Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa When you think "Africa"..

what do you hear or see, in memory ?



After a too-short 10 day photo-safari in Tansania Parks, I hear zebras

I even sometimes hear them in my sleep.

A fish Eagle scream from a clear blue sky, Baboons raising a ruckus from somewhere across the Pan in front of camp at sunset, Eland Filets sizzling on the Braii, a kudu bull slipping through the jess…..

Chapter 2 coming in 2026

beggers at the bus stations selling wood carvings and maniac drivers.

Work

The night sounds, the smell of the morning air, the birds, the views, there is just so much. I “dine on” my Africa trips every day.

If you have not gone and it’s something you desire to do, get it done.

Impala barking

The sound of doves.

First trip to Namibia was the transition of the day sounds to the night sounds, and all the thorns.

Second trip to Zambia was the sounds and sights of the hippos along the Kafue.

Think about those trips all the time.

From social perspective, it was how fortunate we are here in the US to have everything we have.

My trips are seared in my memory. The sounds I hear are the doves and guineas at sunrise and the zebras at dusk. It is truly infectious. On the plane in Windhoek leaving on this last trip, my 23 year old son looks up at me and says, "Dad, I miss Africa!" We hadn't even left the gate yet!

Doves, Ha Di Dah birds, Biltong, Rusk with strong coffee, Portugese Chicken, smells, feeling of "otherworldliness."

national geographic....as my friend used to say... "look at those bullets" in reference to tribal photos of the ladies

Yep--and Africa has a bunch of different doves, far more than either North or South America.

Have also hunted them, and in fact my last safari was entirely for birds--and took four species of doves, along with bigger birds up to guineas. The various African doves taste great, just like most African big game!

i think someday

Those freaking "go away" birds, A dark dark Namibian night.....not a light to be seen anywhere except the sky.

Namibia has some great, unpolluted sky!

But just thought of another memorable night in Africa, my first in a tent camp. It was in Botswana's Okavango Delat around 20 years ago, and every hour or two during the night elephants started breaking branches while feeding, some almost over my tent--and yes, their footprints wwere within 10-20 feet of the tent in the morning. But never heard them walking.....

A lot of it for me is the sounds and smells ... cape turtle doves with their quiet, incessantly friendly cooing, the ominous sound of a leopard sawing across the river, the crack-whoosh and trumpet of an elephant pushing ancient trees over to nibble few bites from the tender tops. A lion announcing to everything in the neighbourhood with its loud guttural - grunty territorial call that its his turf. And Zebras. What a superbly wild, ridiculously silly sound.
The smoke from a mopane wood fire, the healthy barnyard smell of a herd of cape buffalo just beyond visual range in the jesse, the dry, dirty but refreshing smell of grass seeds, squished locusts and dust cooking against the front grill of the bakkie.
And the wonderful aroma of fresh eland blackstraps prepared on the braii, with the memory of the hunt to savour as you take the first bite.

For me it is the memory of a feeling. While I was there, it felt like I had “gone home”. No other way to describe it really.

I miss Africa. Mostly in Tanzania for a year all up. Working. Tented camps, guest houses etc. great place and they people were generally great too.

Lived in Tanzania for two years. Kilimanjaro is to this day the tallest mountain I've seen and it will be in my memory forever. The food, the smells, the fun drives in Land Cruisers and the scary rides in public buses. It's the most chaotic place in the world but I loved my time there.

The bovine barnyard smell when closing in on Buffalo.

The first-time hearing lions and hyenas in the night was a primal experience for me. Also, hearing some crocodiles splashing in the river and thinking death by crocodile would totally suck. The sounds of doves in the early morning brings about a good, peaceful feeling. Campfire smoke.

So many have described wonderful sights, sounds, smells and I love most of what has been posted. But for me, nothing compares to listening to a lion’s roar. It’s my favorite sound in the wild.

Fortunately I’ll be in a camp in northern Cameroon in just a few weeks, so hope to again enjoy so many of the sounds mentioned on this thread.

^^^^^ This ^^^^^

And the smell of Mopane wood smoke.

What are you going after in Cameroon? I was there in 2003. It is a great safari destination.

I hear the barking of baboons fouling up my attempts to sneak up on game.
Frustrating, memorable, and something I would love to hear again.

Yep, that'll do it--especially since their barks carry so far!

But had more than one stalk screwed up by giraffes in the Okavango--which I would also love to hear/see again....

Mac, I’ll primarily be hunting Lord Derby Eland and Roan. Other game Hartebeest, Cob, Reedbuck, Oribi.

Are you taking your own rifle/s, and if so, did you need to send your passport to Brussels to get the gun permit?

Nice. Roan was my primary reason for going there. The one I got taped a little over 34 inches. They have great Roan there. I hunted with Ngong Safaris and was very happy with them. I saw Lord Derby 3 times while I was there, neat critters but way too pricey for me.

  
The little stinkers...

+1 on the doves

Yes!

The first time I was landing East London, I was beginning to scheme how I could go another time. I'm have now gone 3 times in 9 years.

If I was still working, I would be going a 4th time soon.

Too true. Africa is changing rapidly, and not for the better. Find a way to go while you can.

THIS..bu tin Zim

I worked in two hospitals in Cameroon - Gara Boli and Ngarendery

They were dirt poor.
Dust on the operating table. Patients pooping in the hallways and in their rooms. No refrigeration. Patients were 75% HIV positive. Poisonous snakes in our living quarters. Natives found black mamba in my hut, king cobra at the dump, Crocodiles, elephants, hippos, baboons etc. no one had a gun. Hospital rooms smelled worse than the chicken houses I cleaned as a kid.
I watched people die due to disease. Electricity wasn’t secure. The back up generator for the hospital ran on diesel. Natives stole the diesel.

Don’t want to be a patient there.

I worked in a village next to Central Africa Republic. I was the first white man many in the village had ever seen.

Yes, I’m taking my .375 and yes I had to send my passport to Brussels for my Cameroonian Gun Permit. Gracy Travel handled that for me, as they have a fellow in Paris who takes the passport to Brussels, gets the Visa and Gun Permit and then FedExes it back. It’s not cheap but they have the process down pat. Nothing about an LDE hunt is cheap, unfortunately.

About how far does a lion's roar carry at night?

Spent a few days visiting the Lutheran Church hospital in Ngoundere about 10 years ago when I was still in practice. Also saw the “local” hospital, if you could call it that. Compared to a first world hospital, it was night and day in the Lutheran hospital and absolutely no comparison in the local hospital. On topic, the sound of lions roaring and elephants trumpeting at night will raise the hair on your whole body.

jdollar, are you still a covtard or have you seen the light and pulled your head out of your assss ? You're a coward, and you and people like you ruined many people's lives. I don't understand why you keep crawling out of your hole and coming back over here instead of kissing the libtard/covtard's assses over at the muslim owner's board. Screw you and the horse you rode in on.

Thanks for another valuable contribution to this forum. I’m still flattered to have my very own internet stalker. Hopefully you will eventually get a life but I doubt it….

Cowards like you are easy to keep track of. Keep jabbin' though, you're kicking asss.

Probably telling my PH in Zimbabwe that his bull of choice was in front of my bull of choice. When the dust settled he agreed.

Doves as Ingwe said

Sounds like Mathias in Paris did the gun permit and visa. LDE might be an excellent tracking hunt....and what a trophy!!

Mine are both visual and auditory I’ll never forget.

I was hunting Sitatunga at Kasonso Busunga with Andrew in Zambia. We were in a tall machan overlooking an endless swamp, of many square miles, covered by 12 foot tall grass. Below us was what I thought was a 5 foot wide stream. When I looked down below us at the stream, there was a Leopard drinking at the stream. I saw movement upstream and it was a huge Croc slowly swimming towards the Leopard, gently moving his tale back and forth quietly, as to sneak up on the cat. The cat never noticed the Croc, but had slaked his thirst, and turned away from the stream to walk to the base of our machan. As the croc kept coming down the stream, the water exploded behind him as a Hippo breached the water right behind the croc, and pursued the reptile.

Two predator actors finally chased off by a herbivore.

I initially thought the small stream was about a foot or possibly two feet deep. Nope. The entire thing was a swamp where we were hunting, and what I thought was a stream, was just the ‘trail’ through the swamp and water vegetation parted by regular animal traffic.

The three of us slept under the stars in one man tents on the ground, off of the swamp. All night we heard the hippos grunting and a Leopard sawing. We listened as Spots killed a Hartebeest next to the tents during the night.

We tried a different machan along the swamp the next day. Andrew and I were in the two man machan, and my hunting partner was standing on the top of the steps up to the machan at my boot level as there was no more room on the platform. The machan was right next to a large anthill (termite) about the size of a school bus. After about 15 min. in the machan, my partner taps my boot. I put my binocs down and turn 180 degrees around to look at him. He is pointing to the anthill, where a black mamba is coming out of a hole in the side of it. It slithers out to the right a few feet, and then turns left 180 degrees, turns back to the right again, etc. It is still not out of the hole. He was huge. It is coming down to ground level at the base of our ladder on which my partner is standing. We are contemplating our options which we will need to execute if the snake begins the climb up the ladder…

I killed my Sitatunga the next morning at about 75-100 yds.

We hunted Buffalo the next few days, and at one point we’re walking a trail through tall 3-4’ grass, a black mamba moves ahead of me, about three feet in front and turned left into the grass. I turned right! We kept walking, following a herd of Buffalo that was always moving in front of us, because a herd of Roan between us and the Buffalo were pushing them forward beyond shooting range. We made it to a barricade of tall rocks and Andrew said we’d wait there for a bit so as to not spook the herd too much. The gov. game scout pushed Andrew back, as he saw a mamba in the tree above them. We gave up the chase there and decided to leave the mambas to their daily pursuits. Three in one day was enough.

Sounds and sights I remember and cherish.

So many sounds and scents that I remember from Africa.The sound of doves, elephants, leopard,lion,my PH speaking to the trackers in their language(shona?),the voice of the flight attendant recording on SAA(sawubona).The scent of freshly cut flowers on the table in the bed and breakfast in Harare,elephant musk, the scent of cape buff, the scent of wild fires burning in Makuti.

Three things:

1) The smell of Gemsbok fillets cooking over mopane coals;
2) The smell of a Cuban Montecristo smoked over a mopane campfire while sipping a cold Tafel Lager;
3) The sound of morning doves calling in the distance.

-the first time you are downwind of a tracker.
-sundowners
-roller birds
-how quiet elephants walk

The doves, sounded good the first 1/2 day, annoying for the next four, then became so much a part of the surroundings I actually had to listen to hear them.

Picturesque trees, too small and gnarled for lumber or anything but firewood, but so much a part of the landscape.

The great variety of wildlife.

I immediately think of the preparation for my hunt back in 2010. Reading all the Ruark I could get my hands on. And I think of his quote about Buffalo, (I think it was his), how the Cape Buffalo looks at you like you owe him money.

The sight, sound, and flavour of thick Cape Buffalo steaks thrown on ultra-hot lava rock and seared to perfection. Maybe it was just the wonder of being outdoors in the African wilds and just being there, but those Lava Rock steaks are the best steaks I have ever had the pleasure to enjoy.

Lots of great birds in Africa. I particularly like seeing the Rollers, both the Lilac Breasted and the Abyssinian. Also, the small Kingfishers are wonderful little gems to see back in the bush. And some of the Bee-Eaters are quite beautiful.

Hearing the lions roar at night is always special. I was once camped in the Serengeti and we had a large pride of lions coming though camp at night. There were a lot of baboons in the area and when the lions would come though they would make a terrific racket as they climbed into the trees to get away from the lions.

Blood red sunset over the Kalihari. MTG