2007
Curt West(E-Mail address only by request for security reasons.)My Life With Tino And Amanda
I´ve Been Trying To Write Something For Tino´s Storyboard For Years Now But Somehow I´ve Always Put It Off –mostly Because I Wanted To Write Something Really Good Without Writing A Novel.
So Now I´ve Compromised –my Second Book On My Stays With Tino Will Published This Fall So Now I Can Write Something Less Complicated For The Board.
I Visited Tino For The First Time Five Years Ago And As I New Nothing About Booking A Safari I Just Started Surfing On The Internet And Pretty Soon I´d Narrowed The Field Down To Two Places: Tg Safaris And A Place In Zimbabwe. It Sort Of Looked Like I Was Going With The Outfitter In Zim When Tino Asked Me What My Budget Was And To Let Him “see What He Could Do”.
Tino´s Offer Won Hands Down.
But The Hunt Was Only Meant To Be A Short Part Of My Trip, The Rest Was To Be Spent On A Cultural Project In Congo Brazzaville Working With Pygmies.
The Pygmies Were However Attacked By Bandits And It Was Deemed Unsafe For Me To Go To That Area And I Tried Making A Plan For Teaching In Namibia But Nobody Could Come Up With A Decision So I Had To Drop That Idea.
So Here I Was With A Cultural Grant And Seven Weeks Time To Spend And Nowhere To Go!
That’s When I Contacted Tino And Asked Him If He Knew Of Anyone Who Needed Help With Anything –and I Seriously Meant Anything.
He Then Spoke His Famous Words: “take A Plane To Jo:burg And We´ll Make A Plan”.
I Ended Up Staying With Tino And His Young Son Ruan For Seven Weeks And Having The Time Of My Life! I´d Never, Anywhere, Met People With Such Hospitality. We Hunted Kudu (which Was Unforgettable), Wildebeest, Blesbuck, Impala, Duiker And More (every Trophy Meeting Record Book Standards).
But Hunting Was Only A Small Part Of What We Did. Tino Let Me Follow Him Around Talking To Farmers, Getting To Know His Friends And Family And Arranging For Me To Go Game Catching A Week Up Near Kruger Park.
I´d Never Felt So Welcome In My Whole Life! The Funny Thing Was That Tino Was Then In His Twenties And I Was Forty Two But We Still Got Along Grandly –no Generation Gap Whatsoever.
While Leaving For Home I Already Had A Plan For Coming Back (and The Beginnings Of A Book In My Suitcase) The Following Year.
A Year Later I Returned With My Wife And Kids And My In-laws! Amanda Was Now Also A Part Of Tg Safaris And She Made An Already Good Thing Even Better –great Cooking And A Rest For Sore Eyes…
The Trip Was Again Perfect –i Hunted While The Family Did Daytrips And Together With Tino, Amanda And Arno (tino´s Nephew) We Had A Nice Tour Of Kruger, Blyde River Canyon, Pilgrims Rest And Many Other Places.
Since Then I´ve Been Back Yearly, Sometimes With Family And/or Friends. Next Week A Friend Of Mine Will Be Staying With “us” For Ten Days But Before That I Want To Get Started On My Next Book.
To Sum This Up I Can Recommend Tino And Amanda´s Operation For Anyone Interested In Seeing A Very Interesting Part Of The World.
And If You Happen To Be A Hunter You´ll Leave With Even More Memories…i´ll Never Forget The Kudu Hunt Or The First Wildebeest, The Brown Hyena, The Eland, The Duiker…my Two Boy´s Hunting Their First Impalas…
The List Just Goes On And On.
Because They´ve All Been Good Hunts.
Tomorrow We´ll Be Going For Waterbuck (i´m Writing This From In Front Of My Rondavel Having Just Enjoyed An Impala Omelette For Lunch) Which Will Be Fun But The Most Exciting Thing Is Waiting For Us: The Newest Member Of Tg Safaris.
You See Amanda Will Be Having A Baby Any Day Now And I Feel Like An Expecting Grandfather!
Curt West
Finland
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