End of November, ticket in hand, suitcase ready and my .470 NE in the box, I flew to Johannesburg and from there to Harare. Upon arrival, the first setback. A couple of Americans who were sharing the charter plane with me would arrive in Harare two days late. No problem. Russ booked me a room in a splendid “Relais Chateau” hotel that I would never have imagined existed in Harare. The next day, with nothing to do, I decided to walk around town and going shopping. I bought some curios and ended up at a hunting and fishing shop. Exploring the store I spotted four cases of monolithic .470 caliber ammo. The boxes were not complete and appeared to be from some hunter who sold them to the store at the end of the safari. I couldn't resist and bought it. BIG MISTAKE.
Finally the American couple arrived and we flew to Kariba. Once there, we were welcomed at the air strip and taken to the camp, beautiful and comfortable like others I've stayed at Russ's. The camp had a generator and a solar cell for power. My tent was by a tree with pretty good shade for that time of year. The next day we went to test the rifles. I didn't try my .470, and was using my .416 Rigby bolt action with scope. It may sound weird but I don't like shooting,
