An experience of a lifetime

A local couple has recently returned from a trip which turned out to be the experience of a lifetime -- tracking animals in the African bush on a hunting safari.

Charles and Mary Mosley have lived in the Blytheville area all of their lives. Charles is retired from American Greetings, and Mary works as the business manager for the Arkansas Department of Corrections. The two have taken hunting trips together since the early days of their marriage, but it wasn't until 2000 that Mary began to hunt alongside her husband.

"I had always known how to shoot," she says, "my dad taught me when I was a girl, but I never until then understood the thrill and excitement of tracking and making a kill yourself."

After more than 10 years of experience with hunting together being a major hobby for the couple, they began making plans to take a hunting safari to South Africa.

"I had always wanted to go," said Charles, "I would see this type of thing in movies and think how exciting that would be. So we started seriously talking about it."

The couple had friends who had used the services of Ross Chapman and Chapman Safaris out of Karuman, South Africa - and based on their glowing recommendations the Mosleys began making arrangements with the same group.

On April 24, 2010, they left to spend the next eight days hunting in the African bush. Plans for the trip were made based on how many and which type of animals they wished to hunt; the Mosleys had to research that part and relay their wishes to the safari guides, who would schedule their outings to areas where their desired kills were known to live.

Shooting both from the back of a truck and in the open, the Mosleys killed 12 animals during their hunt. Occasionally, an animal had to be tracked through rough terrain.

"When they refer to the African bush," says Mary, "that's what they mean. It is thick and very difficult to navigate."

One such moment was the most thrilling part of the trip for Charles, who shot a warthog and spent the greater part of a day following its blood track through the bush. That particular animal was never found, but the excitement of the tracking experience was unforgettable, he says.

For Mary, the most memorable part of the trip was the highly emotional experience of tracking and killing such "magnificent creatures," such as the kudu.

"It all happens so fast," she recalls, "you spend all day looking for this animal, and then once it's spotted you only have a few seconds before it's out of sight - there is such an adrenaline rush involved in that moment."

All of the couple's 12 kills were processed by safari employees, the excess meat given to local schools and other needful charities - 10 of the animals will make their way back to Blytheville as mounts for the Mosleys' home.

The trip is one that the couple says they may very well repeat.

"We had a good hunt, and made a lot of friends," the couple say of the people who ran the hunting trip. Charles was even treated to a birthday party on their first day out, complete with a presentation and dancing by a group of natives from nearby.

"We've traveled a lot," says Mary, "but this was without a doubt the most exciting, exhilarating, and emotional vacation we've ever had."

They recommend that anyone wishing to plan a similar trip contact Ross Chapman of Chapman Safaris at ross@chapmansafaris.com.

sharris@blythevillecourier.com