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Adventures with Kingsley Holgate (3)

Adventures with Kingsley Holgate (3)

Date: 2016-04-22
This is a series of 24 action-packed Land Rover dispatches, the first batch of which recounts a yearlong journey to follow the entire Great African Rift Valley. It's a story best told in the words taken from the scribbles in Kingsley's sweat-stained expedition journals

"Still in the old walled city of Harar, I buy camel meat from the Muslim market where the butcher throws bits of intestine into the air to be caught by swooping yellow-billed kites.

In the town square we drink strong black Ethiopian coffee from small china cups. That's when 'Ali the Afar' tells us about the other Harar residents who at night gather at the edge of Jugal (the other name for the walled city) waiting for the humans to go to sleep so that they can prowl the streets. There's even man who feeds them meat with his own mouth.

With only the expedition Land Rover's headlights to illuminate the crazy scene, we watch in amazement as Abbas the Hyena Man calls into the night. There's that familiar whooping sound and hyena eyes shine in the dark, soon they are all around us. It's breeding season so we must be careful, says Abbas, as the alpha male comes forward to snatch a piece of rotten camel meat from the end of a short stick held between Abbas's teeth. I shit myself! Sitting on a rock, the massively strong spotted hyenas all around me. Abbas parades the meat in front of my face - I hear the snap of their powerful jaws and smell the rotten meat. According to legend these wild hyenas are fed in good times so that in times of drought they won't attack livestock or people (that's if you're not possessed by an evil spirit) - we'll keep you posted."

These adventures are brought to you by Land Rover Ballito, 37 Moffat Drive, Ballito. Call them and make a date to take one of their Land Rover models for a test drive on 032 - 946 1391.