'There are few places in Africa that are as atmospheric as the Makgadikgadi pans in central Botswana. These pans, which are vast salt-flats liberally sprinkled with granite ‘islands’ covered in strangely gnarled baobabs, are still places where wildlife and wilderness survive intact to this day. There is also an historic aspect. The salt flats were a barrier to explorers traveling northwards from the 1850s onwards. Livingstone wrote about travel in this region and the routes pioneered by him were used a few years later by missionaries from the London Missionary Society. Particular baobabs on this route became covered in explorer, trader and missionary graffiti. Each passing party carved their own contributions into baobabs near specific water holes, that were used as stopping places. My first visit to the area was in 1985 with crazy aviator Lloyd Wilmot, son of crocodile hunter Bobby Wilmot. Using his tiny plane, we made a small expedition to go and have a look at a specific ‘island,’ which had ancient ruins on it. Landing on the salt adjacent to the ‘island,’ we camped there exploring the ruins and marveling at the weird baobabs that stood all around. Because there was still some water about after the end of the rains, there were kudu on the island as well. So when walking, and because we had heard lions calling at night, it was hard not to be startled when a kudu suddenly broke cover close by. One such heart-stopping occasion provided me with the inspiration for ‘Kudu Country.'

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