On his expeditions through Africa, the explorer and missionary David Livingstone took "salted provisions" but wasted no chance to shoot game for fresh meat. In June 1863, he was exploring the Shire River, a tributary of the Zambezi, when he came across an "abundance" of buffalo.
Sending for his rifle, he stalked the herd "with intense eagerness for a fat beefsteak" – but the buffalo got away. Nearly 150 years later I was crouched in almost exactly the same spot, watching another abundance of buffalo as it drank at a water hole in a blur of dust and flies.
It was a heartening sight – all that tonnage of flesh and blood, yet barely a sound save the odd snort – but a decade ago you wouldn't have seen it. This is Majete Wildlife Reserve, in Malawi, and from the Eighties it was systematically poached until little game was left bar a few duiker (small antelope).
Poaching it seems was rampant in Majete Game Reserve in Malawi with the last Elephant and Rhino poached in the 1990's. The Animals had all but disappeared by 2001/2002.
The real sundowner moment – when Majete raised a glass to a job well done – came in August 2013 with the reintroduction of lions (four were brought from South Africa; one died in transit). The release of these apex predators marked the symbolic completion of a programme that has seen some 2,500 animals reintroduced to the reserve.
There is strict law enforcement now and poaching has been systematically and successfully stopped.
Sending for his rifle, he stalked the herd "with intense eagerness for a fat beefsteak" – but the buffalo got away. Nearly 150 years later I was crouched in almost exactly the same spot, watching another abundance of buffalo as it drank at a water hole in a blur of dust and flies.
It was a heartening sight – all that tonnage of flesh and blood, yet barely a sound save the odd snort – but a decade ago you wouldn't have seen it. This is Majete Wildlife Reserve, in Malawi, and from the Eighties it was systematically poached until little game was left bar a few duiker (small antelope).
Poaching it seems was rampant in Majete Game Reserve in Malawi with the last Elephant and Rhino poached in the 1990's. The Animals had all but disappeared by 2001/2002.
The real sundowner moment – when Majete raised a glass to a job well done – came in August 2013 with the reintroduction of lions (four were brought from South Africa; one died in transit). The release of these apex predators marked the symbolic completion of a programme that has seen some 2,500 animals reintroduced to the reserve.
There is strict law enforcement now and poaching has been systematically and successfully stopped.
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