"An enraged elephant flips a car onto its roof. A lioness prises open the door of a terrified couple. A leopard helps itself to a family's picnic breakfast. A fleeing impala leaps through an open car window. A lion charges around inside a busy rest camp. A hyaena snatches a baby from a tent. A tourist takes a bath in a croc-infested dam ... These are just a few of the 101 jaw-dropping sightings, scrapes and encounters in this collection of extraordinary true stories from the roads, camps, picnic sites and walking trails of South Africa's Kruger National Park, as told by the very people who experienced them. There are no game ranger tales here - each and every story happened to an ordinary Kruger visitor doing what over a million tourists do in this spectacular reserve each year."--Back cover.
When Kobie Krüger, her game-ranger husband and their three young daughters moved to one of the most isolated corners of the world - a remote ranger station in the Mahlangeni region of South Africa's vast Kruger National Park - she might have worried that she would become engulfed with loneliness and boredom. Yet, for Kobie and her family, the seventeen years spent in this spectacularly beautiful park proved to be the most magical - and occasionally the most hair-raising - of their lives. Kobie recounts their enchanting adventures and extraordinary experiences in this vast reserve - a place where, bathed in golden sunlight, hippos basked in the glittering waters of the Letaba River, storks and herons perched along the shoreline, and fruit bats hung in the sausage trees. But as the Krugers settled in, they discovered that not all was peace and harmony. They soon became accustomed to living with the unexpected: the sneaky hyenas who stole blankets and cooking pots, the sinister-looking pythons that slithered into the house, and the usually placid elephants who grew foul-tempered in the violent heat of the summer. And one terrible day, a lion attacked Kobus in the bush and nearly killed him. Yet nothing prepared the Krugers for their greatest adventure of all, the raising of an orphaned prince, a lion cub who, when they found him, was only a few days old and on the verge of death. Reared on a cocktail of love and bottles of fat-enriched milk, Leo soon became an affectionate, rambunctious and adored member of the fmaily. It is the rearing of this young king, and the hilarious endeavours to teach him to become a 'real' lion who could survive with his own kind in the wild, that lie at the heart of this endearing memoir. It is a memoir of a magical place and time that can never be recaptured.
Bruce Bryden's true stories about the life of a bushveld conservationist draws on 27 years in the service of the Kruger National Park. It makes for a gripping read, abounding with encounters with elephant, lion, buffalo, leopard and rhino, whether darting for research, managing culling operations by helicopter or stalking on foot. In the best tradition of bushveld stories, there is a great deal of shooting, and a fair amount of running away; there are meetings with extraordinary characters among the rangers; memorable gatherings; hilarious mishaps and narrow escapes; and throughout, a great love and respect for both the wilderness and the creatures that inhabit it. Bruce Bryden started his career in the Kruger National Park in 1971 as a graduate assistant biologist. He progressed through the ranks as ranger, district ranger, park warden and regional ranger, eventually becoming chief ranger in 1983.
This compact and stunningly illustrated field guide is an essential companion for any safari in South Africa's Kruger National Park--one of the largest, most iconic, and most visited conservation areas in Africa. Featuring a unique attractive layout and more than 200 color photographs that show animals in a variety of poses, the guide covers all of the park's most frequently seen mammals, reptiles, and frogs. The authoritative and accessible text provides more information about identification, habitat, behavior, biology, and conservation than most competing guides. Written by South Africa native Keith Barnes, an experienced naturalist, wildlife guide, and author, the guide covers 57 mammals, 17 reptiles, and 8 frogs. In addition to Kruger's famous Big-5 of elephants, leopards, lions, rhinoceroses, and buffalos, the guide also includes lesser-known animals such as the charismatic Wild Dog, smaller cats like the Serval and Caracal, and odd nocturnal denizens like the Cape Porcupine and Springhare. Text and photos work seamlessly to enhance the user's understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of the animals of this incredible region, which is home to South Africa's most important populations of megafauna. * An essential all-in-one Kruger safari companion* Perfect for new and experienced safari-goers alike* Small, portable format ideal for field use* Unique attractive layout with more than 200 stunning color photographs* Photos show animals in a variety of poses* Covers the most frequently seen species--57 mammals, 17 reptiles, and 8 frogs* Authoritative and accessible text provides more information about identification, behavior, biology, and conservation than most competing guides* Includes spoor prints for all frequently encountered mammal tracks Distributed by Princeton University Press.--
‘The last twenty-four hours before a heist take forever. You are ready. You can’t wait. You are already thinking about the money. It’s a kind of high that programs your mind. You are excited. You just want to get it done. That moment when there is no turning back, when it is about to go down ... all your senses come alive: your eyes, everything comes alive. It’s extreme, like a phenomenal rush of ecstasy. It’s the thing that makes you want to do it again.’ From the horror of the 2006 Villa Nora heist – where four security guards were burnt alive in their armoured vehicle after a ferocious fight-back against highly trained mercenaries – to the 2016 robbery of a cash centre in Witbank, where a gang made off with almost R104 million after impersonating police officers, Heist! is an impeccably researched exposé of an endemic crime phenomenon that some analysts warn could bring South Africa to its knees. Using the information gleaned from thousands of pages of court documents and press reports, as well as interviews with scores of police officers, crime intelligence agents, prosecutors, defence lawyers, researchers, journalists, security guards and the criminals themselves, Heist! provides an unprecedented insight into a crime that has increased by a staggering 49 per cent in the first eight months of 2017 alone. As informative and thought-provoking as it is distressing, this is a book by an investigative journalist at the top of her game.
Acknowledgements; Preface; Timeline: A chronology of key events in Robert Mugabe’s life; Introduction; 1 Brother in the background; 2 Mummy and Uncle Bob; 3 The prisoner’s friend; 4 Comrades in arms; 5 A surprise agreement; 6 Tea with Lady Soames; 7 I told you so; 8 Britain’s diplomatic blunder; 9 A reluctant politician; 10 The faithful priest; 11 In the eyes of God’s deputies; 12 The man in the elegant suit; 13 Two of a kind; 14 Yesterday’s heroes; 15 As it was in the beginning; 16 The good, the bad, and the reality; Postscript; Selected bibliography; Index
In the spring of 1977 Frank Stilwell launched Vingila, 17 tons of welded together 11-millimetre steel plates, in Durban harbour. An electrician by trade, Frank's experience of sailing amounted to not very much - an unpleasant spell on a Scottish fishing trawler as a young man and a brief holiday on someone else's yacht off the coast of Mozambique a couple of years before. Never one to be daunted by a challenge or to be resisted in any way, he took his nine year old twins, Robert and Nicky, out of school, persuaded his wife Maureen that they would all learn how to sail and cope with life on the open seas as they went, and prepared to follow his dream of circumnavigating the world. Facing real danger from the elements and at first having to live more by their wits than their skills, the Stilwell family set off boldly, determined to become part of a community of sailors and adventurers who spend more time on the ocean than they do on dry land. In this unique coming of age memoir Martinique Stilwell's recounting of her true life gypsy childhood is poignant and funny and heartbreaking all at the same time. With the wisdom and innocence of a child's point of view, it is a powerful yet tender story of physical and emotional adversity, of family dysfunction and the ties that bind, and of the shackles and exhilarating freedom of growing up different.
The #1 New York Times bestselling (mostly true) memoir from the hilarious author of Furiously Happy. “Gaspingly funny and wonderfully inappropriate.”—O, The Oprah Magazine When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father and a morbidly eccentric childhood. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame-spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it. In the irreverent Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson’s long-suffering husband and sweet daughter help her uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments—the ones we want to pretend never happened—are the very same moments that make us the people we are today. For every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things that Lawson dares to say out loud, this is a poignant and hysterical look at the dark, disturbing, yet wonderful moments of our lives. Readers Guide Inside
