NAMIBIA: Khomas Highland Hunting Safaris 2019

[gillettehunter]

I saw some of those spiders in RSA. They are real monsters. Like you said, much faster than what you would expect..
Good looking gemsbuck. Congrats.
Bruce

 

[Matt_WY]

Nice gemsbok!

 

[Ryan]

I have missed out one animal I hunted. The previous evening while in my room and sat on the bed out of the corner of my eye I caught some movement I then saw what at first I thought was a scorpion but turned out to be a spider not a little miss muffet kind but orange brown monster about four inches in length speed of a greyhound and looked real mean. I have no problems with spiders but that beast and me were not sharing the same room. after a couple of close calls it succumbed to a single blow from a well placed size 10 croc.View attachment 273585

A solifuge. I think they are cool. Sun spider in the southwest US, camel spider in Saudi Arabia when I was there and Haarskeerder (hair clipper) in Afrikaans. No kidding, a big one sent my friend onto her chair when she saw it in '16 while in Namibia. She's a veterinarian who has seen less than pleasant things from work as you can imagine, and this had her freaking out.

 

[Dudders]

So my daughter is feeling much better and joins us for our afternoon hunt so we begin to look for a warthog for her Adab has a plan in mind we head towards one of the big dams. We stop a fair distance away from the dam and proceed on foot. We follow a fence line which will take us to the corner of the dam wall as we proceed through the waist high scrub we start seeing lots of warthog mothers with young juvenile males and females almost every 10 meters we would disturb more some would run deeper into the scrub and stand grunting and snorting others would take off straight through the wire fence making it twang with the sound reverberating along its length it gets quiet noisy when three to four warthog hit the fence one after another, It could be quiet frustrating but on this occasion it just seemed funny. We reached the dam wall and began to climb as we reached the top all hell broke loose we had crept into the middle of a gang of baboons as they had been drinking they took off in all directions sounding the alarm as they went the warthog that had been there all scattered. As we stood on top of the earth dam thinking that we were well and truly done over on this stalk and about to head back to the truck. A lone warthog is trotting straight down the middle of the dry lake bed towards us from the far end of the dam his mind is set on one thing his afternoon drink. At any moment we expect him to turn and high tail it out of there with one of the many other warthog heading away from the dam but he just keeps coming Adab sets the sticks and my daughter gets ready. We say to wait until he turns broadside and then shoot, The warthog trots on through the mud to the water kneels down and begins to drink facing head on to us, after having had his fill he stands back up turns broadside and we whisper ok now as the words leave my mouth the warthog dives into the mud and begins rolling around flicking mud in the air at this point we all are laughing again, he finally stands and shakes turns broadside once more and we all wait for the shot. we are beginning to wonder why my daughter has not fired when she asks can I shoot now in unison everyone replies yes the shot rings out and the warthog drops on the spot.

 

[BobT]

Congrats on a fantastic hunt! Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[BenKK]

What a great boar your daughter got! And an incredibly exciting hunt! I hope to experience warthogs and baboons that abundant someday!

 

[Dudders]

you can follow the drag marks to where he was stood in the water we were stood with our backs to the green bushy trees.

 

[Dudders]

We loaded up the warthog and we had now taken everything we had planned to hunt and some extras but we still had plenty of time left to hunt Adab turns to me and asks what to do next. I think for a minute and really we should stop now and go and have a relaxing afternoon at the lodge and go get ready to travel tomorrow.

 

[Dudders]

I turn to Adab and despite my best intensions the words that leave my mouth are lets go find another warthog. Adab reply's" ok big pumba" and makes a gesture with this hands to show big tusks, I say no a "monster pumba " and use my arms to demonstrate, this makes Adab laugh and he says ok monster and we wet off again. We drive to where we had shot the klipspringer and park up, from here we walk there is a water point for the cattle a way up the gorge and we head off towards it we carefully approach as we do a couple of small warthog take off we don't go much further when there is a huge commotion the cattle had come in to drink and had spooked by our approach taking off up the narrow gorge with them went the warthog as we watched the mix of animals disappear we saw a nice warthog running with the cattle we took off at a run hoping for a shot but lost him in the dust a melee, we gave up on him as a lost cause as we turned to head back I caught sight of some warthog heading up the side of the gorge and point them to Adab he says it is the good male with two smaller ones for the next couple of minutes we try to position our selves for a shot as the boar moves up hill through the scrub and rocks playing cat and mouse but eventually he slips away. I thought we were going to head back to the truck but Adab has other ideas we climb out of the gorge onto a flat area off in the distance I could see another dam that's were we were heading. we followed the edge of the flat grassy area using the scrubby bush to break our outline as we approached as we neared the dam there was an area of tall rushy grass which was holding more warthog but again sows with young , we continue to the earth bank and climb up the side there is a small area of water left but no warthog. unnoticed by us was a baboon sat in the scrub who began to make his presence known if we had not been after warthog i would of helped him leave the tree he was sat in. the baboon moved off still sounding the alarm. We sat down on the earth dam and began to scan the surrounding area as we sat two small groups of warthog came to drink again females with young and juveniles. Hendrick spotted a warthog at the far end of the dam on the hillside who was busy feeding away we waited for him to work his way over the top into the next valley then headed off in that direction, as we crossed the dried up dam floor we were joined by the cattle they followed us for a bit then decided we were a bit boring lost interest and left us. We began to climb the valley side quietly slipped through the cattle fence and head to where the warthog had left our sight we began to slowly creep step by step over the skyline surveying the area as we went but nothing. We kept going a while longer then we split Hendrick went over to a rock overlooking the gully below us that fed into the dam and we continued along the side we had not gone far when Hendrick signalled to us the he had spotted the warthog. We had passed it as it had dropped back into the gully and was now heading up the opposite side to us, as Hendrick was signalling its location to Adab it came into view directly opposite us Adab instantly set the sticks as he did the warthog took off but stopped within twenty meters amongst some rocks a quick adjustment to the sticks and the rifle was set. As I looked through the scope I could not see the warthog when they stand still in the amongst the large rocks they blend so well I lift my head to locate him back to the scope and there he is motionless I line up the crosshair and just as I squeeze the trigger he moves but not fast enough and he drops on the spot. Adab was happy now Adab is always happy when you have a successful hunt but he was really happy arms in the air dance and big smile.

five days looking for warthog ended with two great one on the final afternoon.

 

[Dudders]

We load up and head back to the farm everyone is relaxed and happy we had just passed the first dam when I spot some movement on the side of the track I think oh its a hare then I catch another glimpse JACKAL Adab brakes the truck stops and at first the guys on the back thought they had to shut the gate we had just driven through. I Said jackal ahead you could feel the truck rocking as everyone scrabbled into position but nobody could see it, Where did you see it came a question I replied " Its stood in front of the bloody truck" all of ten meters away stood staring at straight at us. the truck wobbled a bit more then the shot rang out and will had Jackal no 3. Everyone had been looking at the hillside a head of us not expecting it to be so close.
We arrive back at the farm and there is Philip apparently after waiting at the airport for a couple of hours and no more klm flights due that day he realised he had been given the right flight details but its departure times not arrival so the hunter would not be arriving until tomorrow. so he had returned for another day.

 

[BenKK]

Fantastic pair of warthogs!

 

[cpr0312]

Nice gemsbok and pigs, congrats!!

 

[KHOMAS HIGHLAND HUNTING SAFARIS]

SUPER SUPER SUPER!!! Thank you my favourite hunting friend for sharing your Safari experience

 

[hoguer]

Awesome trip. I enjoyed Adab as my PH during my trip as well, and already requested him specifically for my return trip on 2020! He is an amazing hunter and tracker. Hope you had fun with Cole up there. He’s a good dude.

 

[flatwater bill]

Nice report...................loved the warthogs, especially. It looks like there is pretty good grass in some of the photos...........recent rain??.............thanks for the post..........FWB

 

[Mike read]

I have just returned from my third visit from Khomas highland hunting having written two previous trip reports would you like a third

View attachment 279044

That is some SERIOUS tail!...Get your mind out of the gutter.....pigs!

 

[Mike read]

Brickburn has spoken so one must obey. I will begin my report as soon as I return from sunny wales in two days time

Your going Wale hunting.....in the summer?Room for one more?I`ll pack my bags....will I need to learn Japanese?....or Norwegian? Either way.....cool...let`s bag a wale!

 

[Mike read]

Seconded

thirded

 

[Mike read]

One happy father.

Don`t be obtuse...answer the mans question...talk dollars.

 

[Mike read]

So my daughter is feeling much better and joins us for our afternoon hunt so we begin to look for a warthog for her Adab has a plan in mind we head towards one of the big dams. We stop a fair distance away from the dam and proceed on foot. We follow a fence line which will take us to the corner of the dam wall as we proceed through the waist high scrub we start seeing lots of warthog mothers with young juvenile males and females almost every 10 meters we would disturb more some would run deeper into the scrub and stand grunting and snorting others would take off straight through the wire fence making it twang with the sound reverberating along its length it gets quiet noisy when three to four warthog hit the fence one after another, It could be quiet frustrating but on this occasion it just seemed funny. We reached the dam wall and began to climb as we reached the top all hell broke loose we had crept into the middle of a gang of baboons as they had been drinking they took off in all directions sounding the alarm as they went the warthog that had been there all scattered. As we stood on top of the earth dam thinking that we were well and truly done over on this stalk and about to head back to the truck. A lone warthog is trotting straight down the middle of the dry lake bed towards us from the far end of the dam his mind is set on one thing his afternoon drink. At any moment we expect him to turn and high tail it out of there with one of the many other warthog heading away from the dam but he just keeps coming Adab sets the sticks and my daughter gets ready. We say to wait until he turns broadside and then shoot, The warthog trots on through the mud to the water kneels down and begins to drink facing head on to us, after having had his fill he stands back up turns broadside and we whisper ok now as the words leave my mouth the warthog dives into the mud and begins rolling around flicking mud in the air at this point we all are laughing again, he finally stands and shakes turns broadside once more and we all wait for the shot. we are beginning to wonder why my daughter has not fired when she asks can I shoot now in unison everyone replies yes the shot rings out and the warthog drops on the spot.View attachment 273677

A young person who isn`t a vegan save the (insert critter here)and has respect for said critters.Tick one up for our team!