Bushcraft for survival
EARLIER this week we discussed the possibility of using leopard dung to frighten vervet monkeys away from our gardens (one of the problems being how to get hold of this commodity, short of inviting leopards into your garden).
Now reader Valerie Johnson sends in a letter from the Mozambique wildlife authorities warning tourists of the danger of lions. Tourists out in the bush are advised to wear small bells on their clothing to frighten off any lions; also to carry a pepper spray.
The letter advises tourists to be on the look-out for lion activity in their vicinity. One of the danger signs is the presence of fresh lion dung.
This dung deserves closer investigation. If it's full of berries and dassie fur, then it's from young lions and there is no danger. If it's from adult lions, look out!
The dung of adult lions can be identified by being full of small bells and smelling of pepper.
Africa is a complicated place.
Cato home
LAST week reader Kim McCarthy appealed for information about Linwood Villa, down the bottom end of Smith Street near the Hotel D'Urban, where her father lodged in the 1950s. What became of the place? Does it still exist?
A response comes from Andy Kirkland, who not only worked for the town planning section of the City Engineer's but himself once stayed in an annexe to the D'Urban.
The D'Urban was originally the home of George Cato, the first mayor of Durban, he says. It was named Linwood. Cato built a double-storey villa in the grounds about 1890 for one of his sons. This would almost certainly have been named Linwood Villa because that was the practice of the time. Houses had to be named because there was no street numbering.
That house - in the far corner of the Cato property – was demolished about 1959 and became a parking lot.
However, there's another possibility. Adjoining the D'Urban was an annexe to the hotel, where Andy himself stayed in the 1960s. Could Kim's Dad have also stayed in that annexe?
Andy says it did have a two-word name in plaster on the front (which he no longer remembers), that had been painted over. But it seems unlikely it would have been "Linwood Villa". The annexe was built in the late 1930s, long after the "villa" practice had died out.
That former annexe still exists, though it is no longer part of the hotel, it's in commercial use.
Can anyone shed more light?
Tarzan movie
HERE'S a game grandpappy. American Stephen Gustafson was trimming oak tree branches at his waterfront home in Lake County, Florida, when he heard an agonised yelp from Bounce, his West Highland terrier.
She had been taken by an alligator, which was swimming away with her.
Without hesitation, the 66-year-old grandfather sprinted down his lawn and took a flying leap onto the alligator's back. He managed to pull the dog from its jaws and fended it off as it snapped at him.
Then he pinned its jaws shut, at which the 'gator lost interest in the affair, shook itself free and swam off.
Wow! This is like Johnny Weismuller in a Tarzan movie.
Tailpiece
THE CIA are looking for an assassin. They're down to a shortlist of three - two men and a woman.
At the final interview one of the men is taken to a large metal door and handed a gun.
"Inside this room you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Kill her!"
"You can't be serious. I could never shoot my wife."
"Then you're not the right man for this job. Take your wife and go home."
The second man is given the same instructions. He takes the gun but comes out again with tears in his eyes. "I can't kill my wife."
"You don't have what it takes. Take your wife and go home."
Then it's the woman's turn. It's her husband who's behind the door.
She takes the gun and goes into the room. Shots ring out, one after the other. There are screams, crashings, bangings. Then quiet.
The door opens. There is the woman. "This gun's loaded with blanks. I had to beat him to death with the chair."
Moral: Never put a woman to the test.
Last word
The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment