Season Newsletter 2022 - KAROO WILD Safaris
We’re nearing the end of our hunting season. 2022 has been a successful year for us and our clients and we shared some memorable hunting adventures. We welcomed many return hunters to Karoo Wild Safaris and also hosted some first time African hunters.
The 2022 season kicked of with an early season hunt. Maurice joined us from Northern Ireland on his first African hunt. Despite being the end of summer, the hunting was exceptional with Maurice getting an impala, black springbok, duiker, steenbok and black backed jackal. The highlight of the hunt was undoubtedly Maurice’s kudu which we hunted on the 5th afternoon.
Randy and Shannon booked a
Couples Hunt and Tour Package with us. We customized the package to allow Randy to hunt a few rarer animals that had eluded him on previous African hunting trips. We hiked the mountains to hunt an elusive klipspringer. The following evening, we connected with a cape grysbuck, a tiny ten antelope commonly found in the Eastern Cape. Shannon joined in the hunt by taking a world class nyala bull. After the hunt we travelled to Plettenberg Bay, South Africa’s most scenic coastal town, for 3 days of sightseeing. We stayed at Milkwood Manor, right on the beach and lagoon. We visited Monkeyland and Birds of Eden animal sanctuaries and did some wine tasting at one of the wine estates in the area. It was Shannon’s turn to hunt and she picked up many trophies at the local boutique shops in Knysna and Plettenberg Bay.
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Val from Ontario, Canada visited South Africa for a 7-day hunt and vacation. Besides the appeal of hunting in Africa for the first time, Val has a keen interest in foreign places, history, and culture and wished to visit and learn as much about our area in his time with us. Val hunted a common and black springbok, kudu, and impala. We spent a day in the historic Karoo town of Graaff Reinet and also visited the Addo Elephant Park, overnighting in the safari tents in the Park’s rest camp before travelling down the Garden Route to Plettenberg Bay.
Arnis, Andis and Guntars accompanied by their wives hunted with us in the peak of the mating season in May. Myself, Arnold and Jan guided them on their 9-day safari. Andis and I had a truly productive hunt, making some great stalks to bag 11 world class trophies – impala, sable, common duiker, nyala, kudu, waterbuck, eland, common and copper springbok, giraffe and bushbuck. Luck was most definitely smiling on us; the sun was setting fast on our bushbuck hunt when we spotted the first trophy ram of the day! This was Arnis’s 8th African safari and his wish list compromised largely of rare and nocturnal animals. Arnold did extremely well to guide him on a vaal rhebuck, cape grysbuck, aardwolf, caracal and bat eared fox. Guntars had a thinner wish list and joined the others on their hunts, Jan guided him on an impala, blesbok, steenbok and red hartebeest.
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Brad treated his son Aiden to a unique high school graduation gift, an African Hunt! The hunt started with a bang with Aiden getting an impala on the first afternoon. Our good fortune continued into the next morning with Aiden’s 18-year-old legs hunting down a kudu bull in the mountains. Aiden added a springbok, zebra, and gemsbok to his tally. Brad did some hunting of his own, getting a warthog, blesbok, and blue wildebeest. The trophy hunt ended with some time to spare and we kept the boys busy hunting some cull springbok for camp meat.
We keenly awaited the Oswald family hunting trip with us in July. Dan and Celine first hunted with us in 2013 and brought their daughters Morgan, Abby and Natalie with them on their trip in 2016. This time the whole family returned to the Karoo for a trophy and cull hunt and some vacation time along South Africa’s beautiful coastline. It’s heartwarming for us to host a family that enjoys one another’s company as much as the Oswalds do. It was a truly fun hunt with lots of laughs and good walk and stalk hunting. Celine hunted a nyala on the first afternoon. Dan bagged an old red hartebeest bull, cull black wildebeest and impala, Morgan hunted a cull eland and black springbuck. Abby put in an exciting stalk to shoot a cull impala ram at 15 yards and later connected with a blesbok trophy. We had excellent sighting of elephant, cape buffalo and white rhino whilst hunting and the girls enjoyed a spa day and lunch with Lindsay at the Drostdy Hotel in Graaff Reinet.
Chris and Mary Ellen from Queensland, Australia returned for their 2nd trip with Karoo Wild Safaris. Chris and I had been planning this trip pre-Covid and we were excited to finally see our friends again. Top of Chris’s list was a barbary sheep, an animal not indigenous to South Africa but have been introduced to the Northern Cape in numbers. Chris and I travelled to Douglas in the Northern Cape and hunted a barbary sheep and blue wildebeest in that area. Chris also successfully hunted a red lechwe, red hartebeest, black wildebeest, impala, Kalahari springbok and baboon. Excited for our 2023 hunt!
Josh and Karl’s hunt with us in late September was an exciting hunt. We hiked many miles each day and had to work exceptionally hard for our trophies, which made our success that much more rewarding. Josh hunted a kudu, gemsbok, springbok, black wildebeest and impala. Karl hunted a kudu, gemsbok, impala and nyala. We spent the last day viewing elephants in the Addo Elephant Park. I’ve been to the Addo many times but seeing herds of 150 plus elephant frolicking at the waterholes at midday was one of my best sightings yet.
We hosted a hunter from Kazakhstan in early November. We got onto cape buffalo early on in the hunt and took kudu, waterbuck and impala later on.
Greg returned from Michigan in early December for a follow up hunt he had with us last year. Despite the extreme heat we had in the first couple of days, we had another good run – impala, zebra, blue wildebeest, common duiker and copper springbuck. The highlight of the hunt was the waterbuck we hunted on the second last day in the Karoo mountains.
We love South Africa and are committed to showing our guests the many sights that our region has to offer. We offer a number of non-hunting tours and activities that can be taken before or after your hunting safari with us. All the tours are organized and personally guided by us and our trusted tour guides.
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The 2023 season holds much promise. Besides our own property and existing concessions in the area, we continually scout for areas that offer us access to new species and different options. We’re excited to add an additional 34 000 acres in our area to add to the existing 270 000 acres that we already have access to.
Thank you to those that made the trip out to South Africa to hunt with us this season. May you all have a blessed Christmas and a prosperous 2023.
