A Sporting Life In Africa

A trip to Britain serves as a reminder of the many uses for a really good, stout stick

Back on the ranch in Kenya, the highland equatorial sun is too hot for the tweed flat cap, breeks and socks I acquired for shooting on my recent British trip (Africa, 4 November). Among all the great kit you have over there, though, I think what might be really useful here in Africa is a good stick. In Scotland and Devon I found myself always eyeing a handsome thumbstick, staff or crook, with a wonderful head of antler, buffalo or ram’s horn.

After a long absence from the farm, as soon as I returned home I took a very long walk to check how things were going. Before setting out, I selected a stick from one of many clustered in an umbrella stand at home. Over the years I have collected sticks that are very long and willowy thin, some as short as an Irish shillelagh cudgel, others with sturdy shanks like your stalking sticks, bendy ones, carved ones, knobkerries, clubs with metal heads and a staffas thick as Aaron’s rod.

Wizard