History of Kameeldoring – Camel thorn
A large umbrella shaped tree with feathery foliage from the African savannas where it a favorite that is browsed by elephants and giraffe. The bark is grey to blackish brown, deeply furrowed and young branches are a shiny reddish brown. The white spines are strongly developed, almost straight up to 6 cm in length with swollen bases. This is a large thorn-tree endemic to the semi-desert regions of Southern Africa. A species with its foliage and fruit that sustains the animals of the Kalahari, it was considered the “Tree of Life” by some of the San families. This wood is known as the ‘’kuier / brandewyn drinkers firewood and has a great bushveld smell about it.
Kameeldoring has the lowest moisture content of any wood as it’s baked by the African sun to between 0 to 1 % moisture content. If you compare this to a Kiln dried or domestic firewood which ranges between 20 – 30% moisture content, it’s extremely dry, rock hard and heavy which is why it takes so long to burn with an extremely hot output of heat
Amazing long burn times, virtually zero smoke production, no wasted energy burning off extra moisture and the very best return in calorific value terms that money can buy – the 20kg bag is roughly equivalent to 3 or 4 large nets of seasoned domestic firewood
The common name Camel Thorn is loosely translated from the Afrikaans name “Kameeldoring”, coming from kameelperd (giraffes).
Our firewood is taken from the branches that fall from the trees due to their exceptional weight. Axes must be seriously sharp to split this firewood!
Kameeldoring burns with minimal flame, a musky aromatic fragrance and creates serious amounts of charcoal. This is a superb cooking wood, is perfect for fire pits and chimeras and has exceptionally long burn time!
