Saturday, July 4, 2009
The Elephants and I
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Hi Sharon,
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the blogging world ... love the book, keep up the good work !
bye
Mandy
Hi Sharon, we're trying to get a project off the ground to support Hwange National Park. Please contact me, my name is Hennie Scheepers. We have a 4x4 Rental Company in South Africa. Last yeat we had a clinet that visited the park and saw in what shocking condition the park, watering holes, anti-poaching units, rangers etc is. Since than he is sending supplies there at his own cost. Now we're trying to get a few bigger companies on board. Please contact me in this regard, I need as much advice and info about the park as possible. The more info I have the better our chance are to pull this off
ReplyDeleteSaw your book at Nanny's the other weekend Aunty Sharon, it looks really good! I read a few bits...mice in your bed, spiders in/on your roof, don't know how you do it! Love Sari and Charlie
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous read and so amazing having met so many of the elephants
ReplyDeleteGreat to find your website. Love the photo of the baby elephant, and love his name 'Eketahuna'!
ReplyDeleteHope all is well.
Hello Sharon
ReplyDeleteJust completed your second book and have enjoyed as much as the first. I was based at Safari Lodge in the mid 80's as a guide, soon after independence. I spent much time with the herd when it was roughly a 150 in number and we always assumed it was 'Crooked tusk', who I assume you refer to as'Skew Tusk' who was matriarch of the larger group that seemed to group together for the most part of the dry season months. As you say there were various dominant ladies from the smaller breeding groups. We had a lot of semi-permanent bulls that accompanied the herd for periods, and seemed to be associated with the hunting activities in the neighbouring Forestry concession areas. One of the amusing characters; a young bull we named 'Jagged ear' (who had a deformed left ear) was always up for a game of 'throwing the hat'. We'd chuck our floppy hat at him, and more often than not he would throw it back, often accompanied by snot and dirt. He threw a trunk-full of mud at a group of my guests once,while at a waterhole near John Vorster's old house on Farm 41, and all their camera gear was covered (and ruined in some cases) but as you say, it was worth the experience every time. Some of the young bulls would rest their heads on the open vehicles, and I was once pushed down the Dete Vlei Rd in reverse for about 150 metres, much to the terror or my guests who had spent a night in what was then the Tree housed Bush Camp. It was during this period that Alan Elliot was around and had started his Touch the Wild safaris. It was a few years follwoing my departure in 1988 that he had the initial proclamation done.
I have 100's of photos (slides) from that time of these elephants, and don't know if they would be of some use to you for database purposes? I am hoping to digitise these images as they sit in cases collecting mould over the seasons.
I am sorry to read about your African Sun experience, sadly the group when under Delta Corp wasn't much different in it's activities; money, money, money and shareholders is what it's all about, so don't place emotional expectations in the wrong places..(sad as I believe this shortsighted tragedy to be). They were then owned by SA Breweries, the world's largest beer brewer, C'est la vie. We had good local management staff who had a solid conviction about benefiting the wildlife, and as such got into lots of wrangles with the management about 'inappropriate' expenditure in improving the estate.
I was glad and sad to hear about John Vorster. He was great fun and a character we all enjoyed. Did you ever see the bedroom full of bags of white dog hair being preserved for ...? I miss him and other such amazing characters, and am sad he has had to seek refuge here in SA. SA is a very different life, and very far from Farm 41.. I do hope he is coping..?
I won't prattle on here, but thought to make some form of contact with you, and trust we might meet someday. I long to go back to Hwange, as I haven't been there since 1990, and owning and operating camps and working as a freelance guide, I just haven't got back to the place that I call 'the best days of my life'. The characters that the area harboured after the 'hondo' were legendary and it was a little like I imagine the Wild West to have been with ludicrous behaviour and the occasional gunfight. No doubt you have heard and seen your own share of these.
My very best wishes to your continued efforts, and trust that despite the hardships, the joy of living there might always outweigh the tragedies. The 'real world', as you know, really sucks..
Matt Cowell - mopane@gmail.com
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