A world away: Local hunters experience Africa’s wilds

Clint Dern of Burlington and Cody Cannady of Greybull have been hunting together in Wyoming on and off since high school. This August, though, they expanded their horizons with a hunting trip in Zimbabwe. 

“Most hunters always want to go to Africa, that’s their number one place they want to go,” said Cannady. He has been hunting there several times over the years, taking his father, sister, nephew and brother-in-law and going it alone. 

“It’s kind of the Grand Poobah of it all,” added Dern, this his first time hunting in Africa. “It was wonderful sharing that experience with such a good friend.”

The trip from Wyoming takes 38 to 40 hours, including a 15-hour flight out of Atlanta. It spans nine time zones. 

“Everybody puts it off and puts it off, they think you’ve got to plan a year ahead of time and whatever. It’s not really that big of a deal, any worse from going from here to Denver or Billings. It just takes longer. It’s that initial step, once you do it, it’s not that tough,” Cannady said. 

The two arrived at their hunting camp around noon, ate lunch and went hunting into the night, no jetlag. 

To hunt in Africa, foreigners are required to go through an outfitter. Cannady recommended doing your research to make sure the agency is reputable. On this particular venture, Dern and Cannady hunted on a private fruit plantation and government land. Permitting is done through the outfitter. Dern and Cannady opted for a 10-day hunt. Part of the fees associated with their hunt were put toward anti-poaching programs, with additional stipends to the surrounding community for education, water and housing. 

To bring firearms overseas – Dern took his 30 Nosler and Cassady his .338-378 Weatherby – hunters are required to fill out firearm import forms in advance. 

“The biggest thing I can probably say is, … there is nothing here you can compare to when you get over there. Nothing smells the same, the dirt’s different, the air’s different, the birds,” Dern said. 

Dern and Cannady were joined by a local professional hunter and tracker team. They were impressed with the tracker’s ability to follow a specific animal in and out of their herd. 

“A lot of (tracker and guide teams), they will be together there forever, unless something happens to one of them, which it does,” Cannady said. “Then a lot of them, their kids will end up together as hunter and tracker also, from generation to generation.”

One of the main differences Dern noticed when hunting was shooting off sticks, where a bipod or tripod made of sticks was used as a gun rest. In camp, the only electricity they used was off a generator, and their hot water was wood-heated. 

“In some ways they’re light years ahead of us as far as being off grid,” Dern said. “They’ve got a lot of stuff that is battery-operated that we don’t, and solar-powered. But then right on the flip side of it, they’re in the flipping stone age.”

One thing that made Dern squirm was their outfitting team sharpening knives with a rock snagged out of the sticks. 

“I’ve made knives. I know what hard work that is, made me cringe,” he said. 

The Wyoming hunters brought over knives, an axe and some of Dern’s handmade paracord bracelets to tip the outfitting team over their time there, which Dern said they appreciated. 

The duo harvested zebra, impala, baboons, warthogs, bush pigs, bush buck, cape buffalo and a blue wildebeest. 

“(Wildebeest) hide is just unreal, it’s just gorgeous,” Dern said. 

Due to the expensive and time-consuming nature of shipping hides and heads back to America, all their trophies were left in Zimbabwe. Meat went back to the fruit plantation, which in turn doled it out to their workers. 

“We shot a lot of game, but it was to feed a lot of people,” Dern said. Some of the people who benefited reportedly had not had meat in three months. 

While they were staying at camp, Cannady and Dern ate largely game meat. 

“That was something I really wanted to do because even here, what I shoot I eat. (Cannady) does, too. So whatever we shot that day, I kind of wanted to try that night,” Dern said. 

They tasted impala, wildebeest, eland and Guinea fowl, with solid reviews. One animal the locals were hesitant to touch were the baboons, which Cannady said hold “bad juju” for them. In southern Africa’s folklore, baboons are often linked to witchcraft. 

Around the campfire, the hunters were able to speak with members of their team and their guide’s father, who himself had traveled extensively. 

“Sitting around camp, having a beer and visiting, it was phenomenal to listen to the experiences all of us had and could share with one another,” Dern said. 

Cannady and Dern witnessed panoramic sunsets and stars that seemed no further than ceiling height. They were excited to finally locate the Southern Cross, the southern hemisphere’s opposite to the Big Dipper and North Star. 

Since returning home, they have kept in contact with their outfitting group, sending photos back and forth of their respective sunsets. The two are both eager to get back to Africa, hopefully next time with Dern’s daughter and longtime hunting partner Ashley Patrick. 

“That was the worst drug I ever got on,” Cannady said. “Just hurry up and go while you can. You don’t get any younger and it’s not getting any cheaper.”