recounts

Irish trainee field guide rescued by helicopter as deadly floods swamp Kruger National Park PHALABORWA, South Africa — In the pitch black and pouring rain on a hillside above the Olifants River, Kim McNaughton waited for the thump of rotor blades. The trainee field guide from County Monaghan had scrambled to higher ground with colleagues after floodwaters cut off their safari lodge in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, washing away a nearby bridge and turning escape routes into impassable mud. “Survival mode just kicked…