Nick Tredger, after an 18 month national service stint in the Rhodesian Army, joined the Dept of National Parks and Wildlife in 1978 as a cadet-ranger. His first station was the remote Chizarira National Park, where amongst the isolated rugged mountains and gorges, he and a handful of brave young rangers working in siege conditions, fought both for their country and for the preservation of the wilderness around them.

Subsequently, he worked his way through the ranks in arguably the greatest wildlife refuges in the world — Wankie (Hwange) — then, after Zimbabwean independence: Zambezi Valley and finally as Warden of the breathtakingly beautiful Mana Pools National Park at the age of 24.

In the uncertainty of post-election Zimbabwe, when democracy and law and order was fast receding, he suffered the loss of his best friend, brutally murdered by Mugabe's North Korean-trained 5th Brigade and endured adversity, political interference and the omnipresent threat of incarceration by the Mugabe regime. In 1984 he decided he’d had enough and resigned from the Department and moved to South Africa.

He is now the consultant on the development and management of a large community-owned game reserve in northern Zululand.

This is his story.

320pp; size 242 X 168mm, lavishly illustrated with colour pics and map

Paperback, NEW