2007 Africa Inspection Trip The Karoo, Central Namibia and the Kalahari Desert- Part 2

After the women's hunt in the Eastern Cape, I was off to visit a potential new outfitter in the Karoo area of South Africa. This outfitter will allow us to offer a new management hunt opportunity and to add another twist to your hunting safari.

If you are interested in South African history, this outfitter has a wealth of knowledge about the Anglo Boer War and is located in a part of South Africa that is close to numerous battlefield sites from this important part of African history. Before I left South Africa we toured a number of these sites, as well as the historic diamond mining town of Kimberly, including a tour of the "Big Hole". We are currently working on a package with this outfitter that will feature an option of a few days of touring these fascinating sites. I took a nice Steenbuck with this outfitter and he has some very good Mountain Reedbuck as well as many other excellent quality game. For the hunter and non-hunter who is also a history buff this will be a great experience. We will let you know as soon as we have the details of this package worked out. Keep an eye on our newsletter and website for details.

At last year's Dallas Safari Club Convention we met a family from central Namibia who invited me to come see their hunting farm. I am glad I accepted their invitation. They have a wonderful place located only an hour and a half or so from Windhoek. They have excellent opportunities for eland, kudu, warthog, leopard and many other species including Damara Dik Dik. They just finished building a huge lodge and guest cottages. Everything is first rate. The whole family is certified PH's (including mom) and all are skilled experienced hunters.

While visiting with this outfitter I met a young man named Nico, who was there for the weekend. He had some firearms experience and did quite well on the shooting range. Our PH, Botha, took us out to cull a few wildebeest because of the very dry conditions in Namibia. After a full day of blown stalks and just missing the wildebeest herds, we finally got on a herd and I told Botha to let Nico take the first shot. Botha and I were both holding our breath and watching intently through our binoculars as Nico got set up on the sticks and squeezed the trigger, the wildebeest dropped where it stood. Nico let out a "whoop" and started to run to the fallen animal and we had to remind him that a 400 - 500 pound animal could suddenly "come back to life" and reverse circumstances.

Once we reined Nico in a bit and confirmed it was a fatal shot we celebrated with him. On the way back to the lodge he was asking about what kind of rifle to buy and what modifications he should make to his truck so he could use it for hunting. Another hunting addict was born!

I am looking forward to setting up some opportunities with this outfitter and anyone who hunts with them will enjoy it as much as I did.

I moved on to visit Bernd, Rita and Marco on their ranch near Windhoek. I have always liked their place a lot; it is huge and has a lot of game. Marco and I spent a couple of days looking for a good warthog and I took a nice old boar. His tusks were a bit worn and they can certainly find bigger ones there but we didn't have a lot of time to hunt. We used a unique technique for hunting warthogs there. Because the grass is low this time of year, we were able to go out on the open plains of the ranch and spot warthogs from long distances and put on stalks to judge their tusks. This is a bit more entertaining to me than sitting at a water hole (although that is fun as well). As usual the food that Rita prepared was incredible (a testament to her growing up a butcher's daughter). The place is full of game and I expect they will have a great season in 2008. Recently our client Mike Manni took some outstanding trophies there and if you are considering this hunt you should let us put you in touch with Mike so he can tell you about it.

After a few days I headed down the road to Volker Grellmann's Etango ranch to visit with him and Anke. I always enjoy visiting with them. It's like seeing extended family. The lodge is very busy and so is the Eagle Rock School which trains guides and hunting assistants to complete Namibia's rigorous professional hunting qualifications. Volker has been running classes nearly non-stop. This has cut into his hunting activities a bit. He told me that he would be happy to take out select clients for some short 2 - 4 day hunts near the ranch. This would be the perfect opportunity to hunt with a legend either for someone who has time right before or right after another scheduled hunt in Namibia. His knowledge of Namibia's hunting history and its current status is unmatched, and his knowledge of wildlife and their habitats is incredible. This is truly a unique opportunity. Please get in touch with us if you are interested in booking a hunt with Volker. Even if you are not able to hunt with Volker, Etango is the perfect place to stay right before or right after a hunt in Namibia, it is right near the airport and they can arrange transportation to Windhoek for you as well.

During my stay at Etango Volker and I discussed the latest developments in Namibia's conservancy and concession programs. There are a few types of hunting conservancies and concessions in Namibia. There are private conservancies which are usually a group of private ranches with shared hunting rights. These are extremely successful and have made Namibia an incredible hunting destination. The other type is the communal conservancies which are public land or tribal land and are administered by local people in the form of committees. The communal conservancies are on their way to becoming another Namibian hunting success story, some of them are truly wild places and offer dangerous game including the "Big 5". Others offer outstanding plains game opportunities. The "concessions" are public land usually parks all or part of which are managed for hunting by a local committee. They are all administered a bit differently and there are things that you should be aware of before planning a hunt in Namibia. I have been researching them thoroughly for months now and can help you make the right choice.
After a few days with the Grellmann's I was off to visit with the folks from KHS. Jean and Sophia are doing well and their new home in Windhoek is lovely. We went up to the Khomas camp for a few days where we saw plenty of Hartmann's Zebra, a few excellent kudu (one which was huge but was very far away), and some nice gemsbok.

The gemsbok there are not as big as the monsters in their Kalahari but it is a unique place to hunt them. I took a "management" bull for the pot before we headed for the Kalahari camp. Down in the Kalahari Johan, Mabel and Hendrick are all doing well as is all of the support staff. Including the recently arrived new additions…a pack of blue ticked hounds! Johan is hoping to get them trained for cat hunting. But, more on that when he let's me know how they are doing. While hunting in the Kalahari I took a nice gemsbok, springbok, and steenbok, unsuccessfully tracked a caracal cat and then culled a few springbok. We reworked some of our KHS packages and they are still an excellent value for the money.