On a game drive in Moremi, I watched a troop of baboons mock charge a sleepy pride of lions. One male picked up a sturdy branch which he brandished grandiosely at the lions. The lions raised their heads and watched attentively but didn’t bother to even sit up. I, however, straightened in my chair. Was…
Salome and had a lodge in the Okavango, a place that will supply more than a few memories for this blog over the coming year. One of those memories involves a saddle-billed stork. Lee Ouzman, the chief pilot for Air Xaxaba, rescued a stork chick whose parents had either died or abandoned it. He took…
Remarkable things happened in Gordon’s Bay this month. Firstly, a young, sub-adult, Southern elephant seal crawled out of the ocean and flip-flopped his way into a Gordon’s Bay suburb, seemingly oblivious of the cars and other human activity surrounding him. An incredulous crowd gathered, and someone videoed the young seal as he rested his head…
Bees should terrify me. I am one sting from death, my doctor has told me. That was after one stung me deep in my throat when I took a swig of beer from a can we had unknowingly shared. Had my throat swelled then, as it might now, that may have been my last sip…
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…