When I left Specsavers in 2000 the lovely team I worked with gave me a perfect farewell gift: A book by Chris and Tilde Stuart: ‘Africa’s Great Wild Places.’ Right up my alley. If the Stuarts think these places are special you can bet they are. They have been all over Africa and they don’t flit in and out; when they go somewhere, they stay a while!
I had been to seven of the fifteen places they chose for the book and immediately set about getting to the eighth:
My eighth of the Great Wild Places – Luangwa in Zambia
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I have visited the wondrous Okavango Delta in Botswana by plane and by land on about a dozen occasions, lucky me, thanks to having lil sis Janet living in Maun.
We had this book at home growing up and I loved it. It describes the Okavango in 1958; Moremi and Chobe weren’t parks yet, but the story about two crazy loons driving a great lumbering gas-guzzling, wartime D.U.K.W amphibious monstrosity led to a fascination and – years later – many trips there starting in 1985.
The latest trip was in March 2018. While there I read her new book Starlings Laughing, under her new name June Vendall Clark. While there are challenges, I’m pleased to report that exactly sixty years later, the Okavango is still the amazing paradise June Kay loved so much.
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A magic trip in a little Suzuki to Tsavo East and Tsavo West in Kenya
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Kruger National Park in South Africa
First visit in 1968 – a school tour. Most recent in 2023 – three fun weeks in the park.
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The Kalahari – Kalahari-Gemsbok Park in South Africa and the Kalahari in Botswana
1969 school tour and 1996 with Aitch; In 2010 with Janet we saw the Green Kalahari and paddled the Nhabe River into lake Ngami.
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Makgadikgadi Pans and Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana
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Etosha in Namibia in 1969 and 1986
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Hwange in Zimbabwe
Probably my favourite. In 1997 we went to Makololo and in 2010 to Somalisa
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The Namib desert
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Western Tanzania
This was one area I thought it unlikely we’d get to visit. Then friend Mike Lello got to go! His son Chris worked in wildlife safaris in Tanzania and arranged a fly-in trip. And lately, wonderful news: My bro-in-law Jeff and nephew Robbie have bought a farm near Iringa. I may not get all the way west, but I’d love to go to the Selous and Ruaha National Park! Time will tell!
More to see:
Uganda, the Serengeti, the Soda Lakes, the Great Selous. One day . . .
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