Krokodil aan my skouer is Christiaan Bakkes se boeiende vertelling oor sy vroeë vormingsjare. In ses bundels sedert 1998 het lesers hom leer ken deur sy Stoffel Mathysen-persona. Vandag is hy bekend as ’n gesogte safarigids en gerespekteerde natuurbewaarder, maar mense onthou hom steeds as die man wie se arm in die Krugerwildtuin deur ’n krokodil afgebyt is – ’n gebeurtenis wat sy lewe verander het. Vir die eerste maal vertel Stoffel ook die volle verhaal van sy jaar grensdiens in die Wes-Caprivi en ontbloot só ’n stuk geheime geskiedenis uit die bosoorlog. En hy kondig sy nuwe oorlog aan: die stryd teen renosterstropery.
Christiaan Mathys Bakkes was born on August 3 1965 in Vredenburg on the West Coast. He matriculated in 1983 at the Pro Arte Art School in Pretoria.
Christiaan was a game ranger in the Kruger National Park when he lost his left arm in February 1994 after two crocodiles attacked him while he was swimming in a dam. He travelled through Africa for five months after his recovery, worked for the WWF in the Kaokoveld in Namibia for three years, after which he worked for a safari company that conducted eco tours at the Skeleton Coast. He is currently a guide and area manager at Wilderness Safaris in Namibia. He lives in Damaraland in the northwest of Namibia.
His debut, Die lang pad van Stoffel Mathysen, was published in 1998 and four more books about the adventures of his alter ego, Stoffel have since been published. Most of these stories are based on real life experiences.
Stoffel by die afdraaipad was nominated in 2005 for the M-Net literary prize for short format texts (short stories, children’s or youth novels).
In 2008 In Bushveld and Desert: A Game Ranger’s Life, translations of several of his stories, was published.