By Sara Haigh
In March 2025, I lost John, my husband and best friend of over 37 years.
John was first diagnosed with cancer 26 years ago at the age of 54. Despite this adversity John acquired a zest for life, rose to the challenge of seeing more of the world, and we had many wonderful adventures – but Africa became the beloved passion.
As a young boy in the 1950s, he was captivated by the wildlife films of Arnoud and Michaela Dennis, bewitched by the images, never thinking he would have the privilege of hunting in Africa. But that opportunity came when friends introduced us to Ian Harmer.
Ian recognized our interest and enthusiasm for Africa and told us he was embarking on another hunting safari to South Africa in October 2011. “Why don’t you come with me?”
An opportunity not to be missed, so on 6 October 2011, we flew to Port Elizabeth to be met by our PH Kobus Hayward of Blue Cliff Safaris. After 45-minute drive north to Kirkwood we arrived at the lodge in an area of rolling hills covered in fynbos.
Blue Cliff Safaris, owned and operated by Kobus Haywood and his wife, is where hunting takes place on 15,000 acres of their property as well as on more than half a million acres of Eastern Cape hunting concessions, with terrains ranging from thick fynbos bush to open plains.
Ian was there to hunt blue duiker, Cape grysbok, grey duiker and steenbok, but when our party was heading out for Ian to hunt for a grysbok, Kobus suggested John take the other rifle in case there was a chance for an impala. We saw many impala that morning but most were skittish. Eventually Kobus saw an opportunity, a lone ram. John and Kobus left the vehicle and stalked in. His first shot was not the easiest, a little over 100 yards, partially obscured by a bush. The impala ran about 60 yards and was found dead after about 15 minutes of searching in the thick fynbos.
A couple of days later we made a very long day’s visit to a farm in the Great Karoo for Ian and John to hunt for steenbok, and both men were successful. Though it was exhausting for John he was captivated by the austere beauty of the Karoo, the vast desolate landscape with occasional ruins of settlers’ old farmsteads and rusting abandoned wind pumps against a spectacular night sky.
There are many things that bite in Africa but the worst is to be bitten by the hunting safari bug. It can seriously damage your bank account! And the bug had well and truly bitten. We booked to return to Blue Cliff in October 2012 with our friend Peter Townley who took a blue wildebeest, bush buck and caracal. John took a grey duiker and a blesbok that was spotted about one thousand yards away. An old ram was chosen. There was scant cover, but John and Kobus stalked into about 120 yards, and rising quickly from the grass the shot was successfully taken.
The final day of the 2012 safari was truly memorable, with a duiker taken in the last hour or so, after Peter had taken a caracal in the morning and a bushbuck in mid-afternoon.
Namibia had fascinated us during a holiday there in 2008, and by 2013 we had a burning desire to return to the country to hunt, and after searching the Internet, we chose Otjinuke Hunting Ranch, owned by Gert and Marina Muller. It is about 120 miles from Windhoek and 50 miles northeast of Okahandja, covering 6500 hectares in the Ombatuzu Conservancy.
Gert had recently had a hip replacement and so a young freelance professional hunter, AW Viljoen had been contracted to help with the hunt for steenbok, springbok, hartebeest and gemsbok – perhaps John’s favorite antelope and trophy. In his short, privately published Kaikebab – An African Hunting Memoire he wrote: ‘There is something special about seeing a lone gemsbok in free-ranging semi-arid habitat. The grey body with white and black legs and head sporting impressive rapier-like horns that are much admired by hunters and wildlife photographers.’
John enjoyed eating what he had killed and loved picnics. After the morning the hartebeest was taken Gert and Marina invited us to join them for lunch at a large waterhole. AW had made a ‘puff adder sausage’ using the chopped liver and kidneys from the springbok taken the day before, mixed with diced onion and herbs and stuffed into a length of intestine before cooking it on the braai. It was delicious, and with hearty lamb chops, gemsbok sausage, potato salad and chilled beer it made the perfect safari lunch. Sitting in the shade of an acacia tree we relaxed and watched warthogs drinking at the waterhole. It was an idyllic place.
Gert, Marina and their Otjinuke Game Ranch had been superb and the love affair with Namibia was cemented.
When we looked for a safari in 2014 we found that Hunters Guide Safaris had been set up by AW, so we decided go there, giving us the opportunity to see and hunt in a different part of Namibia.
We met at the airport by AW and driven the four-hour journey to the bush camp at Afrika Jag Safaris 16 miles west of Outjo where we were greeted by AW’s wife Rene. The camp is situated adjacent to the dry riverbed of the Ugab River and under the magnificent Ugab Terraces with the Blue Mountains in the distance. Our accommodation was a lovely, thatched rondavel and a large, thatched lodge and lapa where we ate and relaxed around the camp fire. We immediately felt at home. In John’s words:
‘That night we experienced the magic of the African bush sitting round the campfire, the smell of wood smoke, the absence of any human-created sound broken only by distant animal sounds and the complete darkness exhibiting a breathtaking night sky … This is our idea of paradise!’
First on the list to hunt was a Hartmann’s mountain zebra. Possibly this would prove to be the most physically arduous of our hunts in Africa. Starting at a waterhole we followed tracks for several hours before Kobus our tracker informed us that we were near to a small group of zebra. Unfortunately, we bumped some gemsbok that caused the zebra to run.
The thornbush was quite thick, and underfoot the ground very stony which made progress difficult, but we eventually reached the top of a ridge to take stock and try to locate the zebra. We scanned the area until Tony Langner, AW’s friend, spotted the small herd on a far hillside perhaps a mile away. It was now five hours since we had set out, John was about exhausted and unsure he could continue with the hunt. I encouraged him to go on “We haven’t come all this way to back down now we are in sight of them” Tony kindly offered to carry the rifle and so we moved off.
We got to about 300 yards. Tony, Kobus and I stayed back whilst AW and John made the final approach. They got to 80 yards from the old zebra stallion standing in the shade of an acacia, showing just enough of the target area. We heard the shot, the zebra galloped off. AW grabbed the rifle and set off running, catching up and dispatching the old stallion. In the excitement John left the shooting sticks behind, never to be recovered. Any thoughts of exhaustion were gone for the time being.
We then moved seventy miles west to Stillerus Lodge. One of our extra magic places; wild, remote Africa. After leaving tarred roads, 30 miles of dirt roads lead to narrow tracks to the lodge. The lodge was very comfortable and from there John took a very fine steenbok with horns measuring 4½ inches, a jackal and a springbok.
Later on, as we approached the lodge we saw two shapes caught in the headlights. To our surprise it was a black rhino cow and calf just leaving the waterhole. How lucky were we, and what a privilege to see wild black rhinos.
The evening was balmy, and John had a desire to sleep under the stars so we transferred our mattresses and duvets on to the balcony and fell asleep utterly contented and at peace with the world. However, the final surprise of this eventful night was a violent thunderstorm at 1.20 a.m. and we hastily dragged our beds into the club room.
We returned to Namibia in 2015 and 2016 with Ian Harmer and Barry Schofield, a friend of John’s since schooldays. Over the two safaris John took an impala, a black wildebeest after a long, eventful follow-up, a grey duiker and warthog.
The second warthog of the 2015 safari caused what you might describe as a disproportionate amount of glee, exhibiting John’s almost boyish sense of fun and enthusiasm for the chase. It was the last day and, wanting to make the most of the remaining time as some of us took a siesta, he set out with AW and Kobus the tracker in the heat of the midday sun to look for a baboon or warthog. An old baboon played with them, repeatedly waiting for their approach, then moving on and appearing up another tree another 100 yards further away. They went to a waterhole where a warthog appeared, standing broadside, and it was cleanly killed. They arrived back at camp shouting ‘Wake up! Wake up! and exclaiming ‘God Bless Namibia! God Save the Queen! in a fit of excitement.
The 2015 and 2016 safaris used Afrika Jag, a lodge called Munsterland and the Stillerus Lodge. Stillerus continued the magic, this time providing a photo opportunity of a lifetime when we chanced upon black rhinoceroses again, a cow with calf, an old male and a young female. John and Ian took photos frantically from the back of the truck while AW kept the engine ticking over just in case. We all felt so privileged to have had this wildlife experience. John wrote of Stillerus: ‘A breathtaking sunset … the heavenly night sky then sitting round the campfire with the fragrance of woodsmoke I reflect on the past two days, and I realize again why I love this place so much.’
Throughout our Namibian safaris, klipspringer hunts proved frustrating. After an unsuccessful attempt in 2016 we decided to switch to hunting Damara dik-dik. The area around Outjo is a premium destination for dik-dik, having a high population of the tiny antelope. On our final day we set off to hunt for one, heading to a property called Deurslag. We parked the bakkie, John was given the rifle, and he and AW set off. They crept through the bush and spotted a fine male. Maneuvering downwind, then moving forward to a small clearing, they saw the dik-dik standing broadside at 80 yards, but it moved behind a bunch of small trees. A waiting game followed. Then we heard the rifle’s report.
Kobus appeared first without a carcass, then AW also empty handed. My heart sank. Then to my joy, out came John carrying the dik-dik. I was in tears with happiness. And at that moment John said, ‘I doubt I will ever have a better hunt than this, it has been the pinnacle of my African hunting career, so I am going to finish on a high note…and bring to a close this hunting stage of my life.’
That decision brought closure to our adventures. The six hunting safaris we had experienced had been fantastic and beyond anything that we had ever experienced. He said that these trips had been even more special because he was able to share them with me. We planned to return to Africa with a trip to Tanzania but sadly this had to be cancelled with John being diagnosed with a third primary cancer. I believe that we both thought of it as unfinished business, and John would speak of Africa every day for the remaining seven years of his life. He left the church to the sound of the Namibian national anthem, his safari hat adorning his coffin. The last reading of the service and his epitaph:
Now I yearn for Africa again,
Parched hills and plains,
Squat trees,
And multitudes of animals and birds
Too numerous
For anyone to name;
But….
I would sorely miss my friends like you!
It was read by Martin Spilsbury, a very close friend and John’s ‘African hunting protégé’. I would not have attempted to write this article without his help. He too has had five fabulous hunting safaris with Hunters Guide Safaris, accounting for a Cape buffalo with AW Viljoen only four weeks before the writing of this piece.
There seems to be someone high above yearning for me to return to the dark continent, and in January 2026, I will carry John in my heart and go back to spend some time with PH AW Viljoen and his lovely wife Rene. It will be a very emotional journey for me, but I believe very much the right thing to do and leave a little bit of something from us both in the dust of Africa, in glorious Namibia, the most wonderful country that stole our hearts.
