I invited my son, Ricky, and my nephew, Oliver, to join me for eleven days hunting at Jan Oelofse's ranch at Mt. Etjo, Namibia, June 4 through 14. We were very fortunate to have someone hunting during the same period of time who was a great sport. Ted Barclay from San Antonio had the misfortune of coming up a half inch short each time he and we shot the same species. This could have resulted in a tense camp but he was able to convert this into damn near a comical situation. Since this was Ricky and Oliver's first trip to Africa, I am grateful to Ted for his understanding that fate sometimes has a weird sense of humor. We were not only lucky in hunting but very lucky on who we ended up with in camp.

More importantly, there was a ton of game. I think you'd have to go to a zoo to see more animals. Duiker, steenbok, blesbok, white blesbok, blue wildebeest, black wildebeest, giraffes, white rhinos, one black rhino, sable, roan, impala, black faced impala, gemsbok, kudu, dik-dik, springbok, nyala, jackal, leopard, klipspringer, baboon, hippo, eland, and my favorite, the lechwe, were all seen at reasonable close range during the week and a half. This is not to mention the great number of birds we saw.

We had the perfect PH, Rudie de Klerk, who made sure the boys got real close to a good trophy and had the opportunity to make easy shots. I think I got just as much, if not more, pleasure out of watching them hunt as shooting anything myself. For a new hunter's first trip to Africa you can't beat the facilities or people we encountered.

The food was excellent, both boys gaining weight from the trip. The facilities were also top drawer.

I also wanted to thank you for recommending Mr. Cotzner at Optima. His people at Johannesburg International Airport were terrific and well worth the money even though it appears the South Africans have begun to get their act together. All the stories about bad things in the South African Airways Airbus economy seating are true. I would love to have their President and/or Director of Marketing do what we did: Delta (Honolulu-Atlanta 9 hours); South African (Atlanta-Johannesburg), 18 hours); South African (Johannesburg-Windhoek, 2 hours). The back of that seat in front of you jammed into your knees for the 18-hour flight is cruel and unusual punishment.

Lastly, I would like to thank you for a wonderful newsletter. For people like me who can't afford to go to hunting in exotic places as often as we wish, it gives us a chance to fantasize.

Mt. Etjo offers the usual variety of plains game native to Namibia (including leopards and cheetahs) plus numerous "imports" such as sable, waterbuck, roan, white-tailed gnu, nyala and red lechwe. A small herd of five elephants roam the premises, and a pride of eleven lions are contained in a separately fenced in area. Four professional hunters are in residence. I met three of them. All appeared competent, and I can attest that my PH, Steve Tors, is one of the top PH's with whom I have hunted over the years. Steve is an American who came to Namibia as a teenager almost thirty years ago determined to make a life for himself as a professional hunter. Steve, his wife Ushi, and teenaged boys Christain and Oliver treated me like family. On two different days each of the boys helped with my hunt and either could follow in their father's footsteps if they chose to do so. Also accompanying us was Steve's German hunting terrier, Sammy. Friendly to humans but very aggressive to game, should the hunter be so unfortunate as to wound game Sammy will find it.

I took a 53 inch kudu with heavy bases and classic deep V-shaped horns and a 37 inch gemsbok bull, both of which were by best specimens since my first hunt in then South West Africa some seventeen years ago. I also took a 25 inch roan. I spent several afternoons hunting the Damaraland dik-dik, seeing several but not a trophy buck. These tiny antelope inhabit the extremely rugged foothills of the mountains where they are elusive and difficult to spot between the tall grass and innumerable thorn bushes.

Mt. Etjo charges $350 a day, 1 X 1, and $100 a day for observers. My son-in-law was able to join me for a few days as an observer, one of which we spent touring the Namib desert red sands dunes, reached by charter airplane. Trophy fees were reasonable and typical for the area.

I certainly give Mt. Etjo and its owners high marks and a most favorable recommendation. Jan is a true conservationist and the man who has developed the sophisticated game capture techniques used by most others to trap and translocate game with minimal harm or stress to the animal. Moreover, he has been doing so for many years. He was the man who did the actual game capture work for the movie Hatari and who doubled John Wayne for the capture scenes.

Should there be a medical emergency, Jan, a licensed pilot, keeps two small planes on the premises, either of which could be used to transport a patient to the hospital in Windhoek.

I was assigned a professional hunter by the name of Naftali Amoolongo and to be frank, I had my doubts about him. However, Jan was quick to point out that this was the man to have if I wanted record-class animals. He turned out not only to be an excellent tracker and all-a-round hunter, but an excellent judge of game, not letting me shoot inferior animals. I shot a particularly nice 55-inch kudu and let an even bigger one get away (it's hard running uphill with your PH), a 36-inch gemsbok, a really big black wildebeest (I forgot the score but he was at the top of the record book), A 145 pound tom leopard as well as record class red hartebeest, springbok, brown and white blesbok (stupid but interesting), two steenbok, one klipspringer (tough to get), Hartmann's mountain zebra and two over nine inch warthog. I averaged about one picked animal a day. On the very last evening and having a full bag except for the cheetah, Jan was nice enough to give me a gemsbok (very abundant but extremely wary) for half price ($300). I shot it wounding it and although we tracked for miles until dark, we never caught up to him, my professional saying that the wound didn't seem severe. Jan was nice enough not only not to charge me, but he gave me a discount on the daily rate on account of having taken such a long safari.

Again and like I said before, I cannot say enough for Jan and his staff and I would recommend him to anyone who wants to go to Africa, either for the first time or to better the trophies he has, like I did. The weather was perfect, although it gets extremely cold at night (below freezing) and a good warm jacket, gloves and a face mask are mandatory for riding in the open safari car. And although I am used to the tropical sun in my native Costa Rica, sun block is extremely important as the southern African sun is extremely hot, although as soon as one stands in the shade, it's very pleasant if not cool.

About Jan Oelofse Wild, Steve Tors works really hard to get you just the animal you want, all the P.H.'s do. The people are the best, every one of them! The hunting lodge is a great place; the rooms are big with your own bathroom, clean clothes every day. Elsa, your hostess and cook is the best, making your game melt in your mouth, plus all the other gourmet foods and fantastic desserts. Frik, Elsa's husband, and host is also the butcher, and a P.H. from South Africa so he has lots of stories to tell about his hunting buffalo, etc. These people, every one of them, from Jan and Annette Oelofse who stop by from time to time to make sure everything is going well, to the skinners, who are very careful about their work, even going as far as recovering your bullets, all go out of their way to get you anything you want or need, and make your safari a wonderful experience. Our trophies were shipped as soon as they were dry, and came in excellent shape.

The only bad thing is sooner or later you have to come home and it's always too soon.

Jack Atcheson set up our hunts and did a great job getting us the best hunt, and outfitter.

For our travels we used Uniglobe Travel out of Butte, Montana (Marie Walsh) they were great setting up our flights.

We recommend Jan Oelofse for anyone that wants a safari of your dreams.