I travelled to South Africa with my daughter in June of 2023, and did a combination of tourism and hunting in various areas of South Africa, with Brendan Jonker as my PH.
Brendan picked us up after our arrival in Johannesburg, and we travelled to Pilansberg for a day of wildlife viewing in that wonderful park. Brendan took great care of us, and made sure that we saw so many African animals that day. He even kept his cool when we got into a dicey situation where we had a big bull elephant walking down the road towards us, and we were blocked from retreating by some cows and calves! We spent the next day visiting a cheetah rescue centre, elephant sanctuary, and monkey sanctuary which was an amazing experience!
We then travelled to the Free State to hunt caracal and serval with hounds. Brendan was the ever gracious host during our travels between areas, and we felt safe and in good hands with him at our side. I’m quite the talker, and he was patient with my constant questions about the things we saw outside the window. After a successful hunt for both cat species in one morning, we found some other tourist sites to visit in the area where we were staying in order to pass the time until we could travel to our next hunting area to pursue Nyala and Bushbuck. Hunting proved to be challenging for these two animals, but as they were my #1 and #2 animals on this trip, Brendan was able to extend our time at our hunting area. As our time was winding down, he could sense my frustration in failure to get on the sticks, and worked diligently to find additional hunting areas close by that we could visit. I ended up taking a beautiful Nyala and Black Wildebeest on the day before departure. He even managed to find a hunting area where my daughter had a good chance at an impala, and thankfully she was able to connect on a beautiful ram on our way to the airport. Brendan worked very hard up until the last minute! Brendan helped make our 2023 trip to South Africa a special experience, and we can’t wait to go back.