Mention the word “snake” at any social gathering in South Africa and you will have a topic of conversation to which all the men and a goodly proportion of the women will be able to make a contribution. It would seem from what one hears that South...
Kariega Conservation Volunteers enjoying the company of the children at Farmerfields school, where we volunteer to teach one day a week and donate valuable school supplies.
Kariega Game Reserve volunteers ring bark alien invasive pine trees,...
Volunteer Updates July 2012
Two items on the same page in a recent newspaper caught my eye. The first dealt with rhino poaching. In this a conservationist bemoaned the fact that a great deal of the money given by well-meaning members of the public to combat the poaching of...
Potholes and poaching
My mother-in-law used to tell the story of how, in July 1933, while motoring in what was then Rhodesia, a lion was attracted to the car, a two-seater Chevrolet with a dickie-seat.* Tied to the luggage rack at the back – one doesn’t see either...
Fishing for Lions
This month we received a visit from a third year Rhodes University student, Leigh, who is doing a scientific research project for her Bachelor of Science degree. She is analyzing dung samples of Eland and Impala, which are mixed feeders, at...
Volunteer Programme April 2012
I’ve just googled “rubbing-stones” and come up with some surprising results, not at all what I had in mind. Advertised were stones to smooth bricks and tiles, stones for use by sculptors, materials for making stone-rubbings, and ‘lucky’ stones...
Rubbing-stones
As I write, a beautiful full moon, the brightest phase of 2012 illuminates both the good and evil in the African landscape outside. How often in this world do a small minority of evil men, a fraction of all those that stand for good, dispossess...