By Larry Collins
My Namibian safari was the best vacation/hunting trip my wife Pat and I have ever taken.
We left Atlanta, with the usual long flight via Joburg to Windhoek where, after collecting luggage, we met my PH, Dirk de Bod, at the Firearm Check-Out office. He collected our firearms and luggage, and we were soon in his SUV on our way to his hunting area.
On arrival, we went to our tent and unpacked. When I say tent, it was more like a luxurious one-bedroom apartment. Apart from the king-sized bed, large bathroom with a big shower and usual furniture, there was a safe, small refrigerator, and an air conditioner.
After unpacking, we walked to the hunting lodge for drinks and sat around the fire pit until supper and talked hunting.
Dirk asked what my point of aim would be, and when I told him I normally tried to make a heart shot, he said he had trouble with American hunters shooting too low and recommended aiming three or four inches higher than the heart shot, toward the center of the lungs. I told him I had Leupold VX6HD 4×24 Rifle Scope with a custom CDS Ranging dial, and he offered to set it for me before the shoot. We had supper and we were tired from the trip, so we called it a day.
The next morning we woke to find the temperature had dropped below freezing overnight and dressed in layers accordingly, then walked down to the lodge for breakfast.
For the morning hunt, Dirk, the two trackers, the two tracking dogs, Pat, and myself loaded into a Toyota truck with a shooting bench over the cab built into the bed of the truck. We drove for about two hours and saw giraffes, guinea fowl, and other animals. I was feeling a little uncomfortable and found I had an upset stomach. For lunch the others had sandwiches while my lunch was an Imodium!
On the afternoon hunt we saw many animals including giraffe, zebra, waterbuck and gemsbok. At about 5:00 p.m. Dirk spotted three Cape eland, and the oldest was a shooter. We tracked them up a wide canyon and the two younger bulls moved to the right side of the canyon; the older one moved to the left. I had still not seen them at that point, but we walked in single file up the canyon about 800 meters. Dirk set up the shooting sticks and said the animal would be coming out from behind a set of bushes on the left about 120 meters in front of us. I got set, Dirk steadied me on the sticks, and about 15 seconds later the eland came out and stopped broadside to us, his fatal mistake. I squeezed the trigger, and he took off running over a small knoll. The shot was good. The tracking dogs heard the shot and came running past. About three seconds later I heard a sound I hadn’t heard since I was a teenager squirrel-hunting with my uncle’s dogs:
“Yap, Yap, Yap, Yap, Yap.” I knew what it meant. We walked over and there was a nice Cape eland bull about 50 meters from where I shot him, about 1800 pounds according to Dirk. I got extra credit for dropping him about 10 feet from a road! I was on an adrenaline high. Dirk and the trackers loaded him in the back of the truck and strapped him in.
We returned to the hunting lodge for drinks around the fire pit, hunting tales, and another three-course meal. But Dirk’s future daughter-in-law, Anka, made a “from scratch” tomato soup that was perfect for me.
The next day after toast and coffee for me, we loaded into the Toyota. We saw several animals not on my list – gemsbok cows with horns bigger than the bulls, groups of kudu cows, then Dirk and the trackers spotted a sable bull at about 250 meters out. Dirk stopped, I got out, a tracker handed me the rifle. Dirk adjusted the CDS dial on the scope, and I adjusted the parallax dial to match. I squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened. I had forgotten to release the safety. I moved the safety to “Fire”. Yanked the trigger. Missed the shot. We went to check but found no animal, no blood, no nothing.
For the afternoon hunt, we sat in a raised blind and saw a few animals but no shooter bulls. Later we had another great evening at the lodge.
The next day was as before, and one of Dirk’s friends, Ace, joined us for the hunt. We saw several kudu, three sable that were not shooters, and finally saw a sable bull standing in the brush 300 meters behind us to our right. I got set up but it was still a little awkward. We watched him through the brush for 15-20 minutes. He finally moved into a clearing and we set the dials on the scope at 300 meters. I changed the power setting on my scope to 12 and got him in my crosshairs. I tried to concentrate on my breathing and control my excitement. I aimed to the middle of his lungs, squeezed the trigger, and he went down like he had been poleaxed. I had hit him in the spine. Dirk fired two more shots to be sure. The right horn measured 47 inches and the left horn 46 inches.
On the next day we finally found a lone gemsbok bull on a fence line about 225 yards away, heading into the brush. We got set up and waited about a minute till he came back out moving away from us along the fence line. Dirk adjusted my scope to 250 meters. I adjusted the parallax dial to match. The gemsbok finally stopped and looked back over his left shoulder. I put the crosshairs on a quartering away shot and squeezed the trigger. He dropped like a rock. Horns – 39 inches.
After lunch, on our afternoon hunt we saw several groups of gemsbok, kudu, wildebeest, and impala cows. Finally, Dirk spotted an impressive waterbuck bull. We chased him for over an hour, maneuvering around the dense 2,000-acre hillside thicket he was hiding in till he finally stopped in a bush about 100 yards downhill from us. With Dirk’s help, I prepared
to fire. I squeezed the trigger and the bull disappeared. Dirk figured where the bull had gone. He took my gun and he, the trackers and the dogs went after the animal. About seven minutes later I heard the dogs start barking. The bull had traveled about 100 yards and was standing in a bush. Dirk fired a finishing shot and we returned to the lodge for another pleasant evening.
The following day we bade farewell to Ace, then worked our way back through hills and valleys, sighting several herds of animals as many as 50 each – gemsbok, impala, kudu, roan, sable, waterbuck, wildebeest, and hartebeest, cows and bulls. We did not find the old kudu bull we were looking for and decided to try again in the afternoon.
We saw lots of everything, but nothing worth shooting, so returned for our sundowners and supper.
Before the next day’s hunt we traveled to the utility area and helped load some meat for workers and drove around the 10 sections adjacent to the utility area for several hours. We saw four groups of kudu bulls and in the last group, one of the trackers noticed something in the brush. It was an old kudu bull standing dead still in the shadows of a bush, difficult to see. He was 100 meters away, and Dirk got me on him, a shooter. At first, I only saw a silhouette that looked like an animal. He was facing the base of the bush he was standing under and his horns looked like a tree branch. Dirk said, “Take him.” The bull looked back over his right shoulder. I saw the “V” of his horns and as he took a step to the right and presented his shoulder, I took the shot. He ran off less than 50 yards. Dirk started after the bull with his dogs. He didn’t take my rifle along; he knew the kudu was down. There was a small problem, though. The animal was piled up in the middle of a bunch of catclaw bushes. Dirk got on the radio and called in reinforcements to help hack the kudu out of the brush.
On the way to the lodge for lunch we went for some guinea fowl with my Benelli SBE shotgun. We drove up on a group of about 100 birds. I pointed to the middle of the group and fired once and got 10 birds. Pot shot.
On the afternoon hunt we drove through the “Nursery” where Dirk had hundreds of breeding stock to supply the rest of the ranch with huntable trophy animals. Then we drove around the ranch shooting guinea fowl. I fired a total of eight shots, and we came away with a total of 25 birds.
After the hunt, we returned for drinks at the Fire Pit, and another wonderful meal of eland steaks.
On the way to the lodge for lunch we went for some guinea fowl with my Benelli SBE shotgun. We drove up on a group of about 100 birds. I pointed to the middle of the group and fired once and got 10 birds. Pot shot.
On the afternoon hunt e drove through the “Nursery” where Dirk had hundreds of breeding stock living there supplying the rest of the ranch with huntable trophy animals. Then we drove around the ranch shooting guinea fowl. I fired eight shots, and we came away with 25 birds.
After the hunt, we returned for more drinks at the fire pit, and another wonderful meal with eland steaks.
It was the end of the hunt. Dirk drove us to his Beach House at Long Beach. We went shopping, had lunch at Swakopmund, and visited the Kristall Gallery. The next day we went sightseeing at Walvis Bay.
The following morning we drove to Omaruru Game Lodge for a tour of the ranch and Pat got to pet some elephants and a rhino.
On our last day we drove to Ingwe Wildlife Art shop to discuss taxidermy where I met Silke Bean, and afterward, Dirk dropped us off at the Airport.
It was such a amazing safari full of wonderful memories.
