Salut!

Illustrated travels: (1) Christelle in Africa

If only to avoid pining for France - autumn is one of my favourite times of the year in the Var, so feel free to tell me it is so grimly immersed in crisis that I am best out of it - I will reflect on two very different journeys.

Christelle, as most readers of Salut! know, has been trying out her language skills on inhabitants of the animal kingdom of Africa, and brought back some great pictures.

From cute cheetah cubs to dozy male lions, elephants in the river at dusk and some splendid landscapes, she captured a lot of the precious moments of her three-month stay.

She should, as Bill Taylor said and I have urged, write a book. There is plenty of material, from the jungle of course - but also in episodes of humour or frivolity that may owe something to the occasionally dreamy world of the London film world in which she dwells.

Creatures great and small have always fascinated Christelle. Now that she has experienced the wild, I wonder whether she will ever look at her pet cats in quite the same way

She can easily devote a chapter to her successful campaign to strike terror into her parents' hearts, with stories of close encounters in the bush followed by the cool announcement that she planned to follow all that by getting up close and personal with great white sharks (the picture of one such specimen, she says, "is what I saw but is not my photo"). One way or the other, she has memories to occupy her thoughts for years to come. A book would share them more fully with others. Get writing, girl!

Next up: Salut! in Petra......

15,279,854: Christian's hits, Christelle's words

....was the number of times, when last I looked, that YouTube viewers had clicked on this famous video clip* of the amazingly affectionate reunion of two London-based Aussie pals (Australians John Rendall and Anthony "Ace" Bourke)with Christian the lion, bought by them as a cub from Harrods (at a time when such things were allowed).

They later reinstalled Christian in Africa but insisted on returning a year later to say hello, with moving results.

Christelle is now out of Africa, bubbling with words that can be numbered in similar proportions about her exploits on wildlife expeditions over the past three months.

Can a wounded cheetah cub cheat death?

From the exploits of one daughter to those of another. In her latest dispatch from Africa, Christelle Randall brings the first part of her wildlife escapade to an end with a moving tale of parting: participants in the project, naturally, but also a cheetah and one or more of her cubs. And for those poor American colleagues at my newspaper in Abu Dhabi, for whom my formal ban of trivial use of the word "awesome" is so hard to bear, this ought to be a most heartwarming posting....

The second part of my South African wildlife expedition is over.

Last Friday we departed the Karongwe game reserve and said goodbye to all the animals we had been studying for the past five weeks.

Our last week was not without drama, however. One of the big cats we had been focusing on at Karongwe was a female cheetah called Savannah who was accustomed to humans. So much so that on drives once located we would be allowed to jump off the trucks and “walk in” to see her with one of the GVI staffers (armed) and watch from 10 metres away.

The best thing about this was that Savannah had three adorable cubs all only a few months old. We could have spent hours and hours watching their frolics and by the end of the five weeks we were familiar with each one and their different characteristics.

They were so friendly and inquisitive that the staffer with us often had to speak firmly to them in a bid to stop them coming too close. Not because they were dangerous but with their mother being so relaxed, it was important they still learnt that humans were not to be fully trusted for fear of them coming into trouble in the future.

Simon Cowell of the bush: snappier than crocs

Christelle Randall observes the progress of a young leopard released into the wild after months in quarantine with teeth trouble, faces up to a small crocodile while white water rafting - and feels the sharp tongue of a sarky guide...

The couple of weeks that have passed since my last posting have given me plenty to write about as so much happens on almost every day.

Our past week has been been devoted to Shiluwene focus. I have already written about a young male leopard that has been housed in a quarantine because of teeth problems.

The reserve manager at Karongwe was able to persuade some of the wealthier farmers to invest money in his rehabilitation programme which has included extensive dental surgery and hefty quarantine costs.

Had he not done this, Shiluwene would have died. So after a number of months, he was ready to be released back into the wild last week and it was considered such a good story that Animal Planet were down to film until the last minute.

They had to cancel due to insurance problems. But as expedition members, we have been very fortunate in being able to shadow his rehabilitation by night and monitor how successful he is in the wild: whether he is hunting, what he is hunting and how he is handling other leopards and predators.

The badger that defied the lion

Christelle Randall has never been lost for words. So, not least because her Friday night offering attracted a large weekend readership, let's make it a Christelle in Africa weekend for Salut!. She thought she was adding a few paragraphs to tag on to the tale of Snout the cobra and Cedric the croc. But it was just too good to throw away like that......

Here are two fantastic nature stories.

Firstly, the other day one of the resident collared leopards Thilo stumbled across an enormous python who had just killed an impala.

As the python lay sleepily post-meal, no doubt congratulating himself on his pretty impressive kill, Thilo jumped down from her hiding place, killed the python (unable to put up any resistance due to being so full and physically unable to move due to the impala not being digested and still fully in tact in his belly) and promptly ate both python and the impala inside!

I can't help but feel really sorry for the poor python who would normally have put up quite a fight but in this case was literally immobile yet impressed at how smart Thilo was..

The second story accompanies the great picture above.

The lion is Zero, Karongowe's resident male, who is the uncontested king of the jungle weighing in at 250kg.

Snout the cobra, and how to frighten your parents

Snakes, leopards, lions and hyenas - and more mice - loom once more in the life of Christelle Randall as she continues her African adventures - and her determined campaign to scare the wits out of her poor old mum and dad.....

I am writing from the town of Tzaneen, about 80km away from our new reserve Karongowe, which lies close to the incredible Drakensberg mountains.

Karongowe is a much more commercial reserve compared with Venetia and we live in a big farmhouse as opposed to the tents we used before.

The Marieskop mountain lies right behind the house and at night its slopes burn with bush fires. From the house, it looks as if the mountain is adorned with fairy lights, like a Christmas tree.

There is no fence around the house so we are not allowed off the verandah at night although the only things that usually run through camp are hyenas and bush pigs. Lions and leopards are not usually seen around this area.

One leopard to another: "Clap hands? Here comes Christelle."

When you need to go, you need to go. But it's best not to sound like a baboon* if your journey to the loo after nightfall takes you anywhere near leopards. Christelle Randall feels the advice may well be worth heeding....

Last Monday our group the Bladerunners left Venetia for the Leshaba mountain which lies about three hours north from camp.

We were delayed on our way out of the reserve by a herd of elephants that crossed the road in front of us led by their matriarch. We watched as one by one, about 12 elephants crossed with a few little ones at the end.

Anyone who has read my last couple of posts will know that I have not enjoyed all my encounters with elephants. I was just about to allow myself to start enjoying them again when a little further along we stumbled into a couple of bulls, one of which the reserve calls “Impy”, known for his curiosity and cheekiness, which in my language translates as an even better ability to petrify.

The GVI staffers at the front of the vehicle stopped the car and mentioned that the elephants might feel a bit more unnerved as they weren’t used to this particular engine. When we drive around camp on our game drives we tend to use the Mahindra vehicles and the animals have become accustomed to the engines.

However they apparently get very nervous with any other engine (both lions and elephants) possibly because the culling that went on a little while back was done from a different vehicle. Either way it didn’t do much to calm my nerves. Nor the fact that the elephants are super intelligent so actually enjoy playing this cat and mouse game with the vehicle.

So we had to reverse as quickly as possible to show the elephant he was boss. We were held up for about forty minutes waiting for the elephants to move on. It’s actually quite incredible how much elephant protocol we have to adhere to. They don’t like flashlights, they don’t like certain engines, they don’t like it if you look at them when talking to them and you need to talk to them in a low voice.

It’s almost like preparing for a visit from the blinking Queen.

Lion prides, wild dogs, cobras.....and mice

It is the reporter's nightmare. Great story to tell, no way of getting it back to the office. Christelle Randall now knows all about the problem. But fired by some marvellous footage on Animal Planet on TV, her old man has cobbled together some jottings from a quick e-mail and Facebook message.......

Keeping up the blog posts is tricky, as I have to share access with the whole of the group for the computer. When we go to town on our day off once every two weeks, we have to use the computer in a tiny shop and share it with everyone else.

Things at Venetia are still good....it's pretty hard core and I struggled a bit to be honest at first with the more scientifc elements of the work.

But I think I have proved myself now and am having an amazing time, though it's much harder than I thought it would be.

Sooty, sweep and a brush with an elephant

Another week on the trail of wildlife in Africa has seen Christelle Randall studying for exams, sweeping leaves, getting covered in soot on camp chores, encountering a grumpy bull elephant and becoming a Zimbabwean billionaire..

So another week has gone by and a lot of interesting things have happened. We took all our exams last weekend, following a week of serious training and are now able to hit the fields and participate in proper wildlife research.

Our group of 12 has been split into two and each day one person from each group is allocated a duty for which he or she is responsible.

For instance camp duty involves staying behind in camp, cleaning, preparing food for the whole group/staff and all chores.

I did this on Monday where I cooked macaroni cheese for 17 people, cleaned out and re-lit the “donkey”, our water heating system for which we cut and burn wood to heat up the boiler tank and refuelled the paraffin lamps around camp.

By the end of the day I was completely black, covered in soot, and I had earnt the nickname of Cinders. Anyone from work reading this who still suspects I am on a three-month holiday might think again….

Lionesses outside the tent

For days, nothing. Then a flurry of text messages, phone calls and finally a long e-mail confirmed that Christelle Randall remained in one piece, healthy and contented, and able to bring news of her African wildlife adventure.....

Firstly, apologies for taking so long to do my first blog post but the last couple of weeks have been really crazy.

I had fully planned to write with news of the first few days in Jo'burg and the journey down to our reserve (Venetia Reserve), located in the Limpopo Province, nearest town Messina.

But I have not had a minute to myself, so have decided to write now and launch straight into what has been going on here in Venetia.

The reserve is spread across 32,000 hectares and is owned by the De Beers family who have a large diamond mine here. Their interest in conservation coinciding nicely with any guilt caused by their plundering?

On the first morning we were woken by the sound of screaming monkeys and one of the girls in our tent looked out of the window only to see three lionesses walking past. We were later told that this was unusual and lions tend to stay away from camp. Something I am now grateful for after hearing about migrant Zimbabweans who stray into the reserve only to get eaten..

Each morning here is freezing, or feels so three degrees - if you are out on the trucks at this time you get borderline frostbite on the face, only to be sunburnt a few hours later, which I am sure does wonders for the facial ageing process.