Country hunted and region: Namibia

Outfitter name: Baobab Game Ranch

Professional hunter or hunting guide's name: Helmuth Friederich

Agent's name: no agent, the hunt was self-organized

Date of the hunt or service: August 2014

Type of hunt or safari: farm hunting

Game species hunted: oryx bulls

Comments on your hunt:

In August 2014 I headed south to Namibia in order to hunt oryx bulls, one of my favourite game animals in Namibia.
I choose the Baobab Game Ranch because I liked the idea to hunt with a bushman since they are famous for their excellent tracking skills.
After a quite long flight with Air Namibia I reached Kotoka International Airport early in the morning and Margaret Friederich, the wife of Helmuth, the hunting guide and owner of Baobab Game Ranch, picked me up and soon we were heading north in the direction of the farm.
Baobab Game Ranch is located near Grootfontein, which means about 7 hours driving time from Windhuk International Airport.
After we reached the farm, I met Helmuth, the staff and last but not least, the dogs of the farm! Nice guys all of them.

[image]http://s169.photobucket.com/user/fugitall/media/Farm-1.jpg.html?sort=3&o=3[/image]

After a little snack I assembled my rifle and Helmuth and me went to the shooting range to check my rifle. Since everything was fine, we were ready for action! But first, Helmuth showed me the farm, of course beginning with the mighty baobab tree, that inspired the name of the farm. This baobab it the southernmost of all the really big baobabs in Namibia, at least that is what Helmuth told me.

[image]http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u222/fugitall/Baobabrezized-1.jpg[/image]

On our first day of hunting, we bumped into a group of oryx and amongst them was a really nice bull with impressing long horns. But I wanted to concentrate on old bulls so I decided to let him grow older.

On day two we spotted an old oryx bull and stalked him successfully without much trouble. I was using my Mauser 98 in 9,3x62 firing 286 grain Barnes TSX-Bullets. This combo is very effective against oryx, especially when You hit the right spot, as was the case here. So the bull went just about 40 meters and soon was still.

[image]http://s169.photobucket.com/user/fugitall/media/Oryx1Foto2rezized-1.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0[/image]

On the picture You can see fom left to right: Andre, the bushman tracker, Helmuth, the farmer and bushman expert and Thomas, the licensed hunting guide.

Since there are different kinds of hunt available on Baobab Game Ranch, I can tell You the "Bushman Hunt" ist a normal hunt on that farm with a bushman as a tracker. I have to say that Andre was very good in tracking and spotting game, but I have also seen other excellent trackers at work, be it in Zimbabwe or Benin. But Andre was a very nice and friendly guy and I enjoyed to hunt with him. Besides, on a "Bushman Hunt" Helmuth will explain many aspects of the ancient life of bushmen, be it about edible plants, setting snares, hunting tactics, or general survival skills. He was grown up with bushmen and spent most of his childhood playing and hunting with bushmen kids. He can also speak the language of the bushmen with these many click-sounds, one of the most difficult languages on this planet.

The next days we were hunting for another oryx bull, but for some reason we had no luck. Helmuth decided to sit at a waterhole or a vlei and I could watch many animals and make some nice videos. Personally, I prefer stalking and don`t like sitting there for hours but of course one can watch many animals without disturbing them. One day we have seen about 35 kudus within one hour!

[image]http://s169.photobucket.com/user/fugitall/media/Kudubullsrezized-1.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2[/image]

One day, Helmuth had to go to town urgently, so I was hunting with Thomas, a nice guy that had been trained by the well-known Volker Grellmann and sucessfully passed the exam for hunting guides in Namibia.
With Thomas, hunting was exactly how I enjoy it. We started early in the morning, stalked hard for about two hours, following fresh tracks and droppings, but couldn`t see those smart oryx in the thick stuff. After two hours we decided to take a short break and discussed what to do next. Suddenly we heard some strange noise and soon realized that it was an oryx bull smashing a bush! We stalked closer and soon could see him heading in our direction. After a very short time he was seeing us but could not decide if we were dangerous or a harmless. So he stood motionless staring at us for minutes. I didn`t shoot because he was standing just behind a thorn bush and I don`t like frontal quartering shots anyhow. After some eternal minutes he decided we were not OK and turned to run. I quickly aimed and shot but within a blink of an eye he was gone. Unfortunately I made something wrong with my Mobius camera so all this is not on video. At least I filmed the minutes after the shot.

[image]http://s169.photobucket.com/user/fugitall/media/Orxy2resized-1.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1[/image]

The second bull was not as old as the first one but mature and for sure old enough. Besides, they taste excellent especially when they are not too old!

The last day I spent making photos and videos plus I enjoyed the fine Namibian beer.

After all, it was a nice time I had on Baobab Game Ranch and I learned a lot about the Bushmen and their way of living in the bush. Of course this is not a safari in the middle of a real wilderness but on the other side farm hunting is a lot cheaper. I paid 230,- Euros per day for the Bushman Hunt, including the beer, which is not bad at all.

So if You are interested in hunting with a real bushman and if You like Namibia, this farm might be worth a try.

Especially for the members of this forum, I made a video about that hunt and uploaded it to YouTube. If You have some time (the video is more than 40 minutes long) You might enjoy watching the animals of the Namibian bush. I splitted the video in five parts, here the link to part 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A0HpnkDXL0

In part 1 You will see some footing of the farm and of some of the animals found on Baobab Game Ranch.
In part 2 again aninals of Namibia, including oryx:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEWFrNOsbM8

Part 3 shows footage of hunting the first oryx bull:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWhFwZq2zR8

Part 4 shows more hunting scenes and many kudus at a waterhole:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Yj6Cr_f6Q

Finally, part 5 shows the moments after shooting the second oryx bull plus some final impressions of Baobab Game Ranch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwWSbneNrwg

I tried to add some photos to this report but somehow it seems it didn`t work. Well, it is maybe because I am blocking all kinds of spyware in my browser. Anyhow, if You want to see the pictures, just watch the video on YT.

Kalunga