Kat River Conservancy: Part I

Saturday: Kat River Conservancy, Nxakwe Lodge, and Cape Kudu

Saturday morning we awoke early. We stopped briefly and glassed for another large Common Reedbuck that had been spotted several times at the base of one of the mountains, but no luck. We saw a dingo very, very, very, very far away running – around 650-700 yards. We lobbed some 375 and 7 mag bullets at him. We missed. A hit would have been sheer luck.

We hit the road for the Kat River Conservancy. It is a large collection of ranches that have been pooled into an awesome hunting area. It has steep hills, rolling hills, and flat areas. It reminds you of the Texas Hill Country a bit. We arrived at the property of the Dankwertz family; with Murray, the only and eldest son, as our host. It was a fascinating environment. Old Boer style farmhouses that the Dankwertz families lived in, an early 1800’s Dutch Fort, and a very cool and rustic Safari camp.

The main camp was surrounding by a tall solid wooden fence with a camp fire and eating area in the center. On one side was a one story building where all the meals were prepared. Outside near this building was a stone oven fired by hot wooden coals for cooking and hot water for laundry. To the left was a two story building. The first floor was a rustic bar with a lounge area and fireplace. Upstairs had a luxury candle lit dining room. There was no electricity here or running water. Everything was by fire, candle, and hand. The meals we ate every night in the dinning were the BEST, repeat the BEST, meals I have ever had. The world’s five star eateries could learn something from the Dankwertz family.

View from Kat River Conservancy

Our cabins were down a tree covered dirt trail lit by torches which gave away to an elevated plank walk-way as the cabins sat atop a small stream. The cabins were very rustic. They had a thatched roof, wooden floors, and masonry walls with wooden doors and windows. Inside there were two single beds, two desks, a wardrobe, and a bathroom with an open ceiling to the inside of the cabin. The bathroom had a shower, sink, toilet, and hot and cold running water. There was no electricity. There were several 12 volt lanterns in the sleeping, entrance, and bathroom areas that run from solar charged batteries. It was really unique and peaceful. We were a bit worried about critters, like Monkeys and Snakes, getting in, but the camp master, Gert, said there were no worries. He said it was still to cool for the Cape Cobras to come out and the Monkeys were harmless. He said if we got bit, they would run us to town and put us on a ventilator to let the poison work thru our body – seemed this was now preferable method to anti-venom and safer. Two days after we left, they found a small Puff Adder in Roger’s cabin. The venom is very similar to a rattlesnake’s and no, ventilators don’t work. Nice.

Path to Cabins

JR's & My Cabin

Gert. An interesting guy. He’s a semi-retired professional hunter in his 60's who still thinks apartheid exists. He has worked with the Dankwertz family for many, many years. He taught Murray to hunt as a child. It seemed he should have been leading a division of German Panzer in World War II or leading a corps of Boer Fighters in the 1800’s. He was the life of the camp. He also informed us he would only drink Windhoek beer from Namibia as it is the only Africa beer available in Southern Africa that is brewed to the German brewing laws. As South African Brewing expanded and acquired companies, they accelerated the brewing processes and took shortcuts. Gert said he would have none of this non-sense.

The drive to the lower elevations closer to coast had raised the temperatures. We would find out later that it had approached nearly 110 that day. Around noon Sculk, Frienda, Ray-Ray, and I set out to hunt. Frienda was a black professional hunter in training. Ray-Ray (I couldn’t pronounce his real name so we gave him the name Ray-Ray) was one of Murray’s trackers. Ray-Ray and locals loved his new name.

It was very hot as we drove out to hunt. We spent about 30-45 minutes driving before we dismounted. We carried two chairs and an ice chest full of drinks and lunch to the edge of a small mesa that overlooked a lower area. Sculk and I parked ourselves under a large shade tree. It was actually very pleasant in the shade with the breeze, regardless of the temperature. Frienda and Ray-Ray made their way back to the truck to wait and scout elsewhere.

It was midday, but unlike deer, antelope move constantly. We saw a large herd of Gemsbuck and various species of Reedbuck. However, we were looking for Cape Kudu. We saw several females and young males, but eventually spotted a group of four males about a half mile away eating. We watched them for about two hours. We saw three of them very well, not trophies, but the fourth one, which we didn’t get a good look at, appeared to be a potential trophy. We decided to go elsewhere and look. We knew where the Kudu were and they would most likely stay in the area the remainder of the day.

We returned to the truck and drove to another area of the ranch. We saw a group of Kudu in thick brush and tree covered hills. We glassed them for quite a while, probably around an hour or so, from over a mile away and decided to put stalk on them. We came upon the Kudu rather quickly. They had disappeared from sight before we started the stalk, but headed in the direction we thought they were moving in the thick foliage. Unfortunately when we found them the sun was right in our eyes. Sculk and Frienda saw them about 80 yards in front of us, but I could not. They heard us and ran off. There was a big boy in the herd. We made it back to the truck and drove to the other side of the ridge. We saw the herd again far up on the hillside, but it was to for a shot. We decided to leave them and come back the next morning. We headed back to the first group we saw earlier.

There were quite a few other animals moving around now. We also found the four Kudu males and the fourth one was indeed a trophy. We decided to put a stalk on them, but had to circle around due to the wind and other animals present. To go about one half mile as the crow flies to the Kudu’s position, we took a circular route of about a mile and a half. Our initial position was up high on the edge of a mesa, so the terrain below didn’t look to bad – pretty open with trees. When we got to ground level the trees swallowed up the landscape and we couldn’t at all due to the loss of elevation. I trusted Sculk’s navigation skills to guide us to. We arrived right on the spot – around 150 yards downwind from him.

We crawled up underneath a low tree whose branches started about 18-24" above the ground. I was going to use the branches as my gun rest. I got the Kudu lined up. There was a narrow shooting corridor and I aimed behind his shoulder. A direct shoulder shot is best with a Kudu, but with all the branches and twigs between my 375 and the kudu, I wanted some room for error in case the bullet caught a twig.

I fired! The 260 grain ballistic tip hit him solid and he took off running to his left. We couldn’t see where he went, so we started forward. We eventually found him about 80 yards to left of his original position. He was on the ground and mortally wounded, but was trying to get up. I didn’t want to take any chances and shot him again.

Cape Kudu

Ray-Ray

Kudus are large, majestic animals. The size of an elk and probably the most prized antelope trophy in Africa or anywhere in the world. They are a challenging quarry, make beautiful mounts, and taste darn good! Their face has three white dots on each side. The Zulu say that these are the fingerprints of God and that He held the Kudu here in His hands when He created them.

This particular species of Kudu was a Cape Kudu. It is closely related to the Southern Greater Kudu, but its neck and face are darker and its horns are on average about 10" shorter on the spiral. There are also several other species including the Northern Lesser Kudu and the Absynnian Kudu. This one was a fine specimen, very mature and very large. Another hunter in our group took a Kudu on the same day. The skulls were side by side later that night at the cleaning shed. While the horns on both were roughly the same, the skull on mine was significantly larger by a wide margin. Ray-Ray commented this is the largest bodied Cape Kudu he had ever seen taken.

We made our way back to camp for some dinner. Sculk and I arrived ahead of everyone else and enjoyed some beers by the warm fire as the night air started to chill. We eventually walked up a set of outside stairs to a first class, candle lit dinning room and awaited the rest of our group for dinner. The food was incredible – the best I have ever had. Complete with appetizers, wine, main course, and dessert. The Gemsbuck was prepared in a traditional African gravy as the main course. I wish I had written down everything we ate for dinner at Kat River – it was truly amazing.