About – Storycatcher

Southern Africa has been home to six generations of my family.

I have a passion for the subcontinent, its people, landscapes and animals.

My career has included radio and television broadcasting, adventure travel, writing, and public speaking.

I’m the author of three books and, when not in my bespoke truck, I live in a bush camp at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountains.

Zambia is the land of my birth and youth

And it will forever be one of my deep places. The copper leaves of msasa trees shaded my playpen and the clack of their exploding pods was my nursery soundtrack.

Dad was a doctor. His safari-suit pockets bulged with a stethoscope, an outsized pipe, and some golf tees. Beethoven’s symphonies filled our house, as did Mum’s soprano rehearsing her oratorio solos: “Rejoice, rejoice, rejoy-hoy-hoy-hoyce grrrreatly.” My sister, Shirley, and I built dens at the bottom of the garden and squabbled over piano duets.

Dominican nuns in Lusaka and Harare schooled me with rigorous dedication. Their belief in community service uber alles made me a life-long sucker for underdogs of the two- and four-legged variety. I went on to UCT and read English, Drama, French and Music. I even had a stab at opera singing. The listening public should be relieved that I failed.

You’d think all this would equip me for little more than parlour games. As it turns out, I was perfectly equipped for public service broadcasting. I joined ‘the service’ in 1990 and spent thirteen happy years in radio and TV, presenting and producing all manner of shows. My favourite was Patricia’s People, a radio programme that profiled the great explorers, scientists, historians and eccentrics of the world.

WILD PLACES AND WILD CREATURES

I have a great love of bushing – on foot, by canoe and by 4×4. The wilderness has always been my solace and inspiration.

When Zimbabwe’s animals, wild and domesticated, got caught in the crossfire of the farm invasions in the early 2000s, thirteen SAfm listeners and I joined a fundraiser for the Zim SPCA. We walked 500 kilometres from the lowest to the highest points of Zimbabwe at a sole- and soul-destroying rate of 50 kilometres per day, and learned a great deal about camaraderie and pain thresholds.

Mountains and me have a troubled relationship

I loathe the damned things but keep going back to discover why. I have climbed Kilimanjaro twice, when once was quite definitely enough. I had a stab at Aconcagua – the highest peak in the Southern Hemisphere – and was secretly relieved when a storm near the summit saved me from admitting that I had neither the desire nor physical wherewithal to push for the peak.

More high-altitude masochism came in 2003 in the form of fifty-nine long days – and even longer nights – at Base Camp, Mount Everest, where I was employed as a journalist and broadcaster for the South African Discovery Expedition.

FOOTING WITH SIR RICHARD’S GHOST

No more high peaks for me. With my dog by my side I went in pursuit of ancestor of mine who rode from Durban to the Victoria Falls in 1863. I used his diary to retrace his journey on foot along the 19^th century hunter/trader route to the interior of Africa. All 2‍ 164ks of it!

THE GREAT KALAHARI THEN BECKONED

I mounted a heritage-mapping expedition into the desert on behalf an elderly San/Bushman called David Kruiper, the traditional leader of the Khomani community, the last of South Africa’s first people.

Over the following six years I took the Khomani community’s other elders on similar trips. The work was timely because all but three of these people are now dead. We didn’t capture more than a thimbleful of their knowledge and memories but at least their families now have DVDs of the journeys that I hope will help preserve what little is left of their old ways.

Norman’s Farming Business

Between 2016 and 2020 I worked on a farming business with – and for – my long-time gardener Norman Ndlovu.

Since I’m neither a farmer nor a businesswoman, I could offer Norman little but seed capital and encouragement. But Norman is a good farmer and born businessman and is now successfully producing vegetables for shops and communities in Gauteng.

Storycatcher

And now? I’m plying my trade as a story catcher. My two dogs and I ride the backroads of southern Africa in an off-road truck in search of interesting people to showcase in podcasts, videos and blogs.

Storycatcher

And that’s where you come into the picture

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