Where Leopards Cough

A true story of life in Africa under extreme conditions where there’s nothing to depend on other than your wits and an ability to improvise. A man, his dog Major, and a small group of helpers trucked across seemingly insurmountable mountainous terrain laden with drilling equipment and supplies to survive off the land in isolation for months. Extreme danger and excitement—at times life-threatening—abounds, coupled with the beauty of nature and her wildlife. The author provides his readers with a slice of colonial life in the 1960s, describing progress through childhood, enduring army training, discovering pleasures of the opposite sex, exploring career options, and finally settling into what became a long career in exploration diamond drilling. It is also a story of love. Shortly after the contract in Ruangwa Valley, the author’s isolated and lonely life changed dramatically. He married a beautiful city girl who had never experienced camping, let alone the tough life in remote areas in the bush. Their two sons were born living under these conditions. The book ends as the young family leaves Zimbabwe, settling in Botswana. The sequel Scorched Sands of the Kalahari will tell the story of their adventures in that country.

A true story of life in Africa under extreme conditions where there's nothing to depend on other than your wits, and an ability to improvise. A man, his dog Major, and a small group of helpers, trucked across seemingly insurmountable mountainous terrain laden with drilling equipment and supplies to survive off the land in isolation for months. Extreme danger and excitement at times life threatening abounds, coupled with the beauty of nature and her wild life. The author provides his readers with a slice of colonial life in the 1960s. Describing progress through childhood, enduring army training, discovering pleasures of the opposite sex, exploring career options, and finally settling into what became a long career in exploration diamond drilling. Also a story of love, shortly after the contract in Ruangwa Valley the author's isolated and lonely life changed dramatically. He married a beautiful city girl having never experienced camping, let alone the tough life in remote areas in the bush. Their two sons were born living under these conditions. Book ends as the young family leaves Zimbabwe settling in Botswana. The sequel 'Scorched Sands Of The Kalahari' will tell the story of their adventures in that country.

It's a true, historical account of growing up in the old Rhodesia during the 60's through school, girls, army to ultimately settling on a career of exploration diamond drilling.The events related, centre in an extremely remote and wild part of North Eastern Rhodesia called Ruangwa Valley. A wilderness area, barren of humans, the closest human contact being a four-and-a-half-hour drive over almost inaccessible dirt roads and dangerous mountain passes. Logistics were a nightmare with meat rations acquired through hunting game for the pot and catching fish from the rivers. It describes how they impacted on the land and its wild-life. It's a story of adventure and survival, of a white man and his dog, living in close connection with a team of black men, all living and working in and surviving off the wilderness under conditions that are now gone for ever.The book provides an interesting insight into the world of exploration diamond drilling, which invariably happens in wild, remote and tough conditions. There is extreme danger and excitement, coupled with the beauty of nature in Africa, and her wild life. There are unique experiences - some life threatening - with elephant, leopard, rhino, and snakes. There were also difficulties, hardships and dangers as they traversed mountain passes, with all the drilling equipment packed on the back of trucks not designed for those conditions. Soon after the contract in Ruangwa Valley was completed his isolated and lonely life changed dramatically when he married a city girl, raised in a comfortable home. She had never experienced camping, let alone the tough circumstances of living in remote areas in the bush. Their two sons were born whilst living under these conditions and raised in a caravan. One of these areas happened to be the Gwaai River Mine at the time of the tragic Wankie Coal Mine disaster where more than four hundred people lost their lives in a methane gas explosion. The book ends with the family leaving Rhodesia via South Africa to ultimately settling in Botswana. The sequel to this book will relate to the families interesting life experiences in Botswana.

Elizabeth Marshall Thomas has spent a lifetime observing other creatures and other cultures, from her own backyard to the African savannah. Her books have transported millions of readers into the hidden lives of animals—from dogs and cats to deer and lions. She’s chronicled the daily lives of African tribes, and even imagined the lives of prehistoric humans. She illuminates unknown worlds like no other. Now, she opens the doors to her own. Dreaming of Lions traces Thomas’s life from her earliest days, including when, as a young woman in the 1950s, she and her family packed up and left for the Kalahari Desert to study the Ju/Wa Bushmen. The world’s understanding of African tribal cultures has never been the same since. Nor has Thomas, as the experience taught her not only how to observe, but also how to navigate in male-dominated fields like anthropology and animal science and do what she cared about most: spending time with animals and people in wild places, and relishing the people and animals around her at home. Readers join Thomas as she returns to Africa, after college and marriage, with her two young children, ending up in the turmoil leading to Idi Amin’s bloody coup. She invites us into her family life, her writing, and her fascination with animals—from elephants in Namibia, to dogs in her kitchen, or cougars outside her New England farmhouse. She also recounts her personal struggles, writing about her own life with the same kind of fierce honesty that she applies to the world around her, and delivering a memoir that not only shares tremendous insights, but also provides tremendous inspiration. Dreaming of Lions, originally published in hardcover as A Million Years With You, is slightly updated and includes a powerful new afterword by the author.

"Designed to provide brief information on the history, care, uses, and breeding of Louisiana Catahoula leopard dogs"--To the reader.

A compelling case for connecting with the wild, for our psychological and physical well-being and to flourish as a species We often enjoy the benefits of connecting with nearby, domesticated nature—a city park, a backyard garden. But this book makes the provocative case for the necessity of connecting with wild nature—untamed, unmanaged, not encompassed, self-organizing, and unencumbered and unmediated by technological artifice. We can love the wild. We can fear it. We are strengthened and nurtured by it. As a species, we came of age in a natural world far wilder than today's, and much of the need for wildness still exists within us, body and mind. The Rediscovery of the Wild considers ways to engage with the wild, protect it, and recover it—for our psychological and physical well-being and to flourish as a species. The contributors offer a range of perspectives on the wild, discussing such topics as the evolutionary underpinnings of our need for the wild; the wild within, including the primal passions of sexuality and aggression; birding as a portal to wildness; children's fascination with wild animals; wildness and psychological healing; the shifting baseline of what we consider wild; and the true work of conservation.

A landmark in the publication of twentieth-century American poetry, this first volume of the long-awaited collected poetry, non-critical prose, and plays of Robert Duncan gathers all of Duncan’s books and magazine publications up to and including Letters: Poems 1953–1956. Deftly edited, it thoroughly documents the first phase of Duncan’s distinguished life in writing, making it possible to trace the poet’s development as he approaches the brilliant work of his middle period. This volume includes the celebrated works Medieval Scenes and The Venice Poem, all of Duncan’s long unavailable major ventures into drama, his extensive “imitations” of Gertrude Stein, and the remarkable poems written in Majorca as responses to a series of collaged paste-ups by Duncan’s life-long partner, the painter Jess. Books appear in chronological order of publication, with uncollected periodical and other publications arranged chronologically, following each book. The introduction includes a biographical commentary on Duncan’s early life and works, and clears an initial path through the textual complexities of his early writing. Notes offer brief commentaries on each book and on many of the poems. The volume to follow, The Collected Later Poetry and Plays, will include The Opening of the Field (1960), Roots and Branches (1964), Bending the Bow (1968), Ground Work (1984), and Ground Work II (1987).