'After thirty years of reading, research and talking to like-minded people I was surprised to discover that I had missed a nearby hidden corner of wild Africa inhabited by large wild mammals of consequence. In 2011 I was commissioned to do five large paintings for a client who is a very experienced safari aficionado of Tanzania. One of the paintings was to be of a place I had never heard of - Burko on the edge of the Engaruka Depression. I needed to go there and get the material I needed for that painting. Robin Hurt, a friend and safari operator from Tanzania, told me about the mountain and also organized the logistics of a short visit to what was one of his concessions. “You will have to have an armed guide” he said. “It’s dense forest up on the top and sides of the mountain and every year several Maasai are killed by buffalo there.” A few weeks later, Clarissa and I found ourselves climbing up the Eastern flank of this really unique mountain which lies within sight of Arusha and the Crater Highlands where Ngorongoro can be found. But it is deceptively unremarkable when seen from the main road to the Crater highlands. Close up it’s a different story altogether. With our armed guide, John Ngaleshoni, and several Maasai trackers we climbed up out of the arid plains surrounding Burko towards the clouds which envelop the mountain every morning. Up higher we entered the cloud base - the eerie aspect and scenery much like something that Arthur Conan Doyle might have dreamed up as a sequel to his book The Lost World. As we struggled upwards the game paths we were using became littered with progressively fresher and fresher buffalo droppings and we spooked a magnificent male bushbuck at a beautiful spring-fed forest pool near the top. By mid morning we were walking along game paths which had leveled out near the summit ridges and the air was very crisp and cold. It was here in the cloud-wreathed forest that one of the Maasai trackers stopped and stroked a moss covered tree. “Spirits live on this mountain,” he declared, his eyes revealing his utter belief in what he had just said. “And they eat the buffalo from this mountain!” Looking around at the dark and mysterious forest it was quite easy to let one’s imagination run riot and to believe what he was saying might just be true.'
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This is one painting of 200+ African, wildlife, Swahili Coast, bird and African landscape works featured in the archive section of this website.