Professional Game Hunter Neil Lindsay

The day I left for Gombe from the Kigoma Hilltop Hotel, I had a standard hearty Tanzanian hotel breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage, crepes, fruit, and coffee) and hopped into the hotel van with Neil. We headed out to the motorized dhow (sp?) boat that would take us for a 2-hour cruise to Gombe National Park and the camp along the shore of Lake Tanganyika. I notice the boat looks eerily like the Disneyland African Cruise, but without the hippos and racist figures of “savage natives” practicing cannibalism on the shores. <<Note: I do not share this information with anyone because (1) I think the comparison would probably be insulting and (2) it’s too hard to explain in a way that doesn't sound weird.>> We settle in for the slow ride across the calm green-blue lake.

Neil is the co-manager of the hotel and Gombe Forest Camp property (Mbali Mbali Tours), and is married to Louise, the hotel manager and accountant. They are both originally from Rhodesia, now “Zimbabwe” (“Zim”), but spent much of their lives in South Africa, and have adult children there. Neil and Louise have wonderful crisp South African accents (like English but with a twist of Australian-ish thrown in). You know Trevor Noah? Bingo.

Although White, Neil is an African through-and-through: born in Zambia, grew up in Zimbabwe and lived most of his adult life with a home base in South Africa. He and Louise settled there after the fabulous President Mugabe grabbed all the land of the Whites and kicked them out of the country. Excellent leader, Mugabe. He brought the country from a stable power with a growing economy to utter ruin. He’s 92 and running for re-election.

If South Africa were to have a marketing campaign for beer, Neil would be an excellent candidate for “World’s Most Interesting Man.” Due to his military and boarding school background, and his life-long occupation as a professional hunter, you might imagine that he is a right wing conservative. You’d be right. Only he is the kindest, funniest, most articulate, open-minded conservative guy I have ever met. His stories about growing up in the bush are both eye-poppingly incredible and hilarious. I tell him he needs to do a stand-up routine: “Life in the Bush with Neil.” All this works out well for me, as I am going to spend four days with Neil, a few other guests, and a handful of local staff at the Gombe camp. We’ll have a lot of time to chat since there is no cell service or Wi-Fi. The generator is only on from 6-11 am and again from 6-11 pm. Nothing but baboons, beach, dynamic discussions, good food, and time.

The camp has seven tented cabins, a restaurant cabin with sofas and books, and sits right on the shore of the lake. There are kayaks and snorkels ready for use. Looking across the lake, you can just make out the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the other side, and looking north, you can barely see the outline of Burundi. Lake Tanganyika is the second deepest lake in the world since it lies directly along the Great Rift Valley.

When I arrive there are three other guests in the camp – a Swedish couple (Professor of the Psychology of Religion and his wife, a teacher) and in a bizarre coincidence, a Biologist from San Diego. I can’t believe it but the professor is the Swedish doppelgänger of my friend and co-author Bob Muckle, right down to the mannerisms and laughter.

Neil has been a professional game hunter all his life. He laments to me that people have the wrong impression of African game hunters, whom he argues actually do more for conservation than most people know. This has to do with the regulations governing game hunting in African countries. The professional hunters are assigned hunting blocks each year, which means they have official permission to hunt in those areas.

As part of the deal, they must provide protection against poachers across the entire area. Once the client kills an animal, the client has the right to take home the head, horns, or mane if they wish, but all the meat is given to the local villages in the block. Any elephant ivory is turned over to the government. He says the hunter’s goal is to only cull the oldest, injured, or out casted members of the group if at all possible, and will never shoot an animal that has yet to live its full life. I see that Neil is a person who cares deeply and passionately about animals, has more knowledge than anyone I know about animal behavior, and has rescued and raised many a stranded baby animal whose mother has abandoned it. While I’m still against hunting, I see that it’s a much more complex strategy than we often give them credit for, and it may not be fair to paint them with a broad brush of “evil.”