WILDLIFE CONSERVATION
Hope for Cheetahs
Lente Roode's story is steeped in contradictions; of farmers and their respect for livestock, and lack of regard – often most cruelly – for the predators that too have a right to the land, but her lifelong captivation by cheetahs started as a child, when she was given an orphaned cub.
PRINCE ALBERT, KAROO
Outa Lappies: philosopher and master recycler
Many articles have been written and stories told about the man known as Outa Lappies (real name Jan Schoeman). He has featured large in the artistic history of the Karoo and especially the village of Prins Albert. Described in the foreign press as a “Green Peace Activist” and locally as the “Patchwork Philosopher and Karoo Artist”, he is all of these and more.Deon Robbertze, creative director of Ogilvy Earth, writes about his fascinating Arctic expedition and how it changed his behaviour forever.
Every year the Mom’s group to which I belong tries to get away for a weekend; just a few mums and a whole lot of chocolate. Our tradition has been to stay at a friend’s home in Plettenberg Bay, but this year we decided to do something different.
Along the short dirt road, south of the little village of Pennington, there is a rise. At the top of this rise the road turns to the left towards the sea, and no matter how many times you get to this bend in the road the view is always spellbinding. The sea stretches out along a beautiful coastline and in the little valley below is a stone building and the remains of a windmill. On the right are the rolling fairways of the Umdoni Park Golf Course, and beyond that, indigenous coastal forest. On the left are the gates to Botha House.
Route 62 is a picturesque and diverse route leading out of Cape Town that takes you along the Robertson wine route, into land that holds millions of years of evolutionary secrets. The mountains that shadow you along the way look like they have been squeezed until they could bear it no more so have burst heavenward in craggy peaks that look like solid foam. Those less pressurised recline against the horizon like stone faces in profile, some have bodies revealing rocky breasts, scabrous thighs and hunched shoulders. They shimmered light blue grey in the heat of the early afternoon, like an array of inter-dimensional beings. In comparison the city scape weeps its dis-ease.
Let me tell you about a magic garden...
Close your eyes and imagine the scent of roses, fresh herbs and fragrant soil baking in the sun, the sounds of the wind in the trees, birds twittering, hadedas flying overhead disrupting the peace with their dominant call, a bunch of happily quacking ducks, a river...
The Italian Bed and Breakfast Association has come up with a novel way to allow cash strapped consumers a chance to enjoy a break away from home.
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