NAMIBIA: 4 Weeks In Namibia With Ongariwanda

We were still laughing about it over a few drinks that night . Even Deb saw the funny side . ( eventually )

......... DEBS, I don't say anything

One thing we both regret about the pigs we shot is that we never got to actually got to eat any of them . The workers on the farm were given the first one and as the last two were shot on the last day it was to late to get them on the menu . We did try some as well as zebra later on in the trip when we were staying at A lodge in the desert . But because it was a tourist lodge they marinated all the meat with the same marinade so it all tasted the same , disappointing . I even asked the chefs if they could cook us some game without the marinade but they went allowed to incase the tourists did not like it . They had all the game at the barbie , wildebeest , hartebeest , zebra , warthog , springbok and many more species which was great . The tourists were loving it , but it was the worst and most expensive meal we had all trip . It all tasted the same . You will not get better game cooked for you than you will by the people you hunt with , so make the most of it .

Anyway I am getting ahead of myself here as we still have a bit of shooting to do before we go on our road trip .
Packing that evening was no fun . It meant our stay at Ongariwanda was almost complete . It also meant we had to try and get all our gear back into the bags we arrived with . Ever heard of mission impossible , this was one . We had brought much to much gear that was not needed . I will only bring half the clothes and equipment next time . The good wife had more than me as you would expect and she had no hunting gear with her like me . Now hold on to something when you read this guys , but Debs admitted she had to many clothes with her . Unbelievable ! Now I have been telling her that for years ! We finally had it all sorted and Johnnie came over for a drink and sort out the bill . Now before I left New Zealand I had wired two lots of money over . Enough I hoped to cover the whole trip . Johnnie said that we still had quite a bit left in the kitty , as I hadn't taken a couple of animals I had allowed for before I left home . That would soon change .
For all you wallaby and Springbok rugby followers out there , four kids in the middle of nowhere now follow the All Blacks !
After another social evening spent with our hosts eating and drinking to much , it was time for bed .
It felt funny putting on good clothes again instead of my hunting garb . A casual breakfast then load up the truck . After quite an emotional goodbye to all the kids , Jennie , and Johnnies parents we hit the road on our way to the Kalahari . Omaruru was the first stop for fuel and visit the butcher to sell some off the game we had shot in the last few days . I cannot remember how much it was sold for but it was not much as I remember . They only sell the meat when there is to much for the farm to use . I made a point of getting plenty of money out of the ATM as we would be stopping at the road stalls in Okahandja and Debbie had not been shopping in a couple of weeks and she had that look in her eyes . They really are great stalls and well worth a stop if you are going past , we brought much to much stuff . After that we passed through Windhoek where Debs purchased a big new shiny suitcase for all our extra gear . We needed it . Funnily enough we never got charged for extra baggage on the way home . Someone stuffed up but I did not complain . Lunch at Joes beerhouse then off to the Kalahari .

I'm finally caught up! I look forward to the Kalahari installments. Thanks for continuing this outstanding report Dory.

The farm we were to shoot on in the Kalahari was called Pokweni and was a sheep farm only . The owner does not graze cattle as they damage the fragile country to much . Like most farms in Namibia it had been in the family for generations and was now the pride of a younger member of the same family . I do not think I have ever seen a farm so tidy . Everything was in its right place and was a real tribute to the farm workers . The farm is owned by Jos and Annalie Van Der Merwe , and like we were at Ongariwanda were greeted like long lost friends .
It was late in the day When we arrived at Pokweni and settled in , so what do you do then ? Jump in the truck , go find a handy dune , have a drink and watch the sunset of course . What else would you do , we are in Namibia .
You never get sick of the sunsets in Namibia and this one was no different . Man could Jos talk , Ha . He never stopped asking questions about NZ and how we lived and telling us all about Pokweni .
You could not but love this guy . There was never a dull moment all the time we were with him . His favorite saying was , we are talking nonsense ! And most of the time he was right . While hunting the next day I said to Johnnie who was on the back of the truck with me the motor was making funny noises . He looked at me funny and I said , no its alright its just Jos talking nonstop in the cab to Debs .
The whole trip with Jos was a laugh . Annalie and Jos were outstanding hosts and a lot of fun .
There is not a lot of hunting done on the farm by guests like myself . Jos and his friends do most of the culling on the farm to control the numbers of Springbok . He estimated there were 2000 odd spring bok on the property that compete with the sheep . He intended taking about 1000 out this year . These animals are head and neck shot and sold in Windhoek .
When we sighted the rifle in on the gliding club strip which is based on the farm the rifles are zeroed at 300 yards . That is the average range we would be shooting at . Pressure ? you bet . This was going to be long range shooting at a very small target with everyone watching and giving advise .

Me and Debs on the back , Johnnie and Jos in the cab talking nonstop we were ready to go for a shot . There is no hunting involved , it is all shooting off the back off the truck . The trucks are built for Jos specifically for the Kalahari . And designed for shooting from . The chassis is from a wrecked two wheeled drive toyota hylux . As Jos said to me , an old chap from South Africa builds the trucks for him from the ground up . They do the job superbly . We were to hunt an area of the farm that had not been shoot for a while so they should not be so spooky . Springbok were everywhere as we drove through the farm but they were either young animals or adult females . We were only after the bigger mature males . The first customers were a group of about 4 with a nice male with them at about 250 yrds .
The grass this year is quite long , up to about a springboks shoulder so there is not much in the sight picture . I squeezed off and the ram dropped in his tracks . Put the rifle down , puff out the chest and look around like Ive been doing this forever . Yea right .! Drive up to him and find I have hit him to low gone right through him and taken out his back leg . Not a good start . Jos wants to sell these animals and ive totally stuffed my first one . Things did get better and I was soon hitting them in the neck and top of shoulder . Hanging on is the hardest part as Jos tears up the dunes and checks out the mobs in the next basin . This goes on all hunt and me and Debs are battered and bruised by the end of the day . I actually wore the skin off my knee on the grate behind the cab which took weeks to heal .
All the shooting was at long range , they seemed to run out to about 250-300 yrds and if you were lucky they would pause for a second . If you stuffed it up there was no second chance they were off .
We would only shoot one at a time as finding them in the long grass was a real mission . The males seemed in good condition and where delicious as we found out that night with one of Annalies springbok dishes .
I missed a few as I really wanted to hit them in the right place if possible . I also pulled off some good long range shots which felt real good . Once we had secured 5 animals it was back to the meat shed for Jos boys to clean them up , and have lunch . The dust in the Kalahari seems real fine and gets into everything . By the end of the day my throat was real dry and my voice croaky . Nothing a Windhoek lager dosnt fix . I even had a couple of cold ones with lunch . It just seemed the right thing to do . It would be rude not to

After lunch we were off again . I was feeling a bit better after the mornings shooting and with Johnnie now on the back with me and Debs in the cab I was confident of a good afternoon . We run into a nice kudu bull with a bunch of girlfriends on the way out which was nice to see . We shoot a couple of nice males from about a mile away , well not really but honestly , at long range their neck is bloody small and if your shot is slightly out it is a miss . I decided I would rather miss than hit them in the body . And guess what , I did , miss that is . I had a real good rest off the shooting platform on top of the cab and was getting better all the time . I only had a 3-9 -40 on top of the 308 . You really want something a lot bigger on top of your shooter for this . Jos had a couple of real neat rigs for the job as you would expect . The rifle poking out the front of the cab is Jos,s 223 . It is silenced and quite heavy and bang on at 300 . The idea was if I winged one he could follow up in a hurry . Now don't think these animals are not tough . We lost two animals during the two days . Both animals dropped in there tracks with my first shot . Then while driving up to them they both got up and started running again . Jos drilled the first one again but it managed to climb over a dune out of sight . Once they are out of sight you are buggered , you either loose them in the grass when they drop or you don't know which one is injured when they join other springbok . We searched hard for both of them . Jos said they would both be dead but stumbling across them in the long grass was near impossible . Apart from that downer the day went well with another five rams soon hanging on the side of the truck . Apart from a misfire with another winchester round , the federal rounds were going all right although both lost animals were lost using the federals . They were not designed for light skinned game and were probably to hard for the springbok . Back to the shed unload the animals for the boys and time for a shower and another beer .

Another entertaining night with Johnnie and Jos at the dinner table over a few wines . They spoke english for us most of the time . Even when Jos got excited and we were all talking nonsense . HA .
DEbs loved her time at Pokweni , her only regret is that Annalie was not there much as she was away with the kids at sport most of the time we were there . Sound familiar . Namibian parents traveling miles with their kids for sports . They both enjoy a good wine so maybe it was a good thing they could not spend much time together as they had a shed full of the bloody stuff . Unfortunately I didn't find the stash till the last day . But I know where it is when we go back one day . Just a warning Jos if you happen to read this !
The sky that night was absolutely amazing when Jos took us out for a look . Apparently there was some sort of star alignment going on that was a rare occurrence . Im not much off a star man but the sky that night was amazing . The night sky in Africa is outstanding .
The mornings at Pokweni were quite relaxed compared to Ongariwanda . There was no need to start early to catch the animals before it got to hot . The springbok are about all day and as they cant jump fences they don't go to far . We did watch one jump a fence that day and as Jos said , See he said they can jump a fence but for some reason they don't . When you see how high these things can jump when they are playing silly buggers in the herd it's a bit of a mystery really .
This mornings hunt was totally different to yesterday as the wind was blowing quit hard . The animals were really spooky and getting in range of them was a real problem . We chased them all over the place . Not fast but just idling around trying to get close to them . While climbing over one dune we came on a mob of oryx . This was the biggest mob we were to see in Namibia and it was pretty special . There must have been over sixty in the mob with some outstanding animals amongst them . We followed for a while getting wonderful photos and some good video . I would of loved to have a go at one of the top females but that was not what we were here for . Maybe next time . When we did get the chance I managed to knock over four more animals . I would of loved to carry on in the afternoon but the tally of springbok was now sixteen and as I was paying to shoot them Johnnie pulled me up for a rain check . When he said how many we had I said we had better knock off for the morning and Have a bit off an add up on the finance side .
Back to the shed, hang the last animals up and have a bite to eat . Over a cold beer after lunch johnnie had an add up and yep , I had spent more than I was supposed to . It wasn't that bad though and I had enough Cash with me to cover the extra animals . I wanted to keep a bit of cash for our road trip so called it quits on the springbok cull .
We had a pretty good time here and shot more animals than I intended . AS this place is the home of the springbok I asked if I could keep one of the better ones for a shoulder mount . It will be a good memento at home for our time in the Kalahari and Pokweni .
We just sat in the sun for the afternoon having a few cold beers and talking about the trip here and at Ongariwanda and just relaxing . It's a funny feeling when you know your trip is finally over . All the years of planing and saving and organizing and it was over . Deb even asked me the other day if we had been to Africa , it just went so fast . It's no wonder everyone has to go back again just to make sure it was real . Even though we had a good time that night I remember feeling a bit deflated , we were not going home yet but the hunting side of the trip was over . We still had several days in a rental truck to see a bit of the country but it would not be the same as spending time with all these wonderful people .
Once again in the morning we loaded up Johnnies truck and were away to Windhoek to pick up the rental . After doing all the paperwork and loading up the rental with only the things we really needed as we were lucky enough to be able to leave our gear at Johnnies sisters place including my rifle . It was finally time to say our last goodbye to Johnnie . Hardest thing I have done in years . All I could say was thanks I had a ball . Pretty piss poor really , but I could see myself getting quite emotional if I raved on to much . Debs said she was holding back the tears . Thats how close you get to these people when you live with them and their families for a few weeks . Johnnie finally left and we were on our own . Off into the desert to get lost , and we did ! The very first night trusting the bloody GPS .
But that my friends is another story . (HA HA )
Cheers Dory & Debs .

Great report on your & Debs trip J, really enjoyed reading it.

Glad you enjoyed it .
If you have not been to Africa yet for a hunt , start planing now ,
You wont regret it !
Cheers Dory .

Great hunting report, I finally had time this morning to read, I have been looking forward to it for a long time!

Very good hunting report Dory. Nice pictures and excellent trophies. Congrats.
I hunted in Namibia with Omalanga Safaris.
Beautiful country.
Witold

Great hunt report. I truly enjoyed it.

What a joy to read your hunt report and admire those great photos and trophies. Congratulations!

Dory thanks for a fine report!

thank

enysse said:

Great hunting report, I finally had time this morning to read, I have been looking forward to it for a long time!

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Thank you .

CAustin said:

Dory thanks for a fine report!

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Thanks mate .
Enjoyed writing it .

Witold Krzyżanowski said:

Very good hunting report Dory. Nice pictures and excellent trophies. Congrats.
I hunted in Namibia with Omalanga Safaris.
Beautiful country.
Witold

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Thanks Witold .
I cant wait to get back .

What a great report in detail. Very nice! Congratulations on an awesome adventure!

BWH said:

What a great report in detail. Very nice! Congratulations on an awesome adventure!

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Cheers mate .
I see you have not been to Namibia yet .
Go if you can you will love it .