corrugated public road that ran along the north boundary of Jabulani.
The fence that followed the edge of the road was ruinous, with sagging
and broken wire and many of the uprights snapped off at ground level.
Hell, it's a mess, David told her, as he turned through a gap in the
wire on to the road, and followed the boundary for two miles until they
reached the turnoff to the Jabulani homestead.
Even the signboard hanging above the stone pillars of the gateway, which
David's father had fashioned in bronze and of which he had been so
proud, was now dilapidated and-hung askew.
Well, there's plenty of work to keep us going, said David with a certain
relish.
Half a mile beyond the gates the road turned sharply, hedged on each
side by tall grass, and standing full in the sandy track was a
magnificent kudu bull, ghostly grey and striped with pale chalky lines
across the deep powerful body. His head was held high, armed with the
long corkscrew black horns, and his huge ears were spread in an intent
listening attitude.
For only part of a second he posed like that, then, although the
Land-Rover was still two hundred yards off, he exploded into a smoky
blur of frantic flight. His great horns laid along his back as he fled
through the open bush in a series of long, lithe bounds, disappearing so
swiftly it seemed he had been only a fantasy, and David described it to
Debra.
He took off the very instant he spotted us. I remember when they were
so tame around here that we had to chase them out Of the vegetable garden
with a stic. . Again he swung off the main track and on to another
overgrown path, on which the new growth of saplings was already thick
and tall. He drove straight over them in the tough little vehicle.
What on earth are you doing? Debra shouted above the crash and swish of
branches.
In this country when you run out of road, you just make your own.
Four miles farther on, they emerged abruptly on to the fire-break track
that marked the eastern boundary of Jabulani, the dividing line between
them and the National Park which was larger than the entire land area of
the state of Israel, five million acres of virgin wilderness, three
hundred and eighty-five kilometres long and eighty wide, home of more
than a million wild animals, the most important reservoir of wild life
left in Africa.
David stopped the Land-Rover, cut the engine and jumped down. After a
moment of shocked and angry silence he began to swear.
What's made you so happy? 'Debra demanded.
Look at that, just look at that! David ranted.
I wish I could. Sorry, Debs. It's a fence. A game fence! It stood
eight feet high and the uprights were hardwood poles thick as a man's
thigh, while the mesh of the fence was heavy gauge wire. They have
fenced us off. The National Park's people have cut us off. No wonder
there are no animals. As they drove back to the homestead David
explained to her how there had always been an open boundary with the
Kruger National Park. It had suited everybody well enough, for
