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Never a Dull Moment
This is my first book about my experiences in the African bush.
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Paddy Hagelthorn’s unmistakeable touch is evident wherever his path takes him – with his associates in the Sabi Sand, with his guests, and with the animals he comes in contact with. How many people can share their seat in a Land Rover with a leopard and find no sign of aggression? Just curiosity. All seem to understand that Paddy is a man of the earth. He is without malice, without arrogance and without aggression.
Paddy was one of the founders of the Savanna Private Game Reserve in the Sabi Sand where he has worked for the past 18 years. Before that he had spent seven years living in the Zimbabwean bush and then a decade working with Dave Varty at Londolozi and CCAfrica. He loves the bushveld and everything that creeps, crawls, runs, jumps or flies and enjoys every moment he spends showing guests his magical world. His second ambition has always been to record both the stories of his experiences in the bushveld and the amazing pictures he has captured.
“In this book you will will meet Paddy Hagelthorn, the ultimate African story teller and one of the last whose roots come from hunting and true bush lore learnt, not from books, but from practical experience in the wilds of Africa. It is these deep roots in the African soil, that give Paddy his unmistakable authenticity and make him a safari guide with few equals. You will also discover Paddy’s genius with his camera. He has captured the charm, the unusual and often spectacular events in the wilderness – a leopard hunting a leguaan, undeterred by the waves whipped up by gale-force winds, the matriach helping her herd which slipped and fell on the muddy banks of the Sand River, a jackal which tried to stop a python from entering his den and swallowing all the pups. These are just a few of Paddy’s fascinating subjects. Anyone who is lucky enough to spend time with Paddy in the bush will relish the unforgettable experience. And so is it as you turn the pages of this book “- Dave Varty
Never a Dull Moment
For the USA, $10 plus shipping, with PayPal options.
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This is a story about the African Bushveld, its delights and its problems. Turning over the pages of the book will make anyone want to experience the magic of the Bushveld. The photography is superb. But the real purpose of the book is in the text.
Here in the Bushveld there are problems. There is not enough money, not enough space, a fickle climate with a year of floods soon followed by severe droughts and, not least of all, a poaching industry that has flourished. Despite CITES’ 40-year-old ban on the sale of rhino horn, which was followed a few years later by a ban on ivory sales, this industry has flourished. In South Africa, if the rate of killing rhinoceros continues, the species will be extinct in a very short space of time. This will also lead to a break in the chain of dependency of one species on another.
Just a Blade of Grass bravely tackles emotively charged issues such as elephant culling, the legal sale of rhino horn when not a single rhino needs to be killed, and the role of a responsible hunting industry, all of which could provide substantial and sustainable much needed revenue.
This book will make anyone think twice about what can and should be done to save not just Africa’s, but the world’s rich heritage of wildlife. Paddy Hagelthorn has spent most of his life in the African Bushveld and is described by Dr John Hanks, formerly head of the WWF in South Africa, as one of the continent’s best safari guides and Molly Buchanan, who has written many books on Africa’s wildlife world (including National Geographic’s “Safari: the Romance and the Reality”, have put together a remarkable book. And although it is beautiful, it makes no attempt to give a romantic view of Africa’s wildlife.
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Just a Blade of Grass
For the USA, $10 plus shipping, with PayPal options.