A Kudu Hunt in Pebble Paradise.

We were all up nice and early, as Chris was taking us to his favourite Kudu spot on a property just over an hours drive away. We ate a hearty breakfast, collected our lunch packs for the day and loaded our gear into the trusty Landy then followed Chris and Lionel as they drove ahead through the predawn darkness.  As we traveled we saw lights inside distant farm houses as the golden glow of the coming sunrise started to show in the East, I was getting pretty eager to hunt as the dawn broke and was hoping our good fortune would hold and see us with a nice Kudu Bull before the end of the day. We soon turned off the road and into the farm just as it was light enough to see and arrived at the farmhouse a short time later. We soon arrived at the farm house to meet the farmer and discuss our plans with him, he kindly gave us a little local advise and wished us good luck before he headed off to begin his day.

A small Valley on the side of the hill complex we dubbed Pebble Paradise.

We then drove for another 15 minutes or so then stopped and unloaded our gear, we were at the base of a complex of hills and valleys covered in Jade plants, Thorn trees and pebbles!!!.  These were not just ordinary pebbles, they were almost perfectly round and varied from Grapefruit sized to Mellon sized and the whole hill complex was covered in them!!!.

Imagine trying to stalk in these pebbles, It was hard work to say the least

We left Lionel, Jack and Jacu with the vehicle while Chris. Myself. Richard and Greg entered what we later dubbed "Pebble Paradise" as there was no way we could all stalk through this. It was extremely hard going not because of the cover  but the pebbles, every step had to be taken with care as the ground was so uneven, each step was a potential broken ankle if not careful.  We eventually made our way to the top of the first hill and started to glass the surrounding hillsides and the valley below, and there were Kudu cows everywhere. The way their ears stuck out reminded me a lot of the Sambar Deer I had long ago hunted back home.

Kudu Cows, yes their ears do stand out don't they.

This place was Kudu paradise, and I must say they did pick a very safe place to live, it would be virtually impossible to get much closer than 100 meters from one without getting seen or making noise and alerting them. After glassing for sometime we decided there were no big bulls in this valley and we backed off and circled round to check the next one. The next valley system was much the same but had a couple of nice looking sets of horns protruding from the bush in places, the only problem being we couldn't see the animals they were attached too. Still we pressed on as quietly as we could trying our best not to slip and send showers of pebbles careening noisily down the hillside, and for the most part we succeeded. The ITZ camera crew following us did an amazing job of keeping quiet and once again we didn’t even notice they were there, how they filmed  and photographed in these conditions without blowing our cover I have no idea.

Stalking Pebble Paradise was not an easy proposition.

Each step had the potential to blow an ankle.

We continued with this for most of the morning and got to look at quite a few sets of very impressive horns but just not the bodies supporting them. At one stage I had a big bull Kudu moving through the bush toward the top of a ridge and Chris put the sticks down in anticipation of him stopping for a look as he topped the ridge. I followed him all the way up in the scope but he never truly broke cover and didn't stop as he topped out and disappeared over the back of the ridge.

A Kudu bull making his way over a ridge, one of many we saw that day.

Chris and I, frustrated having just watched the best animal of the day walk over a ridge without presenting a shot.

By this stage of the day it was starting to get a little hot and we began circling back towards the area where the vehicle and our lunch were located. It was a fair distance back to the vehicle and we discussed how far we thought we had walked over the morning as we made our way back, Greg had the GPS on the whole time and told us he would check later. When we arrived back at the vehicle we all made a dash for the cool drinks in the cooler, closely followed by opening up our lunch packs and hungrily tucking in to the offerings. Greg took the opportunity to check the GPS and informed us we had walked just over 10kms on our mornings hunt. We then all picked a shady tree each to have a bit of a rest under for a couple of hours during the midday heat, I even managed to drift of and get a short nap. I woke up about 45 minutes later to see a Kudu Cow and two immature Bulls looking straight at me wondering what the heck I was.

The Cow is in the centre and the two Bulls are above and to the right in the shade under the tree.

One of the many immature bulls we saw during the day.

We had a short discussion and decided to glass a different hill complex from a nearby ridge and if  that came up a dud we would return to Pebble Paradise and hunt a different side. We drove up onto the ridge and glassed for some time but didn't see anything of note, so we decided to walk to the next ridge and glass again from there but again we drew a blank. Chris suggested that our best chance for a Kudu was back in Pebble Paradise and as it was getting late in the afternoon we agreed that we should go back and try again.

An Old abandoned farm house near Pebble Paradise, the hills we hunted in the afternoon are in the background.

 We knew there were plenty of good Kudu there it was just a matter of finding the right one before we lost too much light and had to call it a day. I felt sorry for Jack and Jacu as they had been left out of the mornings hunt and now there was nothing for them this afternoon either, and they were left alone again.  We made our way back into the bush and ankle snapping terrain and hunted as best we could, we glassed every hillside and stalked as quietly as possible, I was fast becoming aware of the many reasons Kudu are often referred to as the Grey Ghost. Unfortunately despite our best efforts we failed to find a decent Kudu Bull before we ran out of usable light. Slightly dejected we made our way back to the vehicle and packed our gear away. In the fading light we made the journey back to the farm house to thank the farmer and were treated to a spectacular sunset that afforded us the opportunity to take some amazing pictures and capture some truly iconic African images.

Jacu the ITZ photographer managed to capture this amazing picture of a Kudu Bull just on last light with the aid of a telephoto lens.

After thanking the farmer for the opportunity to hunt his amazing property we began the drive back to the lodge with the burning orange glow of another African day slowly fading over the horizon. We were tired, slightly dehydrated but content with the effort we had put in, our legs ached, our ankles were swollen and our feet were sore but we would do it all again in a heart beat. The hour's drive back to the lodge passed quickly enough and we were soon showered and clean, with the dirt and dust of a hard day hunting scrubbed from our skin and washed from our hair.
Ice cold drinks quenched our thirst and we soon filled ourselves with Toni's home cooking before settling down to relax. Our thirst and hunger now satisfied and with Toni's chocolate pudding sitting heavy in our bellies, one by one we all slowly succumbed to the exertion of the days hunting and made our way to bed. Once again I drifted off to sleep with the refreshing chill of the evening air gently creeping through the open window and the frogs croaking out their soft relaxing chorus.