“It was everything I ever hoped for, and more — I want to go back,” said West Salem bowhunter Matt Berg of his trip to Africa this summer. “People always told me that, once you go to Africa, you’ll want to go back and it’s true.”

Berg, and fellow bowhunters Mike and Heidi Langrehr from Sparta planned the trip for three years before heading off to Namibia on June 28.

“It was strictly a bowhunting trip and our goal was plains game — kudu, warthog, black wildebeest and gemsbok,” said Berg, owner of Matt Berg Construction.

The trio booked their flight from Orion Adventures of Sparta. The plane flew first to Johannesburg and then Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, a dry country on the west coast of Africa.

“The picked us up at the airport and took us to a place called Agagia. It’s a working cattle ranch but they also allow hunters to come in,” Berg said.

In Johannesburg, the three Wisconsinites met up with three other hunters from Texas. All six would hunt for 10 days on the ranch. It was a dream come true for outdoorsman who love the thrill of the hunt.

“We’d get up before sunrise and they’d take us out to a blind overlooking a waterhole — they call them ‘hides’— and we’d stay there most of the day. They pack you a lunch and give you water. Normally, each hunter is by himself in the blind,” Berg said.

With all the animals he saw from the blind, Berg was not the least bit lonely. “I saw oodles of animals — 200 to 300 a day, and I had as much fun looking at them and taking pictures as I did hunting,” he said.

The hunters endured some rather chilly conditions. “It got down to 26 degrees and there were some days when the waterholes had ice on them,” Berg recalled.

He shot one of his major goals — a large antelope with long, sharp horns called a gemsbok — on the first day. But Berg also bagged two warthogs, a jackal and a wildebeest. He plans to have the gemsbok and the wildebeest mounted.

Berg says he was very impressed with the quality of the animals the group saw. “Everybody that shot an animal shot record-book quality animals. Mike (Langrehr) shot a black wildebeest that is now ranked 38th in the world — it’s in the record books,” Berg said.

An avid hunter who has hopes of going on a moose hunt and a caribou hunt some day, Berg said he never really expected he’d ever go to Africa: “It was a 30th birthday present to myself — at least, that’s what I tell myself.”

A sighting on the last day of the hunt might just entice him to head for Africa in the future.

“Things like this always seem to happen on the last day. I saw a monster kudu, but the light was fading and he wasn’t close enough for an ethical shot. It was a nice tease, though — I suspect I’ll be going back someday,” Berg said.

Contact Michael Martin at mike.martin@lee.net or 786-6813.