BOTSWANA; The Botswana Way With NKWE SAFARIS

[Aaron.F]

We arrived in Botswana on May 16th, 2022 to start our Botswana adventure that we had been planning for over 2 years. The trip had originally been planned with my father, my brother Dustin, and me(Aaron) to hunt plains game In 2021. Well like many peoples plans in 2021, they changed. So we pushed the dates out one year later and thus the people changed. My brother Dustin and I we’re still going but my father did not want to travel with all the concerns and issues associated with COVID. This was unfortunate as the trip was basically planned to get my dad to Africa, as he is getting older, but oh well we were still going. The good news is that my other brother, Jason, and my wife, Kristina, would now be able to go.

We started the trip with a photo safari for 4 nights to get us acclimated to the weather and timing, and to visit some of the other areas of Botswana, especially the Okavango Delta. I will not go into details, but suffice it to say we had an amazing time and I highly recommend a helicopter trip over the Delta.

I was in communication with our owner and PH Jaco Visser (pronounced “Yakoo”) the whole time during to see how things were going and to make sure everything was going well. We were to be done with our photo safari on Friday, May 20th and picked up midday by one of our other PH’s Ampie Venter (pronounced ”Umpy”). Up to this point we had been having an amazing time and seen all sorts of game, up close and personal, but to say that were were excited is an understatement. My wife said, we were giggling like school girls while waiting to be picked up.

Ampie arrived, we loaded up and started our drive of approximately 3 hours to the hunting area, near Ghanzi, and to meet the owner and PH Jaco. We met Jaco prior to camp, switched over to the Land Cruisers and headed towards our safari camp. We arrived in camp, had a few drinks, and an amazing meal made by Godfrey, our chef for the week. We discussed the plan for the next day and it was determined that Kristina and I would be with Ampie and my brothers, Jason and Dustin, would be with Jaco. We could change it up later on, but that was the plan. Jaco said, this is your hunt, your trip, we will do what you want.

My brother Jason stayed in one of the luxury tents and my brother Dustin, Kristina and I stayed in the Chalet. Here are some pictures of the camp and our housing;

 

[BRICKBURN]

 

[Aaron.F]

Hunt Day 1 - (5/21)

The hunt started around 7:00ish as we got into our respective Land Cruisers and headed out for the mornings hunt. It was Kristina, Ampie, me, Nauw (Bushman tracker) and Opa (Bushman driver) headed out together, with Ampie, Nauw, and me in the rack on the Cruiser, with my Kristina in front with Opa. We drove around a little bit with everyone looking for game and them looking at tracks to see if any were recent and also constantly checking the wind.

After a little bit we stopped the Cruiser and we got off and I asked Ampie what we were going to do and he said, go for a walk. So Ampie, Kristina, Nauw, and I started making our way through the scrub brush and grassland typ mix looking for game. It wasn’t 15 minutes into the walk and we saw our first animal, a bull kudu. He was ultimately not big enough but it was awesome to see so early in our trip. We kept walking along and they noticed some Eland in the distance, but I did not have eland on my list, yet.

We were just casually looking at the eland what all of a sudden Ampie and Nauw’s mannerisms changed, I could see something was going on. They said there was a very nice ram steenbok
with a few other steenbok. A steenbok was on my list, but I will be honest, I did not know a steenbok from a dik dik, from a duiker. If they said it was good I was in. We worked our way around some brush and Ampie told me that when we got around the bush he was going to put up his sticks and tell me which one to shoot. I could kind of see them but not real good. We move a bit more to our left and Ampie sets the sticks up and tells me to shoot the one on the far right. There is a group of them out about 40 yards and I can see the one on the right with horns, so I put my scope on him and pull the trigger and he drops. Then he gets up and takes off about 20 yards and drops again, Ampie says, “Shoot him again“, I can see his head looking up and just as I get my scope on him, his head drops and I say,“He’s done.” We start walking towards him and he takes off running.

Those are two words, that would haunt me for the next 6 or so hours while we track this small antelop all over the place. My wife’s watch says it was about 5 miles from start to finish. I got one follow up shot at him through the brush, but it blew up a large branch. The tracking job by Ampie and more importantly by Nauw was simply amazing, I have never seen anything like it. How could anyone track and animal that small with very little blood and hooves the size of quarters through this country.

Several times I thought we were done, Ampie, Kristina, and I would take a break under the shade of a thorn bush and let Nauw work on it and he always found it. We had been tracking it for a while and I had told them that I appreciated all of their efforts and it was my fault for screwing it up, but they kept plugging along. We were walking along in front of an anteater hole, the type that warthogs stay in as well, when Nauw motioned to Ampie at the hole. There was something in there and we assumed it was a warthog and that we shouldn’t get close. But on closer review it was my steenbok, he had gotten into the whole to try and hide. I have no idea how Nauw saw it as I couldn’t see it. We were able to finish the steenbok and remove it from the hole. Nauw had to crawl in the hole and Ampie pulled him out by his legs.

it was an absolutely amazing job of tracking, like nothing I have ever seen or experienced in my life. As it turns out the steenbok was an absolute trophy, Jaco said it was the biggest steenbok the]at he had taken in 8 years. I was embarrassed by my shooting, but to say I was excited, nervous, anxious and every other emotion when I pulled that trigger is an understatement.

The hole to the left in the picture is where we found it.

Tired and ecstatic.

Mine is on the right for comparison to an average steenbok.

We went out later in the afternoon and did not get a chance at anything. My brother Jason and Dustin both shot Impala, approximately 100 yards apart that day as well. I will let them tell there own stories if they would like.

 

[Gemsbok45]

Well worth the effort at any size but that is a big one!

 

[fourfive8]

Those who have never seen them in action usually don't believe me about those San Bushmen trackers! But I know one group who does now! Well done!

 

[Aaron.F]

Hunt Day 2 - (5/22)

The day starts out the same as it did yesterday, except the night before I talked to Jaco about taking an eland, as I saw some really nice ones the day before and decided I needed to add to my want list. So we head out in search of whatever the bush provides and an eland.

We find a nice spot, check the wind and go for a walk. Kristina, Ampie, Nauw , and I head out into the bush. We are into our walk about 20 minutes when I see Nauw and Ampie start looking in the distance at something and then I finally see some movement and can’t tell for sure what we are seeing, but Ampie tells me we found some eland. We start stalking our way through the bush and putting on a stalk and then we start hearing some grunting. I am not sure what the grunting is, but i look at my wife and I can see a bit of concern on my wife’s face. Ampie must have noticed her concern as well, he whispers “wildebeest“ and smiles.

i never get to actually see the wildebeest but we continue on toward the eland and ultimately find a herd of eland, approximately 10-15 of them together milling around. Ampie sets up the sticks and I put my rifle up and wait for his go ahead on which one. He finds which he believes is the best one and tells me which one to take. The eland must have known something was going on,as they start moving away and the one I want o shoot is getting close to cover, so I get the cross hairs on his shoulder and pull the trigger. Boom, the shot goes off and the eland take off, Ampie asked me how the shot felt and I said pretty good, he said it looked good as welll.

One hour later we are still tracking the eland, he has separated from the group and is bleeding, but not a lot…here we go again. Nauw is doing the majority of the tracking with Ampie looking in the distance and helping when needed. We have gotten a glimpse or two, but no additions shot opportunities yet opportunities. Nauw motions Ampie and me to come forward, he can see the eland in the distance, they set up the sticks for me, I put my scope on the eland and I can see there is blood on his shoulder. He is starting to move and Ampie says ”get another one in him”. It’s a bit of a poke of sticks, around 150, but I put it on his shoulder and shoot, another hit and the eland is on the move.

At this point the tracking is slowing down, the eland is bleeding more and we get another shot, not sure if I hit it or not, but just trying to finish the job. About another hour later approximately 3 hours after the first shot, we have a pretty good look at him, but he is on the move straight away. Ampie puts up the sticks, I slide my rifle into shooting position and Ampie whispers “Texas” as the eland is moving away. I take aim at the what I believe is just below the base of tail and fire.

The eland works it’s way probably 50 yards and goes down. He is down but not out, so I put in a finishing shot. What an absolute beast of an animal and tough as hell. My wife and I can. It beleive the sheer size of the animal. The first shot was a hair high and a bit too forward, had it not been such a huge beast I feel it would have taken most other animals. I remember thinking when we finally got him thinking to myself, man this is not going as planned, but I was ultimately great full and very excited.

Some pictures of the eland.

We back to camp for a mid-day break and some lunch. After a much needed siesta we headed out for the afternoon hunt. On our way towards our ultimates destination, while we are driving Nauw saw a group of impala not too far from camp..We all hop out and put on a stalk, we go a couple hundred and Ampie points toward a small group of impala and says, “Do you see the Ram looking at us?” I see impala, but not a Ram, then slowly I begin to see the horns, as he is partly obscured by brush. Ampie asks if I can make the shot as it is about a 100-120 away and slightly obscurd by brush. I am willing to try, so he puts up the sticks I get a fairly decent look and pull the trigger. The Ram takes off and I tell Ampie it felt good and they thought they heard it hit.

Well long story short, we find no blood, but we look for quite a while and they actually call in some other trackers and they can find nothing either, too many fresh tracks and. O blood and no sight of the Ram after. Apparently it was a miss, this is not doing anything for my confidence at this point. I am starting to doubt my abilities and to be honest I am a bit embarrassed. None of my shots have been great and I am feeling the pressure.

After wrapping up the search for the impala we still have some time to continue and look for something else. We get to an are that Ampie says could very well have some zebras near, as they occasionally come to a waterhole to drink In the evening.

We start working our way to the waterhole and can hear some sounds in the distance and I am not sure what we are hearing but we continue to work our way slowly to the waterhole. We are working our way along some thick brush when all of a sudden the brush explodes, out runs a warthog with good tusks. I do not have a warthog on my list, but Ampie looks at me and gives a thumbs up and I nod yes. The warthog does not quite know what we are, as he does not have our wind, so he is just milling around. I put my rifle on the sticks and take my shot, off goes the warthog. They ultimately are unable to find any blood after tracking for a little while. I missed, I missed a warthog at 15-20 yards standing still.

To say I wanted to find a warthog/anteater hole to crawl into and hide from my embarrassment is an understatement. The trip of my lifetime, that I have been wanting to do for 30 years is turning into a nightmare and it is my fault. I am completely dejected, Ampie can see this and he does his best to try and cheer me up, as does my wife. He said “People miss game everyday, you have plenty more time.’ But I know I am screwing shit up.

We continue on towards the waterhole and can hear some what I assume is zebras, and I am right. Ampie gets us me into a good shooting position, approximately 80 yards away from 2 zebras and I am on the sticks waiting. Unfortunately the zebras are standing right next to each other and I can not risk the bullet going through the one zebra Into the other. They ultimately spook and run off.

it was along walk to the truck, a long dinner, and an ultimately even longer night. I was filled with self doubt and questioning myself. I did not want to be a downer, I was trying to keep smiling, but everyone knew I was not feeling my best.

My brothers have mixed results that day as well, but Jason shoots a nice steenbok.

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

Great write-up so far. Amazing Steenbuck and Eland. Don't beat yourself up too bad on the shooting. Practice off sticks a lot, it can be somewhat difficult to get used to.

What are you shooting?

 

[Aaron.F]

Hunt Day 3 - (5/23)

The day basically started out the same except, I spent some of the morning dry firing off of the sticks while we were getting around. Jaco could tell I was frustrated and decided to give me some advice on shooting and technique. He said that I was most likely taking to much time and that my brother=erves were getting the best of me, he was correct. He told me as soon as the spot is covered by the cross hairs pull the trigger, don’t try and make it perfect. He also suggested that I change the way I am holding my rifle on the sticks. He suggested that I put my left index finger over the top of the barrel and kind of squeeze it into the sticks, it would help steady the rifle. I practiced this quite a bit and decided to give it a try.

The morning hunt started out pretty much the same as others, we went to a spot where the wind was right and went for a walk. We were working our way through the the bush and could see in the distance another waterhole of sorts and could see a little bit of movement. The first animal that came into sight was a nice eland bull and then we saw a good gemsbok, but he didn’t like what was going on and took off before we had a chance. We were getting ready to head back after hanging out there for a bit and Nauw saw some movement in the distance and it turned out to be two wildebeest. Ampie set up the sticks and I took a look and it was just too far of a poke off the sticks, especially with my confidence being what it was.

However there was a bit of cover between us and tree with a protruding trunk that looked like it might make a good rest from prone. I shimmied my way up there and hoped and prayed there was no snakes around the tree and took a good rest. The only problem was the bull wildebeest that I wanted was facing us and behind a tree. 10 minutes of sitting there in modified prone with my arms starting to shake and my neck hurtingfrom looking up and over started to take its toll. I was fairly calm but was shaking a bit from muscle fatigue when the wildebeest finally moved. I took the best shot I could at that point and ultimately missed cleanly. I was not happy with missing, but at least it was a long shot and I was not in the best position.

We chased a few critters arLund that morning and decided to head back around 11:00 ish for lunch and mid-day break. We were just sitting on the back of the truck shooting the breeze and telling stories when all of a sudden the truck stopped. Opa the driver had seen something off in the distance, i could. To see anything, but they said they thought it was a bull kudu. So we hopped out and worked or way slowly in that direction. We had maybe gone a hundred yards when I saw him with my eyes for the first time. He looked like a dandy with my untrained eyes and I looked at Ampie whom was looking through his binocs when he all of a sudden put up the sticks and said ”Take him.” He was by my questImate 150-175 yards away and moving slowly. I did not feel real comfortable taking the shot, but the bull stopped behind a tree with his vitals covered. It gave me a chance to slow things down and gather myself. The bull stepped forward about 2 steps and it’s like the rifle fired on its own.

The bull took off on a dead run and toppled down, I did not see him fall but everyone else did. To say that everyone was very excited would be putting it lightly. I however couldn’t see him yet, I was still a little nervous and hesitant to celebrate. Then I saw him laying on the ground and immediately tears came to my eyes. Nothing actually leaked out, but I was in awe for a bit, he was beautiful. It finally happened the way it was supposed to, on the animal I wanted more than anything. It fealt like the weight of the world had been lifted, it was redemption. Ampie told me that the bull had crashed into a tree with his horns, he was hoping that the neother of the horns were broken, and they were not. He was not a huge bull, but wide with ivory tips, a true trophy to me.

Some photos of the bull.

We went back to camp with me feeling the highest I ever had in my life, it was absolutely amazing.

We headed out that afternoon with nothing particular in mind, once agin it was whatever the bush provided. We went for a walk or two but nothing was working as planned, I didn’t really care as I was still riding high from the morning hunt. We decided to head back to the truck and try one other are before stopping for the night. We were driving along and Nauw saw some wildebeest a little ways off. We had a bit of time, so we hopped off and worked our way towards where they were last seen.

We got to within 80-100 yards of them and we could see a few milling around, Ampie set up the sticks and I slid my rifle into place. He was looking them over and said “See the one on the left? I nodded yup,he said, “Take him.” I fired and they all took off, it looked good and felt good. However Ampie kind of looked at me a little different and I was not sure what exactly was going on. I asked, ”Did you hear if it hit him?” He said, “Yes, I did.”, still with a slightly peculiar look. We found it piled up about 60 yards away, a perfect frontal shot, however only one problem. I shot the wrong one, I shot a cow.

Ampie felt very bad about the miscommunication, I could care less. I was happy that I made another clean kill and I just killed my first wildebeest. He said, I somewhat think relieved, “If you are happy, I am happy.” Then we got the back slapping and high fives completed as required. What happened was he was looking at a group of bulls and he wanted me to shoot the one on the left. I was looking further to the left at a lone cow and me not knowing enough, I did not realize it was a cow.

We got back to camp and Ampie got razzed by Jaco a bit, some good stuff between clients and PH’s. She tasted excellent the next night and will look fine on the wall.

Some pictures of the wrong wildebeest

My brother Dustin shot a dandy Kudu this day. He also shot a suckling warthog that we would have over the spit the next day.

 

[Aaron.F]

Great write-up so far. Amazing Steenbuck and Eland. Don't beat yourself up too bad on the shooting. Practice off sticks a lot, it can be somewhat difficult to get used to.

What are you shooting?

Thank you, I did practice quite a bit, but I believe it was mostly nerves and no practice actually shooting at game from them.

I took a Interarms Mark X with me in 30-06 and I was shooting a 180 grain Barnes TSX.

 

[lockingblock]

Great report!

 

[ChasingHemingway]

Love your vulnerability and sharing the entire story: good and bad. Thank you for letting us walk in your shoes.

 

[fourfive8]

Very handsome kudu, BTW. Thanks for sharing the story. Hope there's more. Call me weird but I even like Ghanzi, about as plain and unremarkable as a town gets.

 

[sureshot375]

Big game hunting is all about the highs and the lows.

 

[Aaron.F]

Hunt Day 4 - (5/24)

The day started out like all others, as we went searching for a gemsbok, zebra, and possibly a warthog. That morning we get in a couple of stalks, but none of the animals are cooperating with us and we head back in for lunch.

When we get back into camp I find out that they found the impala that I had shot two days prior. My brother had shot another impala in the same area and when they were tracking it they came across mine. They were not entirely sure where I shot it, but they thought it was within a 100 yards or so of where I hit it. Who knows what happened, as there were a lot of impala in the group. Unfortunately, the jackals had found it first, but at least I knew that it wasn’t still running around wounded. And as they say nothing goes to waste in Africa.

We headed out that evening with the same plan as the previous days. We had kind of the same outcome as the morning, as we got on some game but nothing cooperated again. Ampie and Nauw did get me on a gemsbok, that I thought looked nice and was in my crosshairs at 75 yards, but it was with another one that Ampie said we wanted. They are the experts, so we continued on after the better one, but no such luck.

We got back to camp and got settled in to probably our coolest meal of the trip. The day before my brother Dustin had shot a suckling warthog and they cooked it on the spit. A little bit on our background, we grew up on a hobby cattle and hog farm, so we are somewhat fond of hog roasts. This was mentioned to Jaco and he made it happen. It was a very cool experience and was actually pretty tasty. See some of the pictures below.

My brothers kicked butt this day, Dustin got an impala and zebra, Jason got a wildebeest and zebra.

 

[Jörg Krüger]

Thank you for sharing. Great hunt report and nice animals taken

 

[Aaron.F]

Hunt Day 5 - (5/25)

The morning hunt goes about the same as the last few, nothing in the skinning shed for me. I can tell Ampie is getting a little anxious, as we haven’t gotten anything in a bit. I am happy as a clam. I am in Africa and stalking game for hours everyday.

For the evening hunt, we decide to do something a little different, we are going to set up a blind at a water hole near where we saw the zebras previously. We get a nice spot set up with chairs and such and sit for the latter part of the evening hunt. The amount of birds at the waterhole was crazy, it made 2 hours of Not seeing much pass by fairly quickly. We were sitting there with about what I would guess a 1/2 hour before darkness sets in. We hear something behind us and to the right, not sure what it is at this point, but it’s coming in.

A bull wildebeest ends up coming in to our right about 15-20 yards away. He can kind of see us, but is not sure what he sees, he starts grunting and working his way in front of us. He is standing broadside at about 15 yards and Ampie looks at me like, do you want him? I am not sure as I already have one, although it’s a female, I ultimately decide not to take him. The wildebeest continues to grunt at us, but ultimately gets our wind and takes off.

He takes off, and I say ”That was very cool?” Ampie turns to my wife whom had been doing some filming and picture taking the whole trip up to this point and says, “Did you get all that?” She says”Hell no, I thought that thing was going to fuc$in’ charge!” Ampie and I started dying laughing, it made it all the better.

Darkness comes and we load up to head back to camp. On our way back to camp we see a fire in the distance and we’re not sure what was going on. We get up there, Jaco and my brothers group have a fire going and are sitting around the fire listening to music from the trucks enjoying a cold beverage or two. We stop off and get out and enjoy the fun. It turns out they had a hell of a day. They had 3 dandy warthogs in the truck and my brother Dustin had also shot a very nice gemsbok.

We ended up having dinner out there and chilled out around the fire for a couple of hours. It was an absolutely amazing evening. We called our parents to tell them about the experience. Jaco got on the phone with them and told them that they should be very proud of their boys and that Neil our father had to come and experience this himself, my father agreed and said it was awesome seeing the smiles on our faces of the pictures we had been sending home. It was truly an amazing night, one that I will never forget.

Here are some pictures of the evening and the truck full of hogs.

 

[Aaron.F]

Hunt day 6 - (5/26)

We started out the morning a little earlier than previous, as I believe Ampie was feeling the pressure of not getting much lately. I was still riding high taking it all in, this was our last hunt day. We were driving along and Nauw spotted a nice gemsbok and we commenced to putting on a lengthy stalk, but the bull eventually gave us the slip.

We moved on to a different area and cur some fresh zebra tracks, so we decided to go after them. We had been following them for an hour or so and we were getting to the point where we could heat them. Maybe it was finally going to come together for a zebra, we shall see. We were continuing to get a little closer and could definitely hear the zebras and we were starting to get a glimpse of them hear and there, but still off a ways.

While we were working our way towards then Nauw all of a sudden stops and motions to Ampie off towards our right. Ampie takes a look with his binos and says to me that there is a very nice warthog about 40 yards away. He asks me if I would rather keep after the zebra or try for the warthog? I am trying to make up my mind when Ampie makes up my mind for me, when he looks again through the binocs and says, “He is very nice’. So it became an easy decision, a warthog it would be.

The warthogs were starting to sense something was up, I couldn’t see them real well and they were moving through some brush. Ampie set up the sticks and told me to get ready. We were watching an opening in the brush and Ampie said, he is about to hit the opening…now. The warthog is partially obscured by brush, so I take my best guess and fire. Down goes the warthog, and Nauw starts clapping, apparently he is happy he doesn’t have to track it.

We get up to the warthog and Ampie says, “His tusks are huge…the biggest I have killed.” He was very nice, the only exception was one tusk was huge, the other was worn or broken off. Ampie was a little disappointed, he wants everything to be perfect. I was very happy with the warthog…he has character and is awesome. We headed back to camp and prepared for the evening hunt.

The evening hunt went basically like it was supposed to we got on some zebras fairly early and tracked them for an hour or so and eventually started pushing them just a bit. We got to the point that we were not going to get any closer than about a hundred or so yards. Ampie set up the sticks and we waited for them to break cover, as they were working through some brush. I didn’t fully realize how hard it is to pick out one zebra in a here, through the brush. I finally was able to pick one out and took what felt like a pretty good shot. Once I fired all hell broke loose and the zebra scatterd, I thought to myself, here we go again.

However, we spotted a lone zebra just standing by itself. Ampie put the binocs on it to confirm, he couldn’t see an entrance hole, but said the animal was appearing to sway and wasn’t running. He said hit it again, so I pulled up and put one into its shoulder. It ran about another 20 yards and dropped.

By the time we got the meat truck to the zebra and got out of there, it was getting late, my safari was over. It was a mix of emotions as we drove back, I was excited, elated, tired, and a little bit sad.

My brother were basically tagged out and satisfied at this point. However earlier in the week we had talked to Jaco about the rifles and such that he hunts with and he said he would bring out his double rifle for us to shoot. He was going to let all of us shot it once, but it didn’t work out timing wise for me. But my brother got to hunt with his Searcy 500 Nitro Express and take a zebra with it. It was the icing on a monstrous cake for my brother. They spent the rest of the day taking in some wing shooting and had a blast.

His photo with double rifle and zebra he took with it is below, you could not knock that smile off of his face.

 

[cpr0312]

Congrats on a great hunt, some very nice trophies!

 

[Aaron.F]

Here are some pictures of us the next morning before we left, with all the individuals that made it happen.

It was an absolutely amazing trip, the best of my life. The lows made the highs even better. I would highly recommend NKWE Safaris to anyone wanting a top notch safari. Thank you to my brothers, Jason and Dustin, my wife Kristina, Ampie Venter, Jaco Visser, Matt Egan, Godfrey, the camp staff, and the best trackers anywhere. I will be back in 2 years with my father.

If any one has any questions, feel free to ask via this post or IM.

Aaron Fisk

 

[cls]

Congratulations to all on a successful safari and thanks for posting your report along with pictures.