veld

My obsession with Land Rover dates back to my early teen years in Johannesburg, when Range Rovers were passports to great adventures in the African veldt.

The ex-Ballykissangel star has acquired a set of new skills thanks to his latest role as a vet on the South African veldt.

Their dramas are played out against the stunning backdrop of the South African veldt, where the family attempt to build a new life.

Since firing my very first Sharps rifle in 1981, I've packed them about in the 105-degree heat of the African veldt, and up some mighty steep Montana mountainsides at 20 below zero.

Take a safari ride across the African Veldt among antelope, giraffes, wildebeests,

Very much playing like one of those Timothy Dalton James Bond movies, ``Cradle'' sends our buxom British adventuress (Angelina Jolie doing the accent again) to such colorful locations as the Greek island of Santorini, the Great Wall of China and the African veldt around Mount Kilimanjaro.

By page 60 we have already advanced from hominids roaming the East African veldt to city-builders in Bronze Age Mesopotamia, and at the halfway point of the narrative, Hernan Cortes is conquering Mexico.

So began my first morning in the Thornybush game reserve - 100 square kilometres of rolling South African veldt.

He deserved very much better because there is a heritage of service to Canada linking the African veldt to the trenches of Vimy to the muddy waters of the Scheldt, the bleak hills of Korea and now, the still troubled Balkans which says much about the enduring breed of warriors and even more about their roots.

All sunrises and sunsets are special no matter where you find them, but something powerful glows and grows across the soul and landscape with each incremental warming inch of sunlight basting the African veldt around you.

Here, deep in the South African veldt, the silence is full of birds' calls, and the chattering and bickering of monkeys and baboons.

On the other hand, the opening up has also enabled them to venture into the rest of Africa, leaving the South African veldt to look for "blue sky" opportunities around the world.

Out of necessity, therefore, these settlers developed, by selective breeding between dogs they had brought with them from their home countries and the half-wild ridged dog of the Hottentots, a distinct breed of the African veldt, which has come to be known as the Rhodesian Ridgeback.

The message from the polar ice, the Brazilian rainforest, the African veldt, the Vermont sugarbush, and the Los Angeles street is a plea for help.