Family, friends and elephants
Dear Family and Friends,
Under a wide blue sky a warthog and her three babies ran across a red
dirt road below a kopje. The piglets ran with tails straight up, like
aerials, as they followed their mum into the surrounding bush. In the
sky nearby half a dozen vultures circled low over a clearing and in
the distance, the haunting call of a fish eagle promised water, fish
and the myriad treasures waiting discovery in our beautiful Zimbabwe.
A couple of hundred people had gathered at the foothills of Castle
Kopje in Wedza. A beautiful kopje, her rocks stained orange with
lichen and balancing precariously on top of each other. We sat under a
great Acacia tree watching a couple of young black rhinos browsing
nearby, waiting for the proceedings to begin.
Our host told us this was a traditional Shona burial ground, a sacred
place, and that he’d had to get permission from the local Chief to
bury his mother here. Just seven months ago we had been in this same
place to bury his father, Norman Travers, here.
The service began and one after another the eulogies told of how Gill
Travers was a loving, dedicated and endlessly creative woman. A woman
who made her home in the African bush, raised her family there and
then shared it all with lions, leopards, hyaenas and otters. Gill’s
doctor said she was the only patient he had who had been bitten by a
hyaena and then an otter; the only patient who needed a leopard’s
claw removed from her forearm!
Alongside giraffe and elephants, rhinos and warthogs, Gill and Norman
Travers farmed the land and created a game park which attracted
tourists from all over the world. They began outreach programmes with
rural schools, endlessly spreading the message of conservation, and
they held open days for local elders, headmen and chiefs.
Working with the Department of National Parks, they took in black
rhinos ravaged by poaching, and embarked on a unique programme,
rearing the calves and then and returning them to the wild. Gill and
her catering partner Mattheus prepared milk formulas in bottles for
rhinos and cream teas and venison casseroles for visiting guests all
in the same farm kitchen! The perfect team creating what Gill’s
grandson called an “oasis.” Nineteen years ago Gill Travers was
diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease but she fought on undeterred,
always welcoming, cheerful and uncomplaining. Gill finally gave up her
valiant struggle this week and watched by family, friends and
elephants was laid to rest in the ground she so loved.
I write this letter today in memory of Norman and Gill Travers who lie
side by side under an Acacia tree beneath Castle Kopje on Imire Game
Park in Wedza. Almost two years ago Norman and Gill invited me into
their home and week after week we worked on a book together. They told
me the amazing story of how a piece of virgin bush in Wedza was
farmed, nurtured and transformed. Norman spoke of a “stream of
naughty, smelly, little animals” filling their lives and Gill of how
much she loved them all and how proud she was of her family continuing
with their life’s work.
*“Imire, the Life and Times of Norman Travers,”* will be available
within the next fortnight, please contact me for further information.
To Norman and Gill Travers: Fambai zvakanaka, thank you for giving us
Imire, such a gem. Until next time, love cathy Copyright � Cathy
Buckle. 13 November 2010 www.cathybuckle.com