I did a great deal of hunting in Zimbabwe in 1989/1990 and became good friends with a Zimbabwe Professional Hunter (PH) named Chris Ferreria. Chris was quite renouned as a hunter of "heavy" game and did PAC (problem animal control) for the Zimbabwe Gov't. as well as guiding sport hunters. Chris had a reputation of having ice water in his veins, he was one cool customer in a tight spot, I had heard the story of him stopping an enraged bull elephant five feet from where he stood with his Dbl. 470 nitro and the lion that died as it fell on top of him. I was with Chris when a client from Wash. State shot a 11'6" crocodile and Chris stripped to his skivvies and dived in and dragged it to shore before it could sink! Like I said, Chris had ice water in his veins. We finished the hunting season in Zimbabwe that year and I returned to my home in the Bay Area of Calif.
The next time I saw Chris was in Reno, Nevada at the Safari Club International Convention. We talked about the past hunting season and other small talk to pass the time. After a short while, Chris's new wife joined us and I asked what they were doing for the next week or so. The answer was pretty much they were "playing it by ear" so I invited them to my home in Calif. where we could visit San Francisco, go to the wine country in the Napa valley and do some wild pig hunting on a friends ranch. Chris's face turned white, his eyes seemed to get big as saucers and he said in his thick English/Zimbabwe accent, "No way am I going to that bloody Calif. with those bloody earthquakes!
I guess every man has his demons and fears.As an update on this story, Chris and his family who have lived and worked in Zimbabwe for about 150 yrs. and every white land owner I knew in Zimbabwe have had their lands and property confiscated and redistributed to the "real owners" who have plundered God's paradise on earth and wiped out the great game herds of that once fabulous country. I believe the country is now far to dangerous to visit. Chris, who without question, is the finist hunter and one of the finist men I have ever met is now living in the US, driving an eighteeen wheeler out of South Carolina.
Brant
I spent two yrs. hunting and guiding in Zim. in 1989 and 1990, at the time the exchange rate was 3 Zim. dollars to one US dollar, I have read that the exchange rate in the past year is in the neighborhood of 100,000 Zim. to one US dollar. I had the opportunity? to purchase a 35,000 acre ranch/hunting concession in 1990 for $72,000. My wife who is a great deal more practical than me talked me out of the deal. That ranch has now been seized along with all the other white owned land in the Kadoma area and redistributed to the people who have supported Robert Mugabe during his rein of terror, the people who settled the land and made it what it was received zero compensation for their efforts. I suspect, that it would be akin to giving the Wasserberger ranch back to the Sioux or whoever else was living there 150 years ago. Creates a real mess with no real winners. I just consider myself very fortunate to have been able to experience it as it once was if only for a brief point in time. Those are two years that I will forever cherish because, there is no going back.