jeffb
AH senior member
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2013
- Messages
- 85
- Reaction score
- 34
- Location
- Lakeport, CA, USA
- Media
- 17
- Member of
- NAHC Life Member, DU, NRA, SCI
- Hunted
- USA-CA,NV,UT, AFRICA-NAMIBIA
Let me start by saying that this was my first African hunt and I cannot compare this hunt to any other from Africa. This being said, I don't believe I could have had a better time for my first time in Africa. I hunted in Namibia at Ozondjahe Safaris for 10 days hunting plains game with my bow from September 17th through the 28th. I will start with the lodge and employees of Ozondjahe. The lodge was very well up kept and extremely comfortable. I was the only hunter at the lodge while I was there and the bungalow that I stayed in was very nice. As for the employees, every one that worked at the lodge was extremely friendly and always made every attempt to make your stay as comfortable and enjoyable as possible. The service in my opinion is A-1. The food was fantastic and the variety was more than satisfactory. I tried all types of game, Impala, Wildebeest, Eland, Gemsbok, etc. and enjoyed it all. The manager at the lodge Maureen is very helpful (especially when my bow did not arrive when I did). The PH that I hunted with, Francois Robberts was fantastic and could spot game through the brush that I could not even see and he definitely knew what was a trophy and what was not when it came to judging trophy quality. I hunted for 10 days and was looking for Kudu, Gemsbok, Impala, Blue Wildebeest, Red Hartebeest, Warthog, Plains Zebra and Baboon. On the very first day out, a nice Kudu bull approximately 51-53 inch was spotted in the brush and my bow had not arrived yet. Francois gave me the option to take him with his rifle and with 9 days left I decided to wait for my bow as that is how I wanted to hunt. Well, I guess I should have taken him because I only saw 1 more Kudu that was trophy quality during the next 9 days and he was just not in range. I did not see a lot of Kudu on the property which is 72000 acres, not saying they are not there, just did not see an awful lot of them but the couple of bulls that I did see were in my opinion nice trophies. There were plenty of Gemsbok, Blue Wildebeest, Impalas, Plains Zebra and Warthogs though. Those species are in abundance and a hunter should have no problem tagging them although you have to be patient for a trophy Blue Wildebeest. I did not see a lot of Red Hartebeests and did not see them until I was 7 days into the hunting. Out of the 8 total that I saw I was lucky enough to get the only Bull that I saw and he did manage to get me a Silver medal from NAPHA. The Gemsbok are everywhere and I saw trophy quality Gemsboks every day as with the Impalas. Among the other species I saw were Eland, Black Wildebeest (only saw 4-5 the whole time there), Steenbok, Damara Dik-Dik and Ostrich. For the trophies that I did manage to take, the Gemsbok, Blue Wildebeest, Impala and Warthog all took Gold medals from NAPHA. I did not participate in any extra activities although there is plenty of them to participate in such as day trips to various parks and sightseeing adventures. I did go to the Pera Nuau Pre-Primary School and took an SCI blue bag full of needed items for the 3-6 year old children in Otjiwarongo on my last day there and it was one of my personal highlights of the trip and would recommend any hunter going there to do this. The happiness and look on their face was very rewarding and when I go back next time I will take 2 bags. The only thing that could use improvement would be to change up the breakfast once in a while at the lodge. Same thing every morning, eggs, bacon and toast. Not that I do not enjoy that but differences are nice sometimes. I would definitely recommend Ozondjahe Safaris to someone and I plan on going back as I still want that Kudu and would like to get a nice Eland bull also. 
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