You have made good progress in keeping to your selected direction, but so far, you have not come across any signs of human activity. The sun is dipping towards the horizon, so it is easier to keep to a southerly path. You hasten your pace, glancing ever more frequently to your right at the sun…
You have lost the trail that you were banking on to get you back to camp before dark. The prospect of spending a night alone in the bush is not a rosy one. What is the next step…? You decide that you need to choose a direction and stick to it. You think that when…
You have calmed the rising panic that you felt when you realised that you were abandoned in the wilderness, and you have considered your options. If you follow the group that left you behind, you will be heading into unfamiliar country, you reason. If you lose their tracks, there is nothing around you that you…
Imagine, for one horrible moment, that you are lost in a featureless wilderness, immersed in the domain of animals who can kill you and some who would very much like to snack on you. You don’t know which way to go. There is no phone signal, so calling for help is not an option. You…
The road was diabolical. Knee deep, slippery red mud had been churned into a thick doughy consistency by numerous United Nations trucks. It was all but impassable, as evidenced by the large number of vehicles that had slid off the surface and were marooned in the deep trenches created by a sharp drop off on…
Situated on the banks of the Thamalakane River, our barn was a curiously large edifice because its original purpose was to treat and store elephant hides. Its walls were made of chicken wire that had once seen a splash of cement – to reduce, but not quite eliminate, transparency – and this makeshift structure was…
One of the scariest experiences a person can have is to realise that they are utterly lost in the wilderness with no clue which way to go. I know. I have been there. It must surely rank alongside the helplessness of being diagnosed with a terminal disease or, perhaps, realising too late to do anything…
While wilderness recharges souls made weary by modern lifestyles, the bush can be fatally uncompromising for the unwary. My friends John and Lorraine Bullen, who had done several overland safaris with me in Botswana as well as a fishing trip in the Okavango, went on safari on their own in Botswana in a remote area…
One of life’s ultimate treats is to spend a day out in the Okavango Delta in Botswana, travelling the waterways in a traditional dug-out mokoro with a private guide who will pole you in gentle solitude and then take you for a game walk on the animal-rich islands while pointing out signs of the wild.…
It is one hell of a thing. Gail Mattson lived in Minnesota USA for 79 years and I am sure that during her long life she never suspected that it would be ended in a remote wilderness area in far-flung Zambia at the hands of a raging bull elephant. Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxvwEuRPHso Elephants…