Dianne Tipping-Woods

Could changing how we train rangers impact counter-poaching by making rangers more resilient to the pressures they face? A new ranger training curriculum being piloted in South Africa thinks it could…
“Being in nature humbles and rewards us on a daily basis, but it also demands that we give a lot,” says ranger Billy Moumakoe. He’s on a short break, somewhere along the fenceline of Pilanesberg National Park in South Africa’s North West Province. Despite the cold, there is nowhere he would rath...

As Anety shifts her baby from hip to hip—she wants to stand but the wound from her caesarean section still hurts a bit—she casually talks about confronting poachers and her lucky escapes from these criminals and wildlife like elephants and buffalos.
She didn’t quit when she was almost killed by poachers, or when a colleague was murdered, or when an elephant tried to crush and bury her in her tent, or even when she had her first child six years ago. The baby’s father died in 2014, leaving her ...

At 3 am one October morning in 2018, a wooden canoe slid into the black waters of Lake Itezhi Tezhi, leaving the shore of Kafue National Park and heading toward the unprotected land on the lake’s eastern side. Darkness hid the two men in the hand-carved mokoro. Or so they thought.
“They were leaving the national park,” explains Patricia Mweetwa, a community ranger with Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW). Her unit is tasked with keeping the waters and shores of the lake ...

A discussion on wilderness, sex and sanity.

“Anthropomorphic? You better bloody believe it! Conservation is emotional stuff. It’s time to put hot red blood into our science!” The words pulse with the energy of a gathering lowveld storm, rumbling over the deck dotted with fire-finches and blue waxbills, towards the distant Mariepskop mountains.

Poet, Psychiatrist and Wilderness advocate Ian McCallum is deep in it now, blue eyes blazing with joyful passion. “Wilderness is all about sex and vita...

Forging a life of mutual benefit in Botswana’s Eastern Okavango Panhandle
The elephants move quietly through the gathering darkness, but Tumisi “Shorty” Tlale can hear them. “Listen,” he says, his head cocked to one side as he tries to get a fix on their position. “They’re coming.” A farmer in the eastern panhandle of Botswana’s Okavango Delta, Tlale’s ears are attuned to the elephants’ low rumbles as they move through the bush. If his sensitive ears have given him an initial advantage though...

The pretty pink flowers seem to be floating in the mist, each with two curious yellow dots poking out at the end of the stamens. As we get closer we see the flowers are mounted on stalks that pop out of rosettes of leaves. It has rained and the plants are submerged in water, growing out from the...

Limpopo's Bruce Lawson initially decided to walk 150km to raise money for food parcels — and he hasn't stopped walking since

On April 28, Limpopo wilderness guide Bruce Lawson decided to walk 150km around a 400m track in his garden over three days, to raise money for food parcels. He hasn't stopped walking since. More than two weeks later, he's nearing the 1,000km mark, with over R400,000 raised. That's more than 30,000 meals for families in need...

“You start with a dog that doesn’t know what you want from it and then it ends up saving a rhino.” When Tina de Flamingh arrived in South Africa as a tourist, with two suitcases and a love for dogs and nature, no one would have predicted the contribution she would go on to make to countering rhino poaching in the country’s iconic Kruger National Park. But she is a woman who quietly defies expectations and flips stereotypes on their head, as Dianne Tipping-Woods discovered in a conversation wi...

Eight loosely acquainted women swap Joburg and Cape Town for the Greater Kruger National Park, embarking on an epic journey of discovery about wilderness, self, and the relationship between the two.

“Why have you come here?” guide Brenden Pienaar asked as we gathered under a copse of Jackalberry trees on the banks for the Nhlaralumi River, our departure point for a fully immersive, back-to-basics hike through the wilds of the Greater Kruger National Park.
Our answers were as varied as we were; eight women from different backgrounds, cities and interests. We wanted quiet, we wanted...

The rhino was down. We’d been briefed by veterinarian Dr. Shaun Beverley from Limpopo Wildlife Vets that once the dart takes effect, there is a small window of opportunity to get to the animal, get its horn off, and administer the antidote. In a decade, more than 8 000 African rhinos have been poached. In February 2019 the South African Department of Environmental Affairs, released the 2018 poaching numbers, which indicated 1 028 rhinos were killed for their horns in 2017 in South Africa...

The giraffe pauses frequently making its way towards the waterhole with peculiar grace. From the vantage point of the underground hide, it seems unduly cautious given its size, but wariness and curiosity are two hallmarks of this large mammal. It gets closer. At some stage, all you see are knobbly legs covered in coarse hair and scar tissue. Then it splays one foot at a time, bending to drink. “If you only start taking pictures now, the sound of the shutter might spook it,” says photographic guide Villiers Steyn.

Four young men in Mpumalanga share their fears, frustrations and ambitions as

they document life in lockdown through their photography.

“Taking photos has made me see how powerfully an image can speak the unsaid fears and anger in people’s lives,” says Wisani Ngwenya (20), from Ludlow Village in Mpumalanga. Wisani is part of a group of young photographers who have been spending lockdown longing for freedom, but obeying the rules. He’s been taking photos to pass the time, but also to document the world as he’s experiencing it right now.

The sound of sizzling oil has always been the sound of salvation for Belina Maselana. The trainee chef at the Singita Community Culinary School is sautéeing spirals of spinach to be served with the bowl of umngqusho she’s prepared. A creamy, comforting mix of samp, beans, parmesan cheese and onion purée. The dish is part of the tapas menu at Singita Lebom bo Lodge, a modern take on a meal prepared in homes across South Africa and a favourite of Nelson Mandela...

“The animals don’t care if I am a man or a woman; to them I am just a human being.”

This statement Khomotso Mokoena was lingering in the back of my mind as the lioness looked at us, before disappearing into a thicket. She’d been stalking a wildebeest when we surprised her on our morning walk from Lower Sabie. She’d run as we stood frozen behind our guides, savouring the unique and very human thrill of encountering a big cat on foot...

Being in nature involves a good deal more than a travel experience. How about deepening your connection to the natural world at these evocative spots?
A spiritual awakening
Mapungubwe National Park
I find that it is only in the presence of genuine natural beauty that one can truly be at peace. • • • • #mapungubwe #nature #beauty #wilderness
A post shared by Ryan Hopkins (@ryhopkins1) on Jan 4, 2018 at 1:38am PST
To say there’s something mystical and magical about Mapungubwe is an understateme...