MOST people bring back little mementoes from their holidays - Brian White's is a five-inch metal plate in his shoulder.

The award-winning photographer, from Deane, has just completed a two-month trip travelling 8,000 miles across Africa.

But it was on the final days of the journey, while taking the roof rack off his Land Rover, that Brian, aged 49, slipped and shattered a bone in his arm.

"I was very lucky, really," said Brian, now back at home in Henrietta Street with his left arm in a sling.

"If it had happened while we were in the bush, I could have lost the arm or even died. I was in agony, but we were able to get to a hospital in Cape Town and I had an operation there."

Surgeons anchored his humerus in place with the metal plate, which must stay in for the next six months.

This was not his only injury. While camping in the bush, he accidentally disturbed an African hornets' nest and was stung in the face and eye.

Brian said: "My face swelled up for about a week and was really painful."

The trip, however, was still highly enjoyable. He teamed up with Boltonian Ian Lomax, now living in Cape Town, who proved an able tracker and driver.

Brian, a seasoned traveller who has visited dozens of countries since he was 18, wanted to follow in the footsteps of his childhood hero, the explorer David Livingstone.

So the intrepid pair went into the Kalahari Desert, across Namibia and the Skeleton Coast before tackling the Namibian Kakoveld district and mingling with the nomadic Himba tribe.

Then it was on to the Okavango Delta in Botswana, through the Moremi and Chobe national parks, Victoria Falls and Livingstone itself.

The journey involved very rough tracks, including plenty of mud and water as it was the end of the rainy season.

But Brian and Ian took some amazing close-up shots of wildlife, including startling images of a cape cobra poisoning and then devouring a mouse as well as leopard, cheetah, lions, wild dogs and giraffes.

And Brian got closer than he would have liked to a bull elephant which charged through the camp. "Mind you, it made some great photos!" he said.

His injury did not stop him from taking pictures immediately he returned to England.

Brian said: "I'd promised to take someone's wedding photographs in Bolton and didn't want to let them down."

Now, Brian, who has twice won The Bolton News' Award in Bolton Camera Club's annual competition, has the job of editing the 5,000 digital images he took on his trip. "And," he added, "I might just start planning the next adventure."