[.ca] The Last Safari: A Season of Discovery in Zimbabwe (ISBN 142088770X)

Interesting account but errors in spelling of well known terms makes it disappointing:
I have travelled extensively in Zimbabwe on photo safari as well as visiting local farmer friends as well as professional hunters. I was, therefore, very much looking forward to a welcome read about one of my favourite places in the world. The author makes an excellent start in recounting how he fell in love with Africa and I could totally relate to his feelings. The book itself, makes for an interesting read about the miriad details that safari outfitters have to look after in order to ensure that the client, who has spent many thousands of dollars on his trip, is well looked after, and gets his trophies. The account of the local troubles, the politics, corruption, poaching, hunger and thievery, are all too familiar to one who has travelled there, but still makes for an interesting read. It is apparent that the author saw the situation clearly but that he wisely left editorializing out of his tales of the bush. My only criticism is that he did not research his topics and the spelling of well known terms - or his proof readers were terribly ignorant of Zimbabwe. VanBuskirk talks about the 'Shangoni' massacre, whereas everyone knows it is Shangani. He speaks of going for a 'brie' (that's a French soft cheese!) when he probably meant a braai, the Southern African version of a barbecue. He refers to the local lingua franca as 'Chapa Lapa' when it is actually Chalapalapa. Locals often refer to white non-Africans as Mzungus, but for some reason the author changed that to Morungus. Strange.... In one of the sections on hunting plains game he refers to hunting Reebok. Now did he mean the famous running shoes, or did he really mean to refer to a Vaal Rhebok, or indeed a Reedbuck? There is more. 'Hoof IN mouth' disease?!? I would say in this instance that term might be correctly attributable to the author. I think he meant to say Hoof and Mouth disease which severely impacted on the cattle industry in Zim. The continuous small errors served to take away from the overall impact of the book, making it seem more amateurish, and less authoritative than it could have been. Still, it's a good read, and it took me back to many happy days in Zimbabwe.