WINDHOEK, Namibia--I usually avoid London's Heathrow International Airport when traveling with firearms. The British don't like guns and will only grudgingly let anyone through their country carrying firearms.
On this year's trip my hunting partner, Carolee Boyles-Sprenkel, and I made arrangements for our gun case to be locked in the security area of British Airways because we were going to spend the night in London to visit with John Ian Gregson, editor of England's popular Shooting Times & Country Living magazine.
The theory is that British Airways baggage security will keep everything safe and write a forwarding ticket, and then all a person needs to do is advise the ticketing clerk at check-in that the baggage needs to be moved from British Airways to the next airlines, which in our case was Air Namibia.
We were running tight on time so I was worried about the gun case making the transfer. I shouldn't have been. We arrived in Windhoek with it. When we picked up the gun case in the airport security area we discovered that while it had been stored in the British Airways' security someone had tried to break into it. Three of the four latches had been forced and one end of the case had been hammered in with a pry bar.
Carolee's gun case is a Kalispel case made of aircraft aluminum. A steel bar that is locked down holds the latches firmly in place. which stopped the thieves. This is the second time someone has tried to steal my guns during an international trip. The first was in Miami's International Airport. British Airways' baggage handling is just as unreliable as the baggage handlers in Miami. The experience should serve as a warning. Put your guns in a portable vault when traveling by air.
Bird Hunting In Namibia
My trip to Namibia was about bird hunting. I needed some Namibian research, interviews, photos to wrap up the research for my book on bird hunting in Africa. Professional hunter Chris Steyn had arranged for Carolee and me to visit the Waterberg Game Farm in northern Namibia and spend three days bird hunting and learning about the most recent Namibian bird-hunting developments.
Things got off to a rocky start when our host discovered he was supposed to host us, but hadn't been told. We got that problem sorted out and the next day went hunting.
The first evening out we passed one waterhole where three trophy kudu bulls were watering, and it seemed we couldn't go a hundred yards without seeing game birds, either guinea fowl or francolin grouse. The francolin I was most interested in was the red-billed because I had already hunted the Swainsons.
Throughout our three days of hunting we never walked more than 50 yards without putting birds in the air. Our problem was hitting them. Instead of adding a new species to my list of bagged African birds, I added several new species of African shrubbery. The birds of Namibia take off like Navy F-14's leaping from the deck of an aircraft carrier. As soon as these birds have managed to run to a spot where they can put at least one bush between you and them, they launch themselves into the air. A shooter has to be quick and good. I should have spent more time shooting at clay birds before tackling Namibia's real ones. On this trip the birds outflew my shooting.
Namibia's game-bird population is precariously balanced along with the country's fragile ecosystem. The arid countryside is overgrown with thorny African acacia bush which has encroached on lands that suffered from poor farming practices the first half of this century. The Namibian bush is sometimes impenetrable, and wherever you hunt here you will repeatedly become hung up on any one of a variety of thorns. Anyone who comes in from a day of hunting in Namibia who hasn't left a little blood and bits of cloth on a thorn tree hasn't been hunting.
Species
The most famous game-bird species in Namibia are the sand grouse; the double-banded and namaqua. Hunting these birds is limited to the very early morning and last light of evening. The double-banded is the evening grouse and the namaqua is the morning grouse.
Hunters find a cozy place to sit and wait for the birds, when the sand grouse fly in to the waterhole the pass shooting is some of the most exciting bird hunting in the world. Our hosts at the game farm, Harry and Hannah Schneider-Waterberg, are in the early stages of counting their bird populations and are concerned about protecting the sand grouse populations by encouraging bag limits, a positive sign on a continent where abuse is the norm.
"We're watching our sand grouse numbers closely," Harry explained. "Bird hunting in Namibia is entirely new and no one has any real understanding of how many birds should be in a bag limit or exactly when to hunt them."
Namibia's evolving game-bird hunting regulations are a unique opportunity for the country's wildlife conservation department and the nation's farmers to work together to produce a plan that will preserve bird populations for the future while developing a hunting program that will bring foreign hunters and their money into Namibia. It is an ambitious project but one that is being based on sound science and not blind emotionalism.
The program also has a good foundation to build on. During the three days of hunting at Waterberg Game Farm, I saw three species of francolins, one of sand grouse, one of dove, and, of course, guinea fowl. We hunted in the thick acacia bush country, and along wide, grass-covered watercourses bordered by ironwood trees.
As Harry develops the bird hunting on the game farm, American bird hunters have an opportunity to experience some of the best and most exciting bird hunting in southern Africa. This year the new regulations will become law and open the Namibian sand grouse hunting to a realistically longer season with controlled bag limits.
If you've always dreamed of hunting sand grouse in the old southwest Africa, Harry Schneider has the hunting to make your dream a reality. For more information contact, Harry and Hanna Schneider-Waterberg, Waterberg Game, PR Bag 2208, Otjiwarongo, Namibia, phone 011-264-651-2223.
The airport is getting crowded. Our flight to South Africa will be leaving soon. Time to post this to All Outdoors and press on. My next report will be on the hunting with Rocco Gioia at Casketts Ranch in South Africa's Transvaal.
Galen L. Geer
Readers may contact the author or B&B Adventures via e-mail at 73737.2466@compuserve.com.
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