Frans Rautenbach

Frans Rautenbach is an advocate in Cape Town. He grew up in Johannesburg, and some of his earliest memories are of annual holidays with his parents in the Kruger Park. The Rautenbach family hit the road to the Lowveld every winter. They often slept over in a motel along the way - an adventure in itself - or they would leave early in the morning from Johannesburg and by about eight o'clock stop near an ice cold Belfast for a picnic of hard boiled eggs, frikkadels and sweet, milky coffee from a thermos flask on a stone table underneath a blue gum tree by the roadside. One of the first books about the Kruger Park that Frans read as a youngster was the book Veldwagter! by Hannes Kloppers (later translated as Game Ranger), a fictionalised biography of Harry Kirkman, who was a game ranger in the park from 1933 to 1958) which made an indelible impression on him, and left no doubt in his mind that he would one day follow the eponymous occupation. As years went by he realised that he did not actually want to be a game ranger, but simply loved holidaying in the Park. Truly loved it. During one such holiday he told his son Stefan that he wanted to write down all his experiences of really enjoying the Kruger Park, and share them with people. This book is the result. Frans is married to Elmari (who also did the editorial review of the Afrikaans copy) and they have three children, Anneke, Stefan and Daniel (the photographer of most of the pictures in the book), sworn Park-goers all.