Cry Of The Kalahari

[wetmule]

Published in 1984 - Written by Mark & Delia Owens - Non-fiction

 

This is the story of American husband and wife research biologists Mark & Delia Owens who in 1974 with not much more than the clothes on their back and a pair of binoculars purchased two tickets to South Africa. Once there they bought a third hand Land Rover and drove deep into the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. They lived for seven years, in an unexplored area with no roads, no people and no source of water for thousands of square miles. Their seven years in the Kalahari was an incredible adventure. Their goal was to conserve one of Africa's last untouched wildernesses. From their meager beginnings they developed one of the most important research conservation projects ever conducted. They learned how Kalahari lions and brown Hyenas survive droughts with little to eat and nothing to drink for months and years, how harsh conditions force lions to abandon their prides, and how brown hyenas, formerly thought to be solitary scavengers, help one another in raising young and even adopt each other's orphans. because the wildlife of the central Kalahari had never been studied before, virtually every observation Mark and Delia Made was an important scientific discovery.

Truly an incredible story of their lives, trials and tribulations, successes and struggles with the environment, the govt. of Botswana and the wildlife of the Kalahari. I highly reccomend this book, it's one of the most compelling and interesting true stories I've ever read.

 

"I defy anyone who picks up this book to put it down or to remain untouched by the story." ---- Marlin Perkins

 

"Fascinating... a magnificent cri de coeur for understanding animate creation." ---- Farley Mowatt

 

"One of the most absorbing true adventure stories I have ever read." ---- Roger Tory Peterson

 

"A remarkable story, beautifully told." ---- Chicago Tribune

[CouesWhitetail]

Sounds Aweseome! Thanks Kevin!

 

Amanda

[wetmule]

Rather than create a new thread with a new book I'll just add to this one since it is the same authors.

 

Book : "The Eye Of The Elephant" by Mark and Delia Owens - non-fiction - published 1992

 

After being expelled from Botswana for writing their controversial best seller, "Cry Of The Kalahari", Delia and Mark Owens set off on a journey across Africa, searching for a new eden. they found it in the North Luangwa Valley of Zambia, an area the size of Delaware with no roads, no buildings, and no people. Hippos and crocodiles swam in the rivers, lions stalked the bush, and elephants wandered into camp to eat the fruit of the Marulu trees. But the peace and quiet were soon shattered by gunfire; poachers were killing thousands of elephants a year. When they learned that the people in the villages around the valley depended on poaching to survive, Delia and Mark became a one man, one woman economic development team, helping villagers start sewing and woodworking shops, fish farms and grain mills, all the while trying to convince them that in the long run wildlife could be worth more to them alive than dead. But some of the big commercial ivory poachers decided that the Owenses should die; and Delia and Mark's battle to save the elephants turned into a fight for their own lives. Cry of the Kalahari was one of the great wildlife adventure stories of all time. Remarkably, The Eye Of the Elephant is even more dramatic, more exciting and more poignant.

 

The above is taken pretty much from the dust jacket so it's not a true book review but an overview of the story. It is truly an amazing story IMO and a really fantastick book, one of the best I've ever read. Buy it or check it out at the library and read it, you'll love it.

 

"Mark and Delia Owens's simple human passion and dedication are invigorating. This is a remarkable and important story." ----Barry Lopez

 

"If their survival is a wonder, so is their book - stirring, hearteening and elegiac all at once." ---- Newsweek

 

"Leaps off the page and sweeps you away." ---- Los Angeles Times