Who: Almostacowboy accompanied by Almostcowgirl (Mrs)
Where: Okanduka Seibe, 2 ½ hours west and south of Okahandja, Namibia (by 4X4) (http://www.okandukaseibe.de/start-english.htm)
When: 8 Sep – 16 Sep 2006
PH: Dirk Rohrman
Firearm Used: Blaser M93 Modular, .338 Win Mag (Dirk’s)
Species Hunted: Hart’s Mountain Zebra, Red Hartebeest, Greater Kudu, Oryx

This trip really started badly. (Reader’s Digest Version) We arrived from LAX at JFK with 3 ½ hours between Delta/SAA flights and once we found out at what gate our connection was we asked for directions to “Gate 25Wâ€. We were given perfect directions. Unfortunately we were in the wrong terminal. So, spend the night in Jamaica, NY and loose one day’s vacation. I’m going to withhold my rant against JFK which was roundly shared by native New Yorkers while I was there.

The next day all went well. Despite the hurricane blowing up the coast we left on time, had a surprisingly good meal, took our Ambien and woke up in Dakar. The Recaro seats and the new seating plan on our SAA Airbus 340 were a significant improvement over our previous BA flight to Joburg. We arrived in Joburg, were met by the owner (John) of The Cosy Den (http://www.cosyden.co.za/) for our overnight stay. Great food, clean beds, hot water, and great service getting us to and from the airport in time for our flight to Windhoek.

We rented a 4X4 camper and drove around for a week before meeting up with Dirk in Okahandja.
After a quick brush-up and some tea and cakes Dirk, Almostacowgirl, and I went down to sight in the rifle and take a couple of practice shots. The way Dirk had that Blaser .338 Win Mag set up was incredible. Steady as a rock with less kick than my M70 30-06. The trigger took a little more getting used to, though. It was like a heat-sensor! It scared me the first few times I shot it, being used to my (now) crappy M70’s stock triggers.
Dirk advised that we may encounter some tough hunting conditions due to the fact that it had that the farm had received about an inch of rain the day before we arrived. And rain at that time of year is unheard of. As a matter of fact, nearly all of the trees and bushes were either green with leaves and/or flowering. The knee- to waist-high grass which has usually disappeared from 75% of the farm covered all but the rockiest areas. The game was going to be scattered everywhere – especially big kudu bulls.



Saturday, 7AM
Out in the 4X4 with Jeffery behind the wheel and me, Dirk and Manuel (tracker) in the back. About 9:30 Manuel spots a herd of zebra and next to it appears a small group of Oryx. The stalk is on. Bush to bush, as close together as we can stay, closing the 200-250 yards between us and my choice, the Oryx. When we approach about 75 yards the Oryx spot us and add about 75 yards to the distance disappearing into the acacia. Again, we close to within about 75 yards and spot them. Cover is good so we move another 10-15 yards where there is a small tree with the perfect split in the trunk at knee height to use as a rest for my shot. As Manuel waves for me to move into position, he hisses loudly, “BOOMSLANG†which freezes me in my steps before Dirk can stop me by the shoulder. In the split of the tree is a hollow and in the hollow is a female stripped spitting cobra, or zebra-slang, waiting to be warmed by the morning sun. We move slowly to the left of the tree and set up the sticks as Dirk finds the best Oryx. As I get the bull in the cross hairs I place my finger on the trigger for the shot and the rifle cracks! The “heat sensing†trigger scares the hell out of me as the bull jumps about 10 yards and goes down in the grass under a small group of acacias. We approach within 25-30 yards and see his head is still up. Dirk says, “Put another one in himâ€, which I “attempted†to do. But, in my excitement, I end up grazing his skull, knocking him unconscious, and almost shoot off the right horn. This became a source of mutual humor for Dirk, me, Manuel and Jeffery the rest of the trip. Dirk finished him off with a .22 Mag behind the ear.


Saturday, 4PM
After a MAGNIFICENT brunch and a long nap and then tea/coffee and cakes (let out the belt one notch) we’re back in the bush. From the top of a 4 or 5 story tall kopje we spot a herd of 28 adult and young hartebeest, a female group of eland with 2 babies (big babies), a couple of BIG kudu bulls about a half-mile away and a small family group of zebra.

The closest hartebeest are over 250 yards out. Dirk finds a really nice bull – about 300 yards out! He tries to assure me that it’s “not a difficult shotâ€. I’m hard to convince, but Dirk’s a hard guy not to believe and I start trying to position myself on –or in- the hot rocks for a possible shot. I’m not sure who the gods were looking after that afternoon – me or the hartebeest. But the shot never appeared.
It’s nearing sundown now and as we bump down the trail in the 4X4 Manuel spots the tail (literally) of a zebra stallion about 200 yards off. The truck stops and we’re scurrying through the acacias as quietly and quickly as we can. We find a great spot about 40-50 yards from the zebra herd, which have no idea we’re there, and get into position. The stallion is making the shot difficult, grazing just behind a bush. Finally, he takes a step forward, exposing his shoulder between a horizontal “V†in the branches of the bush. I remember the “heat sensing†trigger this time and “touch†it. The zebra rears, staggers to his left in a semi-circle, falling about 10 yards from his grazing spot. A perfect heart shot! If you look closely at the photo you can see the bullet getting ready to exit behind the left shoulder.


All of this in one day is almost overwhelming for me. I haven’t been hunting seriously in such a long time. The last time was white-tail hunting in Holly Springs, MS in the fall of 1965.

Sunday Morning
Chased a kudu which Dirk estimated at over 56 inches (“maybe over 60â€) about a half-mile up the side of a mountain (gasp-wheeze) but couldn’t get a shot.

Sunday Afternoon
We spot 3 big kudu bulls about ½ mile out and Dirk says, “Let’s goâ€, so we went!
We were trying to quarter them as they headed down a dry river bed. We were really “hoofing it†through the brush when we got to a large rock out-cropping approximately 100-150 yards long.
Near it’s base it sloped upwards at a comfortable angle and then ended in a 4-5 foot tall vertical wall at the top. Manuel peeked slowly over the vertical wall and suddenly waved for Dirk and me to “get downâ€. He started pointing towards the end of the rock to our right about 50-60 yards away where a dry river bed snaked around. I don’t know if it was the same river bed we had spotted the kudu in 20 minutes earlier or not, but as I got into a sitting position facing the end of the rock a kudu appeared in the river bed. Then, another. Then, another. Dirk hissed, “Sheise! Alles jung bullesâ€, wondering how he could have misjudged them so badly earlier. Just then, another bull, and another until there were 7 kudu bulls – 5 young and 2 mature - within 60 yards of us. “Take the second oneâ€, said Dirk. “Second from left or second from right?â€, says I. “The one that’s looking at youâ€, was the reply. The “heat sensing†trigger did its thing and I pulled the shot badly hitting the kudu just left (rear) of the midline. As the bull rocketed up the bank of the river bed I got off a second shot hitting him even further back, inside the off hind leg. The bull seemed to pick up speed as he continued to add distance between us as a loud boom went off over my head deafening me momentarily as the bull did a header into the long grass near the top of the bank. Dirk had put a .404/.383 through the bull’s midsection putting him down (a spectacular shot in my opinion, with the bull nearing 100 yards on the run).


Tuesday 7AM
We decide to revisit the kopje where we’d seen the big group of hartebeest earlier in hopes there’d be some in the area. As we started the climb to the top Manuel waved for us to stop and pointed out 4 hartebeest bulls about 75 yards out. The biggest one was out front but moving directly away and, as it so often seemed, going from acacia to acacia, never offering a shot. As the distance neared 100-125 yards the lead bull made a right turn offering a slight quartering away shot – if he would just come out from behind the acacia! “He’ll take two steps forward, then you take himâ€, offered Dirk. I think, “How the hell does he know that?!†Just as he had said, the bull started browsing/grazing forward. One step, then the second, breath under control, remember the “heat sensing†trigger, “touch himâ€. The bull looked like he had been electrocuted. His legs stiffened as he tried to leap but his legs collapsed and he fell nearly where he had been hit. Dirk nearly knocked me off the side of the hill congratulating me on the shot! We were back in camp at 8:05AM, just missing Rita and Almostacowgirl out for their morning walk with Phoebe and Maxie (the dogs). Earlier Dirk had warned me about hunting hartebeest: “Either you chase them all over hell, or you get lucky.†I got lucky. I got all 4 species on my list in 4 hunting days.


One of the few remaining blesboks at Okanduka Seibe as a result of cheetahs.


How Jeffery and Manuel can spot animals like this klipspringer at 50 yds is beyond me. The camouflage is fantastic.


Most of you have read the review of others who’ve hunted Okanduka Seibe and how much they enjoyed it. Let me add, please, that in my nearly 60 years I can’t think of man I came to admire and enjoy spending time with more in so short a time as I have Dirk Rohrman – or “Schatzie†as Rita calls him. And, NO! I do not and will not (and don’t dare) call him that, even though he does have a great sense of humor!
And Rita is just a sweetheart. These people are the salt of the earth. Nothing pretentious, no affectations. Just 100% genuine. My kind of people.
I will keep them in my heart for the rest of my days.

Good report. Congratulations on the trophies.

Kyler

Very nice trophies and sure looks like you can see along way...


Mike

Great report and pics

great report, sounds like a trip of a lifetime!

Almostacowboy

Great report, I have hunt booked with Dirk for this September. Your hunt report only feeds my excitement. If you don't mind can tell me how much your car rental and gas cost you.? On part of our up coming trip we are planning on driving to the Caprivi tiger fishing.
Thanks Robert johnson

Almostacowboy,

I enjoyed your report. Don't wait that long to do some serious hunting again! I really liked the idea of renting a camper. I had never heard it mentioned before.

Fred

I would also like to hear more about your camper rental.

Great report! I think of my hunt with Dirk and Rita all the time. My wife and I are heading back in '08 for leopard.

We rented the camper from ASCO Car hire(http://www.kapstadt.de/asco/homepage_E.htm) in Windhoek. The cost was approx $875 for a week. Fuel costs around $4/gal but the 4X4 got pretty good mileage (approx 800Km between fill-ups) and fill ups cost around $65. The 2005/6(?) Nissan, king-cab, 4X4, 5 spd manual, pwr steering, A/C, radio and cassette player ran as well as could be expected with a HEAVY camper shell and tent mounted above. That shell is not TIN. It's heavy gauge steel sheet designed to weather (read "dust") resistant. And, it was. The tent popped up and Almostacowgirl and I could be in it in less than 5 minutes including the time it took to unzip the heavy duty cover. It also came with propane bottles for cooking and lighting, lantern, full picnic box, cooking utensils, pots, pans, tea kettle, AC/DC refrigerated cooler (worked GREAT). We had absolutely everything we needed including tool kit, spare belts and fuses, and 2 spare tires (didn't use).

The route we took was (distance approximate):
Day 1 - Windhoek to Waterburg Park 200 miles
Day 2 - Waterburg to Etosha Namutoni Camp 180 miles
Day 3 - Namutoni to Etosha Okakuejo 75 miles
Day 4 - Okakuejo - Outjo - Khorixas - Uis 230 miles
Day 5 - Uis to Swakopmund 120 miles
Day 6 - Swakopmund to Okahandja 180 miles

The main roads in Namibia range from good to excellent.


The secondary roads are well maintained (for the most part) gravel roads.


On the secondary road between Uis and Swakopmund, we saw maybe 4 cars in 4 hours.
.

Now, the "hindsight" part. For me, 6 days wasn't long enough for me to feel 100% comfortable driving on the left ("wrong") side of the road. The first day, which was a Sunday (heavy traffic in Namibia) left me absolutely exhausted from the tension/constant attention of "keeping left", getting out of Windhoek, two serious accidents on the road (not involved)and too far to drive a strange vehicle. The two best (least tension/most scenery seen)days were the day thru Etosha and the drive from Uis to Swakopmund. Normally, a driving safari of the distance we drove is 7-9 days, not 6. The condition of the camping equipment was first-rate and a pleasure to use. Getting to our campsite each nite was something I really looked forward to. The campgrounds we stayed in were absolutely wonderful compared to US campgrounds. Each had hot shower, clean toilets - especially considering the numbers of people who were using the facilities (lots) - each campsite had power available, a light, picnic bench and firepit. Everyone camping was (ab)normally quiet after 10PM, even if they did break camp at 5AM to get back on their gigantic tour-trucks and were gone before 7AM. We did not cook one meal in 6 days. We would heat water for coffee either on our cooker or on the camp hot plates in the skullery facility (public and clean). Then we'd go to the campground restaurant for full breakfast buffet. We would make sandwiches for lunch and eat good (Waterburg) to excellent (Okakuejo) buffet dinners, again at the campground. Sounds tough, doesn't it?
Etosha was really something to see. As Dirk told me, the public sees less than 5% of the park. If they would open 50% of the park to hunting you'd have to rewrite the record book once a week. Here's a kudu at one waterhole:

It was a great "experience", but I would probably take a full two weeks to do it again and go up to the Angolan border to include Epupa Falls. Even considering we lost one day at JFK, it was still too much in too little time.
One other thing. Swakopmund is a beautiful little seaside town with great German influence. It really deserves at least 2 days.

Dave

I want to say "Thanks" to all those who reported on Okanduka Seibe and add a special "Thank You" to Robert Johnson for his wonderful hunting report 2 years ago when he visited Okanduka Seibe. It was Robert's report that inspired me to make this trip, which was further reinforced by the all the other AR members who reported after him.
Thanks, Robert!

Dave

quote:

Originally posted by Fred Gordon:
Almostacowboy,

I enjoyed your report. Don't wait that long to do some serious hunting again! I really liked the idea of renting a camper. I had never heard it mentioned before.

Fred

Okay, Fred. If you say so, then I'm going to Tanzania for a 10-day, 2 Buffalo hunt over Thanksgiving, thank you very much! I'll be hunting with Zuka Safaris Africa at the Ikuria camp.
How's dat?
Dave

I need to comment on one more thing about the camping equipment. We were not supplied sleeping bags. Instead, all we got were two comforter-like items. So, the first nite, being concerned about their usefulness, and with the temperature dropping (50's), we (Almostacowgirl & I) wore our sweats. By midnite we were both sleeping on top of those deals. The next nite we were in shorts and t-shirts and they were still hot. I don't know what they make them out of, but unless you're there in the dead of winter (30 degrees F), I doubt you'll need anything more.

Dave

Dave
Glade you had a good trip. I know what you mean about the stress off driving. I really had a hard time driving in circles and merging on the wrong side of the road! I got flipped off two times in the first hour in Cape Town. With the exception of down town Windhoek driving in Namibia is very easy, and if you stay in national parks or private camp grounds very safe. Just remember to always gas up when you get to a half a tank in any parks. There is no guaranty there is gas at all rest stops
Did you stop by Dirk's favorite german bakery in Swakopmund ? Unbelievable bakery goods !

I am very interested in the camper you rented. Do you know if any like that are for sale in the U.S. . I see that rig as the perfect traveling hunting camp.

Congrats on a great trip! Can't wait until I go in May of 2007.

quote:

Originally posted by Robert johnson:
Dave
Glade you had a good trip. I know what you mean about the stress off driving. I really had a hard time driving in circles and merging on the wrong side of the road! I got flipped off two times in the first hour in Cape Town. With the exception of down town Windhoek driving in Namibia is very easy, and if you stay in national parks or private camp grounds very safe. Just remember to always gas up when you get to a half a tank in any parks. There is no guaranty there is gas at all rest stops
Did you stop by Dirk's favorite german bakery in Swakopmund ? Unbelievable bakery goods !

No, but I unknowingly saw their home on the east side of Swakop. We ate at "The Tug" the night we were there. Delicious sea food.

quote:

Originally posted by Devildawg66:
I am very interested in the camper you rented. Do you know if any like that are for sale in the U.S. . I see that rig as the perfect traveling hunting camp.

Congrats on a great trip! Can't wait until I go in May of 2007.

I've never seen any. I'd put them in the same category as African hunting tents - the result of years and years of development and perfection. The shell, like I said, is HEAVY DUTY! I wouldn't doubt the suspension needs to be beefed up to handle the additional weight.

Dave,

Excellent report with great pictures. I'm glad you took the opportunity to drive a bit around by yourselves, and live in a roof-top tent too!

Ps. the Tug certainly does have good food, and a great view of the sunset. And you really should try to visit Epupa Falls next time. Plus take the route thru Van Zyls Pass down into Marienfluss and Kaokoveld. It's absolutely beautiful.

Great report!! Thanks for sharing and relating your wonderful experience. Dirk and Rita look happy and healthy in the photos.