Thoughts on chairs, Safari bars and Kudu hunting
There are a few ways of hunting the wily Kudu on Southern African ranches. On the one end of the scale there’s that no-no, for some, of a dead rest off the back of a ‘bakkie’ (farm truck). On the other there’s the skillful and tough business of walk and stalk through the Kudu’s favored habitat - thick thorn bush.
Recently I found myself somewhere in between: hiding behind a Spekboom bush high up on the mountainside of Sholto Kroon’s 12000 acre farm Klipdrift outside Graaff Reinet in the Karoo.
Ok , full disclosure, I was sitting on a chair. But the fact was that it was an extraordinary chair. A 120-year old campaign furniture relic of the Boer war that I’d spirited off the Kroons veranda and personally lugged up the mountainside in a bag and assembled under the intense pressure of the distant yelping of Sholto’s farm workers turned beaters.
You may have guessed it. The chair was a Roorkhee. Standard issue British Officer’s campaign chair from the 1870s through to WW1.
Back to Kudu hunting. One only has to see the size of Kudu’s ears to know that here is a buck with exceptional hearing.
There’s a magic to the stillness of the Karoo. Just sitting up on a mountain side in meditative silence .
My attempts at the illusive ‘quiet mind’ disturbed only by a thought driven foray into whether Sholto’s ‘sundowner essential’, a G&T stocked Odyssea Safari bar, that I’d personally helped load onto the back of the bakkie early that morning was an original piece of campaign furniture or not.
Just then, about 100 metres up on the slope directly above and behind me, I heard the telltale sound of shale moving under a hoof. Crooking my neck I saw a majestic set of horns moving elegantly through the thicket. I’d have to swivel 180 degrees for any chance of a shot. As I did this the Roorkhee creaked – loudly!
Perhaps in the heat of a military conflict the sound of the odd creak from under an officer's posterior is acceptable. But not with Kudu hunting. When frightened they take on a ghost like quality.
What to do but sit back in my Roorkhee and reach for my Grogan Rucksack and one of Anna-Marie Kroon’s venison sandwiches . Ironically the Grogan is made from Kudu skin. As Sholto remarked while admiring it over a sundowner later , “just like your Kudu – no bullet holes !”
Melvill & Moon in South Africa make the Roorkhee, the Grogan Rucksack and the Odyssey Safari bar. Plus there’s another campaign chair they make which may have been a better bet that day; The Field Chair. Lighter than the Roorkhee, easier to erect in a hurry. And it doesn’t creak.
For Melvill & Moons range of bags, campaign furniture and Canvas Seat Covers in the UK call Steff Halm at Steffi@melvillandmoon.com or +44 7780335521. www.melvillandmoon.com