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Travel Troubles
Hunting travel has its risks and inconveniences, but most of them can be minimized with planning.
By Craig Boddington
This Afghan urial sheep was taken in western Pakistan, maybe twenty-five miles from the Afghanistan border. This cannot be considered a “safe” area, but despite different dress and culture, my Pakistani friends are totally committed to ensuring the safety of their hunting guests.
Two minutes. I arrived at the Tom Bradley International Terminal a bit late, and of course U.S. Customs had to fuss over my perfectly legal firearm, and examine my perfectly valid Form 4457, so it was 2:17 p.m. when I hit the bag transfer desk outside of customs. My connecting flight was at 2:45. The cutoff for transferring bags is thirty minutes. So I missed it by two minutes. That’s not a bad thing for my editor, because it means I have time to write this while I’m stuck at LAX. It’s not a good thing for me, because the next flights are booked up, and I may or may not get home tonight. Two minutes!
Actually, I have no one to blame but myself. Previously in this column I wrote that tight connections are to be avoided. Especially when traveling with firearms, they’re the kiss of death. I’m pretty sure I suggested two hours as minimal for international connections. I broke my own rule: I had one hour and fifty-five minutes. Close enough, right? Wrong! If I’d had two hours I would have made it, with three minutes to spare!
My experience is that most flights are more or less on time, give or take a few minutes. Obviously you can’t do anything about winter storms or other acts of God. Every frequent traveler has at least one story about being stuck in an airport for a couple of days. (The last time it happened to me was when a freak early blizzard shut down the then-new Denver airport, stranding hundreds of travelers for a very long three days.) Failing a catastrophe, however, most delays are minimal, and can be avoided by ensuring plenty of time to make connections. This does mean a wee bit of extra time sitting around in an airport, but I tend to think that beats the alternatives. However, even with the best planning, sooner or later you’re going to miss a flight. Murphy’s Law applies, as does its corollary (That Which Goes Wrong, Does So At The Worst Possible Time). So, it’s wise to travel with a cell phone with international capability and/or a satellite phone (easily rented short-term from hunter-friendly folks like Explorer Satellite). If you get stuck, you need to be able to let someone know of your alternative arrangements.
Here are some facts: Customs and security are more thorough, and take longer than they used to. There are fewer flights to most destinations than there used to be, so the natural follow-on is that many flights are fuller than they used to be. This means that, regardless of whose fault it is, if you miss the flight you’re supposed to be on, you may have to wait a while for an open spot. This is especially true during the various peak travel periods: Key holidays, spring break, beginning and end of school terms, etc.
Maulings from dangerous animals and terrorist attacks may be more dramatic, but I think the greatest risks in hunting are transportation-related. Horses are a great enhancement to many hunts but, statistically, add significantly to potential risk.
The best course is to do everything in your power to avoid missing a flight! That means not only allowing plenty of time, but making sure you have all your stuff together. Also as I’ve written previously, traveling with firearms is a pain, not only requiring extra time but requiring considerable and increasing attention to detail. It’s a major mission, a six-hour round-trip drive, for me to get the U.S. Customs Form 4457. One could argue that this is not actually a legal requirement for a U.S.-made firearm, but rather a bureaucratic policy. For years I often blustered my way through this, but not any more! Whatever it takes, get the 4457. Find out what the rules are on the airline you’re traveling, and the rules of your destination country and countries you will transit. The FAX-operated system for transiting through Holland (as in, the big Amsterdam hub airport) aren’t new, and the system works very well, but every year at the conventions I talk to folks who have never heard about this and wind up with a last-minute problem.
On this particular trip my problem is getting out of LAX, which is almost laughable. I’m returning from a two-week hunt in Pakistan, for heaven’s sake. I entered and exited via Dubai, one of the world’s greatest airports. Their system is a bit like Holland; you must have clearance from the Dubai police to transit with a firearm, a one-page form electronically transmitted. Follow the rules and there are no problems. (The rules, by the way, include no changes to your itinerary without forty-eight-hour notice!). I had no problems. I got into Islamabad with all my gear. Farhad, my Shikar-Safaris rep, was on hand with my Pakistani firearms license, so that clearance took about two minutes.
During the last two weeks I hunted in four distinct areas. I flew internally on PIA, Pakistan’s chief airline, to Karachi, then to Quetta, then back to Islamabad. Pakistan is a big country. Road travel, some with visibly armed bodyguards, some without, must have exceeded thirty hours and hundreds of miles. There wasn’t a single hitch anywhere along the way. This is actually a bit unusual in my Asian experience, clearly a tribute to a good outfitter, Turkey-based Shikar-Safaris, and perhaps a wee bit of luck as well. Oh, by the way, the hunt itself was also perfectly and stunningly successful: The first legal permits for blackbuck, hog deer, and nilgai; a great Blanford urial sheep; a good Afghan urial; and, the capper, a gorgeous Suleiman markhor, all captured for the upcoming World of Sports Afield television series, starting in July on The Sportsman Channel.
One of the potential hazards I worry about most is road travel. This is universal, but in remote areas Third World roads often combine with uncertain maintenance. Always carry a satellite phone, and keep a medical evacuation plan.
I do get asked quite often about traveling in, well, weird parts of the world. Bad stuff can happen anywhere, including here in the USA, but one can only worry so much without either going nuts or staying at home. Hunting travel isn’t like a road trip from the Cape to Cairo, or hiking along the Afghanistan border. If you plan well and ensure you are entrusting your hunting dreams to a good outfitter, risks are minimized. Our hunting community is actually very small, so aside from the inconvenience to the persons involved, can you imagine how bad it would be for business if a hunter got whacked on an outfitted hunt?
Perhaps the greatest risk is the same as everywhere else: Transportation hazards, magnified in some cases by Third World roads, in others by boats, horses, and light aircraft. So I keep my Medjet medical evacuation membership active and, when appropriate, as in Pakistan, I file my itinerary with the U.S. State Department. Otherwise, I don’t worry about it much. But, now, if I could just get out of LAX . . .
