This was our family vacation in 2007. It took a while, but I was able to convince my wife that we should take our last big family vacation before our daughter heads off to college in Africa.

We planned 3 parts to our trip. First was to tour Etosha for 4 days, next was 10 days hunting, split between the Khomas Hochland Mountains and the Kalahari near Aroab. After the hunting, we spent 4 days travelling through Namibia.

We hired Pieter Mostert with Blue Sky Namibia Tours for the Etosha portion of the trip.
















Our hunt was with Johan Kotze, Kalahari Hunting Safaris. I had hunted with him before on two occasions and knew that Johan is a first class person. Our hunt started in the Khomas Hochland looking for Kudu. Our plan was for my 14 year old son and me to hunt for Kudu. My daughter has no interest in hunting and my wife hadn’t hunted in years and was undecided. We left camp shortly after arriving, my son and daughter came with Johan and me, and my wife decided to go out with another PH that was at the ranch and look for baboons. It just so happened that this was our 18th anniversary. We had no finding kudu, but I ended up shooting a nice baboon. The other PH radioed to Johan that they had spotted a very nice kudu and my wife wanted to shoot it and I could consider it an anniversary present! They follow up the kudu and she made a nice offhand shot with the PH’s rifle.



The next day my wife and daughter stayed in camp while my son and I went out again in search of kudu. We spooked a large group of kudu (~20) from near the road with the truck and pursued on foot. We saw one very nice bull in the group. We followed up and down the mountains for almost an hour before finding the bull. He has left the company of the cows and was hiding in some brush in the bottom of the canyon. I asked the PH and trackers to stay behind and my son and I crawled down the ridge to a rock outcropping. I helped him get set up prone using my backpack for a rest. I ranged the bull at 245 yards, a perfect shot for his 7mm rem mag with 160 gr. Barnes TSX. The bull was only partially visible at that time, so we had to wait for about 15 minutes for a clear shot on the shoulder to present itself. I think this was very fortunate, because this was my sons first time shooting anything larger than a rabbit. I could tell he was very excited when we got into position, but he calmed down while we waited for the kudu to move. Once it did he made a very nice shot dropping the bull in his tracks.



The highlight for the hunting on this trip was being with my son when he took that kudu. He reminds me often that it is much larger than any that I have taken. I am hoping to rectify that in Botswana in a couple of months. Here are a few of the other animals that we took on this trip.








Afterwards, we travelled with our PH Johan, and his wife and son, Mabel and Hendrick, sightseeing around southern Namibia.

That's great that you were able to do that with your family! Some great pics. And both kudus look like fantastic trophies!

Nice report, very nice trophies.

Wonderful photos. Those kudu really are nice, as are your other trophies. Nice trip!

Very good photos! I have hunted twice with Johan in Namibia, once in 2005 and again in 2006. He is a great guy and Mabel is quite the cook!

Your pictures make me wish I was there right now.

Those kudus are hogs for sure!!

My wife and I just found out today that we are excepting a son in September!!!! Our first addition to the family. I hope to some day do as you have done with your son.

Congrats to the lucky hunters and huntress!!

Great pictures! I hunted with them in August of 2006. Every time I see pictures like these I wish I was there. Thanks for sharing!

Lovely photos. Where did you see the cheetahs...in a preserve or in the wild?

Sounds like you had a great time building some family memories.

Excellent photos, congratulation on a great family safari.

Thanks for all of the comments.

Yukon - We stopped by Cheetah Conservation Fund's HQ in Otjiwarongo after our visit to Etosha. It is a cool place and worth visiting if you have time, about an hour and a half north of Windhoek.

My daughter is going to spend 3 weeks there this summer as a volunteer while I am out hunting.

Unfortunately, I don't believe I'll have time on that trip to make the run to Etosha or the Cheetah Conservation site. I would love to see it sometime. Interesting that your daughter is going to volunteer there. That will be quite the memory for her.

I was very concerned with my daughter even enjoying our trip to Africa. She is not a hunter, maybe even an anti-hunter to some degree. She knows that I love to hunt and understands why I hunt, but she does not like the idea of killing an animal.

She did come with me while hunting every day but one while we were there, and she enjoyed everything except watching the animal die.

I will say that the experience changed her dramatically. She fell in love with Africa, the people, wildlife, everything. I didn't know the effect the trip had on her until we were on the plane coming home and I overheard a comment she made to my son, "one thing I know for sure, I'll come back to Africa some day." Almost word for word what I told my dad on the return trip on my first trip.

Hearing that comment confirmed that every penny that I spent on that trip was worth it.

I am in a similar situation and I think it is fairly indicative of what many of us deal with; friends and family that don't necessarily care that we hunt but don't really want to participate themselves.

I appreciate you sharing your experience. I have 2 girls and hope they will join me someday. My wife loves photography but doesn't care to hunt so you can see my angle (no pun intended).

What do you estimate the size of the 2 gemsbuck in the photo?

Give the sex and horn lenght of the 2 in front

My guess is 34" bull on the left and 40" cow on the right.

Here is another one - what is the sex and length?

1st photo bull about 34-36 and the cow very close to 40-42
2nd photo i would say 37"

Nice report and pics.

Good report and great pictures. The springbok looked like he would go over 15-inches.