Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Namibia - May 2015

The Honorable Bedar!

Quite a guy, that one.....for damned sure.

JGRaider-
The host ranch is about 160 miles NE of Windhoek - approximately 35 miles east of the refugee camp at Osire. Elevation is about 4000 feet.

I heard no good hypotheses to account for the scarcity of hartebeest. Our friend with some prior experience on the ranch had no difficulty in taking his on previous trips. Perhaps the animals learned I was on the way and simply left the area, like the bad guys do when they hear John Wayne is coming to town.

--Bob

Dat must be jot!


What kind of refugees do they have and where are they from? When I was there in 1999 we saw a refugee camp, from the war with Angola.

ingwe-
It seems very likely the refugee camp you saw in 1999 was the camp at Osire, so you were within 3-4 miles of the castle.

We drove past the camp four times, twice before dawn and twice after sunset, and I couldn't really see it in the dark. Google finds a fair amount of information about the camp on the web. Its population reportedly peaked at 20,000 about the time of your visit; it's now about a quarter of that.

I was told that the refugees from Osire have a history of poaching game and medicinal plants from ranches and farms near the camp. Here's a note about that: http://afrol.com/News2002/nam001_osire_camp.htm

--Bob

I was at the same location in 2007 that Ingwe was several times earlier and was never told of the refugee camp or the castle that I can only imagine must seem eerily out of place in that bush.

I did not take a red hartebeest either for some reason though we were in them every day. We were pushing for a mature bull eland and that took priority after about day four; never did catch up to one.

Namibia does have its own kind of charm.