Spirit of the Wilderness

This is an autobiographical account of a career in conservation and of an abiding love affair with Spirit of the Wilderness, a Piper Super Cub, two-seater, light aircraft. It tells of a partnership between man and machine, which proved invaluable in countless campaigns to support and conserve wildlife and wilderness areas in southern Africa. A chance encounter in 1953 with the late Dr Ian Player, South Africa's greatest name in conservation led to a career in that field which still continues after nearly sixty years. There are detailed and absorbing accounts of stewardship during the 1960s and 1970s of some of South Africa’s best loved and most beautiful reserves; Lake St Lucia, iMfolozi, Ndumo, and later the Gorongosa National Park, Zinave and the Bazaruto Archipelago in Mozambique. There are tales of hair-raising episodes and some serious mishaps at the wheel of Spirit of the Wilderness, and on the ground, the author records what he was privileged to learn from the knowledge, experience and wisdom of indigenous game guards and local communities in South Africa and Mozambique. We encounter a huge diversity of flora and fauna, both terrestrial and marine, some of it now perilously endangered, and also a remarkable cast of fellow eminent conservationists, filmmakers, writers, sangomas, soldiers and bandits from two wars in Mozambique, and we are introduced to that country's then president Samora Machel, with whom Paul came to have an intriguingly cordial relationship.

A remarkable man by any measure, Paul Dutton was born in Johannesburg in 1933, and began working in the family's plastics engineering firm before moving into conservation in 1958. He took possession of his Piper Super Cub in 1964, paying the princely sum of R3000. After a few flying lessons, he took to the air to carry out much of his work. At the age of 54 he acquired a Master’s degree in Coastal Management from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England. His two stints in Mozambique were some of the most rewarding years of his life. These memoirs were compiled over a period of more than twenty years and he is still active as an ecological consultant.