A reader writes ~

A reader wrote today saying ~

Your 'Swallows and Amazons' life in Africa does sound wonderful. What I don't sense in the book is that you were ever worried about your future security even in the short term. Was it not something you thought of or does it just not show?  Or have you mastered being fully reliant on God?

Dear Chris,

I suppose my sense of security at the time was pretty much the same as the Swallows'. We were quite careful about our equipment and stores, but once organised we just went forth, enjoying the adventure of it all. As my letters suggest, I had the security of my friends and my family at home but had to trust God every step of the way. 

Sometimes, when things kept going wrong, I had no option but to up the trust and plough on regardless. Perhaps this is something I learnt off the South Africans. Whilst putting 'Ride the Wings of Morning' together made detailed plans for a trip only to have my (fully equipped) 4WD vehicle stolen in Johannesburg on the first night. Charles Baber advised me to 'always stick to the plan', so I hired a car and kept driving. It was rather a relief to only travel with my overnight bag, although I was jolly cross about the theft.

I did have good travel insurance but didn't get the chance to put much into my pension during the years spent in southern Africa. I'm trying to be sensible about that now, which is a bit dull. Perhaps I should have been more adventurous!

Yours,

Sophie

Elephant-back Safaris in the Okavango Delta

In 1994 I flew to Maun in Botswana to set up a documentary for the BBC Natural History Unit on the Elephant-back Safaris, which Randall J Moore had recently started to run in the Okavango Delta.

Randall introduced me to his lead elephant, a mature male called Abu, who was highly trained and responsive. An Africa elephant, Abu had been born the Kruger National Park. After the adults in his herd were culled, he had captured as a calf and shipped to a safari park in America. Randall found him in a bad way, living in a barn in an area too cold for his well-being.

Abu was brought back to Africa with two other trained elephants called Cathy and Benny. After looking for a  home first in Kenya and then Knysna in the Cape, Randall brought them to Botswana in 1990. They were joined by Bibi, a trained African elephant from a zoo in Ceylon, and a number of juveniles who helped to make up a small, captive herd.

The documentary, Dawn to Dusk on Safari, presented by the naturalist and wildlife artist Jonathan Scott, was first shown on BBC 1. We'd often see it repeated on television in South Africa.

Abu has sadly died but Cathy and the herd still thrive. You can read more about them on the website for Abu's Camp.

A page from my sketchbook ~

A page from my sketchbook

The Waterberg ~ South Africa

The Palala River, flowing north towards the Limpopo.

Bonsmara cattle.

Old red sandstone cliffs.

Horses.

Iron age sites and wildlife ~

Painting in Zimbabwe ~

I was able to go on a number of trips to paint in Zimbabwe in the 1990s.

British friends of mine serving with BMAT were stationed up in the hills on the Mozambique border where it was possible to fish for trout.

I had other friends who were farming near Chegutu who kindly invited me to stay, giving me time to sketch 

Their daughter Jenny was thirteen then and we would sit, peacefully drawing together.

I left them several framed paintings including one of this lady washing clothes and another of their prize Brahman bull.

When their farm was invaded, they had so little time to pack that some of their pictures were left behind. Eventually they made contact by e-mail from Australia telling me of their loss. I spent a wet afternoon sending them these scans from my sketchbook to remind them of their life in Africa.

Sketches of Victoria Falls

When I first reached Victoria Falls there was so much water that we couldn't see a thing - just a cloud of mist that soaked us to the skin.

These quick sketches were executed on the Zimbabwean side in the Victoria Falls National Park.

I'd reached the town by train and was enchanted by the railway station.

This is of the bridge that spans the Zambezi Gorge.

Perhaps the most exciting thing was canoeing down the Zambezi towards the great waterfall. We pulled up our green canoes on one of the islands in the middle of the river and walked across the rocks to peer over the very lip of the falls. Despite the roar of the water, which was so loud we could hardly hear each other's voices, we set up camp under palm trees, building a fire to cook an evening meal.

We were guests of Ben Parker who was running Tongabezi Lodge. They have a panoramic shot of Livingstone Island and a number of fabulous photographs on their website, which gives you the feeling of being there.

Twenty years ago in Zimbabwe ~

~ Fishing on the Pungwe River ~

A short extract from 'Ride the Wings of Morning' ~

"I’m now staying with an artist in the Nyanga Highlands, a girl who is married to a British Army officer out here with BMATT who provide military training for the Zimbabwean Forces. They spend their spare time fishing in the Pungwe River or picnicking on gigantic granite boulders while their children splash in the shallows. There are parties here all the time, and unlike in South Africa, where men talk to men and women with women, they actually interact normally. I am assured this isn’t always so in the local community but Zimbabweans tend to be outgoing and rather fun. I went riding with a farmer’s wife called Pixie. She had one little girl called Burgundy and another called Summer Rain. They rode their ponies bareback, jumping them over gates and fences without hesitation. I’m heading for Victoria Falls by train next week and after going down the Zambezi plan to fly up to Lilongwe so I can drive up through Malawi to the Nyika Plateau.

I didn’t realise how bushed I had become at Equus. I hadn’t taken a day off in four months ~ hadn’t used my own money, watched television, worn anything accept khaki clothes, had hardly driven on a tarmac road or been to a town since I was in the Cape. It’s strange adjusting back to life on the open road and making decisions alone. Being able to wear turquoise. Having time for myself."

~ Read more of 'Ride the Wings of Morning' on Amazon.co.uk

All sketches on the blog are featured in 'Ride the Wings of Morning' and are (c) Sophie Neville. Please contact me if you need to use them on sophie@sophieneville.co.uk

Now with colour illustrations on Amazon Kindle ~

'Ride the Wings of Morning' ~ the illustred ebook is now in colour

Click on the regional links below for the book's product page on Amazon:

Amazon UK ~ Amazon USA & India ~ Amazon.de ~ Amazon.fr ~ Amazon.it ~ Amazon.es

‘But I don’t have a Kindle!’

Don’t worry. You can easily add a free Kindle reading app to your PC, laptop, Android or Apple device and see the illustrations in colour:

‘How?’

If you are in the UK

Click here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_159657547_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000425503&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=0J02HE6EX0T6GQ5480A3&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_p=293968427&pf_rd_i=1000501923

If you live in Africa, you want to download the Kindle app direct from Amazon.com

Go to:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=sv_kstore_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

And choose which device you want to download the app to.

All the Kindle reading apps are free.

Book Club comments about 'Ride the Wings of Morning'

'I loved it. It made me laugh. I now know Sophie's family are totally dotty. I enjoyed it.'

'I absolutely loved it.'

'It's terribly important that it is true story.'
'Much more facinating.'
'It's too acute for it to be made up.'
One reader said she sees 'a miniscule part of life that so funny...'

'I don't know one end of a Springbok from another but I love the illustrations.'

'I think it's fantastic; a great book to have by the bed. I kept dipping in.'

'I've spent a lot of time in Africa. I find the letter format a bit disruptive for a long read but it was good fun to dig in and out of. I think the family are hysterical. It's fascinating.'

'It has certainly whetted my appetite for travel.'

'There's an endless demand for animal stories.'

'Tamzin (Sophie's sister) writes very well - it reads well.'

'I don't do letters. They don't keep me awake. Because I have arthritis in my hands I found the paperback too long and too heavy physically - it is very heavy. Literally too heavy weight-wise for holiday reading. I didn't like the double spacing, but I thought the drawings were lovely - what a way to live.'

'The letter format would make it a good train book, perhaps best on Kindle.'

'This book made me feel I wanted to go on an adventure and I liked reading about the Army wife. It's a book you can pick up and put down but I prefered Funnily Enough.'

It was agreed that whilst ride the Wings of Morning stretches the reader into new dimensions on a physical level, Funnily Enough stretches one spiritually.

'I've enjoyed it more than Sophie Neville's first book.'

'My mother loved the first book ~ Funnily Enough. She's quite particular, very particular about what she'll read, and she was really thrilled with it.'

'Ride the Wings of Morning' now out in paperback and hardcover

Paperback - £9.99 on Lulu.com - http://www.lulu.com/shop/sophie-neville/ride-the-wings-of-morning/paperback/product-20214589.html

How I came to write 'Ride the Wings of Morning'

If I ride the wings of the morning,

if I dwell by the farthest oceans,

even there your hand will guide me,

and your strength will support me.

Psalm 139 v 9&10 NL

The idea for the format of 'Ride the Wings of Morning' came to me after things went wrong. I'd been invited to take part in a wildlife census in Damaraland by Blythe Loutit, Director of Save the Rhino Trust. My car was so elderly that it took me about five days to drive the 1,200kms from Maun to Palmwag in the red stony desert where she had a base camp. I arrived, full of excitment expecting to find a large party of scientists and conservationists. One lone game scout was sitting by a small fire. He gave me a message that the census had been cancelled. Blythe had not been able to reach me before I left Maun. She apologised, suggesting I stayed on at Palmwag until she and her husband were able to join me.

Apart from an open thatched shelter and a stone fireplace the camp consisted of two palm trees and the reed hut painted above. It was about twelve food square and newly constructed with three bamboo-framed beds arranged around the sides. Bamboo coffee tables had been placed in the two corners. Although not exactly secure it was surprisingly comfortable and proved idyllic. I spent my days sketching and painting the desert around me. It was a time of enforced meditation. In the heat of midday I had time to think, pray and make plans for the future, sorting out what I really wanted to do.

    

Whilst I'd been living in southern Africa I'd been too busy to keep a conventional diary. Instead I kept copies of my letters home. We had no computers, no photocopiers but I'd been able to buy duplicate books made up of thin paper suitable for sending airmail. The top sheet would be sent home whilst a blue carbon-copy was kept in the book, which I stored in a cardboard box under my bed.

One of the highlights of life spent in the Africa bush was receiving letters back from England - from my family and friends. My sisters Perry and Tamzin wrote such amusing accounts, from the safe haven of their everyday domestic lives, that I'd read them aloud, cherishing stories about their children and other responsibilities. Since their daily routines with pets and babies contrasted with the roaming life in the wilderness that I'd chosen, I thought it might be possible to put our correspondence together one day, constructing a travelogue of sorts. Initially I used the title 'Can you Imagine?' as we kept asking this question in our letters. I had no idea at the time that my sisters would face more worries and dangers than I.

Somehow the cardboard boxes full of duplicate books, letters and postcards survived. The editing process proved far more complex and complicated than ever envisaged but I managed to adapt our letters into something of a story - a story of longing for love. I only added the illustrations to fill in the gaps left after starting each letter at the top of a page. I needed more than I'd ever imagined. And then I changed the title.

Reviews and comments ~

What Sophie did next ~

Following her illness with ME/CFS, Sophie Neville travelled to South Africa to stay with a friend, and the different climate led to her rapid recovery. This book is the account of what she got up to over the following few years. Quite a startling mixture - horse safaris, travelling, painting, holiday management and media work in South Africa as it made the transition from Apartheid to full democracy.

It is presented in the form of letters (mostly) between her and her sisters, so the book uncovers the warmth of the relationships within the family, and is written with immediacy and freshness. Much other ground is also covered - the wildlife, plenty about horses and misbehaving cars, lively descriptions of the ex-pat and local workers and tourists, a vivid sense of the locations that Neville is writing about. The book also includes as illustrations many of the pictures she drew. In the meantime, the way in which the lives of Tamzin and Perry unfold in Europe is another story.

As with Funnily Enough, this was a book I really hadn't expected to be engaged by - but I was. Thoroughly recommended. P. M. Fernandez

'This is gorgeous work Sophie, you have a real gift for drawing people into your wonderful adventure in a real and intimate way. I feel almost as if I had been there with you. Great work! ‘ Skye Wieland, Queensland, Australia

‘I am reading your book now on Kindle about your time in Africa and I love it! What a sense of humor you and your family have!’ Allen Hunt

‘I love how you’ve captured your journey with sketches and watercolour paintings.’

'I am  loving your book. Your mother sounds like a riot! Love the mama donkey work!’ Kate Coleridge, writing from Cape Town.