High Country Hunting in South Africa

My heart rate escalated upon each and every calorie-burning step up the steep rocky slope.  If I did not know better, I would have thought I was hunting sheep in Wyoming, but I was now over 10,000 miles from my Texas home in search of the unique vaal rhebok in the Stormberg Mountains of southeast Africa.

Borrowing a quote from F. Vaughan Kirby in a publication titled Great and Small Game of Africa published in 1899, no other antelope in Africa affords truer sport than the rhebuck for none is so shy and difficult to approach. Kirby referred to the vaal rhebok as the sport of princes and only through perseverance and good physical condition will one enjoy success. I found his description of this smallish gray antelope which stands at 28 to 35 inches and weighs 40 to 50 pounds to be spot-on.

I found the Vaal Rhebok to be as challenging as any sheep I have ever hunted.

I first learned of vaal rhebok back in 2005 when I accidentally tuned into a TV show on the subject. By the time the show was over, I was researching the animal and planning another trip to the Dark Continent in order to pursue this magnificent animal.

It was at the 2008 SCI convention in Reno that my wife Jan and I met Chris Broster and Andrew Pringle, owners of Crusader Safaris.  Following a short visit with the gentlemen, I knew they were the kind of people we enjoy hunting with.  Once they insured me that all their hunting was conducted on open range, we booked the safari for July, 2009.

For Jan and I, this was our fourth trip to Africa as we have hunted in Zimbabwe twice and Tanzania once.  With three Cape buffalo, a huge sable, several kudu, and numerous other trophy memories, the Vaal rhebok remained high on my priority list, but what made this trip so very special was the fact that my daughters Beth and Nan and their husbands Justin and Paul joined us.

After spending close to 24hours in airplanes, we arrived at Johannesburg on July 19 for a short layover before hopping another flight south to Durban, but our luggage didn't make it; more importantly, neither did our guns.  After notifying South African Airlines of the problem, we spent our first night in a beautiful bed and breakfast lodge on the Indian Ocean.

Jan took this heavy horn Cape bushbuck with one shot along the Umkomaas River in Natal.

By first light Jan and I were walking barefoot on the deep sandy beach of the Indian Ocean.  By mid day, we were picked up by Chris and Melinda Broster and escorted two hours out of the huge city to a secluded tent camp in Natal on the Umkomaas River.

South African Airlines delivered our luggage two days later, and my girls went to work.  Jan connected first with a heavy-horned Cape bushbuck right on the Umkomaas, and Nan wasted little time taking a 24-inch impala and a blue wildebeest.  Nan's husband Paul hunted kudu with a bow, but failed to have one of Africa's gray ghosts approach within arrow range.

Nan made a splendid shot on this beautiful Impala in Natal.

Over the first four days of hunting with PH Andrew Pringle, I looked over eight nyala, four within 150 yards, but none met our benchmark of 29 inches, so I passed on the magnificent animals.

On the last morning in Zululand, our fifth day, Paul and I remained to hunt nyala, while the others parted early for the five-hour trip to our next destination in the Stormberg Mountains.  We spotted a 29 to 30 " bull, but by noon, following a long stalk, the animal simply vanished as did my chances of taking one of these magnificent animals.

While dad was pursuing Nyala and Vaal Rhebuck, the girls were knocking down some animals like this extremely unique trophy porcupine Beth shot.

As a sudden unexpected cold front dropped temperatures to below freezing, Paul and I were escorted south through some of the most breathtaking mountain vistas in all of Africa.  Admiring the snow-covered peaks in the distance made the trip go by swiftly.

By dark we arrived at Chris's family ranch and were graciously greeted by our families, along with Chris's mom and dad, John and Sheryl Broster, followed by an exquisite dinner composed of mountain reedbuck stroganoff.

On the following morning as a fluorescent orange sheen silhouetted the Stormbergs, ph Scott, tracker Elvis and I drove to another ranch 40 minutes away in hopes of seeing a tremendous ram they had spotted earlier in the year.

The first mountain valley we scoped was void of the shy animals, but Scott spotted them immediately upon glassing a second deep, more rugged valley and as they say in Africa we made a plan.

Feeding on a winter wheat field planted for sheep in the bottom of a huge bowl appeared to be just where we wanted them.  With the wind in our favor, we began our stalk that turned out to be much more challenging than I expected.

As we employed the rocky outcrop encircling the valley below us for cover, we crawled the last 50 yards or so to a point from which we could see the antelope.  Some were bedded, others fed below us, but the ram accompanying the 12 ewes was not visible.  Our only option was to wait for the ram to move into the open.

The abundance and diversity of animals along with magnificent vistas is what Africa is all about.

Unbelievably, our plan was shattered when the ewes exploded from their resting positions and dashed off, with the bull to a distance I was not willing to shoot.  The antelope's alarm sound tshu, tshu, tshu could be heard resonating off the rocky canyon before the herd effortlessly dashed up the opposing steep slope only to pause in a position facilitating an excellent vantage point for the herd.

Our second stalk ended when we realized we couldn't get any closer.

A third stalk approaching the now alarmed animals failed as I simply couldn't find the ram in my scope before they dashed off.  We virtually spent the entire morning crawling over that mountainside, yet the animals keen eyesight prevented any chance for a good shot.

We decided to break for lunch and let them settle down.

Later that evening we again found them feeding on the grain, and crawled towards them from above.  Amazingly just as we reached a good shooting position, an African wild cat appeared from nowhere and made a running attempt on the ram.  Once again the herd was on alert and unsettled.  Spotting us, they dashed off to the other side of the valley and paused.  I took a shot, but misjudged the distance and shot over the ram, which stopped once again before disappearing.  I shot over the animal again, only to watch in despair as the herd disappeared over the rock-strewn bluff and into the next valley.

The following morning things clicked, and at 150 yards I was privileged to take another of Africa's crown jewels, an 8.5 " long vaal rhebok.  It was now guys one and the girls eight, but that's another story .