The Bergzicht team poses with my waterbuck.
By Aleen Kienholz
In October 2020, I was signed up for a photo safari to Kenya and Tanzania and then a follow-up hunt back at Bergzicht Game Lodge in Namibia. The Covid pandemic nixed my travel plans along with those of thousands of others, and worldwide air travel nearly ground to a halt. We managed a salmon and halibut fishing trip to Elfin Cove, Alaska that June, but masks and Covid tests were an integral part of it, and the lodge was running at less than 20% capacity. We took photos of king salmon wearing the ubiquitous blue masks.
Covid protocols were still in effect when I finally flew back to Namibia in late August 2021, but it was more of an annoyance than a danger. Frankfurt airport was very quiet and the lounges and most of the shops were closed. When I got back “home” to Bergzicht, PH Steph Joubert was up north with Italian clients. The father had already taken the Big Five and was hunting hippo and crocodile to complete the Deadly Seven, so owner and PH Hannes Du Plessis was my hunting and photography guide.
I had a prioritized list of species that I wanted to take, but anyone who has spent much time hunting knows that a plan is merely an outline and is not written in stone. We started out looking for a nice gemsbok for a rug and a skull mount. If you read my previous article titled If Only We Had More Wall Space, you could correctly assume that we had nowhere in the whole house to put a shoulder mount. Ah, and the gemsbok were skittish and consistently vacated an area before we could even think about trying a stalk in mostly open country.
Hannes stopped so that I could photograph an old warthog. He just stood there, so I took him as my first trophy of the trip. One of the effects of a bad drought between my first hunt here in 2018 and this one was that warthog numbers were way down. Efforts to control black-backed jackal numbers had enhanced the nesting success of ostrich, and their numbers were way up. No matter what we do, both action and inaction have consequences, but I love learning more about ecological interactions.
My time at Bergzicht was limited, and I did not want to take up too much of it in pursuit of gemsbok, so the second morning we set out for the number two priority on my wish list: a nice representative waterbuck. Along the way, an old blue wildebeest with interesting horns posed for us. I asked the trackers if he was a good one and they replied in the affirmative, so I set down the camera and picked up the rifle. He bolted before I could set up for a shot. Smart old boy. He soon disappeared into the heavy brush. The trackers set out to follow him, keeping in touch by radio, and Hannes and I moved to what might work as an intercept position. It didn’t work.
Even a bachelor impala can be impressive.
Eventually we found a small group of brindled gnus in more open country, and Hannes coached me on which one to shoot. The photo brown lenses in my glasses were so dark from the sun that I was having trouble with the sight picture through the scope. I did not make as good a shot as I normally would, and he ran off with the right leg broken close to the body. That rattled me and more shots were required, but eventually, the old boy was ours. I was astounded to learn that it was the very same animal that we had started out tracking a long way back. Those guys are amazing. The bull’s face was full of battle scars and his incisors were well worn. He eventually made a beautiful rug, and his painted skull hangs in our stairwell. A gemsbok was now OFF my hunting wish list.
The Italians had early success and were now back at the lodge. They would continue to hunt with Steph. On the third morning, Hannes and I again headed out in search of waterbuck. We had not driven very far into their preferred habitat before I saw a beautiful bull standing broadside to us. We set up quickly, and I got him in my sights, but I took those dark glasses off first. A gentle squeeze on the trigger, and he dropped in his tracks. Hannes approached him carefully with rifle in hand to make sure that he was dead, always respectful of those wicked horns. He was not terribly old, but was one of the best specimens ever taken on the property.
Hannes approached him carefully with rifle in hand to make sure that he was dead, always respectful of those wicked horns. He was not terribly old, but was one of the best specimens ever taken on the property. Even though I had NO idea where I could put him, he was prepped for a shoulder mount. I am not fond of the customary tradition of posing with the quarry, but they use some photos for advertising, and I am happy to help with that. I prefer to photograph that experienced team of PH and trackers with the trophy animal. They do so much to make these hunts successful.
That afternoon we hunted on a different portion of the property and I was equally lucky to connect with a lovely black impala. He was all by himself and had worn horn tips. If he ever HAD been a harem master, his chances of ever breeding again were very low. He was past his prime, but he was so beautiful. He would also be a shoulder mount. I spent the balance of the afternoon with Steph and the Italians in pursuit of a waterbuck for the son. Along the way, I got great photos of zebra, giraffe, eland and kudu. I was having a wonderful time. We also checked a bait and trail camera that had been set up to lure in brown hyena. Both a leopard and a hyena were caught on camera well after sundown, dining individually on a kudu haunch. A blind was built nearby for the father’s evening hunt for the hyena. (That was successful, but that is the Italian’s story, not mine.)
The next morning Hannes and I were looking for red hartebeest. We approached one herd and then another, but they were as skittish as the gemsbok had been. The tracker again did a phenomenal job of discerning the hartebeest tracks from all the other hoof prints in dry soil. We would see them and then lose them, see them again and then lose them again. They finally settled down once they got behind a screen of trees over 200 yards away, but they were not relaxed enough to resume grazing. We waited. I had the scope positioned with a nice view of the edge of the trees. Again, Hannes had his binoculars on the herd and was advising me of their movements. When a lone bull stepped into view, I held over the vitals and pulled the trigger. Again, the animal dropped in his tracks. Like my wildebeest, this fellow had a somewhat funky set of horns. I am normally drawn to symmetry, but I really liked that old bull.
These blesbok rams spent very little time in camera range.
Southern giraffe cow and calf.
I photographed this sable bull again in 2024, and though his horns were then shorter, he was still impressive.
Now the only thing left in my hunting Bucket List for this trip was a springbok, preferably a copper. On the drive the next morning to another part of the property, we found ourselves paralleling a lovely quartet of gemsbok bulls well within shooting range. I just started to laugh. Of course, they were available when I was no longer hunting them! I am a strong believer in the vagaries of Murphy’s Law. Hannes stopped so that I could start taking photos, and all four bulls crossed right in front of us, one at a time, and then stood and watched us from light cover. One of my very favorite photos from the trip has one bull caught in the phase of his elongated trot where all four feet are off the ground.
As I had before, I planned to make all of my edited photos available for their advertising needs, be it their website or Facebook. I had asked Hannes’s daughter, Marie Louise, which animal she would must like me to photograph. Blesbok. That is usually easier said than done. When we found a small group that offered a few quick photos, I took advantage of them. Then Hannes noticed a lone copper ram standing broadside ahead of us. I again set down the camera and picked up the rifle. I had to shoot through a screen of grass, but the hit was fatal and the little antelope did not go far. I knew that we could find space on the walls for a shoulder mount that size. It was a warm day, so we took him back to the skinning shed and relaxed over a nice lunch and a glass of wine.
That afternoon they dropped off a tracker, me and my camera in a storage building overlooking a waterhole and feeding troughs. It took very little time before the area wildlife filtered back in to eat and drink. First it was the nyala, more of them than I had ever seen before. Then it was the tsessebe. The biggest shock was when herd of sable came in together. There must have been five dozen of them, everything from the year’s calves to young bulls and old veterans. The horns of the herd bull were so long that he had worn marks both through his mane and across his shoulders. Wow. I have made many trips to Yellowstone National Park for photography, but I told Hannes that those few hours sitting by an open window exceeded all of those experiences for productivity. I took over 300 photos and had more work to do, editing them on my laptop computer.
The next morning, we did photography closer to the lodge. Among other things, I got nice photos of white blesbok, a leucistic color phase. Bergzicht has four colors of springbok and offers a springbok slam. That morning I completed it my way, with photos. Then we went back to the storage shed. I was again sitting on a cooler by the window, with plenty of water and a big lunch at my disposal. It was HOT, but it was worth it. Many of the same cast of characters came by, plus young warthogs, impala, a few copper springboks, and a pair of blesbok rams. Like an old hunting dog, one was speckled with white beyond his white blaze. Before the tracker and I got picked up for the drive back to the lodge, a nice herd of red lechwe were approaching.
Again, I had over 300 photos to edit. It would not be easy to choose which photos to put into another photo book, and which to leave out. What a trip it had been.
Obed took me out for photos on my last full day in Namibia, and we saw a variety of birds, golden oryx (a leucistic gemsbok), black impala, roan, nyala, sable, kudu, giraffe and steenbok. Bergzicht also offers a masked slam, and I now had photos of all four of those antelope too.
I spend far more time looking through the camera lens than the rifle scope, but both count as “hunting” to me.
This gemsbok bull was momentarily suspended above the road.
Yellowstone has been compared to the Serengeti, but wild Africa is more diverse. Here is my black impala.
This is the first roan antelope that I ever photographed in Africa.
My funky red hartebeest made me smile.
Getting back home again required another Covid test clearance, and airports were still rather quiet. I did not book another hunt right then, but I went back to Bergzicht again in March 2024 so that I could photograph a lot of antelope babies, both on the hunting property and up at Mount Etjo Safari Lodge. Steph helped me to check off all six species on my hunting list for that trip, and I got so many photos that I had to create TWO photo books, one for each lodge. I cannot speak Afrikaans of course, but Google Translate is a helpful tool. The cover of my 2021 photo book says, Ek is lief vir Afrika. Dit besit deel van my siel…or “I love Africa. It possesses part of my soul.” And it always will.
