lot of challenges, but along came a lot more opportunities and diversification. Our situation of departing from our old lodge, searching for more and new hunting grounds, camps and operational procedures, was just what we needed to grow and diversify our business. The  increasing involvement of our  PH’s and children into the business also puts a new refreshing view on operations and experiences. Ultimately those that have been with the company for many years will take over.

Along came amazing experiences, and gave us the freedom to tailor each and every client’s safari and trip.

2025 already has the promise to be our best year ever, and we now offer a wide range of experiences and adventures. Our mission to ultimately offer the best experience available, and have access to many different camps and areas, just add another level of excitement and flexibility. While hunting mostly the same areas and grounds, we now have the choice to  choose specifics and can plan safaris to optimally use available time, which is the most important thing in our lives.

We sincerely appreciate every client’s choice to spend his or her free time with us, and can assure you that we realize you have choices, and that our main mission still is to showcase the best the modern Africa has to offer. Bush Africa safaris has been consistent in offering and executing flawless trips, reach more than expected goals, and under promise and over deliver!

For those booked for the 2025 and 2026 seasons, we are excited to start the new season, are ready, and looking forward to meet new friends and clients, and can't wait to see our old returning friends back in Africa! Let's go!

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HOW DID THE SEASON GO?

2024 season has had so many highlights and we harvested so may fantastic trophies, it is hard to single out some, but I will post a few.

Our first safari started in early April with (now family) good friends of Rock island auction company father and son team, Pat and Kevin Hogan.We had an amazing 14 days in the Botswana wilderness searching for big Elephant and buffalo. The lack of rain in the area made the movements much less than expected, but we managed to bag 2 very nice elephant bulls and several buffalo, but not without very hard work!

 Hunting with these lads has become part of our highlight in our careers and we really cherish every moment we can spend together. Pat has become a serious hunter and now is a hunter who progressively grew to be very accomplished. Kevin, who intensely loves the African bush, makes a mean team with PH Robert(Ricky Bobby), and has no equal in shooting his .470 Nitro Express side by side. What a privilege and pleasure to be in your company guys, can't wait for another chapter!

Back in SA everybody was preparing and excited to start the season. Our main hunting area for 2024 was an untouched wilderness of 45000 acres. It ended up being a fantastic area and we harvested amazing animals. The area offered so much diversity, and has an amazing “Old Africa Safari” feel to it. Chasing phenomenal Kudu and Sable became part of our daily operations, and the place never disappointed.

We started with first time hunters in South Africa, Chandler and Meeka Lockert and Wesley and Melanie Gibson. They thoroughly enjoyed their first experience in Africa and took home some beautiful plains game species.

Brett Hall popped the big question, harvested Buffalo and Kudu, caught some large mouth bass, toured the Cape, drank some wine, all in one trip! And we were so excited to be part of it. Sandra ….. (the bride to be ) harvested a massive Sable, amongst many other species.

Father and son team, Robert and Cade Ernst enjoyed traversing the mountains and both harvested massive sable bulls, Buffalo and Cade shot a massive 28" Impala, our biggest ever.

Our clients from Saudi harvested a massive 50” Buffalo, the largest we have ever taken over the years, amongst many other species.

Returning clients Tim Orchard, Chris and Angie Rowe, Chuck and Melissa Rod with family, which are all more friends than clients, all took massive trophies and we enjoyed spending quality time with everybody on safari. Chris took some fine trophies, with Angie harvesting a great kudu with archery gear. Tim took an enormous 49” Sable bull and 57'’ Kudu bull  and a massive Bushpig with archery gear. The Rod family as always let them arrows fly, with Chuck taking a 57'’ Kudu, Bushbuck and Klipspringer, all with archery gear.

New clients Troy and Kara Schwartz, Scott and Nora Kelly took an array of Baboons, small cats, Bushpigs and other specialized species.Also, new clients Paul Washington, as well as the Saylor family, took a good range of plains game, and worth to mention, Kyle Saylor shot a totally white Bushpig, as well as a massive Warthog.

Furthermore, Roger Payne, Stan Brock, Chris Bedsole, Charles Busby, and Marty Rindahl, all took a range of plains game species as well as Buffalo, mostly with archery gear.

Stan Brock’s buffalo did not want to play nice and had to be stopped with a 500 NE between the eyes on a full charge!

What a year and what a range of quality trophies.

A huge thank you to all our clients!

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WHAT'S HOT FOR 2025?

We have secured the Free Range Big 5 area next to one of our biggest wild National Parks in SA for another season, and has purchased the full quota of Buffalo, Elephant and Hippo.

This area is phenomenal and offers a very exhilarating hunts amongst Lion, Leopard, Rhino and Elephant. Elephant hunted trophies has been exported from SA this past season, and hopefully SA will have a SA quota for export in 2025. This is a golden opportunity for a free range Buffalo hunt in SA, and is an amazing experience. Our quota on these has already been sold out 85%, and we have very limited availability. If this interests you, you will have to act swiftly!

We will offer the usual affordable plains game packages with high quality outfitting and trophy quality. Our Southern Greater Kudu quality is unmatched, as well as Sable Antelope. We also consider ourselves as somewhat nocturnal bushpig specialists, with limited availability, so secure your spot!

South Africa has seen a huge demand in trophy hunting these past few years. The result is that trophy game has become hard to find and we have seen at least a 30% rise in prices to obtain quality hunting animals and areas, just in the last year. The norm will be to find an outfitter that will have the game, and that still can offer quality amidst these circumstances. This will in evidently have a rise in prices in the new year, and if not, one should be sceptic about the product. In order to maintain quality and give the client a fair chance on harvesting quality, we have had to rise a few prices on packages and trophy fees and will be in effect as advertised on our website and printed materials for 2025. It is marginal though.

Please feel free to contact us by mail or WhatsApp on how this will affect your booked safari or come and see us at the shows to ensure understanding on this. Our price increase has been kept to the minimum, as far as we can still offer a good product.

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ADD A VISIT TO OUR TO OUR NEW LODGE IN THE WESTERN CAPE, SWARTBERG PRIVATE GAME LODGE

Discover  different parts of South Africa out of our newly renovated and luxurious private game lodge in the Cape Province. Ideally situated close to George Airport with daily flights from JHB Airport. You can venture on a tour along the Garden Route, the Cape Wine Lands and Cape Town to taste magnificent SA, and plan your departure from Cape town or George.

Please contact us to tailor your trip and for more information.

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THE FAMILY

It has become customary to add a little segment on our family. Many of our clients appreciate this as they have seen them in various stages of their lives, and inevitably became part of our family and their safari experience.

Our oldest, Cara, will be departing to Saudi Arabia early January to start a new venture as Chemical Engineer. Apparently she has skills that can't be sourced elsewhere!It will be a great opportunity for her to make inroads in the industry. I'm sure it will be a good experience for her. Sure hope so!

Dries, our middle child, has become part and parcel of the hunting company and has developed well in the hunting field.Proud to have a son involved that has the ability and love for what we do. Our focus is to have him mature in all aspects of the industry, and soon become face of the company!

And Nina, the youngest, yes, she is already CEO of Bush Africa safaris! Go figure! Even if she is not present! She just finished her 2nd year in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Stellenbosch. 2 more years to go. We will need an engineer to fix all those broken Toyota Land Cruisers.

Me and Terina has moved to the coast, close to George, Western Cape. We have a new home in the plans, and might start construction in the first quarter of the new year. In the mean time we are Gypsies between Limpopo, temporary home in the Cape and the Swartberg Game Lodge. We still both run the day to day business of Bush Africa Safaris, and are present in the camps where we hunt, Terina still manages everything, and I just hunt... some.....!

Of course Robert and Jaco are family.

Robert has had a full season with us again, and will be for 2025.

Jaco guided for another company in 2024, but is back full time with Bush Africa Safaris.

Both their families are doing well, and together with Dries, they will be the main PH’s on safari.

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TRAVEL AND SHOW SCHEDULES

We will depart for the USA on January 5, 2025

Dallas Safari Club, Atlanta 9-12 Jan

Building B,Georgia World Congress Centre

Robert and Dries will exhibit

Booth no. 3817

Texas Trophy Hunters Association Outdoors Extravaganza, Dallas, TX, 10-12 Jan

Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention center

Scalk, Terina and Nina will exhibit

Booth no. 9046

Houston Safari Club Foundation, Houston, TX, 17-19 Jan

Woodlands waterway Marriot Hotel

Schalk, Terina, Nina, Robert and Dries will exhibit

Booth no. 600 

Safari Club International convention, Nashville, TN, 22-25 Jan

Music City Center

Schalk, Terina, Dries, Robert and Nina will exhibit

Booth no. 2127

We will have all our SA mobile no's with us, which will be good to use for WhatsApp.

We will also have 2 new US mobile no’s which will be posted on our website by 1/7/2025

Schalk: +27(82)452-0749

Terina: +27(83)257-8667

Robert: +27(78)841-9027

Dries: +27(83)299-2991

Looking forward to see you at these shows, and please feel free to contact us with any information or requests you might have. 

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BOOKINGS

2025 promises to be a great season for us. We have very limited availability for the upcoming season, so please, contact us as soon as possible if you are interested. We can only secure your dates with a booking and payment of deposit.

It will also be a good idea to reserve your dates for the 2026 season.

Season greetings from our family to yours, we wish all and their families a Blessed and Merry Christmas. May the new year be prosperous, and may great adventures come upon our paths.

Until we walk the tracks, smell the sweet of the buffalo, wipe the sweat of our forehead and share a warm campfire again !

See you in Africa!!!

Schalk van Heerden and team

Bush Africa safaris