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STALKING

urkha and British soldiersrst fought each other in the

 bloody Nepalese wars of 1814-1816, and such was

the mutual admiration between thetwo opponents that the rst Gurkha

 battalions to serve in the British Armywere raised from volunteers among theprisoners taken during the wars. Sincethen, there has been a strong bondof friendship between British and Nepalisoldiers serving alongside each other,and today two infantry battalions of Gurkhas survive in the British Army,

 based in Kent and Brunei respectively.The Kent-based 1st Battalion The RoyalGurkha Ries, are due to deploy to

 Afghanistan later this year.In the rst week of December, last year,

Major Andrew Todd took 10 of his soldiers

from C Company, 1st Battalion The RoyalGurkha Ries, to Scotland at the kindinvitation of the Bulmer family, whohad offered their Ledmore estate, inSutherland, for three days’ hindstalking.It would provide a unique trainingopportunity and a chance to test the newarmy battle dress that has just beenintroduced. The team consisted of acombination of young riemen who willdeploy on their rst tour of Afghanistanin the autumn and senior NCOs who willreturn for their fourth and fth tours.

Since the beginning the Gurkhashave had a particular afnity with theScottish regiments. Both traditionally“men of the hills”, the special ties betweenthe 72nd Highlanders and the 5thGurkha Ries, who fought alongside eachother during the Second Afghan War of 

1878-1880, were noted by Lord Robertsand are just one example of severalafliations. In 1885, the rst Gurkhapipe band was formed and trained bythe 2nd Battalion, The King’s OwnScottish Borderers, and it was not long

 before all the Gurkha regiments formedtheir own pipe bands, trained by otherScottish regiments and led by Britishofcers, many of whom were Scots at theturn of the 1900s.

The Battalion Pipe Bands playedin the massed pipes and drums at theQueen’s Coronation and the present

 battalion and brigade bands are now apopular feature of military tattoos andevents all over the country. They area visible reminder of the Scottishconnections, and today they still bearthe tartans of the regiments that trained

ExerciseHighland

Gurkha

Soldiers rom 1st Battalion The Royal

Gurkha Rifes hone their skills when

they lend their help to the hind cull.

Charlotte Lycett Green reports

G

The Gurkhas spent

 the rst aternoon zeroing on the range

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STALKING

 Having the manpowerto extract deer without

using the Argo hasopened up the estate

      c

Rifemen Dilip and Don assist

Stuart Allison in the larder

Rifeman Kuberjung

enjoyed a tough stalk with Marcus Munro

  A successful dayThe temperature gauge reading well

 below freezing and the sky full of snow,the group went to the hill split into twoteams to stalk with Marcus and Stuart.Their army camouage required somemodication in the snowy conditions sothey donned white snowsuits to help them

 blend in with the ground.I arrived at the Achness Hotel, in

Rosehall, that evening, just as they werereturning from the hill. It had been asuccessful day and Marcus was pleased.

“Their tness and eldcraft skills have been such a benet,” he said. “Generallyour shooting clients get out stalking a fewtimes a year and do very well, but to have a

team at such a high level of tness,toughness and awareness of theenvironment makes our job easier. We’realways conscious of how we extract deerand try to avoid using machinery as muchas possible. Having the manpower toextract deer without using the Argo hasopened up the estate and meant there areno restrictions on where we can go.

“Today we extracted two very oldyeld hinds with broken mouths from anawkward area where, had I been on myown, I might have been able to shootone of them at best. We couldn’t get the

 Argo up there but were able to use themanpower instead.”

Rieman Kuberjung Gurung, whohas been in the army for four years andis about to deploy to Afghanistan for thesecond time, had endured a hard stalkwith Marcus. “The weather is tough withall the snow,” he said. “We had to crawl formore than 250metres in bad cover beforeI took the shot. When I had done it, I felthappy but a little sad too.”

Nepali people are warm and generous by nature, and they showed profoundrespect for the deer and the task in hand.“Even though I live in a village, I havenever even killed a chicken,” said theyoungest Rieman Suman Rai. “Shootingdeer is a major experience.”

 “I have been so impressed withtheir compassion for the deer,” saidMarcus, “and have commended allof them on that — my view is that if you don’t feel anything when youhave shot a deer, then you’re not aresponsible hunter. We have a dutyto carry out the task as quickly andcleanly as possible and they allunderstand that.”

  Running off the hillThere were two more days on the hill,which gave the teams the opportunityto swap stalkers with the hope thateach member would have a shot.

“I had a fantastic day withStuart,” said Rieman DonLimbu, on day two. “It waschallenging because of theweather. We saw two hinds andStuart and I crawled in good coverfor about 100metres. When we gotthere, there were actually about sixdeer. Stuart selected a hindfor me to shoot, and we

had to wait for about25 minutes as they

were eating and standing in front of eachother in a bad position.

“Eventually we crawled forward againand made a comfortable position to shootthe deer. I took the rst one with a heartshot and she went down straight away.

 After I took the shot, another very oldhind didn’t run away, so Stuart toldme to shoot her as well. It was my rstexperience of hunting and my rst time inthe mountains, so it was exciting to see somuch snow.”

Marcus banished me to the Argo onaccount of being seven months pregnant

L-r: Rifemen Suman, Chitraj and Kuberjung with

Major Todd. The soldiers extracted the deer on their backs

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L-r: (back row) Stuart Allison, Andy Hibbert, Rifemen Suman and Pawan, Major Todd, Rifemen Kuberjung and Don, CharlotteLycett Green, Marcus Munro, (ront) Rifeman Tularam, Lance Corporal Kesh, Rifeman Chitraj, Sergeant Jiwan, Rifeman Dilip

STALKING

and too slow to keep up, and as I chattedwith Andy Hibbert, a lm producer andunderwater cameraman who owns nearbyLoch Assynt Lodge estate, we felt ratherlucky to be sheltered from the weather.Sunshine, snow, sleet and hail all did theirworse as we waited for the signal to moveforward to pick up the deer. Late in the

afternoon a text message revealed thatMarcus’s team had shot one calf, and theywere stalking another bunch of hinds onthe edge of a huge reservoir. We movedround to a good vantage point andcontinued the wait.

 After another hour or so, we receivedanother message saying they had shot twofurther hinds. We ashed the lights of the

 Argo across the hill and received a ashfrom a headtorch in reply. Soon, out of thegloom a few yards ahead appeared veeerie-looking gures dressed in white,the deer on their backs — no small task

considering the hinds weighed more thantheir bearers. The hinds and calf wereloaded into the back of the Argo and thesoldiers set off to run the six kilometresacross the hill back to the larder.

  Learning useful skillsThe rain and thaw arrived on day three.Though there was plenty of snow and iceabout in the morning, by mid-afternoonmuch of it had disappeared, leaving theground sodden. Marcus and his teamheaded to fresh ground on Keanchulishand by the end of the third day therewere 11 deer in the larder, which wasuseful progress in the hind cull that

Marcus and Stuart needed to achieve before the end of the season.

“The Gurkhas are so disciplined, theylisten and are incredibly quick to pick upnew skills when shown,” said Marcus. “At

the start they were not used to spottingthe deer, so I’ve tried to get them in thehabit of looking for where the deer might

 be, even if they can’t necessarily spotthem at rst. The younger guys havelearned a lot about shooting too, theimportance of muzzle clearance andhow easily a bullet can be deected bysomething as seemingly insignicantas a bit of snow or blade of grass.”

“The training value for the soldiersis enormous,” said Major Todd, “and it’snot just about good marksmanship, theconditions here make everything hard

— it’s been brutally cold. From trackingto moving across the ground without being seen, the soldiers have been ableto exercise all the basic skills requiredof an infantry soldier. The long hardstalks across open ground are physicallydemanding and made all the moretesting in the snow and ice. The youngerGurkhas have learned skills here thatmay well save their lives on operationsin Afghanistan.”

The trip nished with an eveningof Nepali entertainment in the AchnessHotel, a shing lodge on the banksof the river Cassley. The estate kindlydonated a hind for the soldiers to cook

and serve to the local community andRiemen Tularam Rana Magar andChitraj Limbu spent the day preparingand cooking it in the traditional Nepaliway over a wood re behind the hotel.Some 50 people attended, with manymore unable to get there because of the

weather, and all of them enjoyed theentertainment and tasting the curry —Marcus’s youngest daughter Jessie, agedeight, entered into the spirit of theoccasion and ate ve chillies.

“It was an absolute privilege to beable to welcome the Gurkhas and shareour estate to provide them with anopportunity to train in differentconditions,” said Mrs Bulmer. “They’ve

 been a huge help to Marcus and Stuart,and it’s been a pleasure for us to supportthe Gurkhas as they prepare for theirnext deployment. We wish them the very

 best of luck for their forthcoming tour of  Afghanistan later this year.”

c Rifemen Chitraj and Tularam prepare venison

in the traditional Nepali way, outside over a re