Mason's First Safari
When I was in South Africa in 2009 I started planning for the day when I would take my son to experience the wonders of the Dark Continent. I wanted to take him on Safari when he turned 16. I discussed this with my good friend Gary Lewis, of Gary Lewis Outdoors, and Willem Gerhardt Van Der Gryp (Wighardt) the PH that we hunted with in 2009. Over the last 5 years I had been eagerly anticipating the day when I could watch my young son enjoy the experience of hunting in that special place.
I started last year by taking Mason out to shoot my Winchester Model 70 .375 H&H Magnum with Kales 1.1 x 4 scope. This gun is the stainless and black synthetic stock model and has served me very well on many hunts. Not only has it served me well, but on every hunt I have been on to date someone in my hunting party has borrowed my gun because it simply gets the job done. I initially had a concern that Mason would not be able to handle the recoil of the .375 H&H and was considering a 30-06 as a backup plan. I took him out to the range at our hunting lease and let him shoot it and he said he felt comfortable shooting it so we decided to opt for “old reliable”. After sighting in we made several trips over the few months preceding the hunt for him to practice. We practiced all of his shots off the sticks in both standing and sitting positions.
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Fishing in the Pyrenees and Horse Trekking on the Catalonia Coast
The seeds for this trip were planted about 30 years ago the first time I read Ernest Hemingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises”. I became an ardent Hemingway fan and his books have inspired many pilgrimages to places like the dark continent of Africa to the crystal clear waters of the Florida Keys. For my 50th birthday trip I decided I wanted to fly fish for trout in the Spanish Pyrenees Mountains. My wife, Gretchen, was not too keen on the idea of a fishing trip so I added to the adventure a horse trekking trip up the Catalonia Coast covering 120 miles through rivers, over mountains and along sandy beaches.
I booked the fishing trip with Ivan Tarin of Salvelinus Fishing Adventures located in the village of Aren in the Eastern Pyrenees. The lodge I stayed in was the Ribagorza Lodge and Spa. This is an Orvis endorsed fishing outfit that has good reviews and a nicely designed website. Getting to the lodge was a relatively easy affair. I flew into Barcelona from Atlanta arriving the morning of May 9th. I took the train from the airport to the Barcelona Sants train station and stayed at the Barcelona Sants Hotel, located in the train station, which was a nice and convenient place to stay. The next morning I took the train from Barcelona to Lleida which was about an hour ride and I met my guide Aitor at the Lleida train station.
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