newsGary Freeman (1961-2026)- A man who lived gently through the natural world
Gary Freeman, one of southern Africa’s most revered wildlife guides. A great man who walked the African earth with dignity and purpose.
Notice, listen and slow down was the message that the late Gary Freeman, a revered game guide in Africa, gave his clients. But on 9 April this year Gary was trampled to death by one of the wild elephants he both loved and respected. Gary was not a hunter, but he would not have hesitated to shoot any wild animal that threatened the life of one of his guests. The full circumstances, as yet unknown, of Gary’s death will be investigated at an inquest, but it is almost certain he gave his life for the four-man party he was guiding along with his tracker. Veteran foreign reporter FRED BRIDGLAND knew Freeman well as a friend and as an admirer of his knowledge and respect for Africa’s spectacular wild places. Gary’s many other friends and admirers around the world mourn this great man’s death while celebrating his rich and meaningful life. He was a big spirit.
Gary Freeman’s death, on 9 April, while protecting four clients from the elephant attack, has left his admirers throughout the world reeling. A torrent of affectionate tributes has been paid to a man who moved gently through the natural world, teaching people to notice, listen and slow down.
Gary, accompanied by his tracker Dominic, had taken his guests into the bush. Their open-top game-viewing vehicle was moving along the edge of a shallow gully when they spotted a cow elephant and her near-adult calf. According to the five people with him that day, Gary suggested leaving the vehicle and trying to get closer to the animals on foot.
Gary Freeman – Leading the young towards life-lasting love for nature in a threatened and fractured world.
The little party disembarked and followed Gary ̶ who was carrying, as always, a high-powered hunting rifle ̶ as he began walking towards the elephants. There was nothing unusual about this activity: it’s how Gary had always conducted his safaris, guiding people on foot into the bush for more than thirty years.
Elephant herds are abundant in the Klaserie, which shares an unfenced boundary with South Africa’s mighty Kruger Park. As he had done countless times before, Gary had briefed his guests that, although he himself was comfortable in the bush, the animals were truly wild and needed to be treated with respect. He said that in the unlikely event of an elephant charge he would tell his guests to retreat.
As the little party approached the mother elephant, they noticed more elephants off to the right and Gary told his guests to begin walking slowly back to the game-viewing vehicle. Suddenly sensing danger, Gary then gave a “full evacuation” instruction. His guests knew from their briefing earlier exactly what to do under such circumstances: they all broke into a run behind Dominic back to their vehicle.
By the time they reached the vehicle, Gary was out of sight. They heard three rifle shots, followed by what one tourist described as “a bit of commotion.” Then there was silence. When the elephants retreated, they found Gary’s terribly battered body. They lifted him into the vehicle, but he died before they reached help. The trauma for the tourists must have been enormous.
There are, of course, many fine game rangers in southern Africa. So what was it that set Gary Freeman apart and elicited such widespread mourning for the departure of his great spirit? There was his character. Known by his trackers as The Giraffe for his six-foot seven-inch height, Gary was a kind, brave and loyal man with exceptionally deep knowledge and love of Africa’s wild places: it was there that he was most at home.
And then there was his remarkable bush camp, a collection of simple tents arranged under the boughs of a giant jackalberry tree in which he had built a platform with views out along the riverbed. The camp was rustic and unfenced, its open-air long-drop toilet an especially memorable feature. Surrounded on three sides by a reed screen, the loo faced the river on the wide-open fourth side. I have perched there on many occasions watching elephants, buffalo and other creatures among the reeds of the Klaserie as I answered the call of nature.
Gary and young followers in the Klaserie Reserve which he and his partner Hanneke loved so much and did so much to protect all that was wild and wonderful within it.
Gary was born on 12 March, 1961 and grew up in a warm extended family in Nigel, a mining town to the east of Johannesburg, where he and his partner of many years, Hanneke, had their home. Hanneke also is an experienced game guide. Gary obtained a university degree in mechanical engineering, but after graduating joined the wildlife organisation led by the legendary conservationist Clive Walker as a trails guide.
He took over a camp begun by Walker in the Klaserie and started his own safari business there. Gary’s camp blended into the wild: it was part of it, and that was what so many people loved about it. Like the toilet, the bucket shower was screened by reeds on only three sides, the fourth open to the bush. You had to be careful when emerging that you did not bump into an elephant strolling nonchalantly through the camp. On one occasion a pride of lions brought down a buffalo just next to the shower entrance, killed it and quit only when every scrap of the meal had been devoured.
A day with Gary began with coffee around the campfire as the sun rose. Then the game-viewing vehicle took guests to a distant spot where the walking began, with Gary leading the way carrying his rifle. With luck you might encounter any of the region’s iconic animals ̶ elephant, rhino, lion, leopard, hippo, hyaenas, sable antelope ̶ and it was an altogether different and more profound experience on foot than from a vehicle.
While most visitors wanted to see the Big Five, Gary drew their attention to the great diversity of birds, smaller animals such as pangolins and chameleons and amazing insects that live in the bush. A favourite Gary trick was to wiggle a blade of grass into the silk-lined burrow of a large hairy baboon spider ̶ a relative of the tarantula family ̶ and coax the creature to the surface before allowing it to return home after photos had been taken.
Another Gary trick was to catch with his bare hands nightjars on the ground as the sun went down and demonstrate their long and complicated wing structures to guests before letting the birds go free.
Some experiences with Gary were unforgettable. I particularly remember being in Botswana’s Okavango Delta with him and other guests in an open top vehicle at a waterhole rich with game. We were soon surrounded by a large herd of elephants. Gary instructed us all just to sit quietly: the elephants were not aggressive. Nevertheless, one bull elephant approached and began running its trunk over us before taking a particular fancy to one of our party, Dave, a Johannesburg chartered accountant. We were stunned by the enormous size of the erection the elephant developed as it caressed Dave, who made us all laugh by muttering “Hallo sailor.” At the sound of our laughter, the herd fell back and drifted away, the elephant’s love for Dave unrequited and the rest of us all safe.
Gary Freeman – a life worth living in a land worth loving
In the Klaserie, guests went out each evening with Gary before nightfall in the game-viewing vehicle to pick up dead leadwood, a very dense slow-burning hardwood, for the campfire over which he prepared the evening meal.
He kneaded dough and baked bread in an iron pot which he sank into a hole and buried with red hot coals. The resulting bread with lashings of butter was truly delicious. We would eat supper ̶ such fare as steaks, crispy bacon and baked potatoes ̶ with sounds of owls calling gently from the jackalberry tree. Afterwards we bedded down to the night sounds of the bush.
It is impossible to convey the volume and range of tributes paid to Gary. One German family ventured out with him more than forty times. My own family went on ten expeditions with him, always confident that he would keep us safe: he gave us, without a doubt, some of the richest experiences of our time in Africa.
RIP Gary, you were a great person