A3 Trophy Hunts LLC

A beautiful sunset illuminates a herd of eland just outside our ground blind

Mossback AZ heads to the Dark Continent!!

2013 Gonzales Safari

Well it finally happened!! After a year and a half of planning and saving, the Gonzales Family has successfully completed a 10 day hunting safari in South Africa. Mossback AZ guides Joe and Arthur, along with wives Heather and Michelle, and dad Arthur Sr. set out to try their hand at hunting an entirely new continent.

Another colorful South African sunrise warms the winter day

Hello everyone! After 10 days of hunting plains game, we arrived safely back in the US and now have the daunting task of sharing stories, pics, and video with all of our family, friends, and fellow hunters. We had the time of our lives as we compiled the many memories, photos, and trophies. Of course, it helps that Michelle is a professional photographer and with her equipment, we were able to capture many stunning and beautiful pictures of the plains game, scenery, harvested trophies, and new friends and accomodations provided by Mt. Carmel Safaris.

A towering male giraffe!

We have been trying to formulate a plan to share photos and stories with everyone but it's been difficult as we can get carried away just talking about our travel to and from, the friends we met along the way, not to mention the detailed accounts of each and every animal we harvested. So here is our plan of attack. In order to not put you all to sleep or force you to read this novel in one sitting, we are gonna post hunting stories and pictures every few days and share the stories we have to tell in chronological order as we experienced them in South Africa. This ought to help us spread the many photos out and help everyone pass the time as we get closer to hunting season here in the States.

A gemsbuck scratches its back as we sit undetected in our blind

First we'll start with the basic intro on how we ended up 9,809.25 miles away from home. In the Spring of 2012, Joe and other MBAZ guides attended one of AZ's outdoor banquets held in Phoenix, AZ. At the end of the night, Joe walked away from the auction with a safari package for 3 in the Northern Province of South Africa. This safari was provided by Andries van Zyl of Mt. Carmel Safaris. None of us had ever dreamed of hunting Africa and it tooks a few weeks for reality to set in. Joe met Andries at this show and got the basic idea of what we were in for but the majority of the plans were to be made at a later date. Joe's safari package covered accomodations, guides, trackers, and skinners for three hunters plus a discounted rate for non-hunters. Fortunately I had some great advice and help in planning our adventure (I'll spare you all the details) from a myriad of folks here in the US. Specifically, Tom out of Phoenix who has hunted with Andries several times helped with the finer details our trip. After all the planning was complete and triple checked, we found ourselves working our way through TSA and boarding the plane for NY, then on to Johannesburg, with a final flight into Kymberely South Africa.

Dad, Michelle, Heather, and Joe
waiting to check in at PHX

Even as we were flying towards South Africa, it was a surreal feeling and we kept telling each other that we couldn't believe we were actually heading towards our once-in-a-lifetime hunt. Since I had done all the arrangements for our flight, I kept having the nightmares that we would show up to the airport and get the bad news that we did not have reservations or TSA would not let us board with our rifles and bows... Fortunately it was only in my dreams as our flights, connections, TSA, and customs/permits went extremely smooth and we did not encounter any major obstacles!! This was the stressful time for me.

Passing the time at the airport

Michelle and Pops getting ready to board the
plane from NY to Johannesburg

The TV on the plane was a visual reminder of just
how far we were from home!!!

Pops waiting in Kymberely for the rest of the group

Our safari was planned for the middle of winter in South Africa as Andries thought this would afford better conditions for archery hunting. We left Phoenix, AZ on June 21st and arrived in Kymberley, South Africa on June 23rd. Although not too cold for what we experience in our winters, the lows of 30 degrees and highs of low 60s was a shock compared to the 108 that we felt in Phoenix as we entered the airport. The only minor obstacle encountered on our travels was at the domestic check in counter in Johannesburg. Although our ammunition had traveled this far in our locked bow cases, and made it through TSA and the South African police, the attendants would not allow our ammo to be checked in unless they were locked in a seperate case. Fortunately our representative from PHASA (Professional Hunters Association of South Africa) talked to the attendants in the local language to get things clarified. We had to run downstairs and purchase the"Purple" Ammo box you see here to satisfy the needs of the airline. This convereted woman's make-up box gave us our first photo and story to tell in South Africa. After that 10 minute delay, the entire trip was smooth sailing.

On my next post, we'll get into the first couple days of hunting. I thought a quick set up would break the ice and get my writer's block out of the way. Until then, here are a few more photos to add to today's post. Stay tuned!!