03 July 2014, 02:36
Charlie64Namibia – Cold Kalahari Nights & Wingshooting near Dordabis (couple more pics added)
.‘Sandgrouse in Namibia – the crème de la crème of wingshooting.
It is 8.00 in the morning. The warm Namibian sun cuts through the early-morning chill. You shed your fleece and strain your eyes, searching the clear, pale-blue sky for tiny single or double specks in the distance. You pick them up by their whistling call long before you see them – a pair of birds, high in the sky, coming fast downwind. The birds come in fast against the wind. Forty yards out you mount your gun and swing onto the first of the pair, swing through and fire, folding the bird in full flight. The second of the pair flares away to the left and you swing onto it and drop it with a classic going away shot.’
African Hunting Gazette Volume 18 Issue 4, with permission.
Disclaimer – the initial question was whether to post this under ‘Hunting Reports - Africa’ or under ‘Bird Shooting’. Based on the numbers of game shot and actual shots fired there would be a strong argument to post it as a wing shooting adventure but based on the sheer weight of game shot (inc eland!) it is clearly an African Hunting Report. Either way, it was a tremendous African mixed hunt shared by six good friends, with fun and laughter, some superb trophies, lots of fantastic wingshooting, a couple of rifle cull animals, some vermin control, plenty of excellent food, wines and drinks and evening camp fires shared under the African stars. I have posted a link to this report under the ‘Bird Shooting’ section to cover all bases and opted to tell it as a ‘Hunting Report’ but I am more than happy for you to decide …..
Background
This was a hunting trip planned towards the end of last year by six of us – Anja and I based in Lagos, Nigeria; Hermann and Ulrike based near Dusseldorf in Germany and Rob and Ilsa from Houston, USA. We have all hunted together before and share a common love of Africa, hunting and wingshooting (and good food and great red wines!). Having hunted in RSA as a group in 2013, we now decided to hunt Namibia - Anja and I have hunted in Namibia since 2005; for Rob and Ilsa this would be their second time and for Hermann and Ulrike their first. Together with Bennie Beukes, Master Guide/PH and co-owner of ‘Keerweder Safaris’ (whom we have hunted with many times over the years), we put together a programme of 2 1/2 days of hunting and bird shooting out of a tented camp in the Kalahari desert in the Hardap Region, looking for eland, gemsbok, springbok and steenbok, followed by 3 1/2 days plains game hunting and wingshooting based at Keerweder Farm with its 8.000 h of hunting property. It was to be a week of contrasting topographies – dunes vs thick bush; contrasting accommodations – tents with bedding piled high for warmth vs very comfortable game farm lodging with heating and en-suite bathrooms and lastly very contrasting hunting – with shots in the desert out beyond 200m v close bushveld shots under 100m and all of this linked by only a short 3 hour drive between the two destinations.
Rifles & Shotguns
Rob brought a Sauer .270 for him and Ilsa to use. I took a CZ .30-06 for Anja and I, plus my Krieghoff .375 double which I carried and Hermann borrowed in the desert. On the shotgun front the ladies all sported Browning 20 bores, whilst Rob and I shouldered Browning 12 bores and Hermann a Krieghoff 12 bore. All were O/Us. Bennie supplied the shotgun cartridges (Eleys in 24 gram 20s and 28 gram 12s) with us bringing in our own rifle ammunition.
The Hunt
Anja and I flew over from Lagos with SAA to Joburg, with a day stop-over. Hermann and Ulrike flew to Namibia from Germany a week earlier and toured the country before the hunt. Rob and Ilsa flew in on SAA from the US via Joburg.
June 21, we arrived in Windhoek with Air Namibia from Johannesburg. As a side note I would mention here that Air Namibia is charging a handing fee of Rand/Nam$ 510,- per gun case each way. Anja and I had four cases – two each – and ended up paying Nam$ 4.080,- (USD 400,-) in extra fees. SAA does not charge any such fees. I wrote to customercare@airnamibia.aero and liezl.smith@airnamibia.aero complaining against this fee but have yet to receive a reply. I would urge all Africa hunters to send them a short email speaking out against these extra charges and who knows just perhaps they will rethink them. Anyway, after a short wait to get our paperwork sorted, we meet up with Rob and Ilsa coming in on SAA from Joburg, and all transferred to the Olive Grove Guest House in Windhoek for the one night. Here we met up with Hermann and Ulrike.
That evening we ate at Joe’s Beerhouse in Klein Windhoek. A fun place to go with lots of ‘stuff’ adorning the walls and a pretty good menu (with plenty of game and venison) and lots of cold beers and a round of Jaegermeister for the guys and Amarulu for the ladies - we were back in Southern Africa hunting again!
After a great breakfast at the Olive Grove, Bennie and Ingo (the second PH who would be helping out with guiding and catering on the trip) met us and we drove South East some 3 hours into the Hardap Region and the edge of the Kalahari desert. A very comfortable tented camp awaited us – each with our own bed tent, a shared dining and catering tent, a shower block and an open camp fire / braai.
We unloaded, lunched and then sighted in the rifles at 200m. This was very open, flat shooting terrain.
Whilst the guys did the ‘sighting in’ the ladies ‘sat in’ and watched the proceedings.
This done and out of the way, we enjoyed a late afternoon desert drive followed by sundowners and then a shared camp fire and a huge T-bone Eland steak dinner before calling it a night. It was cold in the desert at night (5 degrees centigrade / 41 Fahrenheit) but the camp fire kept us warm and the ladies were treated to ‘underseat heating’!
Monday we were up with the sun for fresh coffee and a cooked breakfast before splitting into two groups with Hermann after eland and Rob and Ilsa after oryx and Kalahari springbok.
The desert terrain consisted of high, red sand dunes and wide flat troughs. We scouted the valleys / troughs from the dunes to spot game.
Hermann, guided by Bennie, stalked a bachelor group of three eland bulls across the red dunes for some 4 hours before he was able to put in a telling shot and take a great eland bull with the Krieghoff .375 shooting 300 grain Norma softs. The bullet lodged in the offside shoulder.
Whilst at the same time Rob, guided by Ingo, stalked and shot a 38” oryx bull and a solid springbok with the .270 shooting Federal factory ammunition.
That evening we shot dove and sandgrouse at three water holes / troughs, but we arrived late and only caught the tail of the flights. We shot only 6 or 7 birds between us.
The following morning however, we split into two groups of 3 and shot birds at two water pans. Hermann, Anja and I managed a few doves, whilst Rob, Ilsa and Ulrike took good bags of dove and sandgrouse!
Having broken camp we transferred to ‘Keerweder’ a three hour drive on a good dirt road, to arrive in time for a late brunch and unpack.
(Brian and Ina are Bennie’s parents in law and also own and live on the farm. Ina btw like Bennie’s wife Esmarie, is a great cook!)
Late afternoon, Rob, Ilsa and Anja opted to hunt red hartebeest and Hartmann’s zebra whilst Hermann, Ulrike and I drove to one of the many pans on the 8000 h property for some wingshooting. Collared and Namaqua Dove and Namaqua, Burchell’s and Double-banded sandgrouse were all on the wing and – spreading ourselves around the pan at intervals of 100 to 150m – we managed a respectable number of birds between us.
The following morning was the first big ‘planned wingshoot’ with all six of us up and out early to get to one of the pans before 08h00 in anticipation of large numbers of flighting grouse.
And we were not disappointed and – aided by Rocky (more on him later) – we shot and retrieved a sizeable bag of 43 sandgrouse and 3 doves. The birds flew fantastically presenting every shot in the book and we all shot well for the hour plus that the grouse were flighting.
After a tailgate coffee and muffins, we again split up and Anja and I, accompanied by Ulrike, went after a springbok and a blue wildebeest (two meat / cull animals for the farm). It was not long before Anja was on the sticks and dropped a springbok ewe with the .30-06.
And then it was my turn on a blue wildebeest cow out of a herd of some twenty animals. At about 220 yards, I opted for the .30-06 (bigger glass) over the .375 double (smaller glass) x (aging eyes!) and dropped the wildebeest with a shoulder / heart shot. The 165 grain Federal bullet was recovered, perfectly mushroomed, from the offside shoulder.
That evening we all enjoyed a mixed bird shoot at another, smaller water hole / pan and a wonderful Namibian sunset.
Driving back to the farm, I put two barrels of Eley size 7 shot over a hungry jackal. That’s one jackal that will not be taking anymore lambs and calves. Ilsa also shot a jackal that afternoon.
Thursday morning it was up earlier than the other days at Keerweder, for a forty five minute drive with two cars to a neighboring farm to shoot sandgrouse. The farm has a natural spring on the property and a truly amazing volume of sandgrouse. Anja and I first shot here back in 2006, and have done so many times over the years since. The raw beauty of the farm and the natural oasis / spring and the sheer volume of sandgrouse that flight to the water in the mornings never cease to amaze me! “Outstanding” would hardly describe the shooting here!
It was not long before huge flights of grouse were on the wing and we all enjoyed 90 very active minutes of the most exciting wingshooting - the likes of which I believe only sandgrouse in Southern Africa can offer!
Two highlights for me were a fast left and right of red billed teal that came off a distant pan and flighted to the oasis followed closely by a pair of very high grouse that both folded in the air to my gun.
We laid out a bag of 102 birds – 1 red bill teal (1 was not retrieved), 81 sandgrouse and 20 dove – for a ratio of around 3:1. Everyone was smiling!
With the birds picked and the guns sleeved and stored, we enjoyed a pic nic in the shade of a huge tree near the pan before driving back to Keerweder.
That evening we ate the sandgrouse breasts in pancakes with a mushroom and crème sauce as well as some stir fried with garlic and onions. And that was just the starter! The cooking at Keerweder is excellent with great variety, everything home cooked and portions that are more than generous!
But back to the afternoon, Rob was still after a hartebeest and Ilsa a Hartmann’s zebra so we drove, walked and stalked the farm. Rob managed to get to within shooting distance of a good bull but it was on the wrong side of the camel thorn bush (aren’t they always) and then the wind changed and the bull trotted off!
With Friday being Hermann and Ulrike’s last day as they had to fly back a day earlier than the rest of us, we enjoyed a last morning together shooting sandgrouse at the big pan.
Now a word about Rocky. I / we have seen, owned and trained a number of gun dogs ourselves over the years – spaniels, pointers and more - but never had I seen a dog like Rocky before (or his cousin Blacky, also at the farm). Rocky is a black Lab / German wire hair cross (a planned cross as opposed to an accident) and is a truly fantastic bird dog. I have seen him work a wounded, diving Hottentot teal in the middle of a water pan for 20 minutes before bringing it in without stopping for a break. I have seen him retrieve birds that we were all sure were lost. He and I have stop and go stalked birds sitting on bushes for 40 meters plus with him stopping and freezing whenever I stopped, before putting the bird up for a shot (I wish we had this on video as it was great fun!). He has a great character, super eyes, a soft mouth, he is attentive and listens and is a joy to have next to you when you have a shotgun in your hands!
We all had good shooting – albeit not the volumes of the previous day. But it was more challenging in that the birds, in smaller flights, flew wider, higher and faster. The bag began to build with everyone having sport.
Around 09h30 we laid down a bag of 28 sandgrouse and 3 dove, being the last joint bag by the 6 of us on this holiday.
Hermann and Ulrike headed off to the airport after lunch whilst Rob, Ilsa, Anja and I resighted our rifles at 100m as we planned to go out after jackal that evening. (This never happened as it was very cold and we were too relaxed by the fire!) We then had a relaxed hunting afternoon after the now elusive Red Hartebeest and zebra. We saw quite a few but they knew that they were being hunted and led us a merry chase across the farm.
Saturday morning, Anja and I opted to shoot doves at a small water trough. Anja was happy watching and spotting and so I took her 20 bore Browning and box of 25 cartridges. Bennie dropped us with Rocky and took Rob and Ilsa after – yes you guessed it - Red Hartebeest and zebra! In fact shortly after they dropped us we heard a shot followed by a ‘thump’ and were sure they had one of their two animals. But it turned out to have been a miss at a steenbok. The thump was the termite mount that stopped the bullet.
We stood back from the trough and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the early morning bush.
I then played ‘bang / fetch’ with Rocky for two hours and shot my bag of 10 collared dove plus 1 Namaqua dove and a solo sandgrouse and I thoroughly enjoyed working Rocky and the relaxed shooting.
Around midday we packed, settled up our
accounts and – after a final brunch and coffee – Bennie drove us to Hosea Kutako Airport with a stop at the taxidermists to discuss ideas of mounts for Rob and Ilsa’s springbok and gemsbok. We also had a chance to see the new rifle No. 2 SCI springbok horns – taken by a biltong hunter. Imagine that gene pool!
And then it was Air Namibia (with extra fees) to Johannesburg
and a connecting flight with SAA back to Nigeria with an iPhone and camera full of pictures and great thoughts and memories of another truly wonderful African hunt shared by close friends!
A very big thanks to Bennie and Esmarie, Ingo and Adel, Brian and Ina, James and all at Keerweder for all your very hard work in guiding us, feeding and watering us, sharing your camp fire with us and giving us a superb hunting holiday with good trophies, plenty of birds, excellent food and wines and shared laughter! And a special thanks to Rocky for his non-stop retrieving, his endless hard work and for his wet nose by the camp fire!
Thanks to all AR readers for coming along too!
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Anecdotes – just like at the end of the movies when they show the funny scenes and the things that went wrong here are a few shorts from our hunt just to wrap it up
In the Kalahari
• Anja had a good stalk on a keeper of a kudu bull and as the sticks went up a white farm bakkie / truck drove over the red dunes spooking the kudu. Perfect timing! Busted.
• On our first desert evening by the fire under the most amazing and bright Kalahari stars and the Milky Way, Rob broke out a Jambox, paired it with his iPhone and we listened and sang along to a very loud Jonny Cash and other greats well into the night. That must have been an absolute desert first!
• On the drive from the desert to Keerweder, a large warthog boar decided to race Bennie’s Toyota at 70 kms an hour before pulling away to the left! Rob managed a photograph -
At Keerweder
• When we were driving to the neighboring farm for the grouse shoot – I was behind the wheel - we saw 5 jackal on the roads and paths. We raced/chased one up to 60 kms an hour and got just behind him but stopped when Anja – sitting next to me – threatened ‘not to talk to me all day’ if I ran over it and then threatened ‘not to hunt anymore’! With hindsight ....
• I blew a stalk on a good sized warthog – I cannot get enough warthog so this was a minor tragedy for me!
• Ilsa got busted on a herd of zebra but she did shot a jackal instead and is having a full mount!
• Rob and I chased guineas on foot and I screwed it up when suddenly a rabbit bolted to the left of me and I shot (at) it and we watched fifty plus guineas take off as one in front of us! Sorry Rob.
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