Book Description

Webster's dictionary defines "sojourn" as a temporary stay in an unfamiliar place. Sojourns can provide travelers with just enough time to become familiar with the feel of a place; with just enough time to savor its offerings and to explore its inner workings. Sojourners often experience enough to come away with the realization that a simple sojourn is simply not enough time. Their appetites have become whetted for more and more can't come quickly enough. Sojourn to South Africa chronicles the observations and interpretations of a naturalist exploring the breadth and depth of South Africa from the thorn veld of Kruger National Park to the icy waters offshore from Cape Town, and from scorching Kalahari Desert to the tropical forests of Zululand. Through these travels, readers are taken on a journey that includes a Leopard only five feet away and to the surreal view of a Giraffe munching on acacia leaves from the top of the tree. Readers experience a tropical rain forest that Zulu King Shaka may have traversed and they read about a foolish man who thought that he was wiser than a Great White Shark. Readers will visit a township, a remnant of long-ago Apartheid in South Africa and they spend several days in a desert town named for a snake. Despite the book's focus on nature observation, Sojourn to South Africa also delves into the ages-old yet highly contemporary issue of racial animosity and ponders the question of why people judge each other not on who they are or what they may have contributed to society but more often by the color of their skin.