Everything you need to know for your first trip to the African bush, including how to track a rhino on foot. But don't get too close! This set of ten WOW! Facts books is aimed at readers aged 10-14 who have a much younger reading age of 7.5-8. There are a range of interesting subjects covered including Ice, Mystery Beasts, Amazing Animals of the Rainforest, How to Explore the African Bush, Sherlock Holmes, Daredevils, Fighter Planes, Midfield Heroes, The Secrets of Magic and Rock Bands. Amongst this variety, reluctant readers are guaranteed to find something to spark their interest and even encourage further reading.

Safari guide Jeff Williams has brought together a treasure-trove of stories of dramatic events that occurred whilst guides were leading parties through the bush on foot. Often these were recounted during evenings sitting around a campfire with friends and guide colleagues, swapping yarns and sharing their experiences. Frequently guests were there listening enthralled, shocked and amused in equal measure and sometimes the telling of the tale evoked vivid images.A walking trail in the bush is the ultimate adventure for a visitor to wild Africa and it is the skill and experience of their guides that allow them to do this safely. These walks highlight the essence of the bush - the sights, sounds, and scents that still embody the Africa of the past. Nevertheless, there are occasions when, in spite of the guide's best efforts, unplanned confrontations with potentially dangerous animals occur. Usually these end comfortably with only an adrenaline rush for guests to carry home or publish on social media. But occasionally things become much more dramatic.The reader will hear of potentially perilous situations involving encounters with charging lions, angry elephants, cantankerous buffalos, curious rhinos and, worst of all, the animals' and humans' greatest enemy, poachers. There is the bushman guide who walked over 20km through the night with an inexperienced young girl, successfully handling an attack by a hyena, avoiding elephants and finding shelter and sustenance. Another very young guide used a hugely unorthodox and personally dangerous technique to rescue a guest literally from the jaws of death. Sadly, the real African bush is shrinking in size and is under serious threat from the increasingly populated and developing modern world. Some may be able to visit these precious remnants in person but this book provides a window into the specialized field of walking safaris for the armchair reader, the seasoned world traveller and even a stimulating reminder for those who have done it before. Whether you are an armchair explorer or an old Africa Hand there is drama, excitement and even laughter: they are all here.

Hannes Wessels is one of the most talented writers that we at Safari Press have read in a long time. This former PH in Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe writes tales of hapless figures and derring-do gone wrong that will make you laugh out loud-a rarity in the cut-and-dry genre of big-game hunting. There is the story about a PH who wanted to impress the beautiful daughter of a client and landed up in the emergency room with a rifle barrel stuck up his posterior, and the story of a game warden who fell into a hollowed-out baobab tree on top of a sleeping leopard. This same unfortunate warden in a further misadventure is deprived of some of his very sensitive private parts during an elephant cull-probably just to prove that a run of bad luck does not necessarily have to end. Wessels also weighs in on his own experience when he tells of being seriously gored by a buffalo. Whether telling the story of rafting down an uncharted river to set up a new safari camp or highlighting the experiences of a PH such as Lew Games, you will find Wessels's stories so entertaining that you'll be sorry when the book ends. All of Hannes Wessels's stories are great reading, as attested by the number of his articles published in Outdoor Life, Sports Afield, and

Whereas most studies of migration focus on movement, this book examines the experience of staying put. It looks at young men living in a Soninke-speaking village in Gambia who, although eager to travel abroad for money and experience, settle as farmers, heads of families, businessmen, civic activists, or, alternatively, as unemployed, demoted youth. Those who stay do so not only because of financial and legal limitations, but also because of pressures to maintain family and social bases in the Gambia valley. ‘Stayers’ thus enable migrants to migrate, while ensuring the activities and values attached to rural life are passed on to the future generations.

As thrilling as any novel, as taut and exciting as any adventure story, Peter Hathaway Capstick’s Death in the Long Grass takes us deep into the heart of darkness to view Africa through the eyes of one of the most renowned professional hunters. Few men can say they have known Africa as Capstick has known it—leading safaris through lion country; tracking man-eating leopards along tangled jungle paths; running for cover as fear-maddened elephants stampede in all directions. And of the few who have known this dangerous way of life, fewer still can recount their adventures with the flair of this former professional hunter-turned-writer. Based on Capstick’s own experiences and the personal accounts of his colleagues, Death in the Long Grassportrays the great killers of the African bush—not only the lion, leopard, and elephant, but the primitive rhino and the crocodile waiting for its unsuspecting prey, the titanic hippo and the Cape buffalo charging like an express train out of control. Capstick was a born raconteur whose colorful descriptions and eye for exciting, authentic detail bring us face to face with some of the most ferocious killers in the world—underrated killers like the surprisingly brave and cunning hyena, silent killers such as the lightning-fast black mamba snake, collective killers like the wild dog. Readers can lean back in a chair, sip a tall, iced drink, and revel in the kinds of hunting stories Hemingway and Ruark used to hear in hotel bars from Nairobi to Johannesburg, as veteran hunters would tell of what they heard beyond the campfire and saw through the sights of an express rifle.

Kindly please read this and then send this message to your relatives, friends, and business associates in South Africa and overseas. "Wild West Adventures in the Great African Bush" by David Robert Dalton (with contributions by Mike, Trevor & Garth Dalton) Embark on Wild West Adventures in the Great African Bush with author David Robert Dalton, who takes you to the African bush in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Inspired by his and his brothers fond memories of growing up in the little copper mining town of Messina (now called Musina) in South Africa, with written contributions from his three elder brothers, he pens a wacky, side-splitting tale of his adventures growing up in the little bushveld town. Set in the African bushveld (a.k.a. the Great Arizona Desert), the three elder Dalton cowpokes are members of a gang dubbed the Messina Dalton Gang, after the infamous Wild West Dalton Gang, who roar around on their two-wheeler steeds and talk in tough Western jargon. The youngest Dalton cowpoke, six-year-old, David, calls himself Gunslinger and his main ambition in life is to become a recognized member of the gang. Together with his little African Pawnee sidekick-hombre, Tokoloshie-Two-Feathers, and his three-legged Jack Russell dog, Jock, Gunslinger tries hard to impress, but continually messes up. The story, told in a light-hearted tongue-in-cheek fashion, as told through the fertile imagination of a six-year-old boy, but is written for adults. Theres a delightful array of wacky small-town characters that help the story come alive, making you feel part of it. Theres the delicious Danish Tart, who runs the Mine Rec Club bar, Speedy, the towns beefy Harley-riding policeman, Paparazzo, the long-nosed Italian crime reporter, Frank&Earnest (the same person!), the hip Holy father, the disapproving Dominee, Mrs Bogey, the Mine Managers snooty wife, and the gangs all-suffering parents, the Old Man and Daisy-Anne, who all contribute to the hilarity! Dredging up ones own childhood memories, its a wonderful nostalgic tale to touch the hearts of all ages! Its so darned funny; itll have you laughing out loud! A charming and endearing must-read story for all ages! I simple loved it! Brenda George, author of Falling Leaves and Mountain Ashes. I warmed to this delightful and endearing book a unique African TO-KILL-A-MOCKINGBIRD look into the mind of a child of those nostalgic times. Gloria Keverne, international bestselling author of A Man Cannot Cry and Broken Wings. Available in EBook and paperback format, see: http://www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk or http://www.xlibris.com; http://www.amazon.co.uk or http://www.amazon.com or www.bushwhackedbooks.co.za http://www.youtube.com

“This is a gorgeous, lyrical, hilarious, important book. . . . Read this and you may find yourself instinctively beginning to heal old wounds: in yourself, in others, and just maybe in the cathedral of the wild that is our true home.”—Martha Beck, author of Finding Your Own North Star Boyd Varty had an unconventional upbringing. He grew up on Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa, a place where man and nature strive for balance, where perils exist alongside wonders. Founded more than eighty years ago as a hunting ground, Londolozi was transformed into a nature reserve beginning in 1973 by Varty’s father and uncle, visionaries of the restoration movement. But it wasn’t just a sanctuary for the animals; it was also a place for ravaged land to flourish again and for the human spirit to be restored. When Nelson Mandela was released after twenty-seven years of imprisonment, he came to the reserve to recover. Cathedral of the Wild is Varty’s memoir of his life in this exquisite and vast refuge. At Londolozi, Varty gained the confidence that emerges from living in Africa. “We came out strong and largely unafraid of life,” he writes, “with the full knowledge of its dangers.” It was there that young Boyd and his equally adventurous sister learned to track animals, raised leopard and lion cubs, followed their larger-than-life uncle on his many adventures filming wildlife, and became one with the land. Varty survived a harrowing black mamba encounter, a debilitating bout with malaria, even a vicious crocodile attack, but his biggest challenge was a personal crisis of purpose. An intense spiritual quest takes him across the globe and back again—to reconnect with nature and “rediscover the track.” Cathedral of the Wild is a story of transformation that inspires a great appreciation for the beauty and order of the natural world. With conviction, hope, and humor, Varty makes a passionate claim for the power of the wild to restore the human spirit. Praise for Cathedral of the Wild “Extremely touching . . . a book about growth and hope.”—The New York Times “It made me cry with its hard-won truths about human and animal nature. . . . Both funny and deeply moving, this book belongs on the shelf of everyone who seeks healing in wilderness.”—BookPage

Currie's memoir of his life and what it means to be an African today. Explores his life journey which started with his love of birds and grew into a fascination with wildlife and adventure.

In 1895, George Whitehouse arrived at the east African post of Mombasa to perform an engineering miracle: the building of the Mombasa-Nairobi-Lake Victoria Railway – a 600-mile route that was largely unmapped and barely explored. Behind Mombasa lay a scorched, waterless desert. Beyond, a horizonless scrub country climbed toward a jagged volcanic region bisected by the Great Rift Valley. A hundred miles of sponge-like quagmire marked the railway's last lap. The entire right of way bristled with hostile tribes, teemed with lions and breathed malaria. What was the purpose of this 'giant folly' and whom would it benefit? Was it to exploit the rumoured wealth of little-known central African kingdoms? Was it to destroy the slave trade? To encourage commerce and settlement? THE LUNATIC EXPRESS explores the building of this great railway in an earlier Africa of slave and ivory empires, of tribal monarchs and the vast lands that they ruled. Above all, it is the story of the white intruders whose combination of avarice, honour and tenacious courage made them a breed apart.