Northwest9
AH veteran
Day 1.
Up at 3 to catch the bus to Sydney, I didn’t feel prepared at all, so many years of waiting, and suddenly it’s here. I'm panicking, have I packed everything I need? Is my paperwork in order? Have I got my bolt?
Airport customs were great, no concerns with paperwork, just checked the serial number and I'm done.
Check in was different however, the lady checking me in hadn't checked a rifle in before and got a bit flustered. She told me that upon arrival in Johannesburg, I absolutely must collect my rifle, take it to the police, have them check it, then continue onto Namibia.
I touched down in Johannesburg and cleared passport check without issue, but then my gun wasn’t there. Nor was my bag. She said I had to get both, where were they?? No one could give me a straight answer, the Qantas guy gave me a very unconvincing "it a gone straight thru, don’t worry", but I couldn't do anything but accept that and get the next flight.
The stop over time was short, by the time I had gone back out passport control and walked the halls to my gate I sat long enough to have a bottle of water before boarding again.
A short 1h40 flight and I was finally in Namibia, after what seemed like forever, I had made it.
I very nervously approached the police station, unsure what to expect. Thankfully the officer was very helpful, friendly and had my rifle. It had made it. He quickly dealt with my permits and paperwork, and I was done, my bag was waiting for me at the carousel.
My hosts were waiting for me outside the doors with a big smile. The relief was huge. Into the Hilux for the 90km drive along the road from Windhoek and we arrived at the property at 11pm local time, after more than 26 hours on the go.
Day 2.
Up earlyish, I was expecting to be badly jetlagged but surprised myself.
I watched the sunrise from my hut, while listening to the jackals call not far out in the bush
Marcus, (the young guide who picked me up from the airport) met me there and told me the plan for the day, while Harald (Outfitter) sorted a few things out. I was to head out after blue wildebeest with Harald, and Marcus was taking the other hunter, Rob from Victoria, out after waterbuck.
Harald and I set out to the range first, to test my rifle, which proved itself, and we set off.
We drove out to a windmill in the middle of a huge paddock full of thick, head high brush, and Andreas, the tracker, climbed up. I followed to see what I could see.
He was only up there a few minutes when he started talking quickly in Afrikaans down to Harald, and Harald motioned for me to come down quickly.
We both got down fast and Harald told me that Andreas had seen a large warthog a couple of hundred meters off in the bush. I couldn't believe he could see anything but giraffe in that scrub, but set off anyway
We quickly moved about 200 meters into the bush when Harald slowed down, and got the sticks up.
The boar stopped broadside about 40m away and I fired. I didn’t see where he went, but saw the sow run off.
We went to where he had been standing and there he was, barely 5 meters away. I could not believe that Andreas had managed to see him in that scrub, or that the whole hunt seemed to have gone so well.
We took him back to the ute and took plenty of photos, then set off into the bush after wildebeest. After about 4km we managed to find a bull, but he was only a small one, so we left him and moved on. Nothing more was seen that morning, so we went back to the lodge to cape the warthog and have a feed.
We had a lazy midday while Harald went to get fuel, and I picked grass seeds out of my pants.
Around 3, I headed out with Marcus in search of wildebeest again. We climbed the windmill and spent a while glassing, we spotted 3 gemsbok and 2 smaller wildebeest off 700m away, but soon picked up on a big bull heading towards them. Marcus and I took off to try to cut him off but he beat us. We stalked the gemsbok for a while, and had several good looks at them, but they were small or cows, and the wildebeest with them were small.
Back up the windmill for another look, but nothing presented so we stalked thru the bush again for a while, but ran out of light and headed back to the lodge.
Monica cooked up a great meal of gemsbok stroganoff while all sat around the fire and chatted about the day.
After dinner Marcus and I decided to head out with the spot light to look for Jackal, but it was a quiet night. Only one came in to the caller. I was using Harald's 223 which had the factory “10 pound” trigger so I stuffed the shot. I twice checked it wasn’t the safety stopping me, and when I finally got the shot off it was low.
By that stage it was 10pm and I was wrecked. We headed back to the lodge and called it a night
Day 3
Up at 6 for a quick bite to eat before heading out to again look for wildebeest. I was beginning to think I wasn’t going to be successful on them, as they were proving very elusive.
We again drove to the windmill and Harald climbed up for a look. Nothing was seen so we set off into the scrub just before the sun broke the horizon.
About 15 minutes of walking and Harald stopped to look thru the binos, but hadn't seen anything, he was just about to move off when I spotted movement, a blue wildebeest moving thru the bushes about 200 meters away.
We quickly moved in on him, and Harald had a look through his binos and confirmed he was good.
I put the rifle on the sticks and took he shot. It sounded good, and he dropped his head, but then just ran off like nothing happened. Harald and I spent probably an hour looking, before he set off to get the dogs, and I stayed at the spot the wildebeest was standing, searching for blood.
Harald came back with Andreas and two dogs, and we searched for about an hour. We found a very small blood trail and followed it for a while. He wasn’t bleeding hard enough to have been fatally hit, so the realization that the most expensive animal on my list has simply ran away started to set in.
I knew my luck yesterday was too good. The warthog was too easy, so this was just the world righting itself.
Back to the lodge for breakfast and to just let it go. Cant do anything about it
After lunch, to distract myself, I went off with the quad to sit over a dam for a few hours to try to shoot some small warthogs for leopard bait for Harald. A bloke is coming over from the states at the start of June to chase one. I set up in a shady spot where I was to sit until 2pm
I watched the turtles float about, and watched the birds squabble at the waters edge until about 1.20pm, I'd basically given up on the idea, thinking it was too hot for much to be moving when suddenly 2 warthogs popped out of the bush and came in quickly for a drink. I shot the younger one, which dropped on the spot, and the other ran off.
I packed up, tied the sticks and chair onto the quad and rode around to collect the shot pig, when I noticed the other was grazing barely 30 meters away, just over a small bank, oblivious to me. I watched it for some time, taking photos and just enjoying watching the behaviour, before I realized it wasn’t a young boar with potential, as I first thought, but a sow. So I shot it for Harald's bait spots as well.
We took the back legs of the bigger sow out to the another property some 25km away, to tie them into the leopard bait stations. David (another tracker) and Harald spent quite some time at the bait stations, looking at the various prints in the sand, comparing them. Harald showed me that there was two leopards coming in, a male and a female, the male at night, the female during the day. After we were done we drove for probably an hour or so, over the 16000ha property looking for hartebeest.
We saw at least 6 steenbok, a dozen or so oryx and warthogs and countless Longhorn Cattle, but couldn't find any hartebeest. We must have driven 25km before we came across the first one, but the wind was wrong and he headed off immediately.
We pushed on and came across a couple of kudu cows, before spotting a small group of hartebeest. We left the ute and set off into the scrub to track them. After about 1km, I had a chance to take a shot at 200, front on, but branches were in the way, and I was a bit concerned after this morning losing the wildebeest
He moved off and we followed for another 200 or so metres. He had joined up with some more, and one presented broadside at about 120m perfectly.
I took the shot and he went 15m or so before going down. Harald went back for the ute while David and I took a few photos, and got him ready to load up.
Back at the house of the property owner, we caped him out, put the meat in the cool room. Upon opening his chest up, we found the shot had gone straight thru the vitals, destroying the heart. We packed up and headed back to the lodge, dropping David off at his house in the squatters camp on the way
Marcus cooked tbone steaks for dinner on a hot plate over the fire while we had a couple of beers and chatted to Christian from Ingwe Taxidermy, who had come out to talk to rob and I about mounts. I still desperately wanted a Jackal, and as we planned to go to the Kalahari the following morning, I decided to try again that night, even if it was with the unshootable Remington factory triggered 223, shooting mil surp fmj's into 2.5" groups @ 100m
At the same spot as the night before, we set up the caller and had little response to the steenbok distress call, so after a while we switched to the jackal mating call.
Suddenly the howls came from everywhere, and a jackal came into 90m, but again I couldn't get the trigger to go off when I wanted it, and he bolted before I shot.
We moved onto another spot, and had the same result. One came into the distress call, but I couldn't get it to fire and he was gone. I just could not get this heavy trigger to work for me. (we later began to suspect there was a fault with this rifle, perhaps some crap in the trigger, as it was a nice, normal trigger when collected from the safe in the warm house, but impossibly heavy when cold late at night)
By this stage I was resigned to the fact I wasnt going to get a jackal, and had all but given up, when Marcus switched calls again.
After a minute or so of the call, he flicked on the light and there was 3, about 75 out. I could only see 2, and I just jammed the trigger as hard as I could and the closest one dropped on the spot. Relief at last.
We packed up and headed back to the lodge, gutted him out, inspected the skin damage, put him in the cool room for skinning tomorrow and called it a night. It had been a long day, the low of the wildebeest to the highs of getting a good hartebeest and finally getting the jackal, that proved so hard to get, despite being told multiple times by multiple people that they are guaranteed easy.
Today's hunt was one of the tougher days hunting I've had. The mental aspect of it changes when your paying for each animal shot, recovered or not, and no one likes losing a wounded animal. Knowing you have a limited time to hunt, and you cant just duck out again next weekend plays with your mind.
Having wanted to go to Africa for so long, and knowing your time is limited increases the pressure greatly
Day 4
We got up early and packed up everything ready to head to the Kalahari.
As we drove we saw a huge amount of animals, and a steady chance in the landscape.
We got to the house and unpacked our gear. The house is a beautiful big old double story house built in the 30's. Huge high ceilings, massive rooms, with balconies overlooking the property. The house runs on a generator, with solar backup, and kerosene fridges. Hot water is from a "donkey", a drum set up on top of a fireplace.
We got ready and headed out hunting. The first area we drove thru almost looked like an orchard grove without the straight rows, like a carpet either side of the road.
We started to see animals. We stalked in on a mob of zebra, but they spooked before we got a good look, and then stalked in on a big bodied oryx, but passed on him due to horn length.
As we drove along the land opened right out, and almost began to look like a high priced golf course, a sea of light green amongst acacia trees. The scenery was stunning.
As we drove we saw dozens of springbok, zebra, oryx, meerkats and mongoose
We stopped to stalk in on some zebra, after about a kilometre, we were 300m from them, and Franz pointed out a good one. I tried to steady for the shot, but nerves, self doubt off the sticks set in and I stuffed the shot. Completely missed
We trekked back to the ute, and continued on. We came to a large plain, where there was hundreds of animals. Blesbok, black wildebeest, oryx, springbok, but they were all well aware we were there.
We kept on, and came across a huge herd of oryx, and we stalked them for at least 6km, but they just kept out of our range, so we returned to the ute again.
Not long after, we bumped into a herd of kudu cows, with a young bull, but he wasn’t big enough so we left them. I was only going to stretch the budget to Kudu if a belter showed himself
Very soon after, we came across a lone oryx, and I set up for the shot, and Franz assessed him, the horns are so long on them that even small ones look big, so I waited for Franz. I completely expected him to tell me it was another small bull, as we had passed on so many, so when he said he was good, I was taken by surprise, I had my cross hairs on him for so long waiting that when the shoot call came in, I stuffed it. I bumped my hat brim on the scope, panicked that he was going to run and rushed the shot, hitting the ground below him.
I was so cranky with myself. So frustrated. We had covered so much ground, seen so many animals, and I'd stuffed two shots.
Franz kept persevering, and 30 minutes or so we came across some more zebra. A nice stallion presented about 200 meters out and I took the shot.
These animals are so tough, he jumped, twisted, went down, got up and ran again, and I lost sight of him. I was sure I hit him well, but was suddenly sick with worry again. Franz saw him go down from where he was standing though, and congratulated me, assuring me he was down.
We drove over to him, and found him at the base of a tree. He had an amazing skin. Beautiful grey shadow lines between the main lines. I took so many pictures before we winched him up onto the ute to head back.
I sat on the seat up on the back with a beer and had a "holy shit, I'm in Africa" moment. I soaked in the scenery, watching animals and birds as we drove back, stopping to stalk in on some more oryx, before getting back to the house.
Back at the house I helped the skinners cape out Robs wildebeest and start to skin my zebra, before heading over to the house to help get things prepared
We sat around the fire chatting for a couple of hours before another great dinner and called it a night
Day 5
As the sun rose we set off looking for Impala, and quickly came upon a lone springbok. I took the shot but the shot deflected of some scrub and he was off, bouncing higher than the bushes on his way.
We continued on for another 20 minutes or so when a Jackal ran across the road in front of us. Harald shouted from the cabin "if he stops, shoot that bastard".
The jackal went on for a few short runs before stopping for a look again. I let him have it, and he went down, tail spinning where he stood. I took a couple of photos and left him there
We carried on further when Andreas spotted a steenbok. This little animal wasn’t on my list, but I decided to have a shot anyway. He went down, but when we got to where he was, we found that despite being hit with so much projectile (196gn Norma Oryx @ 2770fps), he still ran 20 meters with all the damage he had.
We posed him up for some photos and then kept hunting. Such a cute little animal
We came up on some springbok and oryx, and stalked in on them. As we were stalking in, Harald suddenly jumped away swearing. He had almost stepped on a puff adder. That got the heart going a bit.
The first group of oryx moved off, so we went after the second group, we managed to get past some black wildebeest and get set up on the sticks for a shot. I lined up and click..... I had emptied the chamber after the first lot moved off by habit, and hadn't rechambered a round.
Before I could rechamber, they moved off. I was so upset with myself.
We started back toward the ute when Andreas spotted a springbok. We stalked in and again set up on the sticks, but a wildebeest was in the way, I spent ages on the sticks waiting for him to move off, and when he finally did, my nerves were shot, and I hit the springbok too far back. It ran off, we stalked it for a while before it got away. Another lost animal.
At this point I was ready to give up. I had no confidence in myself, so we headed back to the house to skin out the steenbok, and have something to eat. Lunch was kudu steak sandwiches on home made bread
I decided to have a rest, take some time out and have a sleep for a few hours, and maybe go sit on a water hole later in the afternoon, as I just couldn't bring myself to go stalk the plains again that day, having lost another animal.
I sat at the water hole late in the day with Franz and fought my nerves the whole time. I still had three days left, desperately want an oryx, but had no confidence to shoot.
I tormented myself for an hour or two, while I watched pigeons come in to drink at the trough, when suddenly a mongoose jumped out from under the trough to try to catch a bird, but missed. He sat on the trough disgusted at himself for a few minutes before scampering away. I couldn't help but feel his pain.
About 530pm Franz said we should try to stalk in on something, as he didn’t think anything was happening. Immediately we spotted 3 oryx that had been making their way in to drink, but they were down wind. They hadn't scented us yet, but would at any moment. There was a good bull amongst them, but he wouldn't give me a shot before they took off.
We followed them around for a while, but they were onto us. Each time we would see them, they would already be watching us.
We headed back to the waterhole, and on the way I found a small, long dead black wildebeest. I broke the horns off the dry carcass, and called that consolation for my lost blue wildebeest
We sat back at the water hole until the sun was gone, and the mosquitoes had come out.
Time to head back, and try again tomorrow
Day 6
We headed out just after first light. I was feeling terrible, nervous, and was sick over night in the guts as well, I'd been up a bit during the night with it.
We drove out throuh the thorn bushes for a few kilometres where we stopped to have a shot off the ute, and a shot off the sticks. Both were bang on, but there's no pressure shooting a cardboard box...
We drove on a few more kilometres before we came across our first herd of oryx. There was a good bull in the herd, but they were aware of us, the wind wasn’t right, so we moved on.
A herd of zebra were spooked and running like mad, spooking everything so we had to speed past them and turn them away.
Not long after we found a group of oryx and we stalked in on them. I was nervous again, but took a shot at 244m off the sticks. It dropped on the spot. I was over the moon, couldn't believe it, I'd finally got the animal I'd wanted the most.
We walked over to where it was and it was gone. We couldn't find it. It had got up and ran after I started celebrating. I was heartbroken again. How could I have lost another animal?
We searched and searched, went back to the point of the shot and kept looking. We found the spot it had gone down, so we set off tracking the departing herd. We walked and walked, but there was no way of knowing where mine had gone, amongst all of those prints. There was no blood to follow.
We turned back to the ute, and was almost back when Franz spotted it. I couldn't believe it. There is was, after all the heart ache, we had found it.
It was a cow, 34.5" long, not a massive bull like everyone wants, but I was over the moon. Photos were taken, handshakes, back slaps etc. I was thrilled.
We loaded the oryx up and started to head back towards the house. We found several small groups of springbok, but nothing would stand long, they were very alert, the wind was blowing hard so they were flighty.
We were almost back at the house when I spotted a lone springbok sitting in the bush. Franz stopped the ute quickly and I had the rifle on him as quick as I could. Marcus said it was a mature ram so I shot. He was hurt, just went behind a bush and stood still. I shot again and he was down.
Given the trouble we had finding the oryx, I stayed at the spot the shot was taken, while Franz and Marcus went to find him.
They found him and they called me over quickly with the camera, to catch the pronk
Marcus had done such a good job to get those animals for me, I was a mess, nervous, stressed out, doubting myself, ready to give up, yet he got me over the line.
We all loaded up on the cruiser and headed out. Rob still wanted another blesbok, and we wanted to have a look for the blesbok Rob shot and lost yesterday.
I left the rifle at the house and took the camera. I took hundreds of photos as we drove along.
We saw dozens of Zebra and Springbok, hundreds of Blesbok and a huge herd of Oryx. Must have been 250 in the mob.
We followed the vultures and found the blesbok that was lost. He was near a water trough that Marcus and I drove past this morning. He was not there when we went past, so must have come in after we passed to try to drink and died there.
The vultures had reduced it to a bit of hide and skeleton. They had cleaned it out in just a few hours. There would have been 15 vultures in the trees nearby.
We drove on, coming across an aardvark, which I tried to sneak up on, but it went down its hole.
We found the young kudu bull from Wednesday, with his cows, and yet more Oryx. Nearly back at the house we saw Impala, and I'm thinking about maybe chasing one again tomorrow, depending on how I feel.
Back at the house we sat around the fire, talking about the days hunts, and having a few beers. I'm buggered, the relief at having got all my animals with time spare to soak it all in, and take photos is immense.
Day 7
We set out early again, looking for Impala. I wasn’t sure I really wanted one, but thought I would just go for a look, and if we found one and it really grabbed me, I would take it.
We came across a few, but nothing presented a shot, and I wasn’t feeling like I really wanted one, so we came home by about 10. We had seen plenty of other animals, including probably 10 Impala
We had a quick feed and packed up everything, as we had decided to head back to the lodge at the other farm, as we are done here, and its closer to the airport.
We left at 2, for the drive back to Omitara, getting back at a bit after 4. We had a quick snack and headed off to look for Baboon.
We saw a few Jackals, a few Warthog, including a fairly good boar that arrogantly stood and watched me, as if he knew I wasn’t going to shoot another warthog trophy.
We got back to the house for springbok back straps for dinner, before ducking back out to call a few Jackal. Marcus shot 2, but they were starting to wise up to the caller, so we called it a night
Day 8
Harald and I went out to look for baboon, we drove a long way out, to the mountains, and drove around the base hoping to find a troop of them, but didn’t see any. We came across a herd of mountain zebra up high on the hill, now I have seen both species it is quite easy to tell the difference.
We got back to the cattle yards, and there was three small warthogs in amongst the cattle, and Harald asked me to shoot one for bait, but I couldn't get a shot without risking the cattle behind, and they slipped away into the scrub
We moved forward to try to find them, but they were gone. I spotted a Jackal, so I hopped off the ute to try to find him in the scrub. He spooked and ran a few meters before I shot him. He was a good one to shoot as he was full of mange, barely any hair on the tail and back legs
We sat around the lodge relaxing for a few hours until it was time to head back out again. We came across many Kudu on the hunt, it was really great to see so many, given the Kudu rabies epidemic that's happening at the moment. We probably saw 15 cows, 6 or 7 calves, 2 juvenile bulls and 2 bulls in the 40-50" range
We heard a baboon bark at us, but we didn’t get a look at them. Next time I will dedicate a bit more time to baboon.
Back at the lodge we mucked around with a few dead heads, trying to get some horn covers for display, but couldn't get the skull cap out of the dead head I had collected in the kalahari
We had a few beers and dinner, before I called it a night. I was a little bit sad that it had all come to an end, but I have decided to come back in the future, to hunt black and blue wildebeest, baboon and kudu, then take wife for a bit of a tour of the country.
Day 9
We got the whole crew in for a couple of photos, then headed to the airport
Amusingly, we came across a group of 6 or 7 baboons just walking along the edge of the road. Couldn't find one when looking, everywhere when I cant shoot one
Marcus helped get my rifle checked back out of the country, and get me checked in, then it was time for goodbyes. Marcus had been a great guide, only a kid at 19, but worked so hard to get me my animals, calm me down, keep me positive after missed shots, and was an absolute wealth of knowledge on the animals, and how to hunt them.
I hope he is still around when I come back, and I wished him luck in his studies, as he progresses from guide to master guide to registered professional hunter.
Fairly comfortable flight, easy passage thru customs, and uneventfully bus trip home, arriving about 830pm.
It's all over. Sad it's over but its been great. I'll be back
Up at 3 to catch the bus to Sydney, I didn’t feel prepared at all, so many years of waiting, and suddenly it’s here. I'm panicking, have I packed everything I need? Is my paperwork in order? Have I got my bolt?
Airport customs were great, no concerns with paperwork, just checked the serial number and I'm done.
Check in was different however, the lady checking me in hadn't checked a rifle in before and got a bit flustered. She told me that upon arrival in Johannesburg, I absolutely must collect my rifle, take it to the police, have them check it, then continue onto Namibia.
I touched down in Johannesburg and cleared passport check without issue, but then my gun wasn’t there. Nor was my bag. She said I had to get both, where were they?? No one could give me a straight answer, the Qantas guy gave me a very unconvincing "it a gone straight thru, don’t worry", but I couldn't do anything but accept that and get the next flight.
The stop over time was short, by the time I had gone back out passport control and walked the halls to my gate I sat long enough to have a bottle of water before boarding again.
A short 1h40 flight and I was finally in Namibia, after what seemed like forever, I had made it.
I very nervously approached the police station, unsure what to expect. Thankfully the officer was very helpful, friendly and had my rifle. It had made it. He quickly dealt with my permits and paperwork, and I was done, my bag was waiting for me at the carousel.
My hosts were waiting for me outside the doors with a big smile. The relief was huge. Into the Hilux for the 90km drive along the road from Windhoek and we arrived at the property at 11pm local time, after more than 26 hours on the go.
Day 2.
Up earlyish, I was expecting to be badly jetlagged but surprised myself.
I watched the sunrise from my hut, while listening to the jackals call not far out in the bush
Marcus, (the young guide who picked me up from the airport) met me there and told me the plan for the day, while Harald (Outfitter) sorted a few things out. I was to head out after blue wildebeest with Harald, and Marcus was taking the other hunter, Rob from Victoria, out after waterbuck.
Harald and I set out to the range first, to test my rifle, which proved itself, and we set off.
We drove out to a windmill in the middle of a huge paddock full of thick, head high brush, and Andreas, the tracker, climbed up. I followed to see what I could see.
He was only up there a few minutes when he started talking quickly in Afrikaans down to Harald, and Harald motioned for me to come down quickly.
We both got down fast and Harald told me that Andreas had seen a large warthog a couple of hundred meters off in the bush. I couldn't believe he could see anything but giraffe in that scrub, but set off anyway
We quickly moved about 200 meters into the bush when Harald slowed down, and got the sticks up.
The boar stopped broadside about 40m away and I fired. I didn’t see where he went, but saw the sow run off.
We went to where he had been standing and there he was, barely 5 meters away. I could not believe that Andreas had managed to see him in that scrub, or that the whole hunt seemed to have gone so well.
We took him back to the ute and took plenty of photos, then set off into the bush after wildebeest. After about 4km we managed to find a bull, but he was only a small one, so we left him and moved on. Nothing more was seen that morning, so we went back to the lodge to cape the warthog and have a feed.
We had a lazy midday while Harald went to get fuel, and I picked grass seeds out of my pants.
Around 3, I headed out with Marcus in search of wildebeest again. We climbed the windmill and spent a while glassing, we spotted 3 gemsbok and 2 smaller wildebeest off 700m away, but soon picked up on a big bull heading towards them. Marcus and I took off to try to cut him off but he beat us. We stalked the gemsbok for a while, and had several good looks at them, but they were small or cows, and the wildebeest with them were small.
Back up the windmill for another look, but nothing presented so we stalked thru the bush again for a while, but ran out of light and headed back to the lodge.
Monica cooked up a great meal of gemsbok stroganoff while all sat around the fire and chatted about the day.
After dinner Marcus and I decided to head out with the spot light to look for Jackal, but it was a quiet night. Only one came in to the caller. I was using Harald's 223 which had the factory “10 pound” trigger so I stuffed the shot. I twice checked it wasn’t the safety stopping me, and when I finally got the shot off it was low.
By that stage it was 10pm and I was wrecked. We headed back to the lodge and called it a night
Day 3
Up at 6 for a quick bite to eat before heading out to again look for wildebeest. I was beginning to think I wasn’t going to be successful on them, as they were proving very elusive.
We again drove to the windmill and Harald climbed up for a look. Nothing was seen so we set off into the scrub just before the sun broke the horizon.
About 15 minutes of walking and Harald stopped to look thru the binos, but hadn't seen anything, he was just about to move off when I spotted movement, a blue wildebeest moving thru the bushes about 200 meters away.
We quickly moved in on him, and Harald had a look through his binos and confirmed he was good.
I put the rifle on the sticks and took he shot. It sounded good, and he dropped his head, but then just ran off like nothing happened. Harald and I spent probably an hour looking, before he set off to get the dogs, and I stayed at the spot the wildebeest was standing, searching for blood.
Harald came back with Andreas and two dogs, and we searched for about an hour. We found a very small blood trail and followed it for a while. He wasn’t bleeding hard enough to have been fatally hit, so the realization that the most expensive animal on my list has simply ran away started to set in.
I knew my luck yesterday was too good. The warthog was too easy, so this was just the world righting itself.
Back to the lodge for breakfast and to just let it go. Cant do anything about it
After lunch, to distract myself, I went off with the quad to sit over a dam for a few hours to try to shoot some small warthogs for leopard bait for Harald. A bloke is coming over from the states at the start of June to chase one. I set up in a shady spot where I was to sit until 2pm
I watched the turtles float about, and watched the birds squabble at the waters edge until about 1.20pm, I'd basically given up on the idea, thinking it was too hot for much to be moving when suddenly 2 warthogs popped out of the bush and came in quickly for a drink. I shot the younger one, which dropped on the spot, and the other ran off.
I packed up, tied the sticks and chair onto the quad and rode around to collect the shot pig, when I noticed the other was grazing barely 30 meters away, just over a small bank, oblivious to me. I watched it for some time, taking photos and just enjoying watching the behaviour, before I realized it wasn’t a young boar with potential, as I first thought, but a sow. So I shot it for Harald's bait spots as well.
We took the back legs of the bigger sow out to the another property some 25km away, to tie them into the leopard bait stations. David (another tracker) and Harald spent quite some time at the bait stations, looking at the various prints in the sand, comparing them. Harald showed me that there was two leopards coming in, a male and a female, the male at night, the female during the day. After we were done we drove for probably an hour or so, over the 16000ha property looking for hartebeest.
We saw at least 6 steenbok, a dozen or so oryx and warthogs and countless Longhorn Cattle, but couldn't find any hartebeest. We must have driven 25km before we came across the first one, but the wind was wrong and he headed off immediately.
We pushed on and came across a couple of kudu cows, before spotting a small group of hartebeest. We left the ute and set off into the scrub to track them. After about 1km, I had a chance to take a shot at 200, front on, but branches were in the way, and I was a bit concerned after this morning losing the wildebeest
He moved off and we followed for another 200 or so metres. He had joined up with some more, and one presented broadside at about 120m perfectly.
I took the shot and he went 15m or so before going down. Harald went back for the ute while David and I took a few photos, and got him ready to load up.
Back at the house of the property owner, we caped him out, put the meat in the cool room. Upon opening his chest up, we found the shot had gone straight thru the vitals, destroying the heart. We packed up and headed back to the lodge, dropping David off at his house in the squatters camp on the way
Marcus cooked tbone steaks for dinner on a hot plate over the fire while we had a couple of beers and chatted to Christian from Ingwe Taxidermy, who had come out to talk to rob and I about mounts. I still desperately wanted a Jackal, and as we planned to go to the Kalahari the following morning, I decided to try again that night, even if it was with the unshootable Remington factory triggered 223, shooting mil surp fmj's into 2.5" groups @ 100m
At the same spot as the night before, we set up the caller and had little response to the steenbok distress call, so after a while we switched to the jackal mating call.
Suddenly the howls came from everywhere, and a jackal came into 90m, but again I couldn't get the trigger to go off when I wanted it, and he bolted before I shot.
We moved onto another spot, and had the same result. One came into the distress call, but I couldn't get it to fire and he was gone. I just could not get this heavy trigger to work for me. (we later began to suspect there was a fault with this rifle, perhaps some crap in the trigger, as it was a nice, normal trigger when collected from the safe in the warm house, but impossibly heavy when cold late at night)
By this stage I was resigned to the fact I wasnt going to get a jackal, and had all but given up, when Marcus switched calls again.
After a minute or so of the call, he flicked on the light and there was 3, about 75 out. I could only see 2, and I just jammed the trigger as hard as I could and the closest one dropped on the spot. Relief at last.
We packed up and headed back to the lodge, gutted him out, inspected the skin damage, put him in the cool room for skinning tomorrow and called it a night. It had been a long day, the low of the wildebeest to the highs of getting a good hartebeest and finally getting the jackal, that proved so hard to get, despite being told multiple times by multiple people that they are guaranteed easy.
Today's hunt was one of the tougher days hunting I've had. The mental aspect of it changes when your paying for each animal shot, recovered or not, and no one likes losing a wounded animal. Knowing you have a limited time to hunt, and you cant just duck out again next weekend plays with your mind.
Having wanted to go to Africa for so long, and knowing your time is limited increases the pressure greatly
Day 4
We got up early and packed up everything ready to head to the Kalahari.
As we drove we saw a huge amount of animals, and a steady chance in the landscape.
We got to the house and unpacked our gear. The house is a beautiful big old double story house built in the 30's. Huge high ceilings, massive rooms, with balconies overlooking the property. The house runs on a generator, with solar backup, and kerosene fridges. Hot water is from a "donkey", a drum set up on top of a fireplace.
We got ready and headed out hunting. The first area we drove thru almost looked like an orchard grove without the straight rows, like a carpet either side of the road.
We started to see animals. We stalked in on a mob of zebra, but they spooked before we got a good look, and then stalked in on a big bodied oryx, but passed on him due to horn length.
As we drove along the land opened right out, and almost began to look like a high priced golf course, a sea of light green amongst acacia trees. The scenery was stunning.
As we drove we saw dozens of springbok, zebra, oryx, meerkats and mongoose
We stopped to stalk in on some zebra, after about a kilometre, we were 300m from them, and Franz pointed out a good one. I tried to steady for the shot, but nerves, self doubt off the sticks set in and I stuffed the shot. Completely missed
We trekked back to the ute, and continued on. We came to a large plain, where there was hundreds of animals. Blesbok, black wildebeest, oryx, springbok, but they were all well aware we were there.
We kept on, and came across a huge herd of oryx, and we stalked them for at least 6km, but they just kept out of our range, so we returned to the ute again.
Not long after, we bumped into a herd of kudu cows, with a young bull, but he wasn’t big enough so we left them. I was only going to stretch the budget to Kudu if a belter showed himself
Very soon after, we came across a lone oryx, and I set up for the shot, and Franz assessed him, the horns are so long on them that even small ones look big, so I waited for Franz. I completely expected him to tell me it was another small bull, as we had passed on so many, so when he said he was good, I was taken by surprise, I had my cross hairs on him for so long waiting that when the shoot call came in, I stuffed it. I bumped my hat brim on the scope, panicked that he was going to run and rushed the shot, hitting the ground below him.
I was so cranky with myself. So frustrated. We had covered so much ground, seen so many animals, and I'd stuffed two shots.
Franz kept persevering, and 30 minutes or so we came across some more zebra. A nice stallion presented about 200 meters out and I took the shot.
These animals are so tough, he jumped, twisted, went down, got up and ran again, and I lost sight of him. I was sure I hit him well, but was suddenly sick with worry again. Franz saw him go down from where he was standing though, and congratulated me, assuring me he was down.
We drove over to him, and found him at the base of a tree. He had an amazing skin. Beautiful grey shadow lines between the main lines. I took so many pictures before we winched him up onto the ute to head back.
I sat on the seat up on the back with a beer and had a "holy shit, I'm in Africa" moment. I soaked in the scenery, watching animals and birds as we drove back, stopping to stalk in on some more oryx, before getting back to the house.
Back at the house I helped the skinners cape out Robs wildebeest and start to skin my zebra, before heading over to the house to help get things prepared
We sat around the fire chatting for a couple of hours before another great dinner and called it a night
Day 5
As the sun rose we set off looking for Impala, and quickly came upon a lone springbok. I took the shot but the shot deflected of some scrub and he was off, bouncing higher than the bushes on his way.
We continued on for another 20 minutes or so when a Jackal ran across the road in front of us. Harald shouted from the cabin "if he stops, shoot that bastard".
The jackal went on for a few short runs before stopping for a look again. I let him have it, and he went down, tail spinning where he stood. I took a couple of photos and left him there
We carried on further when Andreas spotted a steenbok. This little animal wasn’t on my list, but I decided to have a shot anyway. He went down, but when we got to where he was, we found that despite being hit with so much projectile (196gn Norma Oryx @ 2770fps), he still ran 20 meters with all the damage he had.
We posed him up for some photos and then kept hunting. Such a cute little animal
We came up on some springbok and oryx, and stalked in on them. As we were stalking in, Harald suddenly jumped away swearing. He had almost stepped on a puff adder. That got the heart going a bit.
The first group of oryx moved off, so we went after the second group, we managed to get past some black wildebeest and get set up on the sticks for a shot. I lined up and click..... I had emptied the chamber after the first lot moved off by habit, and hadn't rechambered a round.
Before I could rechamber, they moved off. I was so upset with myself.
We started back toward the ute when Andreas spotted a springbok. We stalked in and again set up on the sticks, but a wildebeest was in the way, I spent ages on the sticks waiting for him to move off, and when he finally did, my nerves were shot, and I hit the springbok too far back. It ran off, we stalked it for a while before it got away. Another lost animal.
At this point I was ready to give up. I had no confidence in myself, so we headed back to the house to skin out the steenbok, and have something to eat. Lunch was kudu steak sandwiches on home made bread
I decided to have a rest, take some time out and have a sleep for a few hours, and maybe go sit on a water hole later in the afternoon, as I just couldn't bring myself to go stalk the plains again that day, having lost another animal.
I sat at the water hole late in the day with Franz and fought my nerves the whole time. I still had three days left, desperately want an oryx, but had no confidence to shoot.
I tormented myself for an hour or two, while I watched pigeons come in to drink at the trough, when suddenly a mongoose jumped out from under the trough to try to catch a bird, but missed. He sat on the trough disgusted at himself for a few minutes before scampering away. I couldn't help but feel his pain.
About 530pm Franz said we should try to stalk in on something, as he didn’t think anything was happening. Immediately we spotted 3 oryx that had been making their way in to drink, but they were down wind. They hadn't scented us yet, but would at any moment. There was a good bull amongst them, but he wouldn't give me a shot before they took off.
We followed them around for a while, but they were onto us. Each time we would see them, they would already be watching us.
We headed back to the waterhole, and on the way I found a small, long dead black wildebeest. I broke the horns off the dry carcass, and called that consolation for my lost blue wildebeest
We sat back at the water hole until the sun was gone, and the mosquitoes had come out.
Time to head back, and try again tomorrow
Day 6
We headed out just after first light. I was feeling terrible, nervous, and was sick over night in the guts as well, I'd been up a bit during the night with it.
We drove out throuh the thorn bushes for a few kilometres where we stopped to have a shot off the ute, and a shot off the sticks. Both were bang on, but there's no pressure shooting a cardboard box...
We drove on a few more kilometres before we came across our first herd of oryx. There was a good bull in the herd, but they were aware of us, the wind wasn’t right, so we moved on.
A herd of zebra were spooked and running like mad, spooking everything so we had to speed past them and turn them away.
Not long after we found a group of oryx and we stalked in on them. I was nervous again, but took a shot at 244m off the sticks. It dropped on the spot. I was over the moon, couldn't believe it, I'd finally got the animal I'd wanted the most.
We walked over to where it was and it was gone. We couldn't find it. It had got up and ran after I started celebrating. I was heartbroken again. How could I have lost another animal?
We searched and searched, went back to the point of the shot and kept looking. We found the spot it had gone down, so we set off tracking the departing herd. We walked and walked, but there was no way of knowing where mine had gone, amongst all of those prints. There was no blood to follow.
We turned back to the ute, and was almost back when Franz spotted it. I couldn't believe it. There is was, after all the heart ache, we had found it.
It was a cow, 34.5" long, not a massive bull like everyone wants, but I was over the moon. Photos were taken, handshakes, back slaps etc. I was thrilled.
We loaded the oryx up and started to head back towards the house. We found several small groups of springbok, but nothing would stand long, they were very alert, the wind was blowing hard so they were flighty.
We were almost back at the house when I spotted a lone springbok sitting in the bush. Franz stopped the ute quickly and I had the rifle on him as quick as I could. Marcus said it was a mature ram so I shot. He was hurt, just went behind a bush and stood still. I shot again and he was down.
Given the trouble we had finding the oryx, I stayed at the spot the shot was taken, while Franz and Marcus went to find him.
They found him and they called me over quickly with the camera, to catch the pronk
Marcus had done such a good job to get those animals for me, I was a mess, nervous, stressed out, doubting myself, ready to give up, yet he got me over the line.
We all loaded up on the cruiser and headed out. Rob still wanted another blesbok, and we wanted to have a look for the blesbok Rob shot and lost yesterday.
I left the rifle at the house and took the camera. I took hundreds of photos as we drove along.
We saw dozens of Zebra and Springbok, hundreds of Blesbok and a huge herd of Oryx. Must have been 250 in the mob.
We followed the vultures and found the blesbok that was lost. He was near a water trough that Marcus and I drove past this morning. He was not there when we went past, so must have come in after we passed to try to drink and died there.
The vultures had reduced it to a bit of hide and skeleton. They had cleaned it out in just a few hours. There would have been 15 vultures in the trees nearby.
We drove on, coming across an aardvark, which I tried to sneak up on, but it went down its hole.
We found the young kudu bull from Wednesday, with his cows, and yet more Oryx. Nearly back at the house we saw Impala, and I'm thinking about maybe chasing one again tomorrow, depending on how I feel.
Back at the house we sat around the fire, talking about the days hunts, and having a few beers. I'm buggered, the relief at having got all my animals with time spare to soak it all in, and take photos is immense.
Day 7
We set out early again, looking for Impala. I wasn’t sure I really wanted one, but thought I would just go for a look, and if we found one and it really grabbed me, I would take it.
We came across a few, but nothing presented a shot, and I wasn’t feeling like I really wanted one, so we came home by about 10. We had seen plenty of other animals, including probably 10 Impala
We had a quick feed and packed up everything, as we had decided to head back to the lodge at the other farm, as we are done here, and its closer to the airport.
We left at 2, for the drive back to Omitara, getting back at a bit after 4. We had a quick snack and headed off to look for Baboon.
We saw a few Jackals, a few Warthog, including a fairly good boar that arrogantly stood and watched me, as if he knew I wasn’t going to shoot another warthog trophy.
We got back to the house for springbok back straps for dinner, before ducking back out to call a few Jackal. Marcus shot 2, but they were starting to wise up to the caller, so we called it a night
Day 8
Harald and I went out to look for baboon, we drove a long way out, to the mountains, and drove around the base hoping to find a troop of them, but didn’t see any. We came across a herd of mountain zebra up high on the hill, now I have seen both species it is quite easy to tell the difference.
We got back to the cattle yards, and there was three small warthogs in amongst the cattle, and Harald asked me to shoot one for bait, but I couldn't get a shot without risking the cattle behind, and they slipped away into the scrub
We moved forward to try to find them, but they were gone. I spotted a Jackal, so I hopped off the ute to try to find him in the scrub. He spooked and ran a few meters before I shot him. He was a good one to shoot as he was full of mange, barely any hair on the tail and back legs
We sat around the lodge relaxing for a few hours until it was time to head back out again. We came across many Kudu on the hunt, it was really great to see so many, given the Kudu rabies epidemic that's happening at the moment. We probably saw 15 cows, 6 or 7 calves, 2 juvenile bulls and 2 bulls in the 40-50" range
We heard a baboon bark at us, but we didn’t get a look at them. Next time I will dedicate a bit more time to baboon.
Back at the lodge we mucked around with a few dead heads, trying to get some horn covers for display, but couldn't get the skull cap out of the dead head I had collected in the kalahari
We had a few beers and dinner, before I called it a night. I was a little bit sad that it had all come to an end, but I have decided to come back in the future, to hunt black and blue wildebeest, baboon and kudu, then take wife for a bit of a tour of the country.
Day 9
We got the whole crew in for a couple of photos, then headed to the airport
Amusingly, we came across a group of 6 or 7 baboons just walking along the edge of the road. Couldn't find one when looking, everywhere when I cant shoot one
Marcus helped get my rifle checked back out of the country, and get me checked in, then it was time for goodbyes. Marcus had been a great guide, only a kid at 19, but worked so hard to get me my animals, calm me down, keep me positive after missed shots, and was an absolute wealth of knowledge on the animals, and how to hunt them.
I hope he is still around when I come back, and I wished him luck in his studies, as he progresses from guide to master guide to registered professional hunter.
Fairly comfortable flight, easy passage thru customs, and uneventfully bus trip home, arriving about 830pm.
It's all over. Sad it's over but its been great. I'll be back
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