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editorial
I really didn’t want to write this first editorial of the new year about all the awful things we see on our planet, so I thought I would just sit down and list the first 10 memories that come to mind about the Africa that I love. Here goes:
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.
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.
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...

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travel with us
Don’t miss our exciting birding trip to Mozambique.

BeetleCam: the comeback

A camera mounted on a remote-controlled buggy that took unusual, close-up photographs of Africa’s wildlife was no match for lions – until a bigger, better, armour-plated version came along.

The big snip

Can vasectomies be performed on elephants to help curb escalating numbers? Yes, vets have carried out pioneering keyhole surgery to do so. Should the big snip be applied to elephants? The jury’s still out…

Sable shenanigans

The victims of bureaucracy and unscrupulous operators, more than 200 sable antelope have been penned in a new national park in Zambia for almost three years.

Guardians of the gorge

In the Masai Mara there is a hidden ravine that gives shelter to leopards. Concealing themselves by day, the cats emerge only when darkness falls.

Natural deception

Many animals have perfected camouflage, that most magic of disappearing acts, and the techniques they use inspire humans with
a similar purpose.

Chocolate island

A lonely link in a long chain of volcanoes, Príncipe is a uniquely pristine and perilously vulnerable island.