05 June 2011, 06:27
Pir_DanishPlains Game Safari-Namibia
my friend Roland from Koller safaris contacted me in July 2010 and managed to convince me to take my first ever African safari, i am basically nuts about mountain hunting and untill I hunted the Namibian free range plains game I was under the impression that only Ibex and Blandford Urials in my Native Sindh (Pakistan) were challenging animals to hunt and i always used to think to myself that i will do all the hard hunts while my knees still allow it and i'll keep Africa for my old age, but I was wrong, not only were these Animals beautiful but they were quite elusive and wary.I found out through experience why they call Kudu the grey ghost and how agile the huge looking Eland actually is.
Anyway Rolland got me in touch with Walter and Katherina Sibold the owners of 'Jagdfarm Hummelshein' since this was a last minute booking i managed to get a date for September and the exciting phase of preparing for safari began, i took a lot of advise on africa from my friend Ahmed Sultan whose wonderful posts you've all read, infact this is the gentleman whose trophies inspired me to take the first step in this wonderful journey we call "African Safari"
Mr Razak Sheikh is a friend of my dad's and i have hunted with him since i was a child, he resides in Ithica upstate New York, at 75 years of age Razak still visits me every year and I take him out for a Ibex hunt in the mountains of Sindh and Baluchistan, Razak called me and asked me what my plans were for hunting this year, when i mentioned Namibia he at once said "i wana come along as well as an observer" so after speaking with Katharina and making all the necessary arrangements Razak and I were all set to arrive at Windhoek on the same date.
on Arrival at Windhoek airport i found Razak on the beanch fast asleep with Walter sitting next to him, he had recognised him and did not want to disturb him so he quietly sat next to him :-)
We arrived at the camp and everything was very well organised, we had hot dinner waiting for us with Oryx steaks and boiled corn on the cob. I was tired from the long plane journey so i had a good night sleep.
The next morning my first ever plains game safari began, and it began at the shooting range, i got myself used to Walter's Winchester 375 H&H.
we drove around the huge hunting area and straight away saw fresh marks of a leopard (oh by the way I had also booked for leopard so i was quite excited when we came accross fresh pug marks on the very first day because i was advised by all my friends that i will have to be very lucky if i got my leopard the very first time i visit Africa) unfortunately this was not a very big leopard so we continued on to shoot a bait and set it up before we continue to hunt the plains game.
we saw big herds of Hartebeest and lots and lots of Oryx, we shot a baby Oryx and a baboon for bait and set it up at 4 different spots.
having set the leopard baits we started searching for Blue Wildebeest or Blue Gnu, after driving around for a while we saw a big heard about 500 yards away, we got off from the jeep.
Walter was truely a German master hunter he conducted a very good stalk but still we could only manage to get only as close as 95 yards and we came accross a good bull. Walter said shoot and that is exactly what i did. whack!! i heard the bullet impact and i knew the 220 grain bullet had found its mark. it was a MAgnisficent old bull.
we loaded the animal in the truck and continued on to a spot where there was a water hole.
Walter said he has been seeing an old kudu bull visiting this place often so we decided to have a look, we got off from the jeep and crawled up to the ledge from where we had a good view of the water hole, we saw atleast 30 blue wildebeest, a huge group of black wildebeest (also called white tailed Gnu) they were dancing around in circles like monkeys.
we saw two Kudu bulls but none of them was the old bull that Walter told me about so we decided to take a black wildebeest instead, just then one of the Oryx females who were also at the water hole spotted us and ran away taking all the animals with her.
We kept our attention on the black Gnu and started stalking it, after 40 minutes of stalking we caught up with them but these creatures were so excited they were continously running around in circles and playing all the time and anyway on examining at a close range we did not find an extraordinary trophy so we radiod the truck and decided to head back to the camp.
It was about 5pm and then suddenly 200 yards from our jeep we saw a lone black wildebeest grazing, we at once got off from the jeep, stalked and from 80 yards i took the shot after recieving a yes from Walter, the animal went down in one shot.
with both the Wildebeest bagged we finished the day's hunt and returned to camp.
Early next morning we were in the jeep at 5:30am, we started the hunt by checking all the baits but unfortunately there was no hit so we decided to head of to the hills where sometimes the leopard is seen sitting on a cliff basking in the early morning sun, although we saw the mark of where the leopard had slept in the night in the sand but did not see any leopard.
The hunt continued and we managed to bag two more Oryx that day, one of them was a exceptional trophy, they were very challenging to hunt and quite wary.
the high light of this hunt has to be the Eland hunt, we stalked him from 4pm till sun down, i finally had to shoot him the third time in the neck to put him down before we lost him in the dark, by morning the hyenas and jackals would have eaten him up.
over a period of ten days i got all my trophies one by one, we continued to look at the baits once in the morning and once in the afternoon but either the leopard had left this area or it had been feeding on baby oryx hunted by itself.
On the 7th day when after checking the baits we went to check out the hills to see if we could spot the leopard and.. there it was, sitting majestically on a cliff warming himself (or herself as we cant be sure of the sex from that distance but the marks we had seen on the sand suggested that it was a big one) in the early morning sun. surprisingly it had not touched the bait which was in the vicinity. anyway we decided to go after it but unfortunately we lost it again, this was the last time we saw even the pug marks in this area and i think it must have moved away.
Returning to the plains game, by now we had bagged a marvelous 32 inch Waterbuck, impala, Zebra, hartebeest.
after Eluding us all these days the big Kudu that Walter had mentioned finally re-apeared on the second last day of the hunt, during this time we had seen some shootable specimen but Walter wanted to get me a good kudu so he insisted that we wait and the old one will reapear.
When we finally saw the kudu bull it was when we were going to check on the leopard bait for the last time and our tracker saw some fresh marks of what he reckoned was a big kudu bull so i took out my rifle and started following Walter, after 30 minutes we saw two horns sticking out of the bush at some 200 yards away, Walter looked through his binos and confirmed it had good ivory tips and looks like we have found our guy finally, so after doing a very good stalk we finally caught up with the grey ghost, i was presented with a very good broad side shot. the kudu jumped (a typical reaction to the heart shot) and collapsed some 30 yards away. it was a good kudu and measured 53 inches.
I had a great time and although I did not get my leopard this time i still had a great time and this has also given me a reason to visit Africa again, the leopard had won this round. I had made some good friends on this hunt.
Katharina and Walter are visiting me this year for a Ibex hunt in Sindh. (for my sindh Ibex and Blandford Urial pics please see my thread posted under Asian hunts)
Namibia is a great hunting destination and it is ideal for people like me who want to start their African journey with plains game.
Namibia has a very good variety of plains game to offer. on the last day we went to the taxidermist, and after all the paperwork we went for some shopping in windhoek and finally at 8pm Katharina and Walter dropped us off at the airport.
I am very happy with all aspects of this hunt and the way it was organised.
