NAMIBIA: Heading To Namibia 6 Aug 2021 With Ekuja Hunting Safaris

[AZDAVE]

@kdenn Yea I hear you on the New Zealand, we are suppose to be going next spring on a fly and ride motorcycle trip. I am hoping that it will open and we can go but if I was a betting man I figure that we have about a 10% chance of that happening.. So my vote is we all go back to africa on a safari

The next two days is a very successful hunt by my lovely wife, however that is her story to tell. We have plans to meet our friends at Etosha national park after our hunt is complete, but with our blessings by the hunt gods we have a few extra days so we are going to spend a few days visiting the skelton coast and meet our friends in Etosha. more to follow.

 

[BourbonTrail]

Awesome oryx Dave! Probably my favorite PG species.

Sounds like a great trip.

 

[buck wild]

Great cat ! Loved the report. AH is really killing (pun intended) the cats this year.

 

[PARA45]

Wow, what an outstanding cat, and beautiful old Oryx. Oh, and the wood on that No.1 rifle is flat out beautiful!

 

[gillettehunter]

Looks like a fine oryx. Good job.
Bruce

 

[rinehart0050]

Congrats on a great tom!

 

[Uintaelkhunter]

Congrats on a very nice leopard. It looks like both of you had a great trip.

 

[mdwest]

The next morning we are working on my wife's list and the couple animals on my list. I am looking for a old large oryx and a Hartmans Zebra. We hunted the morning with out seeing a animal that I was looking for, we did see some very nice Kudu, Eland,Burchell Zebra, Giraffe, springbok, blue and black wildebeest.
The winds were up and cold so the animals weren't moving and were skittish. We went back to the lodge and grabbed a nap after lunch with plans to head out that afternoon. The wind has dropped and we are seeing all the animals up and moving. Saw a couple zebra with the correct stripes but it was mostly their butts headed away quickly. About a 1/2 hour before dark we spot the Oryx I have been looking for on several safaris. Drikus gets me to about 150 and I have a small window through the bush for a shot, up go the sticks and I make a shot that just hits a small branch. The shot deflects about 6 in below where I was aiming and he takes off. We get on his track and there is a good blood trail. We jump him about 100 meters later and get a second shot in him and he goes down. Put a finish shot and I have the oryx I have wanted for a long time. He is old and his teeth were worn down to the gum line. All that I have left is the hartmans and I will never turn down a big warthog or jackal if Africa decides to put one in front of me.

View attachment 421201

I think I like that pic even better than the one with Mr. Spots! Awesome gemsbok! (and beautiful rifle!)

 

[AZDAVE]

@PARA45 I did a pair of #1's with blanks from the same tree, the other is a 450/400. Treebone carving sells a 85% inletted stock set, I worked with them and selected two nice blanks that he put on his duplicator and I did all the final fitting and finishing. At one point I wanted a Lexus model 11 but when I did the math I figured I could get 3 #1's (7x57, 9.3x74, and 450/400) and restock them for the same price.

 

[AZDAVE]

With several days extra due to great luck on our hunts, we put together a trip to the coast. We already had plans in place to meet our friends for a couple nights and a day in Etosha, so the timing worked out to have 4 days on the coast before Etosha. Johan is one of Ejunka PH's, he escorted us on the trip. he did a fantastic job. We picked up a rental car at the airport and were on our way. The change of the flora and fauna on the way to the coast was very interesting. Johan gave us a history lesson of this part of Namibia. We made it to Swakopmund and got settled in our hotel and took a walk along the beach. Had dinner at the Tug restaurant and made plans for the next days wavis bay boat tour and sandwich bay 4x4 tour. Have a good pic of my wife settling into being retired and a sunset from the Tug on the pier.

 

[AZDAVE]

The next two days we head up the coast and stay at cape cross and visit the seal colony. Very remote but was worth the visit. Came back by way of Mount Etjo safari lodge on our way to Etosha. The food was very good and just had a nice sightseeing kinda long drive.

 

[Edge]

Congratulations on the fantastic Leopard and Gemsbok!

I need to plan a trip to Namibia!

 

[AZDAVE]

We meetup with our friends at Toshari lodge right outside Etosha, and spend a full day out in the park. We saw many elephants, (Talked shot placement with the PH driving the truck a couple lion prides, hyena, jackal and the usual group of plains game. The highlight of the day was a couple lioness's eating on a giraffe.

 

[AZDAVE]

After a nice Day at Etosha we head back to Ekuja lodge and our friends headed to their outfitters lodge to start his leopard hunt. We had a couple days left to take it easy and look for a nice Hartman zebra and some jackals. No luck on the zebra but the jackals population was reduced.

There was a couple hunters now in camp looking for some above average Elands. They were leaving for home the same day as us, drikus coordinated for us all to have our covid test done at the lodge by a traveling testing service. we had our results the next morning and started getting our belongings packed and ready to leave the next day.

Some final thoughts, this was our first trip to Namibia and we really enjoyed the whole trip. Ekuja's lodge, staff, food and equipment are all first rate. We were blessed with very good weather and finished our hunts early. I can HIGHLY recommend this company for a high quality safari. In their main camp you have fantastic plains game and leopard, and in the Caprivi area Elephant, buffalo, croc, hippo and plains game.

 

[Rare Breed]

Thank you to all for the good wishes. We arrived safely with only a few visits from Mr Murphy trying to interfere with travel but was easily thwarted. I have a few minutes in a super busy trip to provide any updates and will provide a full report when we get back. So the quick update (without pictures as I forgot the correct cable to get from camera to tablet). Is that as of end of day 3 we donned to shoot any more bait and have recovered all the game cameras and equipment back to farm headquarters. And we are now working on my wife's list. The gods. Of the hunt have smiled on us big time and Drikus is 100% on cats for 2021.

Good luck!!!

 

[Rare Breed]

I figured you might want to see a picture

We weight him and he was 72 KG, and if we measured his skull correctly it is 16 3/4.

View attachment 420942

Awesome!!!

 

[Mort Hill]

Fabulous safari @AZDAVE for both you and the Mrs. Great cat, great gems, and wonderful pictures of Africa! Kudos to you both.

 

[Marc Ret]

Really enjoyed your write-up, Dave. Beautiful leopard.

Your thread caught my attention as you were hunting with Drikus. One of my best friends did a PG hunt with him 7 or 8 years ago and had nothing but good to say about his operation.

This Warthog was my favorite from his hunt.

 

[AZDAVE]

Yes he runs a very nice operation, we will be going back to hunt with him again in 2023.

 

[Marc Ret]

Yes he runs a very nice operation, we will be going back to hunt with him again in 2023.

Enjoy your hunt. If inclined, ask him about the best load for sorting out a mamba in your kitchen...