The wilderness at home “S

omething, or someone, is stealing our arum lilies,” I said to my wife. It was just after sunrise and we were staring at two freshly excavated holes in the ground. All that was left of two young plants was a half-chewed leaf, lying in the disturbed soil like evidence at a crime scene. “Porcupines,” declared a friend who lives close by. Earlier that morning he’d heard rustling in his garden. When he went to investigate, he saw three culprits hightailing it. “The buggers were after my watsonias.” I’ll probably change my mind if the porcupines continue snacking their way through my garden, but for now the thought of something wild living in my midst is balm for my soul. It’s the same way I feel when I hear the hoo-hoo of a Cape eagle-owl outside my bedroom window before daybreak. Years ago I visited friends who lived in Skukuza in the Kruger Park. My friend worked for SANParks and lived in the staff village with his young family. Around the braai one night, I listened incredulously as he told me how difficult it was to tend his garden. At night, elephants would flatten his front gate to get to the agapanthus his wife had planted only that morning. He’d go outside in his pajamas and shoo them away with a torch. “And that dent at the back of your bakkie?” I asked. “Black rhino,” he said. “They have quite a temper.” While we chatted, a bushbaby brazenly stole canned peaches off the table then leapt into the rafters and watched us goggle-eyed. It’s an extraordinary kind of life when the Kruger Park is your back yard, and it’s a life that Sophia van Taak describes beautifully in her feature on page 40. Speaking of extraordinary lives... Toast Coetzer and Erns Grundling spent a month in Namibia filming our very first TV series. All the details are on page 58. It’s called Weg Agterpaaie and judging by the previews, we’ve got cause to be excited. Tune in on Wednesday 24 August at 8.30 pm on Via (channel 147 on DStv) and watch the first episode.