THIS IS
AFRICA!
Alex Jackson
It was probably in late 2008 when I was helping at the
Moholoholo Forest Camp Game Reserve near Hoedspruit
South Africa that I had my closest shave yet with the wild-
life of the African bush.
A long-term friend of mine was the manager at the
reserve, and he was off on his annual leave so I said I
would stay at the lodge and help the resident guide as it
was around Xmas and New Year and this was always a
busy time in the camp. It certainly was busy with school
groups and many overseas visitors looking to experience
the great wildlife that was on the reserve.
I think I had been there around a month and I won’t lie
… I was loving it. I wasn’t even missing riding motorcy-
cles!
As a product of the late 1950’s I was raised by a big old
black and white TV on a diet of such shows as; Tarzan,
Daktari and Anglia TV’s Survival, so the camp really was a
small piece of heaven for
me. I had been to school
during the early 1970’s
through the Secondary
Modern system so con-
sider myself lucky to have
got through it being able
to write my name. Just
the name “Secondary”
made people feel defeated
before they had begun
however, now I was in an
environment that I had
longed for. Somewhere I
didn’t have to worry about
books and paperwork as
everything I was being asked to do was totally practical
knowledge based. I loved, and still do, taking people
on game drives, bush walks and helping to interpret the
tracks and signs of wildlife.
Of course, it’s not all about wildlife and the bush.
When you are dealing with people you can come up
against first world problems too. Like the day a lady
who was staying in one of the elevated reed cabins,
managed to drop her grandmother’s gold wedding band
down through the f loorboards into the small services
room located under the cabin. I should point out these
cabins are in the forest. So, with some reluctance I took
my torch and climbed down the side of the cabin to the
forest floor and started to shine a light under the decking
towards where the service cupboard was located.
“I really don’t fancy this,” I thought. Snakes, Scorpions
and all sorts of biting, stingy things live under there.
Anyhow, I popped my
head under the front of
the decking to start the
slow crawl deeper under
the cabin. WACK, WACK,
WACK and WACK again.
The pain on the back of
my neck was like nothing I
had felt before.
“Bless my soul,” I
screamed. I had been
tagged by a Paper Wasp!
This is a special breed of
wasp whose mother and
father are not married. I
did retrieve the ring and
TRAVERSE 34