
Barry Cromhout is a total unknown to both Robbie and our listeners - but after listening to Robbie on Andy Stump’s Cleared Heart podcast describing his grandfather Leo Kroger and his gun - he realized he’d met Robbie’s grandfather in 1998 and is one of the only remaining people with one of his wooden business cards. After exchanging a photo, Robbie invited him on for this episode, where the two exchange stories about the man, Leo Kroger, and the “Wild impression” he left on Barry Cromhout in 1998.
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Robbie Kruger
Barry Cromhot is somebody that you do not know. It's somebody that I actually do not know. Literally do not know him. I literally just got a random Instagram DM after he listened to me on Andy Stump's Cleared Hot podcast. And in that podcast I go into detail and describe my grandfather's gun and who my grandfather is, which is Leo Kroger. Well, that name pinged in the back of his brain somewhat and as you'll hear, Barry met my grandfather back in 1998 and when he reached out to me he says, I've got a business card of your grandfather's. And I said, is it a wooden one that says Leo Kroger somewhere in Africa? And he sent me a picture of it and I was like, you're probably only the second person that I know that actually knew my grandfather. Would you be willing to come on a podcast and talk about him and talk about your meeting with him? Because obviously I want to capture it for prosperity. And of the audience that listens to Blood Origins and to me have heard about my grandfather and you'd be interested in hearing more about him. So this is that podcast. Again, don't know the guy. Complete bar of soap. He hooked in from South Africa. I hooked in from Memphis, Tennessee. We just had a fantastic conversation about my grandfather, so enjoy. So there's a reason why I started Blood Origins and that reason is simple, is that I wanted to convey the truth about hunting.
Barry Cromhot
It brings awareness to to non hunters that it's more than just killing animals.
Robbie Kruger
How do I start it?
Barry Cromhot
Brittany My name?
Robbie Kruger
Does my hair look okay? My name is Mike Axelrod. Start again Yeah, I hated it too. Braxton, you said something in the car to me. You said that you were living on borrowed time. There's a perception around who hunters are, what we're supposed to be. And a feminist that works for a non profit that is a hunter that has only eaten wild game for the last 20 years is likely not the thing that people think about when it comes to a hunter. You know, it's funny. Is this your first podcast, Barry?
Barry Cromhot
Yes.
Robbie Kruger
Yeah, first podcast. And you know, if we re we. If we re we. Oh man, it's too early. My mouth isn't working this morning. If we rewound the clock, if we reround the clock to 1998, this, what we're doing right now isn't even a glimmer in someone's eye or the idea of being able to connect with someone completely randomly, halfway around the world that has a connection to you and your family. It's just, it's, it's. This is the, this is the, you know, people say, ah, the world today is terrible, and there's all these terrible things in it, but man, there's some really good stuff in it. And this is one of the things that is me unbelievably good.
Barry Cromhot
Well, it's interesting that we can connect. And it's. For me, it's extremely random because to be honest, I had never heard of you or your podcast or what you guys do until I and a name twigged in the back of my head one day while I was tinkering on something listening to a podcast that I listened to. It was, for me, it was like. It was serendipitous almost.
Robbie Kruger
Well, I think it is. I think it's certainly the world. The Lord works in very mysterious ways. And I don't even know what you do. I don't know who you are. This is the great thing about people are going to go, robby, this is random, dude, like. And you'll understand why this is so random, but it's also so amazing at the same time. Barry Cromhot, obviously South African. Why don't you just tell us what you do and then we can get into this, this thing of why we're actually here.
Barry Cromhot
Well, I'm a business owner in South Africa. My wife and I run a small filling station business in a little village called Boston. We're in the Natal Midlands, approximately 65km from Peter Maritzburg towards Drakens, towards the Drakensberg Mountains, into a place called Underberg. I presume you know South Africa, but absolutely you grew up here?
Robbie Kruger
Yep.
Barry Cromhot
So yes, it's where we've been for the last 20, literally the last 22 years running. Getting this little business going and taking it to where it is. But before that I was obviously young, unmarried and adventurous and I ended up in some interesting places.
Robbie Kruger
That's incredible. And so I got a random DM and from you Instagram dm, you had obviously figured out where we lived and so you were tinkering around your shop and you were listening to Andy Stumps podcast, a firm.
Barry Cromhot
Yes, I'm a fond listener of his. Something I stumbled across a couple of years ago while also tinkering in my workshop. And yeah, I've been listening to him for many years. And here we are.
Robbie Kruger
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Barry Cromhot
Well, like I said, I was tinkering around. And then when I started listening to your podcast, I thought, oh, dear, here we go. Here's another person spinning stories about African bush and being in Africa and sort of the sort of thing that. That I hear tourists talk about and have for many years, and it's just like, dude, that's not real. But I listened anyway, and I listened to the story of you telling the story about this firearm that got smuggled out of Mozambique. And then, and as soon as I heard Mozambique, sort of, that tweaked my interest because I have a connection to it from, from being there. And I listened and I listened and to be honest, I hadn't even paid much attention to your name. As in Robbie Kruger. I. The name hadn't even twigged with me. And then you mentioned your grandfather and the. Then I can't remember if you said his name, Liao Ka, or if it was just Krager. And I, I stopped, I went to my player and I, I hit the rewind button and I thought, no, hang on. That's the name I remember. It rings a bell. So I pressed rewind and I thought, no. Hell no. Can't be. Cannot be. And then, and then it was sort of, well, good golly, here we are. I know that person, this. And I, I reached out. I. Obviously I did not know anything about you or what you guys do. And so I, I reached out to Andy and I said, And I sent him a DM and I said, listen, can you try and put me in contact with you? I have something that your grandfather gave me that you might like to have. And Excuse me, He. He messaged back and said, well, I should try and contact you on, on, on Instagram. And I thought, well, okay, I've never looked for you on Instagram. So I went and I, I scrounged around and I saw, okay, here's one Robbie Krueger that sort of might have a connection to the person I am. That's why I reached out and said, are you so? And so. And that's just where, where we started. For me, it was like, it, it. Yeah, it was a very strange, surreal circumstance.
Robbie Kruger
Well, Barry, the reason why I wanted you on the podcast is because obviously we run a non profit and it isn't obviously, it's something that I do and I cherish and I'm passionate about and obviously I pour my personal life into it. And I'm very wary of obviously my kids and my wife and whatnot, not being on that social platform because of things that the antis can do and they can, they can be a little crazy. But a lot of people know about my grandfather and they know about Leo Kroger and they know about, you know, what he did for me and what he meant to me. And I've got his books on my shelf, like right here. You know, this is the green book that he wrote called My Last Kambaku of All the stories from Mozambique that was published in Safari Press, you'll be.
Barry Cromhot
You'Ll be sending me a copy of that. Because I have been looking for that book since the old man told me about it over a cup of coffee.
Robbie Kruger
So I want to. Obviously we're going to talk about that and I do. I've actually got. I've actually got five copies of it. So Barry, you're more than welcome to bring it. I'll bring one to South Africa when I'm there next. And it's really rare, obviously. My grandfather died in 2004 and I don't often meet people that knew him. I've only met one other person, Barry, and the other person was Wally Johnson's son. Wally Johnson in California. I haven't actually met him. I just spoke with him on the phone. And so when you reached out and you're like, I met your grandfather and I know your grandfather, I was like, oh my God, I have to talk to this guy and I have to record it because it's like that. That's. To me that, that doesn't happen anymore. Right. And so I'd love to understand like you obviously have texted me the details, but nobody else knows the details. How did you even end up to meet Leo?
Barry Cromhot
I. I went into Mozambique to go and work for a. A friend of families who were involved in the Mozambique and elephant reserve. I was 22, I think 2122 at the time. This would have been around end of 1997, heading into 1998. A company called Safaris, a chapter name of Richard Fair. And they, they were looking for some people to get involved with them down in the elephant reserve and trying to re. Establish it and get it up and going. It was with an American company. I think the company was called Blanchard Chart International or something like that. They were, they were pumping funds into trying to get the elephant. The Mozambique and elephant reserve set up down in the south. Have you ever been there before?
Robbie Kruger
I haven't, I haven't gone south of Maputu.
Barry Cromhot
Okay, so. So it's, it's, it is south of Maputo. It's on the South Africa. Well, about 60 kilometers. No, it's. My apologies. 30 kilometers north of the South African border stretching up into the peninsula which runs to Nyaka Island. And it. When, when we started there, there was nothing. We're involved with setting up, getting the. Which, which fence line was at the north northeastern boundary line set up along the Rio de Maputo, which is the South African Pongola river where it flows. Flows into the bay. A place called Bella Vista. Bella Vista and Salamanga. And so I was involved with getting, establishing that world. The establishment of that fence line as well as establishing of camps. And so it was for me a big adventure. And the, the company that my dad worked for in South Africa, they they were. So they're, they have a timber company in Swaziland and through the Swaziland company they were putting feelers into Mozambique as to try and get into the hardwood timber market in Mozambique and exporting timber products into Europe. And they obviously heard that I was, I was already in Mozambique and working there and I had a relationship with me. So they, they approached me and asked me if I'd like to get involved with them. And which we, which grabbed the two hands gladfully.
Robbie Kruger
Sure sure.
Barry Cromhot
And so I, I headed, I left Richard and Colette and down in the elephant reserve and moved on to trying to set up and get, get this timber concession and saw milling operation set up in a place called Fuman Makwakwa which is north of Maputo, sort of northwest of Shaishai. And yeah, so I, I was brought into the, to the, to getting this going quite late into the setup of it. And so they had obviously had a lot lot to do with Liao before this, before I was brought in. I met.
Robbie Kruger
So you think they already made contact with him? They met contact and made contact with Leo and all that kind of stuff? Absolutely.
Barry Cromhot
There There had been negotiations for this concession for quite some time before I was brought in. And I the only when I was, when I got involved it was more or less to come in and get the ground operation going. So I, I was sent to a meeting with, with Mr. Krueger at Eddie's house and to get it in in Maputo. I can't remember the street name, but it was a, it was a beautiful.
Robbie Kruger
It was on Emily Row, three stories high. Beautiful.
Barry Cromhot
It was in the. I remember it was where most of the embassies were. I can't remember the street name. And yeah, so I went and had a cup of coffee with him and we, we spoke about the sawmilling operation and all of his adventures up the wall. Not all of it, some of his adventures up there. And we touched on a bit of hunting because hunting is where I I, I grew up in hunting. So I have a background there. And you know, he introduced me to a, to his assistant. I think his name was Ibrahim and Ibraim. And I had to make arrangements to get a vehicle up to. For mine. It was an old Isuzu pickup. And so that was on the f. Our first meeting. But in that first meeting he, he made the most impre. Impressions because he, he thought we didn't get into any details, but he was telling me about his, his life as. And. And being. I think he said he had been involved in three wars or world wars. Yeah, three world wars that he had. That he had. And it was, it was his. It was in East Europe, it was I think Germany and as well as in Mozambique and being. Being involved in these conflicts and having two world wars.
Robbie Kruger
Two world wars between Germany and Northern China and then obviously moved to Mozambique and went through a revolution in Mozambique and then went through multiple revolutions in Northern China with the Japanese occupation, German occupation and Chinese occupation.
Barry Cromhot
Now unfortunately, my history, it was over my head. I. I didn't.
Robbie Kruger
Where did you. Do you remember where you sat with him in the house?
Barry Cromhot
It was, it was a, a living room. There were, there were many. There were, they were. Yeah. It was a living room with sort.
Robbie Kruger
Of big leather back chair. Big high leather back chair. He sit in a big high leather back chair.
Barry Cromhot
Yes. In a corner. I just remember very strong coffee. It was strong coffee. So. And he told me, he told me about his book and the Last Kambaka. And that name has stuck in the back of my head for forever. And there's stories where. There are times when I've mentioned it to old hunters that, that I've crossed paths with before and they have, they have known him as well. There was an old man that lived in. In the village where we here called Zayn Langman. He was a hunter out of Zambia. He unfortunately passed away a few years ago and he, he knew of your grandfather and spoke very highly of him and so, so he's coming back to our meeting, our meeting there. The, the first meeting. It. The impression that he came that he made was just incredible. And he spoke of duck hunting and he, he always said no, when, when I get settled up and for mine he'll, he'll come up and he'll take me to go and shoot ducks in some of the, some of his, his special holes and places.
Robbie Kruger
He loved, he loved duck hunting like he, and it was the thing that he missed the most. Like, not even like he enjoyed big game hunting, he enjoyed elephant hunting. But when the revolution hit, obviously all his guns got taken away from him. And the thing that he missed the most was going and just going and getting a couple of ducks for dinner kind of scenario and. Cause he did it as a kid. He did it As a kid in China. And so when things started relaxing and the civil war disappeared and whatnot, he managed to smuggle a shotgun and shotgun shells back into Mozambique. And the driver, the famous story was that they went back to one of the old holes, you know, 20 years later. 30 years. No, it wasn't 30 years though it was probably around 20 years later like you when you were there, like 96, 97, 98ish. And they were sitting in the swamp, took little chairs with them and the driver, chauffeur, whether it was Ibrahim or the guy that looked after him. They said they couldn't see the water because the mosquitoes were so thick and they didn't see a single duck obviously because everything had been eaten. But that was his life. Like he loved, loved, loved duck hunting, man.
Barry Cromhot
So he spoke of duck hunting and bird hunting. And as I said, he said that when I got settled up there, he would take me and show me some of his favorite duck hunting spots in, around Manjirkaz. The, the village of Manjirkaz was built up on a, on a hill which looked over a massive lake and Manja Kaz was one of one of the places that he mentioned. And then also just outside of Fuman Makwakwa heading from, from the village to where the forests were that we're harvesting in. He, he said there were some places there and I, I, I got stuck one night in, in one of those, those holes. And they were definitely ducks there, a lot of white faced, what we call the white face whistling ducks. There were plenty of them around and I think spurring, I don't think I ever saw any Egyptian geese but spurring geese and white faced ducks. But I, I'm really sad that I never ever got that opportunity to, to meet up with him up there. But yeah, he was, the stories that he told, I, I, for the life of me I can't remember ever recall the stories, but he just made such an impression on me.
Robbie Kruger
It was absolutely, it's so funny that in the initial, in the initial business relationship with you, he just decided he was just going to tell you stories about hunting and his adventures and st.
Barry Cromhot
I, I don't know why. It was sort of like he wanted to get out and go and hunt and he was looking for somewhere to go hunting with and I, I, that's, that's sort of the impression I got. He, yeah, was, it was, it was very, it was a very interesting, an interesting meeting. Yeah, I, I don't recall his house looking at all like a professional Hunter's house that you would, with trophies on the walls and things like that. It, it was a very, it was very modest, if I, if I must admit it wasn't, it wasn't as if it was a, a house that was, that somebody was bragging in about their adventures and everything. But I just got the feeling that he wanted to tell stories. And I, I, I wish I could go back and spend a few more hours there because it was just, it was impressionable, if I can say that.
Robbie Kruger
No, it's, it's, it's so funny that, you know, the whole. I, I, I knew very little of the business. I knew, obviously we were trying to get out of everything. I knew we had. I didn't understand whether it was owned or concessioned or anything like that, but I knew we had a sawmill. I knew we had a boat. Did the boat, did the ship come with the concession?
Barry Cromhot
No, no, I, he spoke of a boat in, I think it was in Maputo. But no, that wasn't included in any deals.
Robbie Kruger
There was a huge ship. There was a huge ship that I remember I'll have to dig back and find photos of them christening it. I can't remember the name of the boat now, but they christened it and it was part of sawmill operation and it moved, you know, all the logs and whatnot. Man, that's amazing. And so that was the first meeting you had a second meeting with him?
Barry Cromhot
The, the second time was I met up with him and Ibrahim, and Ibrahim and I headed off north.
Robbie Kruger
Okay. Okay.
Barry Cromhot
And he went to go and introduce me to the, she, the, the chief of the Manjikaz, as well as an appointment with the Department of Agriculture, Forestries and Fishing in Shashai to sign over concessions, all the concession paperwork for the, for the area that was under concession.
Robbie Kruger
So the deal got done. So the deal got done.
Barry Cromhot
Correct. Deal was done. I forget dates, but this was sort of. I, I think it was around July 1998, if my memory serves me right. It was probably around July 98 that I, that I first went up there and moved and moved up there. And yes, it, for me, it was an adventure of a lifetime, especially at my age. It was, yeah, it was an awesome, amazing opportunity. Absolutely amazing opportunity.
Robbie Kruger
And then in that first meeting, he gave you his business card.
Barry Cromhot
Yes.
Robbie Kruger
In fact, how do you still have his business card?
Barry Cromhot
He made an impression on me. There it is. There it is. That's it.
Robbie Kruger
And so if you're not watching this on YouTube, the card says all it says. It doesn't have an address. It doesn't have a phone number. It doesn't have anything. It just says Leo Kroger somewhere in Africa. Yeah, Barry, look here.
Barry Cromhot
Snap.
Robbie Kruger
I got the same one and it's made of wood. That's the cool thing.
Barry Cromhot
So it's a kiot, sliced kiot. I've got it written on the back because he and I spoke about the different timbers that they were harvesting. And that's why he gave me the card, was because they made. They used to make veneer. And this is what they called kiat. So it's a common. It's a common South African tree as well. And this is one of the products that they exported into Europe. Was. Was exactly this.
Robbie Kruger
Amazing.
Barry Cromhot
Yeah, but that's what I wanted to give to you. I said, I've got this, you might want it.
Robbie Kruger
Well, you keep it. You keep it. I'll trade you. I'll trade you a book. I'll trade you a book. Because I've only got two of them. I literally only got two of them. This is it. I'll trade you a book for the business card.
Barry Cromhot
Okay, cool. Yeah, she's. No, like I said, the old man made an impression on me. And he. He was a. He was a true adventurer. And you could tell from his face that he had known. He had known some hardships, but he. He was tough. That man was tough. I can tell you that much. He was a tough man. We're not. He must have been. I don't know his age, but I. I reckon he must have been in his mid-80s.
Robbie Kruger
Oh, he was 86. Yeah, he was probably 86, 87 when you met him.
Barry Cromhot
Yeah, there we go. So he was in his mid-80s and. No, he was. You could see this man, was he. He is as tough as can be.
Robbie Kruger
When I went back in 2004, before he died, he was in the hospital in Johannesburg and the window was open to his hospital room. He was smoking in his hospital bed. I was like, you're not allowed to smoke in here. It's a hospital. He was like, I don't give a shit. Like, I've been smoking since I was 12 years old. I'm 91 now. What are they going to do? And literally the nurses were just like, just close the door, like, okay. And then you opened the little fridge in the hospital room and it was full of gin. Gin and tonic.
Barry Cromhot
I remember the cigarettes you smoked, they were Havana cigaros and they came in a tiny little package and it was like a brown paper packaging and they were tiny. They Were short. Were probably, I don't know, less than three inches in length. And the distinct thing about them is there were 25 in a packet and that's what he smoked. They were it. I distinctly remember that.
Robbie Kruger
It's crazy, man. Absolutely crazy. Well, Barry, thank you, man. I really just. Thank you. Thank you for reaching out. Thank you for. Thank you for reaching out.
Barry Cromhot
No, like I said, he made an impression on me. There was something about this old man that just. He just made an impression. And the story is about the hunting side and the elephant. And the elephant. In the forests where we used to. Where we were harvesting timber, they obviously hunted a lot of elephant, elephant up there. And I had a house. A guy that worked in the house, his name was Samya or Samson in English. And he. He told me stories of the hunting that they used to do there. And I. I was going through my photos this morning and I've still. I've got photographs of the cold rooms out the back of the house. And they're these big. They were these big solid concrete cold rooms. They had no refrigeration or anything. They were just these massive solid rooms. Concrete with these huge wooden doors on the front of them. And he would tell me, Samuel Samson, he told me these stories about the elephants that they would cut up and the meat, how it would all get stored in there and then moved from there into. Down to Maputo and. And sold in the Maputo area. So the infrastructure was all there. And all the stories pointed to. To what. What went on there. It was. It's an incredible place. The timber. They. He. He had a train. Did you know that he owned a train? So the timber that they moved out of the forest to the sawmill, it was probably about 35 kilometers. They had their own railway line that. It was a narrow gauge that ran from the sawmill into the. Into the central area within the forest where they used to harvest. And they ran a train. They had a steam. Steam locomotive that ran backwards and forwards. And unfortunately by the time I got there, the scrap merchants had been through. So the railway line itself was gone. And all the locos and. And carriages, but all the. The hardwood. They were a macrus, which is androstacus Jose. They sleepers were still lying there. And of course I've got photographs of these. Of these railway lines with just. Just lines and lines of sleepers just running off into the forest. Jeez, it absolutely amazing place. The history in that place was. Was incredible. Yeah, it was an. It's an amazing place. If you'd like, I'LL take you there one day.
Robbie Kruger
Yeah, I'd love to see it again. Obviously we do a little bit of work. We haven't done much in Mozambique yet, but I'd love to see it all again. I'd love to see these places that, you know, he frequented and yeah, it would be, it would be pretty amazing.
Barry Cromhot
Yeah. An amazing place though. Yeah. Amazing place. Amazing people. Yeah. For me. So around that time that there was a movie that came out, Ghost in the Darkness with the. About the man eating lions of Savu.
Robbie Kruger
Right.
Barry Cromhot
And so with the sawmill we'd work during the day and then 5 o'clock would come along and the sawmill would shut or would shut operation. And then a cleaning crew would come in and clean up in the sawmill and tidy up the next shift to start in the morning. And we would run a, a tiny little generator at that time just for lights so that people in the workshop in the sawmilling could see what they were doing to tidy up. And from that time I would go back to the house and it was probably, I don't know, 6 to 800 meters from the sawmill to where the house was and you'd cross a rail across the railway line. And at that time I was reading that book, it was called the Man Eaters of Tavu, which that, that movie was based on. And the, it was quite, it was quite scary because I'd have dinner and I'd sit down and read this book and then I'd go back across the sawmill to go and check and I'd walk. And one of the chapters in that book, they talked about the, the, this long grass and the wind blowing in the grass and walking and crossing a railway line and it's just sort of like. I get cold shivers right now just thinking about the story and reading the book and thinking, oh goodness, where these lions are they going to jump out the bush with me? And it was, it was quite a. Quite an interesting time.
Robbie Kruger
Oh my God.
Barry Cromhot
One's mind tends to run away with you.
Robbie Kruger
That's unbelievable. Well, Barry, thank you, man. Jeez. We have.
Barry Cromhot
It was quite remote. Working up there was quite remote. We were, we were. I'm just trying to think now. The, the formal. To get to the closest telephone was I think a three hour drive to get to Manchukaz. That was where the closest phone was. And we, we didn't, we didn't have. The only communications we had were HF radios and. Yeah, so it, it was, it was very remote. Extremely remote. Yeah.
Robbie Kruger
That's amazing. Well, I'm so glad that you reached out. I'm so glad you got to meet him. Um, he was an absolute. You know, as I grew up, I never got to hunt very much with him. Not at. We only did one little dove hunt together in Boxburg, just outside of Benoni. Um, but, you know, I just. Now I've got all of his stories now. I've got all of. I've actually got, you know, his trophies that you would have seen in his house. I've got them here. Um, and I guess now I'm furthering his legacy regarding storytelling around the thing that he loved the most all around the world. So I'm just super privileged to be in the position I'm in. And my mother, who knew him probably the best because she married his son, sort of gave me the biggest compliment a couple of weeks ago. She was like, you're just like Leah now. And those are big shoes to fill. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. But thank you, Barry. Geez, thank you so much. Please, let's stay in touch. And I look forward to coming to South Africa, bringing you his book so that you've got it in your collection.
Barry Cromhot
Okay, cool. And then we can. Yeah. Have a beer or.
Robbie Kruger
200%. 100%. Well, that's it for today. Appreciate you listening as always. Leave a review, share it with your friends, and most importantly, do what's right to convey the truth around hunting.
Release Date: March 27, 2025
Host: Blood Origins Inc.
Guest: Barry Cromhout
In Episode 548 of Blood Origins, host Robbie Kruger engages in a heartfelt and serendipitous conversation with Barry Cromhout. This episode delves into unexpected connections, personal histories, and the profound impact of storytelling on conservation and the perception of hunting.
The episode begins with Robbie sharing how he was contacted by Barry through a random Instagram direct message. Barry had listened to Robbie on Andy Stump's Cleared Hot podcast, where Robbie discussed his grandfather, Leo Kroger, and his grandfather's gun. This mention jogged Barry's memory, leading him to reach out.
Robbie Kruger [00:59]: “Barry Cromhot is somebody that you do not know. Literally do not know him... he hooked in from South Africa. I hooked in from Memphis, Tennessee.”
This unexpected connection sets the stage for an in-depth discussion about their shared history and the legacy of Robbie's grandfather.
Barry introduces himself as a business owner in South Africa, running a small filling station in the village of Boston, located in the Natal Midlands near the Drakensberg Mountains. He shares insights into his life before settling into his current role, highlighting his adventurous past.
Barry Cromhout [05:23]: “My wife and I run a small filling station business in a little village called Boston... before that I was obviously young, unmarried and adventurous and I ended up in some interesting places.”
Barry recounts his experience meeting Leo Kroger in 1998 while working in Mozambique on an elephant reserve project. Their meeting was marked by Barry holding a wooden business card inscribed with Leo Kroger’s name, symbolizing a profound but brief connection.
Barry Cromhout [19:07]: “I reached out to Andy and I said, and I sent him a DM... That's where we started. For me, it was like, it, it. Yeah, it was a very strange, surreal circumstance.”
Barry describes Leo as a tough and adventurous man, deeply passionate about hunting, especially duck hunting. Despite the political turmoil and revolutions in Mozambique and Northern China, Leo’s love for hunting remained unwavering.
Barry Cromhout [30:18]: “It was a kiot, sliced kiot... exactly this.”
The conversation shifts to tales of hunting and conservation. Barry shares vivid memories of working in remote areas, establishing a fence line in the elephant reserve, and encountering wildlife. He reflects on the infrastructure built for timber and elephant harvesting, including a narrow-gauge railway used for transporting hardwood.
Barry Cromhout [24:32]: “He had a train... they ran a steam locomotive that ran backwards and forwards.”
Robbie adds personal anecdotes about his limited hunting experiences with Leo, emphasizing the importance of storytelling in preserving Leo’s legacy.
Robbie Kruger [35:57]: “I never got to hunt very much with him... now I've got all of his stories.”
Robbie expresses his commitment to continuing Leo Kroger’s legacy through Blood Origins, emphasizing the role of storytelling in changing perceptions about hunting and funding conservation programs effectively. The episode underscores the interconnectedness of personal histories and broader conservation efforts.
Robbie Kruger [35:57]: “I'm furthering his legacy regarding storytelling around the thing that he loved the most all around the world.”
As the episode concludes, both Robbie and Barry reflect on the meaningful encounter and the enduring impact of Leo Kroger's stories. They express a desire to stay connected and collaborate in the future, highlighting the episode's theme of unexpected yet impactful connections.
Robbie Kruger [39:43]: “Please, let's stay in touch. And I look forward to coming to South Africa, bringing you his book so that you've got it in your collection.”
Barry Cromhout [31:32]: “He was tough. He must have been. I reckon he must have been in his mid-80s.”
Blood Origins Episode 548 offers listeners a profound narrative on legacy, conservation, and the unexpected ways personal histories intertwine to shape our understanding of hunting and its role in preserving the natural world.