Swimming With Crocodiles

In the tradition of Into the Wild, here is the riveting story of a young man seeking his own truth and finding adventure in the awesome, unforgiving power of nature. Will Chaffey is eighteen when he boards a plane in New York bound for Australia. Taking time off to work and travel, Will meets an enigmatic wanderer and herpetologist. Together they cross the inland desert to the tropical northwest coast, home to the saltwater crocodile, a known man- eater and a predator who has been hunting since the age of the dinosaurs. They devise a plan to explore the remote Prince Regent River, a trek so dangerous it had never been attempted by outsiders. Passing through harsh, primeval country, shadowed by their own exhaustion, and physically worn down, they find themselves locked in a life-and-death struggle when their food runs out and, unable to leave, they are stalked by a hungry crocodile. Filled with scenes of great natural beauty, Swimming with Crocodiles is at once the affecting account of a journey into adulthood and a hair- raising epic of survival.

There is evidence that a distinct pattern of alcohol consumption is emerging across the world and is a cause for concern because of its relationship with a range of health and social problems. Its visibility, particularly its high involvement of young people, makes this not only an issue for public safety and order in many countries, but also a highly contentious and politicized subject. This book examines the rapid and heavy drinking behavior by young people, described in a number of countries, positioning it within its appropriate social, historical and cultural contexts. The book argues in favor of a new term, “extreme drinking,” to fully encapsulate the many facets of this behavior, taking into account the underlying motivations for the heavy, excessive and unrestrained drinking patterns of many young people. It also acknowledges the drinking process itself and accommodates greater focus on outcomes that are likely to follow. In many ways, “extreme drinking” is not so far removed from other “extreme” behaviors, such as extreme sports – all offer a challenge, their pursuit is motivated by an expectation of pleasure, and they are, by design, not without risk to those who engage in them, others around them and society as a whole. Edited by Marjana Martinic and Fiona Measham, Swimming with Crocodiles is the ninth volume in the ICAP Book Series on Alcohol in Society. The authors discuss the factors that motivate extreme drinking, address the developmental, cultural and historical contexts that have surrounded it, and offer a new approach to addressing this behavior through prevention and policy. The centerpiece of the book is a series of focus groups conducted with young people in Brazil, China, Italy, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, which examine their views on extreme drinking, motivations behind it and the cultural similarities and differences that exist, conferring at once risk and protective factors.

From the dust of dilapidated buildings at a third world airport to the mists of Mosi-oa-Tunya (Victoria Falls); from a river boat ride on the Zambesi to a walk with elephants across a savanna, the reader moves with Chris and Carol, and then embarks with them on an adventure deep in the African bush. Unprotected by any kind of defensive weapons save the savvy of their guide, they sleep in tents at night and by day plow across the sands of the Kalahari on the hard seat of an opensided LandRover or skim over the waters of the Okivango Delta balanced in the bottom of a makoro. All to sneak up on reclusive cheetahs, follow wild dogs on their hunt for dinner, swim in a crocodile creek, pole apprehensively across a pond to avoid submerged hippos, and confront an angry bull elephant. The reader is invited to share the grit, the heat, and the inherent dangers that are quickly displaced by the raw, primitive seduction of Africa.

Everybody knows that crocodiles love water, but this little crocodile is different. He doesn't like water at all. In fact, he prefers climbing trees! But it can be lonely when you're the odd one out, so the little crocodile tries his best to change. But being wet isn't for everyone - and a shiver soon becomes a cold and the cold becomes a sneeze, a very hot sneeze... Could it be that this little crocodile isn't a crocodile at all? A funny, unique and uplifting story for children of all ages. Other tites from author-illustrator, Gemma Merino: The Cow who Climbed the Tree.

To Swim with Crocodiles: Land, Violence, and Belonging in South Africa, 1800–1996 offers a fresh perspective on the history of rural politics in South Africa, from the rise of the Zulu kingdom to the civil war at the dawn of democracy in KwaZulu-Natal. The book shows how Africans in the Table Mountain region drew on the cultural inheritance of ukukhonza—a practice of affiliation that binds together chiefs and subjects—to seek social and physical security in times of war and upheaval. Grounded in a rich combination of archival sources and oral interviews, this book examines relations within and between chiefdoms to bring wider concerns of African studies into focus, including land, violence, chieftaincy, ethnic and nationalist politics, and development. Colonial indirect rule, segregation, and apartheid attempted to fix formerly fluid polities into territorial “tribes” and ethnic identities, but the Zulu practice of ukukhonza maintained its flexibility and endured. By exploring what Zulu men and women knew about and how they remembered ukukhonza, Kelly reveals how Africans envisioned and defined relationships with the land, their chiefs, and their neighbors as white minority rule transformed the countryside and local institutions of governance.