How wide can you go?

[McBride]

Thanks, Chris!

Are you also a big game hunter?

Africa is Africa and Africa is a drug which indeed puts the hook in you. If you go there once, chances are you will return - even if you have smelled the charming odeur of something's rotten bowels...

Oh, and the man eating lion? Well, to everybody's joy and relief we eventually smoked the lion too but that's another story worthy to be told in its own stand-alone dignity. Makuru Shumba!

As you can see; a very big bodied old male with massive fighting scars, torn mane, teeth soon to be giving up, alone and has likely lost its pride to a younger and fitter male - a classic man eating lion singing on its last beautiful verse of life. It so happened I had to shoot him square in the head and lights out. He rolled over without knowing he rolled over. I half-circled up running around to his back, keeping away from his biting end and gave him two more back up rounds into the boiler room, as is customary with dangerous game - and the lion was history.

It's no small feat to successfully hunt a cat like this one. It changes things inside of you forever and you definitely must take a loooong moment of silence and contemplation in respect of the magnificent dead titan before you. Eventually you must hurry with all the practicalities involved. The meat and a substantial amount of money normally belong to neighbouring tribes and they must get their fair fresh share. The hunting party typically get enough meat to carry on for a couple of days. I always ask for one of the inner filets mignons which we cook according to an old recipe from the late Hemingway himself.

To get an idea of the size of him; I don't have small hands, yet look at me grabbing the outer claw section of the paw and you will get an idea of the immense power from a full on hit with one of those paws latched on to a massive front leg like that.

Capo,

Those are some incredible animals! Do they eat the Croc meat? We have some big cougar around my house, but nothing like that lion.

William

 

[McBride]

Take your time with sorting awnings and such. Like you say, which is so true, it is a journey by itself finding out what works best.

Your boat adventuring sounds interesting, please expand on that! I'm into classic and traditional wooden boats - big passion of mine. I have a gaff ketch and a small Viking boat which I enjoy very much every summer in Scandinavia.

With regards to pictures from the dunes, I had nice pictures in a computer which crashed. I need to send the hard disc to a recovery specialist since it is stone dead. It's a shame since I had many other nice pictures there, from sailing and from Zimbabwe. I've left the iPad and I'm now searching my other computer for pictures. I found one from Zim of the Cruiser; an errand to civilization delivering meat to the Communal Land. It's from some plains game I shot for them.

Capo,

I love boats too! Wooden boats especially. Unfortunately I live in an are where the lakes are quite small. Right now I have three small boats. One is a fiberglass yacht grade replica of a New Bedford Sharpie with a cat/ketch spritsail rig. It has a nice fantail stern with a big open cockpit that has vertically staved teak combing. It is 21'.

I also have a mahogany runabout. It is a project boat that I will keep dry til I feel motivated to restore it.

The third boat is a lapstrake Herreshoff tender that my parents and I built while I was in high school. They would kick me out of bed early on Saturday mornings to go build a fire for the steamer. It has a gaff rig but can also be rowed and has a small outboard.

I have done quite a bit of wilderness canoe tripping as well. All on mellow western rivers. My days of extreme whitewater are long gone..

I haven't been on the water for a couple of years but will not let the boats go. I keep them covered and dry. Some day.

I sold my international 14 a few months ago. I needs to be used and I could never find a crew who could handle it.

 

[Capo]

Capo,

Those are some incredible animals! Do they eat the Croc meat? We have some big cougar around my house, but nothing like that lion.

William

Thanks!

It's indeed special to hunt the African big game.

They eat ALL meat!

Old Nile croc and old Burchell's zebra are two of the few animals I don't eat unless I really have to. Mountain zebra tastes delicious whereas the Burchell's zebra has yellow fat which flavours the meat in a bad way.

If that big cougar is a problem to your livestock and you want to have a crack at him it's worth wile studying some cat hunting literature. I can warmly recommend "Into the Thorns" by Wayne Grant. It's a very open minded and interesting book about hunting the African leopard. I think it could be useful for your plans on that cougar. Wayne is a great oke and a highly respected hunter. You can get the book from AbeBooks.com. But if you contact Wayne explaining your cougar plan, you might be able to get a signed copy. I could help you with that if you are interested.

Bear in mind that an old male like that is not smart because he grew old - he's old because he was born smart. During the process there is a great probability that your possible mistakes will educate the cat so you must do a lot of thinking and planning before and during the hunting process. Here's a very personal point of view although any hunter can do as he/she pleases: You can unleash a dog pack on that cougar's fresh tracks and you are likely to shoot him that same morning in a tree. To me that is too easy and undeserving for a great creature like that. You have to suffer your cats by outsmarting them. Also, with a dog pack things can go wrong where you put a lot of unnecessary stress on the cat and possibly get injured dogs. Again, this is my personal point of view.

Good luck with it!

 

[Capo]

Capo,

I love boats too! Wooden boats especially. Unfortunately I live in an are where the lakes are quite small. Right now I have three small boats. One is a fiberglass yacht grade replica of a New Bedford Sharpie with a cat/ketch spritsail rig. It has a nice fantail stern with a big open cockpit that has vertically staved teak combing. It is 21'.

I also have a mahogany runabout. It is a project boat that I will keep dry til I feel motivated to restore it.

The third boat is a lapstrake Herreshoff tender that my parents and I built while I was in high school. They would kick me out of bed early on Saturday mornings to go build a fire for the steamer. It has a gaff rig but can also be rowed and has a small outboard.

I have done quite a bit of wilderness canoe tripping as well. All on mellow western rivers. My days of extreme whitewater are long gone..

I haven't been on the water for a couple of years but will not let the boats go. I keep them covered and dry. Some day.

I sold my international 14 a few months ago. I needs to be used and I could never find a crew who could handle it.

Oh man, those are nice boats you have!

I'd love to see pictures. You must get an off-road boat trailer and combine overlanding with sailing. I bet with your G you can find lakes nobody has sailed before...? If you do, you just MUST post pictures!

Here are pictures of my Viking dingy and my Norwegian Sjekte. My little Viking boat is actually nominated "Best Traditional New Build" by the magazine Classic Boat. They still accept votes and if you are interested you can vote at classicboat.co.uk, look for "Awards 2014".

 

[Capo]

Those butchers look like they are having some serious fun. I bet that fresh meat tastes great! I like goat meat a lot. We have pronghorn antelope in NM as well as Oryx. Some general brought the oryx over back in the 60's and put them on White Sands Missile Range. They did well and now you are allowed to hunt them. It is a raffle and is a once in a lifetime hunt. I've put in a couple of times but have never drawn a tag. I'll try again this year. My neighbor got one a few years back and I like the meat.

I hope you get a tag for an Oryx soon!

I am a sucker for goat meat too. I do suckling goat in my wood fired stone oven, a fresh salad and a good red wine is all you need to go with it.

Here's a picture of my stone oven. I found an old brick layer up in the mountains specialized in stone ovens and he made one for me. I'm very happy for it.

 

[McBride]

I hope you get a tag for an Oryx soon!

I am a sucker for goat meat too. I do suckling goat in my wood fired stone oven, a fresh salad and a good red wine is all you need to go with it.

Here's a picture of my stone oven. I found an old brick layer up in the mountains specialized in stone ovens and he made one for me. I'm very happy for it.

I hope I draw.

Nice oven. It looks almost identical to the ovens the Native American's use here in the Southwest US. We call them Horno's and they are made of brick and mud.

I've slow roasted many a goat in an horno. We build a big fire out of dead and down juniper and get a huge coal bed. Put the goat in an aluminum tray and cover it with several layers of heavy duty foil. Clear a spot in the coals and push the pan in. We put a big piece of flagstone over the door and seal it with mud. Come back the next morning or about 8 hours later, pull it out and enjoy. The meat falls off the bone! Yum.

I use the same oven for pizza!

 

[McBride]

Oh man, those are nice boats you have!

I'd love to see pictures. You must get an off-road boat trailer and combine overlanding with sailing. I bet with your G you can find lakes nobody has sailed before...? If you do, you just MUST post pictures!

Here are pictures of my Viking dingy and my Norwegian Sjekte. My little Viking boat is actually nominated "Best Traditional New Build" by the magazine Classic Boat. They still accept votes and if you are interested you can vote at classicboat.co.uk, look for "Awards 2014".

Beautiful. You must get a helmet with horns and a fur vest for when you are sailing the Viking boat.

I've yet to tow with my G. Do they do well?

 

[Capo]

I hope I draw.

Nice oven. It looks almost identical to the ovens the Native American's use here in the Southwest US. We call them Horno's and they are made of brick and mud.

I've slow roasted many a goat in an horno. We build a big fire out of dead and down juniper and get a huge coal bed. Put the goat in an aluminum tray and cover it with several layers of heavy duty foil. Clear a spot in the coals and push the pan in. We put a big piece of flagstone over the door and seal it with mud. Come back the next morning or about 8 hours later, pull it out and enjoy. The meat falls off the bone! Yum.

I use the same oven for pizza!

My horno is at my fishing hut in Spain so obviously it's also called horno - horno de lena with a wave on top of the "n", as I'm sure you already knew. I lived in Madrid for ten years and that's where I picked up the horno craze. I'm glad you explained the wrapped meat and sealed oven cooking procedure. In Spain it's tradition to roast it unwrapped with the door open so as not to get heavy smoke flavour. I must try it your way next time.

I also do pizza in my horno and it sure tastes good!

 

[Capo]

Beautiful. You must get a helmet with horns and a fur vest for when you are sailing the Viking boat.

I've yet to tow with my G. Do they do well?

I'm sorry, the Vikings never wore horns on their helmets. In fact, only two helmets have been found from very extensive Viking archeology and none had horns and they were not for combat. Vikings preferred combat without helmets as helmets reduced their control and agility. Vikings also had the best swords even far superior to the Katanas. They mastered forging coal steel without coal impurities imbedded in the steel - technology only rediscovered during our contemporary industrialisation. Leif "The Lucky" Eriksson sailed to New Foundland (Vinland in Norse) and built a farm there, sailed back and forth always hitting the same spot and ventured way south into today's USA - of this there is clear scientific evidence. He did this two hundred years before the compass had been invented and five hundred years before Christopher Columbus' erratic shore strikes at American locations he thought were India. The Vikings sailed to India as well and they knew darn well when they were in India and when they were in Vinland, we still do. Think about it...:ylsmoke:

A G tows like champ. The beauty of it is the synchronized reduction gear. With a heavy trailer starting uphill, I take off in low gear and when I've picked up enough speed I shift to Neutral, flick it into high gear and shift back to Drive and seemlessly continue on the high gears. On my Gs you can shift up from low to high at max 70km/h and you can downshift from high to low at max 40km/h, always by flicking it into Neutral before executing the High-Low shift. I don't know if it's the same on your G but your manual will tell you all about it. I believe the synchronization of the reduction gear was a military request for a safer and quicker disengagement from combat. To save the torque converter I try to use the low gears as much as possible. Even if the engine pulls well the torque converter generates unnecessary heat when off-roading in high-gear.

 

[McBride]

Good tips on towing. Thx.

I've always been amused by the thought that Columbus discovered America - a good laugh. Not to say he wasn't and adventurer. He traveled a bit heavy.

Like Vikings with horns on their helmets, it is a common myth.

Did you see a G Wagen Entdecker in person? If so how was it?

 

[Capo]

Good tips on towing. Thx.

I've always been amused by the thought that Columbus discovered America - a good laugh. Not to say he wasn't and adventurer. He traveled a bit heavy.

Like Vikings with horns on their helmets, it is a common myth.

Did you see a G Wagen Entdecker in person? If so how was it?

The Entdeckers are veeeery well conceived. Those guys have designed their dream with no budget constraints what so ever. They ship them everywhere when necessary and overland in great style like the gentlemen adventurers they are. If you are prepared to have a titanium/carbon spade custom designed for you, which they indeed have, you can imagine the sophistication of it. Those gentlemen have taken it to a whole new level. It's very impressive to see what good knowledge and experience paired with good money can achieve. It's all about mass centralisation, light weight and redundancy. They do have a roof tent but it is of course out of carbon fibre and aluminium. Considering the low and centralised mass and a very modest suspension lift, that light roof load is not an issue.

 

[mk216v]

The Entdeckers are veeeery well conceived. Those guys have designed their dream with no budget constraints what so ever. They ship them everywhere when necessary and overland in great style like the gentlemen adventurers they are. If you are prepared to have a titanium/carbon spade custom designed for you, which they indeed have, you can imagine the sophistication of it. Those gentlemen have taken it to a whole new level. It's very impressive to see what good knowledge and experience paired with good money can achieve. It's all about mass centralisation, light weight and redundancy. They do have a roof tent but it is of course out of carbon fibre and aluminium. Considering the low and centralised mass and a very modest suspension lift, that light roof load is not an issue.

IMHO it's well designed and iconic for sure, but anyone with some good engineering skills and $$$ can put the same together. It's basically all bolt-on/off the shelf stuff which they charge a HUUUUUUUUUGE premium for. I guess there are enough wealthy people who find it simple to just write the check vs do a bit of homework on their own.

 

[Capo]

IMHO it's well designed and iconic for sure, but anyone with some good engineering skills and $$$ can put the same together. It's basically all bolt-on/off the shelf stuff which they charge a HUUUUUUUUUGE premium for. I guess there are enough wealthy people who find it simple to just write the check vs do a bit of homework on their own.

Yes, there is always a market for everyone and hopefully always will be.

I don't know what the premium is but it isn't only for having bolted pieces together, it's for having bolted the right pieces together and confirming it by putting those pieces to the test as a functional unit in the right element. For someone who wants a turn-key overland proven solution, I'd say a second hand Entdecker is a great option. If you break down the workshop hours from the electrical redundancy system to all the other installations, you will find that even if the workshop is in China, the premium will still be huuuuuge - even before adding a markup.

Here's a link to check them out:
http://issuu.com/mercedes-g-entdecker-2/docs/entdecker_2013?e=2801088/2595711

 

[Capo]

I've just picked up my four extra wheels with MT tyres in Sweden. It is freeeeezing here.

Wind had packed snow blocking the motorway but I passed easily on the inside with the G55. Back home in a couple of days and deliver the wheels to the trailer fabricator.

 

[McBride]

I've just picked up my four extra wheels with MT tyres in Sweden. It is freeeeezing here.

Wind had packed snow blocking the motorway but I passed easily on the inside with the G55. Back home in a couple of days and deliver the wheels to the trailer fabricator.

Nice to have a good vehicle! Travel safely.

William