Author: Hoffman

Below is an extract from my diary, which I decided to also read for you. Enjoy! It is just before midday. The grass here is patchy and the sun has baked the grey sand to a burn. The veld has become like an oven. The time has come to seek some shade to cool down and have a drink. The only shade is from a few black thorn shrub-trees. At midday their shade is drawn in close and I have to crawl carefully through a tangle of thorny saplings to get to decent cover. I have wiggled myself into...

I am privileged to be in the Kalahari at a rare moment in its many aeons of tumultuous history – the rains have come in abundance. I turned back to camp earlier than usual, because a storm was building, and I had to get ready for the night. Here are my thoughts once I got back to my camp: And here’s a sped-up video I made:...

On my morning walk I spotted something that I thought was unusual for the Kalahari – at least for this part. You can read about it here:...

I found fresh leopards tracks in a sandy spot, and as I sat in the shade of a shepards tree, sheltering from the vicious sting of the morning sun, I thought about this leopard, and leopards in general. You can listen to my thoughts here. Enjoy!...

Here’s an impromptu recording, made while driving through the bush one morning. Enjoy!...

After my late brunch I moved my chair to a solid patch of shade and browsed through the few snaps I had taken on the morning walk. One was of a calcareous flat, or pan, some five kilometres south of my camp. I had circled round to keep on the right side of the wind, and approached it from the West. The pan was ringed by higher ground – not hills, more like ancient dunes that rose lazily above the even sweep of the Kalahari. As I caught my first glimpses of the pan, I made out some springbuck,...

I thought to post a short video on the morning coffee making sermon; honey bees delightfully insisted on forming part of the liturgy… Below is a YouTube link to the video. Enjoy! https://youtu.be/9zI9Apn7fcY...

When I move to a new area and I am alone, as is usually the case, it is necessary to take the vehicle through the veld, so that I can have some supplies with me. Here is a short video of bits of such a drive to a new area. Enjoy!...

On the African savannah trees are so abundant that it can easily blunt the senses and the spirit of even the most ardent arborist. Yet, they are truly magnificent beings that can be admired for much more than just their possible utility. You can listen to my reflections on them here: Enjoy!...

As John Denver mused during the seventies, “Some days are diamonds, some days are stones…” You can listen to a “stone” day (that is really also a diamond in disguise), in the veld. Enjoy!...