Safari Excitement

Pictures coming soon

Jason and I were nuclear explosions of excitement radiating adrenaline at nine a.m. Monday morning, February 10th. After what felt like months of waiting -which it was- we were finally going to go on a hunting safari in Namibia, alone! No parents for a week. Just us, our professional hunter (PH) Yakub, Francis our tracker, the cook Anita, and the safari farm's owner Tinus. 

My mom had to work down in a place called Tsumeb for the week, which left my brother and I with nothing to do for several days except sit in a hotel room. But after a brilliant idea, and a couple phone calls, we found Osonjiva Hunting Safaris. They were perfectly OK with letting two kids come and stay alone for the week, and would provide us with hunting rifles and shooting lessons. 

A white van drove up to the hotel lobby. It was covered with thick mud- due to the massive downpour that had started around 7 and hadn't yielded yet- and on the side door a sun-faded sticker read 'Osonjiva Hunting Safaris.' The driver stepped out and introduced himself to us as Yakub (pronounced Yak-oob), our PH for the week. He was a tall, burly German with short red hair and mustache, and light blue eyes. Despite the cold weather, he had on shorts and a button up short sleeved shirt. Yakub reassured my mom that he would take good care of us, and helped load our luggage into the back of the van.

After we said our goodbyes to my mom, it was off to the gun shop to pick up ammo for the .308 Winchester we would be using to shoot throughout the week. Yakub told us that the rifle was his, and that if aimed into the ear, it could even kill an elephant. This led to my little brother asking A LOT of gun related questions...

Our second stop was the taxidermist. I had never been to one before, but it's impressive to see. The van pulled up to a huge warehouse, and Yakub led us inside so we could see the process of how they really make the trophy heads, and get a price list so that if we wanted trophies to be made of our kills, we'd have an idea of pricing. Inside, the warehouse walls were lined to the roof with trophy heads of every animal imaginable. There were racks to hold more of the finished trophies on the ground, and taxidermists were busy sculpting full body mounts of every shape and size. 

After looking around some more, we got back in the car. This time joined by our cook Anita, the owner Tinus, and Tinus' dog, Mango. From there we headed to the Game Lodge, driving far away from town on dirt road. The rain had finally stopped, but when it rains in Africa, it floods. So the supposed-to-be 45 minute drive became an hour and a half.

When we finally arrived everyone was starving, and Anita whipped together one of the best lunches I've ever had. Yakub said we could go out for shooting lessons after we put our stuff away. Usually unpacking takes a while, but we shoved our stuff in the closet in record time.

An olive green pick up truck was waiting for us outside when we were done. Yakub was carrying two rifles over to it. Our .308 Winchester, which had a scope and a silencer screwed on the front, and a .458 with iron sights for any leopards we might run into. He told us to hop into the back with Francis, our tracker for the week. 

We drove out of the lodge and past the herds of cows the lodge used for fresh milk and meat, arriving at a large gate that separated the game farm from the rest of the area. Francis jumped out and opened it up so we could drive through, and then jumped back on. We drove through the bush for a while until we came upon an open area with termite mounds in the distance.

 The pick up stopped at a "shooters table" and everyone got out. Francis picked up a cardboard box from the back and walked it out to the termite mounds, when he placed it down, we realized there was a target taped to it. 

"You will shoot from ninety meters," Yakub explained, "This is the usual distance from which you will also shoot while we are hunting."

Yakub sat down at the "shooters table" and positioned the .308 on the shooting bag, telling us he just had to adjust the scope. Upon asking if we needed ear protection, Yakub told my little brother that he could cover his ears if he wanted, but that most people didn't care to out here, since the sound wouldnt be deafening. 

After a few shots had gone off we both agreed that the sound wasn't bad at all. It didn't take long before Yakub offered us the chance to shoot. My first shots were pretty decent, and Yakub said that on a big animal, a couple inches off wouldn't make a difference. 

It began to rain heavily after that, and since rain isn't good for rifles, we ended up heading back to the lodge. Thankfully the weather cleared up soon after, and Jason was able to shoot as we'll. By then it was about 4 in the afternoon, and Yakub told us that we still had plenty of time before dinner, which would be around 8. So we began hunting!

The first day we spotted plenty of animals: ------. I had decided to shoot Gemsbok/Oryx, while Jason was still making a hard decision between Blue Wildebeest and Warthog. 

At Osonjiva, Jackals and Baboons are free to shoot; they cause trouble in the farm, so if any are spotted, they'll be shot on sight. We spotted a Jackal while we were out, and Yakub got out immediately. He whispered to Jason that he should take the shot, and we began to crawl towards it quietly, taking cover behind a small termite mound. Yakub placed the rifle on his shoulder and steadied it with his hand, then beckoned Jason to come take a shot. But before Jason could look down the scope, the Jackal made a sound quite like the comedic kissing noise you hear on tv. Which meant that it saw us, but it was unsure about what we were. 

Yakub cupped his fist to his mouth and responded with the same noise. The Jackal drew closer. Curious.

 

Once again the Jackal and Yakub called out to one another, the Jackal again drawing nearer. It was facing straight towards us now.

"Take the shot where the neck and chest meet," Yakub whispered.

BLAM! The Jackal fell over from the shot, but was up again instantly and took off running towards the bush. We ran over to where the jackal had been standing to find red coloring the dirt. Jason had shot the jackal high in the neck, and a couple inches to the left. 

Francis rumbled over in the truck, and we began to track. Jackals are small, light animals, so following their tracks in the dirt is quite useless. You can only follow them as long as there is blood. We ended up losing the trail, and our adrenalin slowly lost affect as well.

It wasn't until about six thirty that we finally spotted some Oryx and Blue Wildebeest. They were a good 1 1/2 kilometers away from the pick up, and hadn't noticed us. Yakub jumped out of the car and grabbed the .308, beckoning to us silently to get out as well. We began stalking in a single file line, weaving through the bush, slowly drawing nearer to the animals. 

The closer we came, the quieter our footsteps fell. A light rain had begun to fall as it got darker, and as we finally came close enough to take a shot, the sun had disappeared behind the horizon. Yakub set up the shooting sticks quietly, as neither the Oryx nor the Wildebeest had taken notice to us yet.

This time it was my turn. I watched the Oryx through my scope, but Yakub told me not to shoot yet, as right behind it was a wildebeest. Neither moved, meaning there was no clear shot. Then suddenly Yakub whispered for me to take the second wildebeest off to the right, which was facing forwards towards us about 70 meters away. He quickly explained that it would just be for meat.

I shot a bit to the left on the neck. The wildebeest fell over and stood up, stunned. Yakub took the rifle and tried to shoot again, but the rifle was jammed! Suddenly everything felt frantic. Yakub had to slam the rifle on the ground to remove the live round that was stuck, and ended up firing the rifle!! It spooked the Oryx and Wildebeest. With the pounding of hooves they raced deep into the bush.

Tracking was useless, as it began to get darker and darker. In Namibia, it is only legal to hunt until sunset, and our time was almost up. We could only pray that raid didn't cover up the tracks as Francis drove up in the pick up and we had to call it a day.