Читать книгу (101 things to know when you go) ON SAFARI IN AFRICA - Patrick Brakspear - Страница 6

News out of Africa is seemingly always bad. We read of starvation and disease, of tyrants and dictators, military coups and diamond smuggling. This is the Dark Continent with its history of corruption, famine, AIDS and death – why would anyone want to go there?

The late actor, William Holden, who was to devote much of his life to conservation in Africa, once wrote: “In the vast savannahs of Africa there is a dimension of space and time that is an echo of our own beginnings and which reminds us that we were not born initially to live in the concrete jungle.”

What is it about Africa that so fascinates and captures the imagination? This National Geographic article has one answer:

“Well, let’s see – it boasts 3 big cats (lion, leopard & cheetah), seven smaller cats (such as the caracal and serval), two species of elephant (African and forest), two rhinos (black & white), two hippos (pigmy and regular), two giraffes (the tall one and the okapi), three species of ape (gorilla, chimp & bonobo), three zebras, nine gazelle species, nineteen duiker, dozens of monkeys, five species of baboon, a gaggle of genets & civets, six different pigs, four pangolins, three reedbucks, some horsey antelopes, some dwarf antelopes, nine species of spiral-horned bovine (including the bongo, sitatunga and the eland), two wildebeests, the aardvark, the aardwolf, the drill and the mandrill, the rhebok, the blesbok, the gemsbok, the African buffalo, the nubien ibex, three hyenas, three jackals, the Ethiopian wolf, the wild dog, and many other mammals, not to mention the ostrich, three species of crocodile, the African python, plus sharks and other sizable fish and other terrestrial animals of every imaginable sort….that’s why!” (Source: National Geographic – September 2005)

Yes, Africa is blessed with the most amazing abundance of wildlife, its landscapes are much celebrated and the incredible sounds and smells of Africa will forever bring back wonderful memories of being on safari in this seemingly timeless land.

Then there’s the fact that all that natural wonder and wildness is so accessible. No longer is it the preserve of the very wealthy, nor do you need endless amounts of time or have to endure miles of bumpy tracks and suffer heat and dust – modern tourism has opened up Africa to all, in comfort and style, and under the watchful eye of the many dedicated safari guides that call Africa home.

Beryl Markham, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and author of the memoir West with the Night, is reputed to have remarked: “Africa is mystic; it is wild; it is a sweltering inferno; it is a photographer’s paradise, a hunter’s Valhalla, an escapist’s Utopia. It is what you will, and it withstands all interpretations. It is the last vestige of a dead world or the cradle of a shiny new one. To a lot of people, as to myself, it is just ‘home’. It is all these things but one thing — it is never dull.”

For many, Africa gets under your skin too – whether you call it home, or travel there seeking adventure. This letter by Cam Fergus from Melbourne in Australia (courtesy Travel Africa magazine) sums up the feeling rather well –:

“Surely everyone who has had the honour of setting foot on African soil understands how difficult it is to answer the question: “Why Africa?” I’ve often found it impossible to do Africa justice in words.

In the past I’ve felt that my answers never conveyed the joy I feel when I hear the word Africa, see a glimpse of her on television, or hear African people talking in the street. My answers are most often unsatisfying and frequently leave my audience unconvinced. But of late I’ve found a much simpler way to explain it.

Africa is a feeling. Africa is an emotion.

Of course it is much more detailed than that, but also just as simple.

Africa is the awe-inspiring landscapes, the beauty in the people, the wild creatures that inhabit the land and the seas, and it’s the speed in which the sun leaves in the evening and comes again in the morning. The feeling of Africa waking up is indescribable, dramatic and incomparable.

Africa seems to breathe life, into itself and into all things. And death. And the cycles in between. Africa is the longed-for lover, the oft-missed friend, and the trusted elder.

Africa is all of these things but maybe none of them. Africa affects us in a deep, personal, individual way. It comes to us in an instant, inhabits our being, and never leaves.

I long for Africa. I miss it every day. It embodies all that I believe about life, space and freedom, even though such things are often scarce commodities on the ground. Africa is a memory, a constant presence and is all future possibilities. Africa is old and wise, new and dynamic, and I will be there again.”

Enough said…