Dangerous Beauty: Life and Death in Africa: True Stories from a Safari Guide - Hardcover

Ross, Mark C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786866721 ISBN 13: 9780786866724

Publisher: Miramax, 2001

Synopsis

On March 1st, 1999, American safari guide Mark Ross was camped with four clients in Uganda, searching for endangered mountain gorillas. By days end, two of these clients and six other tourists were dead at the hand of Rwandan rebels slipping across the border from Congo. As a man who loves East Africa, Ross felt betrayed by this horror that made headlines around the world. He writes, The continent has always been the love of my life. Now there is trouble between us. Dangerous Beauty is the story of that love and that trouble. Ross is one of the most seasoned and skilled safari guides at work in Africa today, and he writes here about his close-hand encounters with danger and natural beauty in Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. He describes his walks in the bush and the way he teaches his clients to read the unearthly silences and stillnesses in the wind that signify trouble. He writes about deadly charges by elephants, encounters with lions, cheetas and Cape buffalo, and the electric excitement of witnessing the mass migrations of wildebeest and zebras. He writes in detail about the terrible events of 1999 and their aftermath. Ross also conveys the tranquility of dawn in the wild, and the times when the extraordinary loveliness of the land and its power bear down on the guide and his safari companions.

About this title

About the Author:

Mark C. Ross spent his summers in the mountains of Montana, Wyoming, and Washington, working as forest fire fighter before moving to Africa and becoming a full time guide based in Kenya. He has been working as a guide and pilot for over twenty years. He spends part of each year in Colorado. His original essay, "The Last Safari", first appeared in Talk magazine, and was included in The Best American Travel Writing, 2000, edited by Bill Bryson.

From Publishers Weekly:

Ross writes in the crusty, venerable tradition of explorers, game guides and great white hunters that includes Hemingway and Peter Capstick. Such firsthand reporting on "the Dark Continent" has been made anachronistic by eco-politics and excellent documentaries. Nonetheless, this American farm boy revels in the realization of his African-adventure dream: an eco-tour business operating mostly in Kenya and Uganda. Ross leads clients around preserves into camera range of hunting lions and charging buffalo (he targets the African hunter's "Big Five," including leopards, rhinos and elephants). These campfire tales of dramatic approaches on game are told as moment-by-moment stalk scripts that often defy Ross's own narrative powers. His in-the-dust reporting style isn't as elegant as his tracking skills. The punchy Wild Kingdom-style sermons at the end of many chapters detract from Ross's quite capable narration of the dangers of travel in Africa. Moreover, the continent's transcendent beauty isn't particularly well served: these unillustrated accounts often cry out for photographs. In 1999, tragedy interrupted Ross's affair with East Africa: his safari party was kidnapped in Uganda's mountain gorilla preserve. Two of his eight clients were murdered by Rwandan rebels who escaped into Congo. Ross was left with a sharp sense of responsibility that he cannot reconcile with his "Endless Safari" scenario. Sadly, his absorption in spectacular wildlife and noble tribesmen distracted him from the actual Africa boiling around him. Ross's romanticization may well ignite some farm kid's dreams, but Adelino Serras Pires and Fiona Claire Capstick's The Winds of Havoc features better writing in the same vein. First serial rights bought by Talk magazine. (Aug.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Miramax
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0786866721
• ISBN 13: 9780786866724
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 322