NAMIBIA: KHOMAS HIGHLAND HUNTING SAFARIS

Hartebeest
This critter was the last on the list of big game for the trip for me. I had up to this point taken 9 of the 10 animals in my package plus several bonus jackals. A Hartebeest was the first animal we tried to stalk and ended up the last animal standing. We hunted them the entire time and I'll tell you what, they are a damned difficult critter to get the drop on. We had many unsuccessful stalks and were outsmarted IDK how many times. We at one point managed to get within 100 yards of a big group of them with two tremendous bulls in it yet still had no luck. Hartebeest are crafty critters and in the very limited experience I have with them rarely make mistakes.
During the entire hunt while I respected them immensely I just couldn't and still cant figure them out. I don't know what makes them tick. I've seen them, mounted them, and read a little about them but the Hartebeest is one that I just don't know that much about. They were the "unknown" on this adventure and even after hunting them I still don't quite understand them. They are deceivingly beautiful, weary, crafty, and incredibly fast. They belong to the same family of antelope the Topi does, which to my understanding, is the fastest of all antelope in Africa. We tried to hunt them pretty much every day we were there and for me, they just seemed out of reach.
Carrie took a tremendous bull early on and she and Corey seemed to have a bit of a different experience with them than I did.
To put it plainly, well, they just confuse me.
That however didn't stop me from appreciating them and wanting to hunt them. While the Hartman's Zebra was the hardest hunt I'd say the Hartebeest was the most difficult hunt if that makes any sense.
It finally came down to this, we went out one morning to look for Hartebeest and finish up the big game portion of the hunt. We found a lone bull pretty early on. As was the drill we hopped out and started stalking him. I could tell he was a nice bull by the way Philip and Hendrick were acting but I would only catch a glimpse here and there. Any time I am the client I don't worry about size as the PH/trackers's are going to be far better at field judging animals than I am so I just roll with it. That dude outsmarted us at every turn and after I don't know how many miles we finally accepted defeat and looped back around to the cruiser. I was beginning to wonder if I would take one this trip. While one always hopes they do it is hunting after all and sometimes it just doesn't work out and there will always be a next time.
We hop back in the cruiser and continue on looking for another beest as has happened so many times up to this point on this trip. We come around the corner and hey, look who is there. Now there is enough distance between us that he feels more comfortable sticking around. I decide that I am going to give it a whirl and it was getting late in the hunt and the number of hunting days left were pretty few.
He's semi in some brush at about 470 yards I think it was, Philip correct me on that if I am off, but at any rate it was a heckava poke out there. I decide to take the shot off of the front of the cruiser. I was pretty steady and had a good line of sight. There was virtually no wind and the only unknown was what the bullet drop would be that far. I settled the crosshairs in and gave it my best educated guess as to what my hold over would be and let her rip. I followed the vapor trail of the bullet in my scope and heard the whack. I knew I'd hit him but he didnt go down. He kind of stumbled around and we lost sight of him. The shot felt good, they are tough, etc.... so we watched and gave him some time. We went to where we last saw him and didn't find anything. I know that I hit him and there was absolutely no doubt about that so we should find something I'd have thought but nope. We look around for a bit and Hendrick went to where he was standing and started following the track. No blood for the longest time but eventually we found a drop here and there in the exact opposite direction of where we had last saw him. I'm pretty bumfuzzled at this point and doubting myself now. Hendrick lost and found the track several more times until we just damn near stepped on him. We got up to a matter of feet from him when he suddenly jumped up and tried to escape. He was having extreme difficulty standing up and running so I shot him again. He goes down and we shake hands and start to visit about what all had just happened. I'll be damned if after about 2 minutes (or so it seemed) he didn't lift his head up. I shot him again and instead of going over he tries to get up. At this point I run over to him and put one in his spine. He was down for the count then. Holly smokes what a tough animal they are.
Once we got to looking at him we discovered that my first bullet had gone through and broken both of his front knees. It had dropped quite a bit more than I figured it would have, though given my tendancy to shoot high I had second guessed myself at the last moment.
He was down now and I was able to get my hands on him. Philip and Hendrick went to go get the bakkie and I stayed with my Hartebeest. I thank God for this wonderful animal and thanked him for the oppurtunity to come and hunt such a wonderful place with such wonderful people. View attachment 399925View attachment 399926View attachment 399927View attachment 399928
@gizmo
He's a cracker mate. They sure are one tough SOB. My son's one took 3 150 grain accubonds out of his 308 in the chest before he decided he was dead.
Your hunt sounds similar in animals to ours except for the little fella you got. we got 2 burchells zebra instead of the mountain one. My son was very lucky to be with the PH when they came across a nice female Oryx cow with a wonky left horn he wanted culled. He got it for free. Up came the 08 and down went the cow.
Namibia if a beautiful place to hunt with the diversity of animals, the beautiful country side and the friendliness of the people. I would go back in a heartbeat just to get the 2 animals that are still on my wish list. A blue wildebeest, I had the opportunity but unfortunately my wife was sick for a few days and I opted to stay with her despite her protest for me to go.
My wife is more important than an animal and I had to have a reason for hopefully returning one day.
The other one is the magnificent eland.
Bob
 
Erik,
love the writeup so far! Sounds like you had a magnificent trip. My wife has the same wildebeest slam on her radar. Will warn you that the tiny 10 and night predators have a way of drawing you in and are great hunts. I am enjoying your impressions of Namibia, It is making me happy that we will be there in August. Looking forward to the rest of the story.:D Cheers:
@AZDAVE
Eric is bring back fond memories of my 2019 trip to Namibia and the fantastic time we had as a family with a couple of other people that have become lifelong friends.
The owner/ PH Harald and Liezel have also become family members that we keep in touch with on a regular basis.
Dave Africa was a life long dream to the extent I had my Whelen built just for that purpose. Namibia fulfilled that dream and gave me more than I could have hoped for.
I'm glad to hear you are going and hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Take your wife, family member or good friend with you and m a new the experience even more memorable.
Bob
 
Thanks buddy, oh believe me the 6 year wait was brutal. I pray it won’t take that long to go again.
@gizmo
You are very lucky to have only waited 6 years
I dreamt of hunting Africa from the age of 6. I had talked about it with my wife for a few years and when forced to retire we used part of my superannuation funds to go at her insistence. I am truly blessed to have such a beautiful and loving wife even tho she is a non hunter she encourages myself and our son in our hunting. She was my 3rd attempt at marriage and a man couldn't as for better. I was also most 61 when I got there so a 55 year wait.
Bob
 
Gizmo that is one helluva hunt, only surpassed by your contagious report. “Swinging in the breeze” I haven’t stopped laughing and I too would be happy to freeball it to nail a big baboon. After 4 safaris I am still baboon-less.
The other thing we have in common is that black wildebeest is number 1 on my list for the next safari.
I love Namibia and reading your report has expedited my plans to return.
 
So we haul ass to get over to them and by the time we caught up the rhino’s had lost interest in chasing them. But! They were still there. I got to see real rhino’s, white rhino, as well. We followed them around a bit and they just kind of wandered around having lost interest in us. It was a female and a calf and holly smokes did she have a horn. We stopped there and had a bush picnic with rhinos, it was freaking awesome! View attachment 400155I’ll post more pics once I can get back to my computer.
After lunch we toured the elephant lodge which is AMAZING!!!! I found a new friend in a meerkat, which was quite taken by me. I have that effect on meerkats. He chased me around and would sit in my arm and lay his head against my neck and go to sleep. Apparently I am the meerkat whisperer.
We then headed back to Windhoek and I wanted to go to the market for some shopping.
Covid has ran off most of the vendors but I did get to meet some real life Himba which made the trip totally worth it. I’ve seen them on TV and it was really cool to get to meet some. I bought a bunch of stuff for everyone back home and we headed back to the lodge.
@gizmo.
We went to Etosha. The experience of having to wait for elephant to cross the road 20 yards in front of us was unreal. Top that off with watching the keep as my and Rhino as well as other game coming into the waterhole at night is etched in my memory. Just driving around Etosha with one of our PHs ( Not one of those tourist buses) was great. We were made enough to get out and take photos that should not have been taken.
Meerkats are beautiful little critters. One of the camp staff had a pet one. It was young and very friendly. Like yourself it just climbed all over me and went to sleep on my shoulder. It was that cute I wanted to take it home. All these added things just made the whole Namibian experience all the better. Haggling at the Okahenja markets is something every one should experience.
Bob
 
@gizmo
Erik looks like the market in Windhoek. It's a wonder they didn't want to charge you $50 Namibian for the photo as that was the ed going rate for the a t type of photo.
The Okahenja markets were just a few rows of ramshackle stores in dusty streets but the experience was great. Watching our outfitter haggling with the sellers was great BUT the true laugh was when our young PH said I will show you how it's done. Being a born and bred local and fluent in Afrikaans he showed Markus a thing or three on how to barter. I couldn't understand a word but it was funny to watch .
Local PH 1 V outfitter 0.
Bob
 
Thank you sir
@gizmo Eric it's a shame you didn't go to that Windhoek institution for after hunt time. Joe's beer garden is an experience not to be missed the food leaves noting to be desired and the look around the place will have your eyes popping. Nankara is another great experience.
Bob
 
Great write up, report and adventure. Thanks for sharing, the good and truthful full happening's, I fully enjoyed your trip, Namibia is a very special place. Good job.

MB
 
@gizmo
You are very lucky to have only waited 6 years
I dreamt of hunting Africa from the age of 6. I had talked about it with my wife for a few years and when forced to retire we used part of my superannuation funds to go at her insistence. I am truly blessed to have such a beautiful and loving wife even tho she is a non hunter she encourages myself and our son in our hunting. She was my 3rd attempt at marriage and a man couldn't as for better. I was also most 61 when I got there so a 55 year wait.
Bob
Bob he was referring to the wait between by first trip and this last one. While I didn’t have to wait 55 years I had to certainly wait over 30 before I was able to go the first time. As you I had dreamed of Africa my entire life. I was 36 I think when I made it for my first trip.
@gizmo Eric it's a shame you didn't go to that Windhoek institution for after hunt time. Joe's beer garden is an experience not to be missed the food leaves noting to be desired and the look around the place will have your eyes popping. Nankara is another great experience.
Bob
We definitely wanted to but just didn’t have the time. I will definitely go next time.
 
I did the playboy version.... Leaned heavy on the photographs and skimmed the writing.... I enjoyed what I saw and thank you for the write up!
Congratulations on a great trip!
Randy
 
I did the playboy version.... Leaned heavy on the photographs and skimmed the writing.... I enjoyed what I saw and thank you for the write up!
Congratulations on a great trip!
Randy
No worries it’s pretty long winded so I don’t blame you. Thanks
 
@gizmo
You are very lucky to have only waited 6 years
I dreamt of hunting Africa from the age of 6. I had talked about it with my wife for a few years and when forced to retire we used part of my superannuation funds to go at her insistence. I am truly blessed to have such a beautiful and loving wife even tho she is a non hunter she encourages myself and our son in our hunting. She was my 3rd attempt at marriage and a man couldn't as for better. I was also most 61 when I got there so a 55 year wait.
Bob
Hiho Bob,
They (whoever “they” are), say that the reason divorce is so expensive is because it’s worth it, LoL.
Been there, done that myself.
If you ever get up to Alaska or, if we ever share an evening fire up at Khomas, I’m buying the beers mate.
Cheers,
Paul.
 
Gizmo,
Indeed, I am 100% with those who thank you for the excellent hunt report.
It is worth repeating that, you are one of the best scribes here in the world’s best forum.
I always look forward to your posts.
Cheers,
Velo Dog.
 
Gizmo,
Indeed, I am 100% with those who thank you for the excellent hunt report.
It is worth repeating that, you are one of the best scribes here in the world’s best forum.
I always look forward to your posts.
Cheers,
Velo Dog.
Thank you, I enjoy writing them. I wish I had the time and the funds to be able to write more Hunt reports from all over!
 
Eric
Thanks for taking the time to write such a great report I have enjoyed your writing immensely. You took some great trophies and your photos are very nice, congrats on all.
I have a trip booked with Phillip for next year and after reading your stories I can't wait.
Cheers
Jerry
 

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