Sporting Shooter magazine reviews ‘Wild South’
The Faraway Blog - A wonderful book review just in from Australian magazine Sporting Shooter. It means a lot to me because this was a magazine I grew up on, and Aussies can be a tough crowd. If something isn’t good enough they just might tell you. You can catch the full review at http://www.sportingshootermag.com.au/news/wild-south-hunting-by-heart or here. Pete...
Read MoreNyala – the shifty one
The Hunting Blog - Beautiful as they are even the spiral horns have an aristocrat. It’s one thing to see nyala in a book but quite another in real life. They are simply so improbable and exotic – white mane and stripes, spots, orange legs and ivory tipped, lyre shaped horns. When they appear at a waterhole it’s like watching a supermodel stepping onto a bus. The common species lives over much of southern Africa, both in natural range and transplanted into new territories in Namibia and the Limpopo, but their heartland is KwaZulu Natal. That’s where they occur in number and where the...
Read MoreUpland Ways reviews ‘Wild South’
The Faraway Blog - A great review from Andrew Wayment, editor at the US based magazine Upland Ways. Andrew is a well-known figure in bird dog and fly fishing circles with a long history in the outdoors. His review can be found at http://uplandways.com/2013/08/19/wild-south-by-peter-ryan/ or here. Pete...
Read MoreThe mystery salmon
Fly Girl’s Blog - Many people are aware of the chinook salmon that run up New Zealand’s braided south island rivers each summer. They have a relative which is far less known, one that was thought lost to us for half a century or more, but the sockeye has been seen in much better numbers in recent years. Spawning has been observed in the Tekapo and Twizel rivers, and thousands of sockeye have been seen getting ready for their autumn spawning run in the lower Ohau River. Fish & Game New Zealand - who kindly provided this image – have been doing habitat work to help...
Read MoreEtan – perdiz genius
The Hunting Blog - This is Etan, a two year old viszla who lives on the vast plains of Argentina. We hit it off famously. He’s a great little dog — and I mean little, barely two-thirds the size of a typical show winner. Mystique is a much abused word. Some actors are supposed to have it, but usually don’t get to keep it for long. When you’re fifteen, the girl next door has it, but alas, that too fades. Perdiz have managed to keep their faraway mystique for a long time. Like Africa, South America calls her bantam-sized game birds perdiz or ‘partridge’, but they simply aren’t:...
Read MorePanthera leo
The Hunting Blog - I wasn’t very interested in lion until I met a wild one. In the zoo they simply don’t show any of the genuine charisma they have on the ground. The Swahili speaking peoples say that a lion will frighten you three times – once when you hear him roar, the second time when you see his track, and at last when you meet. Many believe that the all time record for man-eating (in Africa) is held by the two famous males of Tsavo, but that’s unlikely. In No More the Tusker the formidable George Rushby, game warden and hunter in Tanganyika (now...
Read MoreThe scarlet fish
Fly Girl’s Blog- This blog is simply an extract taken from my journal on return from fishing the Taupo / Turangi area, not long after I’d taken up fly fishing. The region had been recently flooded, and a day on the Whakapapa – even with a local contact – had produced absolutely no fish at all. Our friend J was suicidal about this, and so as compensation took us the next day to a fabulous little river which he normally keeps to himself, so I won’t name out of respect to him. The third and last day out was a trophy day. A beautiful, beautiful sky and a perfect piece of...
Read MoreBook review – ‘Wild South’
Well, the first reviews are in…and the news is good. This review is from the very popular and upmarket magazine Fieldsports, which goes worldwide but is based in the UK. You can check it out here or at...
Read MoreConnect to Faraway
