NAMIBIA: Khomas Highland Hunting Safaris

[Northland]

Now it's exactly 1 month untill me and my two daughters is leaving north of Sweden to go to Khomas Highland Hunting in Namibia. I've read a lot of good things about Philip and his hunting area and I'm really looking forward to this trip.
I've done 3 African safaris earlier, 2 to Namibia, just south of Etosha and in the central part and one to RSA/Hluhluwe area.
It's the first visit for my daughters and I think they will have a great time there. They are not hunters but has followed on moose hunting since they were 5 and 7 years old.

Best regards from Sweden.

 

[Nyati]

Hope you´ll have a great experience !

 

[Dudders]

I think your daughters will have a great time. My two children did and get Yani to make ice cream for them.

 

[VonJager]

Well you should be there right now having another great African experience. Don't forget to let us know all about it when you get back.

 

[cagkt3]

Safe travels!

 

[Rick Cox]

Involving your daughters in this experience will enrich their lives and perspectives immeasurably. Have a great trip!

 

[Northland]

It took some time to get starting with the hunting report, but here it comes! Enjoy!


Dates: May 12-18 -- 2018

Hunter: Myself and my two daughters.

Booking agent: Booked by myself.

Outfitter: Philip Hennings, Khomas Highland Safaris, www.khomas-highland-hunting.com

PH: Issak Hueb “Adab”

Area: Khomas Highland Conservancy, Namibia.

Firearm: Rented a Sauer 202 in .300 WM, worn but shoot well.

Ammunition: GECO softnose 170 grains, one shoot kills all the time!

Priority species: Red Hartebeest, Baboon, Hartmann Zebra, big Kudu and Ostrich.

Species taken: Oryx, Warthog, Steenbok, Red Hartebeest, Oryx, Hartmann Zebra, Kudu, Baboon and Guinea fowl.

We left north of Sweden the 11th of May, via Stockholm, Doha in Qatar and directly to Hosea Kutako/Windhoek in Namibia and arrived the 12th. We were met by Philip at the airport and had a pleasant drive to Philips hunting ground, Farm Heusis, 8500 ha and part of the Khomas Hochland Conservancy which is 150000 ha free range and with low cattle fence. The area is really great with different landscape and mountains with peaks up to 2000 meters.

We in this case are I and my two daughters, which has never been to Africa before. They are 24 and 22 years old and have followed on moose hunting every year since they were 7 and 5, they like hunting but has never hunted themselves.

This is my forth African Safari and I already got the African disease, have to go back to Africa disease! As it looks maybe the daughters also got affected by this disease because they really enjoyed the trip to Namibia.

When we arrived to Farm Heusis we got an own house with a couple of rooms and a lot of space, a really nice place where it was very comfortable. After we had changed clothes we had coffee and cake and also met some other hunters, one from Texas who is AH-member and one from Europe, the Europeans main focus was Leopard and I said to him that if and whenever he shoot a Leopard I want to know and wanted to get awaken so that I could share the moment and he promised to let me know whenever it was success. We also met Philips brother Jan and a hunting guide from Canada, Cole. All of them really nice people.

After the coffee break we met the PH, Adab and the tracker/driver Eric and we did go with the bakkie to the shooting range to check the rifle. The Sauer was easy to shoot and I was fine after 3 rounds. My daughters also shoot the .300 Win mag and did it very well, both from rest and on sticks.

After the shooting we went for a game drive to look at the area and hopefully some game and we did see some game of different species. We did also see a group of Oryx that we made a stalk on, first the whole group but after a while we left Philip and my daughters behind and it was only me and Adab and Eric that approached the group of Oryx. It was one good male in the group and we stalked closer, waited to get a clear shoot, stalked some more and after awhile Adab put up the sticks and the Oryx presented a broadside at 180-190 meters and I took the shoot. It was a hit and he did run for roughly 50 meters were he started to go in a circle and then he fell, great that it worked well with the first animal, actually the forth Oryx for me. Adab was happy with the shooting and so was I. We walked up to him and took photos and after awhile also the Land cruiser and the daughters arrived, but the drive was not hassle free, they did drive down in a hole in the ground and bumped in to the roof rack of the cruiser and got some bruises. But they were fine later anyway.

We got some more photos and loaded the Oryx in the back of the cruiser and went back home to the farm. At the skinning shed I took some tail hair from the Oryx, we will see what I do with that, could be paint brushes for artistic daughters. The European hunter also had an idea I have never heard about before and it was to take the scrotum and dry it on a glass and have it as a pencil cup, so why not, of course I want a pencil cup from an Oryx scrotum!

We had a shower and went to the fire and a gin and tonic, looked at the Southern Cross and were just happy to be back in Namibia. Soon the dinner was ready, as a starter we had mushroom soup and as main course we had Oryx and rice and as desert it were jelly and ice cream. A great dinner! After the dinner we sat by the fire for awhile, and uncle Roy asked why I had taken my daughters to Africa and I said that I enjoy it so much so I thought it would be nice for them to experience hunting in Namibia. He thought that I should get the daughters married to some Namibian because “-There are a lot of good looking guys around and that my daughters were so pretty”, and of course I agree about that but I will not get them married to anybody, they already got things going. I told Roy that when I was to Namibia the first time my two hunting friends suggested that I should marry some farmer’s daughter in Namibia, I guess that they planned to come and hunt with me later! It was a nice time around the fire but it was time for bed.

More to come...

 

[Northland]

13th of May, Sunday, day 1.

We did get up at 06:05 and had breakfast at 06:30 and left with the car around 07, it was cold at the back of the car. We went up in the mountains and stopped and glassed a couple of times.

We walked a bit and then Adab saw a warthog that after evaluation looked nice so we started to walk in a circle to get from the other side, it took awhile to get there but when we did there was no warthog to find so we continued to walk, after some minutes we spotted 2 Red Hartebeests that Adab said looked good so we headed after them, but they was probably spooked because we could not get in contact again, but the hunt continued and suddenly a group of warthogs started running in front of us, but they disappeared but we ran after them and all of a sudden the hog was in front of us, he was standing in some bush so I could not get a clear shot, I sat down on the ground and with rest on my knees and I could then get a quartering shot at him on ~50 meters, and he was down. Great!

As usual it was a photo session, with many photos from every angle. Warthog alone, warthog with me, warthog with me and daughters and with me and PH and after that some more photos, you can never get too many! We loaded the quarry an headed home, we saw some oryx and zebras and then a group of Hartebeest, at the moment I was not that interested to hunt/shoot anything, but it was some nice bulls in the group so we did get after them, but they were skittish so they just ran away and I thought it was good. I want to enjoy the moment for awhile after a successful hunt and not just jump in to the next hunt, you have to respect the quarry and mourn it some time.

We once again headed home and despite what I just wrote, we bumped in to a good Steenbok and so we were hunting again, a quick stalk and the Steenbok presented an opportunity and I was up on the sticks and the little guy dropped, I felt a little bad about him, they are almost too cute. He looked good and we took the usual photos and I still felt a little bad, this was my second Steenbok and I said to my daughters that I felt a little bad and that I will never take a Steenbok again.

Now we headed home! We got some lunch and it was great, kudu sausage, mashed potatoes, salad and an ice cold Windhoek lager. We had the usual African midday break, I did write in the diary and rested for awhile.

We had coffee and cake at 15:30 and then headed out again, the afternoon was more like a tour, we looked for Baboons, I did some short stalks on Hartebeest, but they disappeared. Adab heard that the other hunting team had a Leopard at 60 meters and looked at it for 10 minutes, but the Leopard hunter did not see any cat, but they had some hit on baits. This afternoon we also saw some Kudu, but too small. We called it a day and steered the bakkie back home. A shower and then put on the favorite suit again, the hunting clothes, and then to the fire and a nice gin and tonic and a look at the Southern Cross.

The dinner was soon ready and as a starter we had a tray of mixed meat, olives and some other nice tasty things. For main course we had Kudu stew and mashed potatoes and as desert fruit, cream and chocolate sauce. The dinner was accompanied by a South African wine which was really tasty. We sat by the fire a short while before it was bedtime at 10.

More to come...

 

[Northland]

14th of May, Monday, day 2.

The alarm was set at 06 and we had the usual breakfast at 06:30, coffee, toast, fried eggs and yoghurt with cereals. At breakfast Philip told me that he had a mission for me this day, he wanted me to take a Oryx or Hartebeest as meat for a school in the neighborhood, of course I was interested in that opportunity! We mounted the cruiser at 07 and headed out, we started walking when we saw two Zebras, we followed them for a while but the wind swirled and Adab said it was no meaning to go after them so we walked in another direction, we did get up on a mountain and glassed and a long way in the distance we saw a herd of Hartebeest in a valley were they were feeding, and also in another direction we could see 2 Hartebeest bulls and some Warthogs, I guess it was 2 km away. Adab decided that we would have a go on the two bulls as they looked nice. We walked and stalked down in a valley and approached them meter by meter, the wind was in our favor and after some time we was getting closer and maybe not far from them, but I thought that they probably already had left the place where they were when we saw them earlier. We continued very quietly and slowly and suddenly we had some Warthogs just in front of us, maybe 15 meters in front, they saw us but could not decide if we were enemies or not, but they probably thought it was safer not to take any chances so they started to move in a circle around us and on the side. We continued our search for the Hartebeest, suddenly Adab stopped and pointed in the tall grass in front of us and formed two Hartebeest horns with two of his fingers, and there he was, just 50 meters away, in pretty high grass. Adab put up the shooting sticks and the Sauer was quickly in the fork and I aimed at him, but I thought that the grass was obscuring him a little too much, he took one step in front and then I could get a clear shoot at him and let the bullet leave the brass. The bullet hit as it was intended and the Hartebeest just fell down, it was a great felling after that long distance stalk and I liked the hunt a lot.

Eric now had to walk back and get the car so that we could get the Hartebeest to the farm. On the way back we bumped in to a couple of Kudus and one of the two bulls was a shooter, Adab thought that we should get after him but I was not that sure I wanted, he was fine for sure but I had a feeling that it could maybe be too easy just to go after him and sneak up on the little hill and have him. For sure he was nice with really deep curls with a shimmering from the sun in the horns, but I decided that I would pass this opportunity, I don’t want it to be too easy, I guess you learn over time that the chase is better than the catch, even if the catch is good, you have to have a good chase.

So we did move on, after some time we had seen a couple of Oryx and suddenly we stopped the car and Adab said, come on we have some Oryx on the other side of that mountain, we started the stalk and finally was on the top and looked down, it was a couple of them down there on the slope, I was up on the sticks and Adab said, take the one to the left, it’s a cow. It was just above 100 meters, I pulled the trigger and she stumbled down to the ground immediately. We walked down to her, she looked nice. As it was not a trophy we just took some quick photos and admired her, Oryx are mighty beautiful animals.

Adab left me and the daughters with the Oryx to get the car there, we waited for a while and then Denzel, Erics son did get back to us, the car was broken, left front wheel was crippled, it looked really bad so we had to call in a car to get us from there and take the Hartebeest and the Oryx to the skinning shed.

Philip arrived and we loaded his cruiser with animals and people and left for the Heusis farm. At the lunch we heard that the European neighbor had a hit on the bait, now another Leopard as it seemed, great! The lunch was “Fat kok”, or fat cookie, a fried bun with minced meat in. It was very tasty. During the car ride today my younger daughter suddenly screamed “what is that animal!” I immediately started to look in the direction she pointed and the only thing I had on my retina was Leopards and all sorts of dangerous animals, but could not see any in the grass where I thought she pointed. It was a big bug! The big bug sat at the roof rails of the car and my elder daughter took it on her hand as seen on picture, it was very big and called Dik Pinns, if I spell it right , or fat stomach in English. Adab said that they eat everything, even human flesh. They start eating immediately when they land on you according to Adab. But they eat very slowly so I guess they do no harm. The feet on the bug were very gluey my daughter said, I did not feel it.

We had a rest, I wrote in the diary and had a Windhoek lager before one hour sleep. We had coffee and a muffin and then started hunting again at 16, we headed to a new area and started to walk the mountains, it was pretty steep up there, we glassed and saw Kudu and Oryx and 2 big Baboons, but they were running as hell at long distance so it was no chance to do anything about it. We continued to walk and crossed a valley and up on another mountain and did walk around it, on the slope on the other side we sat down and glassed the hills, valley and mountains around us. After some time I saw a Kudu bull 5-600 meters away, it was a good bull and we followed his steps when he moved, after awhile we also saw a female and a small one, the bull was following the female of course as the rut was in full swing, we even saw when he tried to have a go on her. They continued to walk on the opposite mountain and then we decided to give it a try, we sneaked down the mountain and down in the valley and it seemed like that the bull was heading in our direction. We continued our stalk and was getting closer when the wind started to swirl, I thought “shit this will not work” but we continued and suddenly he was standing there at 120 meters quartering us, but he saw us and seemed very tensed and it looked as he would run any second, and he did, I did not get any time to get up on the sticks. He ran so we could see him for some seconds, he even stopped at 100 meters but it was not really a good opportunity so I passed it, it was a little too hasty if I had tried for a shoot at that moment. Hopefully it will be new chances, anyway it was a wonderful afternoon and very nice surroundings and great to sit there at the mountain slope and glass.

Back at the farm we prepared for the G/T at the fire and when we got there we got the message that a Leopard was in the salt for the Leopard hunter! When he and the PH arrived with Mr. Spots it was a lot of fuss and happy faces in camp, handshakes and a lot of photos, even if I was not the hunter I think it was really nice to be there at that moment and I felt very happy for the lucky hunter!

Later it was a Leopard party that started with champagne and speeches. The dinner was started with a meat tray followed by Hartebeest, potato wedges and sauce and as desert we had chocolate cake and ice cream. Later we had plenty of Jägermeister to celebrate the Leopard success. We got in the bed at midnight.

Maybe this is a little to much... but more is to come...

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats on the hunt and thanks for sharing!

 

[Northland]

15th of May, Tuesday, day 3.

We woke up at seven after the celebration of the Leopard, got some breakfast and left camp for a new area up in the highlands, we left the car a couple of times to glass, we saw some animals, but the main focus for the day was Hartmanns zebra. We walked and looked at a top of a mountain and we could see some Kudus and after awhile we also saw 3 groups of zebras at very long distance, I guess 2 km on a mountain far away. Adab and Eric started to talk their native tongue Damara and made a plan how we could get closer to any of the groups. We started the walking and after a while we bumped in to another group of zebras that was standing in the steep slope of a small hill, we walked cautiously closer and the zebras left the hill, but they were not spooked by us, we headed for the hill and hoped that we would get a glimpse of them on the other side, when we got there we could see them but we did not have any chance to take a shoot at any of them, anyway not at any that Adab would want us to take. We followed the zebra group for a long distance, we walked and glassed and looked and waited behind bushes, step by step, followed ravines, in the bushes again and we followed this manner for a long time and did get closer, and for some moment I thought that Adab would put up the sticks when we had zebras at 150 meters, but it was not the right animal I guess. The zebras started to move again and we followed them, we got up on a high mountain and at that moment we could hear zebras running down the mountain and we also saw a group on the opposite mountain, they were also moving. We more or less ran down the mountain, or maybe Adab walked, but he walks very fast. We continued down and after awhile we reached a small outcrop on the slope and we sneaked up on it and down in the valley there was a group of zebras, it was 2 good stallions that Adab pointed out, it was possible to sit down on a stone with a good rest on the sticks, it had now gone roughly 2 and a half hours since we started to walk after the zebras. It took maybe 5 minutes until one of the stallions that Adab had chosen to present a good broad side. I took the shoot at 230 meters, the stallion had a fatal hit and ran 50 meters and did get down and stood up again and after that he fell down for good. It was a fantastic stalk and hunt, I liked it immensely, it was a lot of emotions and I just shook my head, could it be better? We walked down a gravel path that the zebras apparently are running down, it’s hard to walk those paths, but they run there, what an animal!

When we reached the zebra stallion we admired him and arranged for photos and just sat there, it was very warm in the valley where he had taken his last breathe, I took a lot of photos on his wonderful hide. This was my third zebra, the second mountain zebra, but definitely the best one, a great hunt and great trophy! Adab and Eric did a great job so that we could have this happy ending.

I and the daughters stayed with the zebra for a long time because Eric had to walk the long way back to the car to fetch it and Adab walked in another direction to find a suitable way to reach the zebra with the car.

After we had loaded the zebra we went home, but first we did get to an abandoned farm where 2 guys lived to fetch some chickens for Eric, when we got there Denzel was sent in to the chickens to grab a couple, it was a lot of clamor and it seemed to be chickens everywhere in the cage, but he succeeded and got out with a couple and we started the journey back to the farm.

We ate lunch a little late as it took some time to get home with the zebra, we had pizza as lunch. Some of the guys in camp were a little tired today, I reckon that the black fluid from yesterday called Jägermeister could have something to do with it.

We were not hunting this afternoon, we left for a sundowner with Jan at an old German fortress instead, it was nice and we also saw 2 big troops of Baboons when we sat there. The sundowner-GT only consisted of T, because the gin was left behind at camp, but it was nice anyhow.

Back at the farm we sat by the fire before dinner and today the dinner consisted of tomato soup, my Steenbok with potato wedges and green pepper sauce. As desert we had pudding. It was as always a terrific dinner, I really liked the Steenbok meat, for sure he was cute, but he also tasted great!

I and the daughters looked at pictures and movies from the hunting that was done so far before we went to bed early and had a 9 hours sleep.

Still 3 days to hunt!

 

[Eventually_Africa_Again]

Great report and some very nice animals! Glad yourself and your daughters are having fun. How are you going to get the Dik Pinns mounted, or is it a new pet?

 

[cpr0312]

All Zebras are unique, and your right that one is pretty neat! Congrats. The sunset pic was pretty cool also!

 

[Ridgewalker]

So far great hunt and fine trophies! I especially like the Hartman’s zebra...beautiful animal! Maybe I need one of those (along with everything else)!

 

[Northland]

Great report and some very nice animals! Glad yourself and your daughters are having fun. How are you going to get the Dik Pinns mounted, or is it a new pet?

Thanks
I Guess that the bug will be great shoulder mounted

 

[Northland]

All Zebras are unique, and your right that one is pretty neat! Congrats. The sunset pic was pretty cool also!

Thanks
Zebras is maybe the most beautiful animal of all!

 

[Northland]

So far great hunt and fine trophies! I especially like the Hartman’s zebra...beautiful animal! Maybe I need one of those (along with everything else)!

Thanks

Everybody needs a Hartman! This place was great to hunt them

 

[Northland]

16th of May, Wednesday, day 4.

Up at seven, breakfast and headed out in the bush at 8. I got a mission today to take along Philips .22 and try to shoot some Guinea fowl for the kitchen. It was the same crew as every day and it was the same procedure as every day, Adab said to my daughters, -“today you shoot an Oryx and you shoot an Hartebeest”, but as every day they turned down every attempt to get them hunting, but for sure he tried and always with a smile on his face. I liked Adab a lot, a really nice guy and great PH, by the way, we are both 50 years old, he is just 4 months younger.

We toured with the cruiser, saw some animals and walked around in a valley to see what we could find, and we bumped in to some Warthogs and Kudu females, we also got in to some new areas that we had not been to before. Fantastic environment and very often you could smell flowers that smelled like honey and we also smelled peppermint very often, wonderful!

It didn’t happen so much this morning, I shoot one Guinea fowl and had a hasty shoot at long distance at a Jackal, bad rest and very fast and more like commanded to shoot, I missed cleanly. No meaning with that shooting when it was not intended, but done is done and that Jackal is still running as far as I know. Back home at noon and ate lunch, steak of Hartebeest and potatoes and accompanied with a Windhoek lager. I put down notes in the diary and rested for a while. We had some coffee and left the camp at 16 for the afternoon hunt, main focus for the afternoon was Baboons, we toured to look and was out walking here and there but we saw nothing interesting. Back at the farm it was the normal routine that was now familiar, shower, GT by the fire, conversations by the fire and then dinner. The dinner this evening was cheese gratinated pepper, avocado and slices of meat as starter and main course was meat balls of venison and beef and spaghetti. As desert we had sweet cake and ice cream.

We sat by the fire for a while after the dinner. Once again we had a long nights sleep.


17th of May, Thursday, day 5.

This day my main focus would be Baboons and as it’s not that promising that I would get any the daughters did follow Philip and the Leopardhunter to Windhoek for some paperwork regarding the Leopard hunt and to visit a taxidermist and to look at the town, they had a great day and was happy with that. For me the day was hunting, someone got to do the job! We left the camp at 07:30 and started the drive towards the highlands, they thought that we would have better chances for Baboon there. I can’t say for how long we had rode the car, but we were in new territory when a really big Kudu bull jumped up on the dirt track and passed it, you could immediately see that he was big! He had his big corkscrew horns laid back on his back so that he could pass under the trees, he stopped and looked back very quickly and then started moving again. Adab and Eric were of the car and picking the shooting sticks and said, -We go after him. As mentioned earlier I don’t want it to be too easy and I said it once again to them, they said, -All the guys that come here are looking for these big kudus and we very seldom see Kudus as good as this one, we have to go. It could be easy or it could not. I said to them that I might not shoot if we get a chance too quickly, that’s okay they said. Then we started the stalk, slowly in the beginning going downhill and after a while we saw him behind a bush and then the big bull started to move again, he was going uphill now and for a short second he presented an opportunity, I was up on the sticks but then he turned and ran fast away. We did not see him, but we ran after him but a little lower in the valley, ran and walked and after awhile Adab and Eric turned as they heard some rocks falling and thought that he was up there somewhere. We moved towards the noise they had heard and suddenly we saw him, he was climbing higher up in a steep hillside, I was up on the sticks and he stopped and I let the bullet find its way towards him, I hit him well and he just fell down and rolled some meters in the slope. The shoot was taken at just above 100 meters and the GECO bullet performed well again. We walked up to him, and he was gorgeous, so nice horns and very nice markings on the body, and I liked the hunt, it was not too easy. The horns was going outward at the top, and later, even if it’s not important, Adab measured the horns and both horns measured roughly 56 ½” and was very well shaped.

They walked back and fetched the bakkie and did find a way to reach the Kudu. We loaded him and followed the Baboon plan, so we headed to higher grounds and fetched a guy on a farm that would follow us, by the way it was Erics brother. We drove higher and soon we saw a troop of Baboons, pretty close to the road. Adab said, get ready and I asked if I had to shoot from the car, and he said that it could be the only chance. We had a big male 100 meters away, but luckily he was obscured by some bush and then they started to run. We did get of the car and started to follow them, after awhile we saw them again almost 200 meter away, I was up on the sticks but the big male had a branch in front of the chest so I tried to move the sticks, but when I was in position again he started running again, he got in a clearing with no chance, was obscured again and suddenly in the open again and now he stopped and looked back. At that moment he was at 230 meters and maybe felt safe, but he was not, I let the bullet leave the case and he was down! I immediately said, Big Baboon Down! It was the first baboon for me and I have never been close to one before, he was big for sure with really big canines. A great trophy. When I took the Baboon we were up in an elevation of roughly 2000 meters, high mountains in this area!
I got some problem to up-load the picture of the baboon and also some of the Kudu pictures, can´t figure out why.

We had a successful morning and now we started the drive back home. As mentioned Adab measured the Kudu horns at the skinning shed, I’m very happy for the Kudu, nicer horns than the one I’ve got from a previous hunt and a better hunt than the previous. We got lunch, which was Kudu sausage, wasn’t that appropriate! I wrote in the diary and after some time the daughters arrived, they had a great day but of course they would have liked to be on the hunt this morning. We got some coffee before we left for the afternoon hunt, Baboon was on the menu also this evening, we were out walking when we saw a group that we followed, but they were skittish and just ran away. We saw a side striped jackal and an Aardwolf, it was the first time for me to see both species. We walked some more and drove with the car but soon we were finished for the day. Shower, GT double at the fire before dinner and some nice conversations with the hunting friends. Dinner was butternut soup, zebra steak (my zebra) and baked potatoes and as desert we had ice cream. So then was one more fantastic day coming to an end, we ended it by the fire with Dr. Ruarks nutritious delicacies, for you who have read Ruarks books.

18th of May, Friday, day 6, the last hunting day.

Left the camp after breakfast and did the Baboon thing again, we tried once again up in the higher parts in the neighborhood, we saw a big Kudu and some other critters and also a big troop of Baboons that we stalked for a while, they ran as hell and we did not get any chance.

Safari sisters.

Some wait a bit bush around!

The morning flew by and we headed back for the farm and some lunch, Hartebeest steak and pasta. I wrote in the diary and me and Philip finished the paperwork. I decided that I was fine with the hunting regarding Baboons and the other stuff, happy with all of it so I suggested that we could hunt Guinea fowl with the shotgun in the afternoon. We went out for the birds after the usual coffee and cake, Philip and Reinhart was also along on the hunt. We saw some Guinea fowl from the car and I dismounted and started to walk in their direction and finally flushed them and I took one with the Beretta. We continued and got the same hunt one more time and I took one more. Later we arrived to the dam and me and Reinhart was standing and waiting for the birds flying in and Reinhart took one which I can’t recall the name on. We had a sundowner there by the dam before we began the trip back to the farm. I had one more chance on Guineas, it was a group and they ran on the ground, and I could easily had shoot them at that point, but I wanted them in the air and finally they was airborne, but flew behind thick bush and I just plainly missed them. We saw a group of Meerkats which was interesting to see.

Back home we prepared for dinner, we had a braai and the meat was zebra filet of “my zebra” and pasta, as starter we had a meat tray with very nice pieces of meat, among them it was chicken nuggets of Guinea fowl, really tasty! The desert was chocolate pudding. We had to say thanks and goodbye to Philip as he was supposed to get up early and leave for a business issue early next morning, buying Giraffes for the high fence game area they have prepared.

19th of May, Saturday, leaving the paradise.

So then it was time to leave Farm Heusis, Jan did take us to Windhoek and the airport and everything worked well with check in and so on. The Qatar airway flights was okay, two long legs to Doha and then to Stockholm and a shorter one to the north of Sweden.

To summarize this trip I have to say it has been great! Great people, great PH, great to do this with the daughters, very nice food, new friends, great hunting experience and one shot kills all of them. I hope to be back at Farm Heusis in the future and the “have to go back to Africa disease” is not cured, it just takes a firmer grip of me. And the daughters maybe is affected, shit it’s my fault!

I end this report with a quote by Alec van der post;

…African night sky so clear and so bright revealing the universe to all on this night. For those who have been here, no more to be said. The night is with you in your far away bed. The campfire burns with a sizzle and crack. Africa’s calling for you to come back.

The trophys will be:

Oryx, European mount and scrotum pencil cup.

Warthog, clean whole skull.

Steenbok, clean whole skull.

Red Hartebeest, European mount and skin tanned to leather.

Hartmann mountain zebra, tanned hide.

Kudu, European mount and skin tanned to leather.

Baboon, clean skull.

I will use Nyati wildlife art as taxidermist.

I hope you enjoyed the report, regards from north of Sweden.

 

[Bwana Bob]

16th of May, Wednesday, day 4.

Up at seven, breakfast and headed out in the bush at 8. I got a mission today to take along Philips .22 and try to shoot some Guinea fowl for the kitchen. It was the same crew as every day and it was the same procedure as every day, Adab said to my daughters, -“today you shoot an Oryx and you shoot an Hartebeest”, but as every day they turned down every attempt to get them hunting, but for sure he tried and always with a smile on his face. I liked Adab a lot, a really nice guy and great PH, by the way, we are both 50 years old, he is just 4 months younger.

We toured with the cruiser, saw some animals and walked around in a valley to see what we could find, and we bumped in to some Warthogs and Kudu females, we also got in to some new areas that we had not been to before. Fantastic environment and very often you could smell flowers that smelled like honey and we also smelled peppermint very often, wonderful!

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It didn’t happen so much this morning, I shoot one Guinea fowl and had a hasty shoot at long distance at a Jackal, bad rest and very fast and more like commanded to shoot, I missed cleanly. No meaning with that shooting when it was not intended, but done is done and that Jackal is still running as far as I know. Back home at noon and ate lunch, steak of Hartebeest and potatoes and accompanied with a Windhoek lager. I put down notes in the diary and rested for a while. We had some coffee and left the camp at 16 for the afternoon hunt, main focus for the afternoon was Baboons, we toured to look and was out walking here and there but we saw nothing interesting. Back at the farm it was the normal routine that was now familiar, shower, GT by the fire, conversations by the fire and then dinner. The dinner this evening was cheese gratinated pepper, avocado and slices of meat as starter and main course was meat balls of venison and beef and spaghetti. As desert we had sweet cake and ice cream.

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We sat by the fire for a while after the dinner. Once again we had a long nights sleep.


17th of May, Thursday, day 5.

This day my main focus would be Baboons and as it’s not that promising that I would get any the daughters did follow Philip and the Leopardhunter to Windhoek for some paperwork regarding the Leopard hunt and to visit a taxidermist and to look at the town, they had a great day and was happy with that. For me the day was hunting, someone got to do the job! We left the camp at 07:30 and started the drive towards the highlands, they thought that we would have better chances for Baboon there. I can’t say for how long we had rode the car, but we were in new territory when a really big Kudu bull jumped up on the dirt track and passed it, you could immediately see that he was big! He had his big corkscrew horns laid back on his back so that he could pass under the trees, he stopped and looked back very quickly and then started moving again. Adab and Eric were of the car and picking the shooting sticks and said, -We go after him. As mentioned earlier I don’t want it to be too easy and I said it once again to them, they said, -All the guys that come here are looking for these big kudus and we very seldom see Kudus as good as this one, we have to go. It could be easy or it could not. I said to them that I might not shoot if we get a chance too quickly, that’s okay they said. Then we started the stalk, slowly in the beginning going downhill and after a while we saw him behind a bush and then the big bull started to move again, he was going uphill now and for a short second he presented an opportunity, I was up on the sticks but then he turned and ran fast away. We did not see him, but we ran after him but a little lower in the valley, ran and walked and after awhile Adab and Eric turned as they heard some rocks falling and thought that he was up there somewhere. We moved towards the noise they had heard and suddenly we saw him, he was climbing higher up in a steep hillside, I was up on the sticks and he stopped and I let the bullet find its way towards him, I hit him well and he just fell down and rolled some meters in the slope. The shoot was taken at just above 100 meters and the GECO bullet performed well again. We walked up to him, and he was gorgeous, so nice horns and very nice markings on the body, and I liked the hunt, it was not too easy. The horns was going outward at the top, and later, even if it’s not important, Adab measured the horns and both horns measured roughly 56 ½” and was very well shaped.

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They walked back and fetched the bakkie and did find a way to reach the Kudu. We loaded him and followed the Baboon plan, so we headed to higher grounds and fetched a guy on a farm that would follow us, by the way it was Erics brother. We drove higher and soon we saw a troop of Baboons, pretty close to the road. Adab said, get ready and I asked if I had to shoot from the car, and he said that it could be the only chance. We had a big male 100 meters away, but luckily he was obscured by some bush and then they started to run. We did get of the car and started to follow them, after awhile we saw them again almost 200 meter away, I was up on the sticks but the big male had a branch in front of the chest so I tried to move the sticks, but when I was in position again he started running again, he got in a clearing with no chance, was obscured again and suddenly in the open again and now he stopped and looked back. At that moment he was at 230 meters and maybe felt safe, but he was not, I let the bullet leave the case and he was down! I immediately said, Big Baboon Down! It was the first baboon for me and I have never been close to one before, he was big for sure with really big canines. A great trophy. When I took the Baboon we were up in an elevation of roughly 2000 meters, high mountains in this area!
I got some problem to up-load the picture of the baboon and also some of the Kudu pictures, can´t figure out why.

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We had a successful morning and now we started the drive back home. As mentioned Adab measured the Kudu horns at the skinning shed, I’m very happy for the Kudu, nicer horns than the one I’ve got from a previous hunt and a better hunt than the previous. We got lunch, which was Kudu sausage, wasn’t that appropriate! I wrote in the diary and after some time the daughters arrived, they had a great day but of course they would have liked to be on the hunt this morning. We got some coffee before we left for the afternoon hunt, Baboon was on the menu also this evening, we were out walking when we saw a group that we followed, but they were skittish and just ran away. We saw a side striped jackal and an Aardwolf, it was the first time for me to see both species. We walked some more and drove with the car but soon we were finished for the day. Shower, GT double at the fire before dinner and some nice conversations with the hunting friends. Dinner was butternut soup, zebra steak (my zebra) and baked potatoes and as desert we had ice cream. So then was one more fantastic day coming to an end, we ended it by the fire with Dr. Ruarks nutritious delicacies, for you who have read Ruarks books.
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18th of May, Friday, day 6, the last hunting day.

Left the camp after breakfast and did the Baboon thing again, we tried once again up in the higher parts in the neighborhood, we saw a big Kudu and some other critters and also a big troop of Baboons that we stalked for a while, they ran as hell and we did not get any chance.

Safari sisters.
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Some wait a bit bush around! View attachment 235922

The morning flew by and we headed back for the farm and some lunch, Hartebeest steak and pasta. I wrote in the diary and me and Philip finished the paperwork. I decided that I was fine with the hunting regarding Baboons and the other stuff, happy with all of it so I suggested that we could hunt Guinea fowl with the shotgun in the afternoon. We went out for the birds after the usual coffee and cake, Philip and Reinhart was also along on the hunt. We saw some Guinea fowl from the car and I dismounted and started to walk in their direction and finally flushed them and I took one with the Beretta. We continued and got the same hunt one more time and I took one more. Later we arrived to the dam and me and Reinhart was standing and waiting for the birds flying in and Reinhart took one which I can’t recall the name on. We had a sundowner there by the dam before we began the trip back to the farm. I had one more chance on Guineas, it was a group and they ran on the ground, and I could easily had shoot them at that point, but I wanted them in the air and finally they was airborne, but flew behind thick bush and I just plainly missed them. We saw a group of Meerkats which was interesting to see.

Back home we prepared for dinner, we had a braai and the meat was zebra filet of “my zebra” and pasta, as starter we had a meat tray with very nice pieces of meat, among them it was chicken nuggets of Guinea fowl, really tasty! The desert was chocolate pudding. We had to say thanks and goodbye to Philip as he was supposed to get up early and leave for a business issue early next morning, buying Giraffes for the high fence game area they have prepared.

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19th of May, Saturday, leaving the paradise.

So then it was time to leave Farm Heusis, Jan did take us to Windhoek and the airport and everything worked well with check in and so on. The Qatar airway flights was okay, two long legs to Doha and then to Stockholm and a shorter one to the north of Sweden.

To summarize this trip I have to say it has been great! Great people, great PH, great to do this with the daughters, very nice food, new friends, great hunting experience and one shot kills all of them. I hope to be back at Farm Heusis in the future and the “have to go back to Africa disease” is not cured, it just takes a firmer grip of me. And the daughters maybe is affected, shit it’s my fault!

I end this report with a quote by Alec van der post;

…African night sky so clear and so bright revealing the universe to all on this night. For those who have been here, no more to be said. The night is with you in your far away bed. The campfire burns with a sizzle and crack. Africa’s calling for you to come back.

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The trophys will be:

Oryx, European mount and scrotum pencil cup.

Warthog, clean whole skull.

Steenbok, clean whole skull.

Red Hartebeest, European mount and skin tanned to leather.

Hartmann mountain zebra, tanned hide.

Kudu, European mount and skin tanned to leather.

Baboon, clean skull.

I will use Nyati wildlife art as taxidermist.

I hope you enjoyed the report, regards from north of Sweden.

Great report and some wonderful trophies. It was nice that you got to share your trip with your daughter's. You're evening ritual sounded like mine when I hunted Namibia in October. Shower, sit by the fire and have my favorite drink, a G&T.

 

[Ridgewalker]

What a grand trip with the daughters! Awesome trophies!
I also really liked your Alec van der Post quote!
Thanks for sharing your adventure!