Hunting Camp

Hunting Camp

Growing up in rural Texas, in the gravel hills near Cummins Creek just above the Gulf Coast Prairie, hunting, fishing and camping played an important role in my early life. My first real “camp” was my Dad’s enclosed dog trailer, wood walls with a tin roof, all of...
Dead or Alive in Zimbabwe

Dead or Alive in Zimbabwe

I had an uneasy, anxious feeling as we drove to the bait tree just east of camp. It was with a bit of apprehension that I viewed my trip back to Zimbabwe and a patch of hunting land I had come to know and love. Through my long-term partnership with property owner...
A Battle for Survival

A Battle for Survival

Precariously perched in the small tree, the hunter peered into the night, his eyes slowly adjusting to the eerie light cast by the moon. The year was 1903; the place: Sabi Sands, South Africa.  Harry Wolhuter was shaking from a combination of cold and fear. What was...
Hunting with Dad

Hunting with Dad

It was 2 o’clock on the afternoon of January 20, 1978, when the agent with the steamship company called my Seattle house to tell me that Jack O’Connor – my mentor, hunting partner and best friend – had just died of an apparent heart attack on the S.S. Mariposa en...
Buffalo Down Under

Buffalo Down Under

Late November in the Northern Territory of Australia is wicked hot and there was no respite from the heat across the miles of floodplain where I stood. In the midday sun, the mirage made the water buffalo look like black fuzz balls on a blanket of green grass. I...
Dreams of Duxbak Days

Dreams of Duxbak Days

There’s wisdom aplenty in his words, and as I become increasingly long of tooth and sparse of hackle fond memories of youth’s halcyon days seem to grow in importance. That’s a common human trait and likely always will be. Most of these dreams of yester-youth are...
Man Is The Prey

Man Is The Prey

James Clarke has lived in Africa since his early 20s and was news editor of The Star in Johannesburg when his book, Man Is the Prey, was published in 1969. Clarke leads us on an investigation into the curious and unpredictable actions and motives of the leopard, a...
New York Was Far Away

New York Was Far Away

The valley was long and narrow, filled with the green of rich grass and the pale gold of frost-touched arctic willow. Along the edges of the valley was a thick border of spruce, but not far up the mountainsides, the woods played out in a scattering of scrubby trees....