#africantravel Archives | Hoffman van Zijl Wilderness Wanderer

Unrest in the ranks

December 29, 2019December 2, 2024Hoffman1 Comment

The male had planted his forefeet wide and lowered his body and lapped from the thin sheet of water running from the seep amongst the reeds. Then he had crossed the stream and lain down on the cool sand with a casualness that said, “I fear nothing here.” It is his right front paw in the centre of the picture. The left hind is partly visible on the edge to the left. The marks to the front of his toes are small drag marks made by his pads as he lifted his paw forward. If you look carefully you will...

Wild Animals. Hoffman van Zijl Wilderness Wanderer.

Too close…

November 3, 2019October 8, 2024Hoffman2 Comments

You can read through the text below,or listen to the narrative. Enjoy! We could not see him yet, but we could hear the crack and thump of his browsing as he shouldered aside the seemingly impenetrable tangle of the thickets. He was close. So close that when he stopped, I could hear the grind of the great molars chewing through bundles of vegetation. A pinch of fine dust from between my feet told that the air was almost still, with an eddy now and then. We should have moved out of his way, but I could not resist the...

Ok, all set, but where are the voices telling us to go next?

June 9, 2019June 21, 2024Hoffman2 Comments

Once you have liberated yourself from the roads, and finally also from the uncertain little tracks that you might have found meandering through the bush to isolated clusters of huts where a few bush people huddle together for some human fellowship, you are truly like Alice, alone in Wonderland and… “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where—” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. “—so long as...