Don't Look Behind You: True Tales of a Safari Guide

Don't Look Behind You: True Tales of a Safari Guide

by PeterAllison (Author)

Synopsis

In Peter's own words: These are the stories of a not particularly brave safari guide...As a child I knew that I was afraid of heights, and while uncomfortable admitting any phobia, was glad to have only one. Then I met my first crocodile. Now I know that there are at least two things in the world that unhinge my knees with fear, sour my breath, and overwhelm me with an urge to squeeze my eyes shut and wake up somewhere else. In this companion to "Don't Run, Whatever You Do", Peter Allison encounters ravenous lions, stampeding elephants and lovesick rhinos. He recounts his hairy, and often hilarious, adventures in a private section of South Africa's famous Kruger National Park and in Botswana's Okavango Delta, where desert animals from the Kalahari make their homes next to aquatic creatures like hippos, and where the unusual becomes commonplace. It is written with a wonderful, gentle humour evocative of Gerald Durrell. One can almost feel the heat from the campfire flames as the stories are told.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing
Published: 29 Oct 2009

ISBN 10: 1857885333
ISBN 13: 9781857885330

Media Reviews
He writes beautifully and viscerally about the rhythm of bush life... as a reader you can't help but get caught up in the author's infectious enthusiasm for Africa's beauty and its beasts. On turning the last page, booking the first plane out to Botswana was most tempting. * TNT Magazine *
Allison's writing is high on colour and is packed with engaging accounts of the sort of things that are just another day at the office for the average safari guide. If you love the thrill of safaris this book is for you. It is full of hair-raising stories of escape and adventure in the bush. Having worked for more than twenty years in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique, the stars of Allison's show are hungry lions and territorial hippos. There are some white-knuckle tales of dodging landmines too... * Sunday Telegraph *
This is a wry and immensely colourful account of a young man's adventures as a safari leader in Botswana. Scared of heights, unfamiliar with the gym and terrified of an innocuous little tree-frog, high school drop-out Peter's rapport with the job is not immediately obvious ... A hugely eloquent writer in spite of severe mid-safari injuries to the head, he masterfully paces suspense. You'll never look at an innocent safari tour the same way again. Hapless and shamelessly self-deprecating, he possesses the asset of a perfect story teller the ability to poke fun at himself. Witty, exciting and ultimately unmissable. * Real Travel *
Author Bio
Only 19 when he left Australia, Peter Allison arrived in Africa thinking he'd have a short holiday before going home to a 'proper job'. But Peter ended up falling in love with the continent and its wildlife, and after a few years was hired by Southern Africa's largest safari operator to train all their experts; over a decade later, his short holiday in Africa still isn't over.