NAMIBIA: Khomas Highland Hunting Safaris Hunting October 2016

[CAustin]

Thank you for sharing your hunt with us sir!

 

[Dudders]

The following morning we are up a 7am philip has organised packed breakfast and we set on a little photo tour we drive out climb a hill and sit and eat our breakfast not a bad view

when we are finished hendik spots what we he thinks are elephants and we have a little plan lets go find the elephants we find the tracks and park the bakkie and set off into the scrub we follow the spoor deep into the scrub after 20 minutes we slowed up and we could hear them snapping the branches on the scrubby bushes the guys checked the wind and we moved in very carefully Atar then squatted down and there 60 meters away were the elephants we could make out two in the scrub in front of us one of them was a young bull

we sat there for a while took some photos

The closest i will get to shooting an elephant. we then backed out and left them to it and they were none the wiser . it was a fun way to spend the morning and a really cool experience we headed back to the lodge to collect our gear. As we stopped to drop off our guys to collect their stuff an old german lady who we had talked to the night before at dinner who had visited Africa many times before had stopped at the farm workers houses before leaving and was handing them out 2 liter bottles of water. Philip commented that for all her trips to Africa She still knows very little and 2 liters of coke would have been better ( these guys lived in brick houses with electric, clean fresh water and most had tv aerials on ) we collected our stuff picked up the head and eland skin and a little meat to take back with us . We go and pick up our trackers and their gear hand out lollipops to the kids luckily had enough for them all Philip said" that went down better than water" to which i replied " welcome to the the western world sweets and tooth decay " all loaded up we also had a family from the farm who needed a lift to Windhoek we set off back to farm Heusis

 

[Dudders]

I thought I would mention this Okambara is a fenced farm of 30000 hectares that does photo safaris as well as hunting ones, although I was only there 24 hours I never encountered any hostility towards me or what I was doing. a few asked questions mainly to Philip as most of the guests were German. I don't speak German but Philip does one of the four languages he does speak. The volunteer staff were very interested in the eland several coming to look not having seen one before, the locals well high fives big smiles and lots of handshakes they seemed happy. so I had no complaints, a big Eland and I saw and stalked elephants .

 

[Dudders]

We stopped in Windhoek on our way back for lunch and essential supplies beer, tea bags and cakes , we pass through the police check point and I comment not extra passengers service today when Hendrik shout stop, we end up with Marius a farm hand his new girlfriend a couple of other guys and a young girl who wanted to stop about half way to the farm I think Philip needs to invest in a taxi sign. after lunch and afternoon tea and cake we head out for a baboon we walked up a few hills overlooking a dry river bed spotted a troop at about 200 meters but they spotted us and took off we headed back slowly to the bakkie and just took in the views along the way

 

[Dudders]

we set out after breakfast to resume our baboon hunt it did not take long before we found a troop out in the open near some light scrub Philip stops and we are out there was a large male in the scrub we tried to get onto but he was lost when he moved deeper into the scrub we moved to the front of the bakkie and waited he then appeared out of the scrub heading to join the rest of the troop in the open. He then stops and sits with his back to us I shoot he is hit and he takes off as the troop scatter we then lose sight again as he stops behind a tree he then appears again moving right to left dragging a leg I shoot again and see the dust kick up behind him reload and shoot again this time he drops and does not move Philip lights a cigarette and says we give him a minute and ranges the shot first shot was 100 meters sat the third was 180 meters walking. we drive over to the first shot and get sheba the young bitch blood hound out to have some practice tracking Philip releases her and she sets off following the trail. Me and the trackers held back and then began to follow as sheba reached the baboon it sat up and lunged at her luckily she backed off and as Philip desperately tried to call her away voodoo and Chaka arrived having launched themselves out of the bakkie all hell broke out .I was about half way between the bakkie and the baboon ran back to the bakkie for the rifle found some bullets and ran back to Philip who was trying to call off the dogs the dogs broke away from the baboon and I finished him with a shot that baboon had a lot of fight in him.

 

[cpr0312]

Thank you for sharing more of your hunt!

 

[lcq]

we set out after breakfast to resume our baboon hunt it did not take long before we found a troop out in the open near some light scrub Philip stops and we are out there was a large male in the scrub we tried to get onto but he was lost when he moved deeper into the scrub we moved to the front of the bakkie and waited he then appeared out of the scrub heading to join the rest of the troop in the open. He then stops and sits with his back to us I shoot he is hit and he takes off as the troop scatter we then lose sight again as he stops behind a tree he then appears again moving right to left dragging a leg I shoot again and see the dust kick up behind him reload and shoot again this time he drops and does not move Philip lights a cigarette and says we give him a minute and ranges the shot first shot was 100 meters sat the third was 180 meters walking. we drive over to the first shot and get sheba the young bitch blood hound out to have some practice tracking Philip releases her and she sets off following the trail. Me and the trackers held back and then began to follow as sheba reached the baboon it sat up and lunged at her luckily she backed off and as Philip desperately tried to call her away voodoo and Chaka arrived having launched themselves out of the bakkie all hell broke out .I was about half way between the bakkie and the baboon ran back to the bakkie for the rifle found some bullets and ran back to Philip who was trying to call off the dogs the dogs broke away from the baboon and I finished him with a shot View attachment 161877 that baboon had a lot of fight in him.

baboons are dog killing machines, Philip was rightly afraid for his dogs

 

[Dudders]

baboons are dog killing machines, Philip was rightly afraid for his dogs

Yes I agree although voodoo the ridgeback and chukka the barvarian mountain hound have a reputation for organising there own baboon hunting trips around the farmstead quite successfully .

 

[Dudders]

after setting up the baboon at a leopard bait we continued on our travels around the farm we travelled up into the mountains and as we reached the first of the valleys we spotted a group of hartebeest we stalked in what we thought was a small group turned into a large heard which split the first group had no culls so we turned our attention to the second half but they spooked as we approached and took off down the valley taking with them a heard of mountain zebra about 70 in number we returned to the bakkie and carried on into the mountains Philip then spotted some more zebra on a distant hillside a small group of 6 animals so we set off just me and Philip trying to get close without being spotted on the open hillside this meant crawling 100 meters on hands and knees to a small rocky outcrop when we got ready Philip looked them over and said take the one in the shade when it turns broadside, I say ok. With that a zebra which had been stood above the group runs down the hillside and stops broadside. Philip says take that one aim a little high on the shoulder. I fire the shot it seemed an age before we heard the hit Philip said spot on it will go down 20 seconds later the zebra was rolling gently down the slope. Philip turns to me and says furthest shot yet I knew it was far but 340 meters is a very long way when most shots I take are under 100 meters. so second mountain zebra down

we saw several more herds of zebra on our trip down from the mountains we saw in excess of 150 animals and over 80 hartebeest

 

[Dudders]

That afternoon we went and checked a couple of leopard baits and drove around a bit and ended up at an old german fort sat on the walls drinking a few beers taking in the view.

 

[HuntingGold]

thanks for sharing your hunt. Enjoyed the report.

 

[Dudders]

Thursday morning we went after a cull hartebeest we saw several groups which were all male as we travelled around we found a young kudu cow stuck in the cattle fence by her hind leg after setting her free from the wire and rolling her over getting her back on her feet after a few wobbles she was away. I was surprised by how calm she was as we got her onto her feet and held her up I bet there not many who have held up an alive 6ft tall kudu cow. Back on our way we spot some hartebeest a long way off and set after them Philip is not with us this morning just Hendrik Atar Marius and me we stalked in to about 200 meters and watched the group for a while the guys pointed out a female at the back who was carrying its hind leg and struggling so we went for this animal we set up the sticks and took a frontal shot she ran and dropped just out of sight we loaded up and managed to retrace our steps and find my sunglasses as I had left them behind when I took the shot, we stalked several other groups but nothing suitable was seen.

The afternoon was spent chasing Guinea fowl as Philips father had said he had a great recipe and would cook them for tea, had a great time even though I missed every one basically we chased them until they fly then shoot at them, luckily victor missed all his as well the only person who looked fed up was Hendrik as Philip told him he could have the birds that were left over for his diner.

 

[Dudders]

Friday today was my last day of hunting and I never fired a shot today we saw a lot less animals today but we now had a full moon last night we saw several groups of young Oryx and while checking one of the leopard baits found a leopard kill on a warthog not far away it was a nice warthog to we saw another nice steenbok and was tempted to put a reserved sticker on this one

in the afternoon much the same story although not far from then farm we came across a troop of baboon Philip asked did I want to shoot I looked across at them and said to Philip you know what I don't think I do we stopped and watched them move off and that was the end of a great 10 days at farm heusis with Philip and his father Dietmar, Atar and Hendrik .

 

[Dudders]

Travel home today packed and said my goodbyes we stopped in Windhoek for lunch and a few beers before Philip dropped me off at the airport for the flight home. I plan to return with khomas highland hunting and next time take the kids look out philip

 

[KHOMAS HIGHLAND HUNTING SAFARIS]

Richard, thank you very much for sharing your hunting experience here in Namibia! We had a good time having you as our guest and looking forward meeting your kids!

 

[Dinsdale]

Enjoyed the report.

 

[DoubleLunger]

I forgot to mention that 20 days out from this trip I got a serious infection I my knee joint quick intervention by the doctor a mri scan big doses of antibiotics and anti inflammatories lots sitting round with the leg up and after several e-mails with Philip to discuss options two days away from departure i took the decision to go for it .

Nothing stops a true adventurer

 

[50by50]

Friday today was my last day of hunting and I never fired a shot today we saw a lot less animals today but we now had a full moon last night we saw several groups of young Oryx and while checking one of the leopard baits found a leopard kill on a warthog not far away it was a nice warthog to we saw another nice steenbok and was tempted to put a reserved sticker on this one

View attachment 161883

in the afternoon much the same story although not far from then farm we came across a troop of baboon Philip asked did I want to shoot I looked across at them and said to Philip you know what I don't think I do we stopped and watched them move off and that was the end of a great 10 days at farm heusis with Philip and his father Dietmar, Atar and Hendrik .

That's an incredible steenbok!!! Wow

 

[Dudders]

That's an incredible steenbok!!! Wow

I may look for him on my next trip see if he is still around maybe he will be a bit bigger