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Sunday Times (South Africa)
February 03, 2008
Travel Magazine Edition
LIFESTYLE & LEISURE; Pg. 4
240 words
BOOK REVIEW. All the president's beasties
Paul Ash
BOOK REVIEW
All the president's beasties
Exploring Kruger by Brett Hilton-Barber and Professor Lee Berger, Prime Origins, R199
The recent pictures in a weekend paper of live goats being tossed to a pack of scrawny lions in a zoo
in China - apart from ruining my morning - did, however, gave me cause to reflect on how fortunate
South Africans are. I've long had a problem with the Kruger National Park - the sprawling camps, the
tar roads and loutish drivers and the sheer weight of humans pressing in through the gates. But when
one considers the alternatives in some other places in the world, Kruger is a blessing, a national
treasure. Compared to parks in China, Kruger is unspoiled wilderness where nature's laws prevail, and
the animals have to find their own bloody food.
What the park has needed for a long time is a thorough guide. And now there is one, and possibly the
most detailed guide ever published on Kruger. It is the Kruger equivalent of a tantric sex manual -
hands-on advice, suggestions to help you find your way around, plenty of illustrations and maps, and
lots and lots of photos.
Kruger is also Shangaan territory and the authors have helpfully included a Shangaan calendar, a far
more useful device than the Roman calendar.
I'm happy to report that we are now in the month of Hoho - "a month of laughter and festivity, and
full-time carousal as the marula fruit is ripe and being turned into beer and food is plentiful". -
February 4, 2008