Christiaan Bakkes word onthou as die man wie se arm deur ’n krokodil afgebyt is in die Krugerwildtuin. Dit was ’n waterskeiding in sy lewe. Hy was linkshandig en het sy linkerarm verloor. Tydens rehabilitasie moes hy met sy regterhand leer skryf, en uit daardie pogings is Afrikaans se enigste werklike wildernisskrywer gebore. Met sy eerste boek, Die lang pad van Stoffel Mathysen, het Bakkes die Stoffel-persona geskep vir die oorvertel van ware gebeurtenisse in sy lewe. Nou, met die beste stories, word Bakkes se gunstelingverhale in een band byeengebring, treffend aangevul deur ’n fotoseksie in kleur. In sy kenmerkend ongekunstelde en humoristiese styl vertel hy van sy eerste wilderniservarings as kind, van sy dienspligjare en van sy werk as safarigids in Namibië. Hy vertel stories van die veld, van berge en bosse – as reisiger deur Afrika, met ’n stem soos geen ander in Afrikaans.
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.