Three questions pave the way to   Africa

Whereabouts? When? Is there a spare spot? With those three questions, I was suddenly on my way to Africa. The answers to those questions were: Namibia, in about eight months and yes, there’s a place available if you want to come too.

Wow! I was going to the Dark Continent on a plains game hunting trip. How did that happen? I had never really thought that one day I’d be hunting in Africa, but as it transpired, my brother Reid and a couple of his mates had chosen an outfitter, booked their flights and were raring to go. I jumped at the chance to join the gang. We would be hunting with Harald and Liezel Jacobsz of Osombahe-Nord Hunting Safaris, in central Namibia, for seven days.

I was going to be taking my Tikka .270-calibre rifle and knew I would need some strong and reliable bullets for the tough game I was chasing. With that in mind, I chose to use 130-grain ACP bullets and set about reloading a hefty batch for some practice. A goat hunt in the mountains let me test the effectiveness and accuracy of these bullets from 50 to 270m and I was satisfied that they would do the trick in Namibia.

After two flights, little sleep, a suitcase that did not make it to Namibia on time, a busted gun case and a one-hour drive in the pitch-black African night, we