A few weeks ago I had to sit down and write my first editorial of the new year for Africa Geographic. COP17 had just wound up with the same old pseudo commitment on the part of some countries and regions towards fighting off the consequences of global warming, and rhino killings were set to top the 420 mark. I really didn’t want to greet 2012 with musings on these and all the other awful things we see on our continent and the world, so I thought I would just cheer myself up by listing the first 10 memories that come to mind about the Africa that I love. Here goes:
1. Growing up in East London and sleeping out on the banks of the Nahoon River under the makeshift shelter of an upturned leaky canoe made from a bent sheet of old corrugated iron. Supper – best was a wodge of sausage sandwiches prepared by a caring mother, and condensed milk out of the tin.
2. Huddling on the slopes of Monk’s Cowl in a shallow cave decorated with ancient San paintings while the terrifying Drakensberg lightning speared our route back down into the valley.
3. Watching otters playing in Botswana’s Chobe River at sunset after a day that included being on the water only a few metres from a herd of elephants crossing from one bank to the other. All we could see of the babies were their uncoordinated snorkel-like trunks.
4. Slipping and sliding along steep muddy forest tracks in the Perinet Special Reserve in Madagascar with the eerie cadences of indri calls floating on the heavy, humid air. We eventually saw them, their black-and-white markings lending them a distinctly panda-like aura.
5. Resting beneath the cliffs of Castle Rock high above Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and meeting up with a curious Verreaux’s eagle as it floated by on its broad, powerful wings no more than a metre from my face.
6. Almost stepping off a boat on Malawi’s Shire River onto a rock, only to realise at the very last moment that this was no water-smoothed granite boulder but the back of a resting hippo. A near thing – I imagine that if I had completed my ill-judged manoeuvre I would have had to cope with a very grumpy beast indeed.
7. Lying on my back on the sun-cracked floor of Etosha’s great, pale pan. It was so still that I could (or at least imagined I could) hear the blood pumping through my ears.
8. Being in the Mara during the migration when wildebeest moan and groan from horizon to horizon and then coalesce in tight, skittish groups to run the gauntlet of a river crossing. (You can read about this adventure in the fifth issue of Africa Geographic’s Safari digital magazine at http://africageographic.com/safari/#5/7 )
9. Sitting in the dark on the cliffs that drop away from our family cottage on the shores of False Bay. Jupiter seemed to sit like a diamond stud in the crescent of a new moon, Comet McNaught had strung its tail in a great arc above Cape Point and the sea shimmered with phosphorescence … spellbinding.
10. Parked beneath a fruiting sycamore fig tree on the banks of the Sabie River in Kruger National Park just watching the passing parade. It’s amazing what you see by letting nature come to you rather than bouncing from place to place in a futile attempt to see everything.
11. Well, 10 moments are done and I feel that I’m just warming up. Perhaps you would like to brighten your day by sharing with us your ‘moments in Africa’?
Thinking of visiting Africa? Visit Safari for a few ideas…
