SOUTH AFRICA: Family Safari With Wild Wildebeest Safaris

[Hefty Jefe]

2024 South African Family Safari

Outfitter: Wild Wildebeest Safaris, Tony DeBruyn
PH: Dawie Jacobs
Tracker: Rasta

Last year, my wife and I decided to take our family on an African safari. I generally travel alone for hunting, so this would be my first time taking my wife and daughter. My wife is not a hunter and my 15 year old daughter thankfully humors me by doing some occasional local hunting with me. She has been lucky enough to harvest 5 deer on one day deer hunts. She has also done a 3-day New Mexico Pronghorn hunt with me that she still describes as “very long.” Given these unique circumstances, I knew that I had to put together a safari that ensured everyone had experiences that they found fun and exciting.

Since I believe the best references are ones given by trusted colleagues, I contacted several friends that are regulars to the Dark Continent. From these, I spoke with several outstanding outfitters who I am sure would have all done a great job. I finally settled on Wild Wildebeest Safaris (WWS) with outfitter Tony DeBruyn. I was able to speak to Tony at length during a local get together hosted by a friend before the SCI show. He had excellent answers to all my questions and understood that I wanted to combine hunting and non-hunting activities to maximize our family experience.

Although sleeping in a wall tent in Alaska sounds perfectly reasonable to me, my wife believes a Holiday Inn is roughing it. In addition to their home camp, WWS has several different ranches they use for different hunts around South Africa. Tony sent me pictures of several camps and my wife and I agreed the camp in Limpopo would be an excellent choice for both hunting accommodations and proximity to other activities we wanted to do.

Days 1-2

We flew from Atlanta to Johannesburg on Delta mainly because it had the fewest connections from our home airport. My family has done several European and Central American flights previously, but 16 hours is a long flight for anyone no matter how you do it. We upgraded to Comfort+ and the extra room certainly helped my long legs. I am not sure it helped my 5’3” wife and daughter but it gave them more room for their stuff. After we landed and got through passport control, we were met by Dawie our gregarious PH who walked us to City Lodge. After we checked in, we went down to the restaurant, got a great dinner, and went back to the room to sleep.

Day 3

The next morning, we loaded up our luggage and set out for the lodge. The three hour drive to the Limpopo region was easy, pleasant and supported with healthy doses of biltong and Fanta. During the trip we discussed what types of hunting experiences and non-hunting experiences we hoped to have over the next week. Dawie our PH paid close attention and helped us put together a great gameplan. I told him our top animals were a kudu and sable for me and a zebra and wildebeest for my daughter. Additional animals were gametime decisions. I told him that I wanted to spot and stalk as much as feasible and possibly use blinds if needed for specific critters. As we were finishing up the conversation, my lovely daughter told Dawie that getting a zebra was the most important part of our safari and is the main reason she was there. I think he got the hint. When we arrived, the lodge was beautiful with a large central building and smaller buildings for each family. We were the only people in camp at that time. We got our luggage to our rooms, unpacked and went to the lodge for a delicious lunch.

After lunch, we went to the range to shoot the rifle. Because we were going to be traveling to a national park after hunting, I decided to not bring my own rifles and just rent one there. We shot our PH’s rifle which was a suppressed 30-06. When he pulled it out of the case, I initially thought it was a Winchester Model 70. However, upon further inspection it was a Musgrave which is a South African firearm company. The ammo were handloaded 165 g Hornady SST. Both my daughter and I shot groups less than an inch apart at 100 yards. We both agreed that his camo tape used to hide the shine of barrel did not do justice to such a spectacular gun. After shooting it for a week, I wish we could easily get Musgrave rifles in the USA.

After we shot the rifle from the bench, we practice a couple shots off Viper Flex Sticks. My daughter and I had practiced off a Bog-Pod tripod for the last month so this new-fangled contraption looked like a disaster waiting to happen. We were very wrong. If you haven’t shot from these before, you owe it to yourself to try them. The stability that they produce is amazing.

After our shooting practice, we decided to drive around the ranch to “see what we could find.” From my understanding, the ranch is traditional bushveld with dense thorny brush and some open high grass areas. That first night, we found three Giraffe, several kinds of Wildebeest, and a group of impala. We got out of the truck to look at the impalas more closely. There were several young rams and one larger one. Dawie sized him up and said the ram was a great one and that I should take it. About that time, the impalas decided to exit stage left. We headed off hiking after them and 20 minutes later we caught back up to them. Viper Sticks went down, the gun went up with the ram quartering to me at 70 yards. I placed the crosshairs halfway up the body on the front of the shoulder and squeezed the trigger the second he gave me the go ahead. I heard the sound of the impact and the ram ran to the left. We walked in his direction and found the blood trail. He laid about 30 yards ahead. The tracker, my wife and daughter arrived several minutes later in the Land Cruiser. If you know the relationship I have with my daughter, we constantly tease each other. When she walked up and saw the exit would at the bottom of the ribs she told me I shot too far back. Dawie rolled the over the impala and showed her an entry wound on the front of the shoulder and told her it was perfect. It was fun having someone else make my daughter eat crow. I have to complement our PH and tracker on the effort they put into great pictures throughout the trip. I admit that my understanding of iPhone pictures was point and shoot. Our PH, showed me that iPhone photos can be modified in all sorts of ways to enhance photo quality.

On the way home, we saw a large blue wildebeest bull. We hopped off the Land Cruiser and set off on the stalk. My wife came with us because she wanted to capture this moment on camera. We caught the wildebeest walking into a water hole. We got my daughter set up on the sticks but a tree was between her and the wildebeest. My wife decided she didn’t have a good angle to capture the moment on her camera decided to walk to our right, fully alerting the Wildebeest of our presence. He stood behind the tree for about 5 minutes before bolting away. Good learning lesson for all of us. That evening we returned to the lodge and ate an incredible dinner. We were introduced to Malva Pudding for dessert which we all thought was incredible.

 

[Hefty Jefe]

Day 4

The next morning we had a quick breakfast and headed out to hunt about an hour after sunrise. My daughter again reminded Dawie that finding a Zebra was her top priority. He reassured her that it was a priority for him as well. Right out of camp, we found a herd of Sable with one old bull. Dawie said he was a great one to take. We were off on the stalk. The Sable knew our intent and the large bull slid behind a tree and disappeared. We followed for about 15 minutes until his tracks entered the thick brush. Walking back to the Land Cruiser, Dawie spotted a kudu bull not 50 yards from us. While he was an immature bull, I still got to watch him stealthily move through the brush. Even when I could see his horns, I was amazed at how easily his body blended into the landscape. The title of the gray ghost is indeed well earned.

We drove around for a while before we saw a group of zebras. They were skittish, running at first sight of the vehicle. We eventually saw a black impala ram that looked fantastic. My daughter told me that she would like to shoot one of those and I agreed to it. Off we went a 2 hour hike where we would see the impala and just when we would set up they were off again. Finally, we made our way back to one of the roads and found a herd of wildebeest. Dawie said the golden wildebeest on the right was an old bull. My daughter said she was interest so we went ahead and set her up to shoot. The wind was perfect and the wildebeest did not know we were there. The golden wildebeest was standing quartering to her at 100 yards. She set up on the viper sticks, found him, and squeezed the trigger. He immediately fell to the ground. We hurried over and my daughter put in one more shot for insurance and it was done. She had harvested her first animal in Africa, an incredible golden wildebeest bull. She was beaming with excitement and pride. These are moments I live for as a parent.

 

[Hefty Jefe]

After loading up the wildebeest, we headed back to the lodge for an excellent lunch. We decided to catch a quick nap and headed back out around 3 pm. Dawie had talked to one of the ranch employees and he said the sable liked to come in and water in the early evenings. We exited the truck about one half mile from a watering hole and began our stalk. When we got to about 300 yards, we sat and waited. About an hour later the sable started to walk in. We identified a good mature bull with great horns. We snuck in to about 200 yards. The shooting sticks went up, I found him in the scope. Another quartering to shot, the shot felt great and we heard bullet impact. The bull immediately ran into the thickest brush on the ranch. We walked to where the bull had been standing. Steady blood was leading into the brush. We found him about 10 minutes later about 75 yards into the deep brush. I had no idea how we were going to get him out because the brush was so thick. Little did I know how versatile a winch and rope extension from the Land Cruiser was. Twenty minutes later my trophy was pulled out of the bush. I had never seen a sable up close prior to this point. He was an amazing animal and the mass of his bases was incredible. I am very thankful for this experience that I got to share with my wife and daughter. It was getting dark when we finished pictures, so we headed back to the lodge. That night we had a wonderful dinner of fat wrapped lamb meatballs and the most amazing candied carrots. I was also introduced to Castle Light beer which was excellent.

 

[Hefty Jefe]

Day 5

The next morning, we met extra early for breakfast because Davie wanted to go to a nearby property that had excellent kudu and blue wildebeest. We ate quickly and jumped in the Land Cruiser and drove about 15 minutes to the other property. This one was topographically different with a mountain on one side of the property as well as several deep ravines. We found several groups of blue wildebeests but were not able to get a shot. We decided to drive the road near the base of the “mountains.” As we rounded a corner, we saw two large kudu bulls that Davie immediately said were shooters. Unfortunately, they saw us at the same time and ran into the thick cover. Davie and I jumped out of the Land Cruiser and headed after them. The brush was exceptionally thick on this mountain. We followed the tracks for about a mile down the trail. As someone who has packed heavy critters out of deep valleys, I was abundantly aware that if we got this kudu it was going to be a tough extrication. Then Dawie saw him in the thick brush. Actually, he saw his legs and front shoulder. He was standing perfectly still about 40 yards from us. I got down on the ground for a seated shot and found his left shoulder. Dawie said to hold off until he could look over the horns. It felt like it took forever, but It was probably 5 minutes before he moved enough to see the horns. Davie gave me the go ahead. I put the crosshairs on the point of his shoulder and squeezed. He immediately exploded into a run. The shot felt good so I was hopeful. About 5 minutes later we found him already dead. The bull was incredible, better than I was hoping. Now to the hard part, how do we get him out? Dawie told me stay with the kudu and he would go get my wife, daughter, and our tracker Rasta. When my wife arrived, she was stunned by how beautiful the kudu bull was. She kept saying, “are you kidding me.” I think she thought it was going to be the size of an impala. We knew there was no way we could take the kudu out whole, so we separated him into front and back halves and pulled him out using a large tarp and all three of our belts. By saying we, I am using the royal form of the term. I really mean that I helped guide the kudu while Dawie and Rasta pulled. A couple hours later, both halves of the kudu bull were in the truck.

 

[Pablo]

Great report, keep it going!

 

[Hefty Jefe]

We dropped Rasta and the kudu bull off at the skinning shed and we went off to find something else. After about an hour, we decided to eat lunch at the edge of a small lake. After lunch, we decided we were going to find my daughter a zebra or possibly a blue wildebeest. After driving for about an hour, we found three blue wildebeest bulls sleeping in an open area. Dawie, my daughter and I snuck up on them. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a shot before the wind swirled and they started running. We decided to drive in the direction that they ran. About one half mile later we caught up with them standing near the road. My daughter, Dawie and I jumped out. Dawie put up the sticks and I put the rifle on them. My daughter aimed at the wildebeest about 50 yards away and pulled the trigger. Click. My heart sank. Her “seasoned” hunting father had forgotten to chamber a round. Amateur move. She cycled the action but this startled the wildebeest and he took off. We gave chase and caught up to him about 500 yards later. Unfortunately, the shot was about 150 yards this time. We set my daughter up on the sticks, she breathed deep and pulled the trigger. We heard a good impact sound and wildebeest ran off. Dawie thought the shot was a little bit low. This starts the best hunting story of our safari. When we got to the site of the shot, there was very little blood. Dawie and Rasta started tracking, and tracking they did. She shot the wildebeest around 3 pm. Unfortunately, the blood ran out about 300 yards into the tracking. From there, these two guys followed the tracks knowing that he was dragging one of his hooves. My wife and daughter followed as we tracked. After a certain point, I figured they were going to say we have made a good faith effort but could not recover the animal. I was wrong. They ended up tracking this blue wildebeest all afternoon. I also thought my wife and daughter would get frustrated and tired of this tracking, but I was wrong on this as well. Somehow, they thought it was a great adventure tracking an animal through the “everything has thorns region” of the Limpopo province. Just before nightfall, Dawie and Rasta found the bull bedded down in a trail. We put one final shot in him and finished the job. Upon inspection, the initial shot was low in the brisket. According to my watch, we walked 5 miles tracking him. His recovery was a testament to the incredible skill of Dawie and his tracker. After we got him loaded up, we picked up the kudu and headed back to the lodge. On the ride home, my daughter again reminded Dawie, that getting a zebra was a high priority for her. Having to answer to my wife for the importance of the zebra made it a high priority for me as well. Dawie said we would change our approach tomorrow.

For dinner, our chef made an incredible South African stew with the golden wildebeest meat along with a chocolate mouse dessert. The highlight of the evening was the post kudu drink. Those who know me will tell you that I do not drink much alcohol. I will have an occasional beer, but I have never found a liquor I truly liked. That night I was introduced to South African brandy. Olaf Bergh and Klipdrift Premium have officially changed my mind on liquor.

 

[Pablo]

The trackers are amazing. And so is that brandy. The brandy & Coke is a good drink.