Below is a selection of recent and older articles. Sadly some of the publications that I used to write for are no longer on the shelves. There are however new ones around that have filled a niche in the market.
Happy reading
Tubing, white water inflatable kayaking and watercourse trout fishing are all life-time firsts thanks to the Gairezi River. It’s also responsible for introducing me to some amazing new people, cementing fantastic friendships, showing me awe inspiring Zimbabwe scenery, stunning …..
Special schooling in the wild – RIFA – 2014
Students pile out of the back of the landcruiser clutching quadrants, clinometers, ranging poles and infiltration rings. Carmine bee-eaters look down inquisitively from their perches above the dried up Chipandaure River as the morning’s geography class starts. Interspersed between sedimentation …..
Counting Wildlife in Mana Pools National Park- 2014
The solitary painted dog chased the nyala antelope out of view towards Long Pool. We heard a splash rapidly followed by anxious canine yelps. The dog quickly returned to its pack and Long Pool became a …..
Should you be on a full fat, fat free, low sugar, no sugar, Aitkin’s, cabbage, low GL or GI diet? There is so much information out there regarding the perfect, ultimate, or ‘the right’ diet that it’s …..
Counting Game in Hwange – 2014
The 2am temperature reading tells us it’s just 10 degrees, down from 32 degrees earlier in the day. The full moon lights up the landscape just enough for us to count our waterholes visitors, although it takes patience and a good pair of binoculars …..
Fun and Fast 5-a-side Footie – 2014
It’s dark and I’m sitting in the stands with a friend revelling in the cool evening air. I’m eating excellent pizza and bizarrely, I’m absorbed in watching a fast moving game of five-a-side football, which is very odd, because generally speaking I really…….
Get fit, ride your bike – 2014
Exercise and sport comes in many different formats. Some love it, even becoming addicted to it, whilst others despise it and will do absolutely anything not to get involved. Many tolerate and accept it as necessary to maintaining a healthy body whereas for others it becomes a major part of their social life, as …..
On your feet, hiking and running – 2014
Whether your two footed passion is running ultra events like the ‘Comrades’ and ‘Two Oceans’, or more sedate sunrise walks around the Botanical Gardens, walking and running are the easiest, quickest and cheapest ways for you to get fit. To do it you …
As the sun rises and the breeze picks up, the soft jingle of rigging competes with the dawn chorus of the birds along the Matusadona foreshore. The sky turns pink, the smell of coffee brewing and bacon cooking …..
Swimming, a great way to exercise – 2014
A Canadian friend who spent most winters in sub zero temperatures once said to me, “Zimbabwean winters are so quaint, they’re really just a good excuse to wear a jumper ”. Zimbabwe as usual is currently zooming from winter to summer and yet again I’ll be…..
Harare Int
international Festival of Arts – 2014
Acrobats, comedians, singers, actors, dancers, poets, guitarists, fashion shows and craft stalls, all together in Harare signals HIFA time again. The Harare International Festival of Arts is a showcase of skills, creativity and entertainment expressed …..
Sampling Kariba by Sail – 2014
I wake to the sounds of grunting hippos’, singing birds and the intermittent smells of the African bush as well as coffee brewing and bacon frying. My ceiling is a mosquito net and the wide open sky onto which, …..
Zimbabwe Voted Worlds best tourist destination – 2014
Zimbabwe has been voted ‘World’s Best Tourist Destination’ for 2014 by the European Council on Tourism and Trade. The ECTT is one of the largest institutes in the European Union that promotes tourism to international destinations and rates…..
Bumi Hills Haven of Luxury – 2010
Being in control of the tiller bar of our thirty foot, 6 berth Tiki 30 catamaran was a great feeling and I’d found, through experience and instruction the right position to keep our sails full so that we …….
Dust heat and Camaderie -Mana game count – 2010
There’s a tradition, amongst some of my friends and I, that when it’s full moon in September we all head off to the Zambezi valley. This year was no exception, our group of seven nationalities, joined 290 …….
This giants playground – Matobo Hills – 2010
There is a part of Zimbabwe where the peace and tranquillity is punctuated by the cry of the Black Eagle that has made this awesome ‘Giants playground’ it’s home. Here, leopards live amongst granite…….
Overland trucks – 2010It was hard to decide if it was the pothole’s size, the water in it, or the queue of traffic on the opposite side that presented the biggest problem. There was no alternative route, it was either forward, or backtrack 500km at an average speed of 35km/hour.
Mana Pools Game Count – 2005At 4.30am I became aware of the first sounds of movement; by five Nyamepi Camp in Mana Pools National Park was alive with torch light and chatter as 200 or so counters prepared for the day ahead.
When a devastating fire swept through one of the country’s foremost holiday resorts, the people of Victoria Falls learnt a valuable lesson in working together as a community. Here a voluntary fireman gives an eyewitness account of the inferno.
HIFA, the came, they sang, they rocked us – 2001
The Harare international Festival of the Arts (HIFA) came and went in a flurry of song, dance and artistic verve. Helen Patchett was fortunate enough to experience the stunning spectacle and reports on why it was one of the best things ever to have ….
Olive trees, nomads and deserts – 2001
Africa is the second largest continent and covers one fifth of the world’s landmass. The vast Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the Mozambique Channel, the Gulfs of Aden and Guinea, and the Red and Mediterranean …..
The Cool Crooners. half a century and … – 2001
When most people would be picking up their pensions and resigning themselves to a quiet life of retirement, the Cool Crooners are still cool and still crooning. Over 50 years ago the world swayed to a different kind …..
A Jim Reeves melody floats out onto the lawn which is in itself an indication that the aerobics class is over. Fanwell Sawana has finished strutting his stuff with the women from the local insurance company and is now alone in the gym. His favourite tunes fill the…
Where Pharaohs once ruled – 2001
At the northern-most tip of this great continent is a country so different from Zimbabwe it’s hard to believe that you’re still in Africa: Egypt, a land of stunning desert landscapes, ancient legends, fantastic beaches …
Tassili N’Ajjer National Park, Algeria – 2001
Tassili N’Ajjer is immense, an 80,000-square-kilometer national park that lies deep in Algerian share of the Sahara Desert. Plateaux and canyons shape its terrain, and on their rocks are painted and engraved…..
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city isn’t just a stop over point for somewhere perceived as being slightly more interesting. It is a place full of interesting crafts, undiscovered places and fantastic …..
The Makololo had been calling it ‘Musi au Tunya ’, the smoke that thunders, way before David _ Livingstone equitably romanticised that ‘Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight’.
Camp Amalinda, the place of granite – 1999
The Matopos is a place oi granite outcrops and stunning scenery. A place where the Black Eagle is more prolific than anywhere else in the world and where leopards share the rocks with inquisitive …..
Fothergill 1999As the dust settled a three-week old lion cub appeared, looking bemused and obviously not quite sure hot to go about getting some dinner. The opportunity soon arrived when one of his aunts came up for breath …..
This Giants playground of ours – Matopos – 1999
There is a part of Zimba bwe where the peace and tranquillity is punctuated by the cry of the Black Eagle that has made this awesome ‘Giant’s Playground’ its home. Here, leopards live amongst granite…..
Initially I thought the main problem was going to be with the pastry chef. The morning tea came with chocolate eclairs that boasted a disgustingly large amount of fresh cream and an artistic chocolate …..
A View from an elephants back – 1998
Saturday morning has traditionally been the time when people stagger out of bed with sore heads and parrot-cage mouths to adorn bad, fitting track suits and throw themselves around various sporting type places in an attempt to get fit and to lose all …..
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