Simon Barnes Author and Journalist

Sports and Wild Blog

Simon Barnes
  • Home
  • Biog
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Pictures
  • Contact
  • Twitter

Archives for November 2016

Startling experience with a Chinese water deer

30 November 2016 by Simon Barnes 1 Comment

I had been back from Zambia only a few days when I put up a Chinese water deer. I was on horseback at the time, riding through one of those low, almost subterranean Broadlands fields when the deer broke cover. They like to do this pretty late in the day. It always makes you jump,… [Read More]

Posted in Wildblog

No direction home…

27 November 2016 by Simon Barnes 4 Comments

November 2 We took a walk on our last morning in the Luangwa Valley and it was a good one. Well, it’s always good, isn’t it? We had almost completed our circuit and were heading back to camp when it all started to kick off. There was a lone buffalo between us and camp. Demanding… [Read More]

Posted in Wildblog

Crane

25 November 2016 by Simon Barnes 6 Comments

November 1 It was our last full day in the Valley so we took an all-day drive from Tena-Tena to the Salt Pan. Here, the country opens out, the trees fall away and the spring-water creates a little inland delta: an island of wet entirely surrounded by land. It was an abrupt change of mood… [Read More]

Posted in Wildblog

Rain rain rain rain! Beautiful rain!

21 November 2016 by Simon Barnes 1 Comment

October 31 Every now and then the Luangwa Valley will give you a break from wonders. Not often, mind, but occasionally the place allows you a quiet hour or so when you can draw breath and remind yourself that amazing things are not, after all, a basic human right. Not that it was the dreariest… [Read More]

Posted in Wildblog

After you, Mr Elephant

20 November 2016 by Simon Barnes 2 Comments

October 29 You can’t always do what you want. You can make a plan and a damn good plan too,  but then you have to change it. And then change it again. When you’re walking in the bush, a certain degree of flexibility is a good thing, for all sorts of reasons. Staying alive is… [Read More]

Posted in Wildblog

Two creatures whose name was Mud

18 November 2016 by Simon Barnes 5 Comments

October 28 The artificial water-hole by Crocodile River Camp is a kind of stage for the theatrical performances of the bush. Watch it all day: the thinking man’s television. A rosette of a dozen impalas dared to drink all at once: bottoms up! Lillian’s lovebirds and red-billed buffalo soldiers dropped by in numbers throughout the… [Read More]

Posted in Wildblog

Sweet Luangwa run softly till I end my song…

10 November 2016 by Simon Barnes 5 Comments

October 27 The Luangwa River does bends. A 180 is nothing. Just routine. A 270 is more the river’s style, as here: vast beaches of sand either side of the life-giving dry-season trickle. Dry lagoons either side of the river show where the river has performed a 360, joined up with itself and created a… [Read More]

Posted in Wildblog

The day the impalas went silly

9 November 2016 by Simon Barnes 2 Comments

Oct 26 The temperature dropped like a brick that night. The morning was cool – well, cool by the standards of the Valley in late October. Not quite the open-oven-door we had yesterday, anyway. And as we drove across the still-dry lagoons, it was clear that the shift in the weather had prompted a certain… [Read More]

Posted in Wildblog

When you’re a pride you’re a pride

8 November 2016 by Simon Barnes 3 Comments

I’m rather proud of one word, scribbled in pencil in my field notebook (which is not to be confused with the fair-copy-notebook written up a few hours later). The word in question is “restless”. I wrote it about lions. They were resting up under a collection of bushes spread out across the landscape in mid-morning…. [Read More]

Posted in Wildblog

How to spot a genet

7 November 2016 by Simon Barnes 5 Comments

October 24 But the fact of the matter is that you can’t spot a genet. That’s because they’ve already been spotted. In the Luangwa Valley the large-spotted genet is the prevailing species, though their scientific name is much more charming: Genetta tigrina. Take a night-drive in the Valley. It’s a rare night when you don’t… [Read More]

Posted in Wildblog

The antelope less travelled with

5 November 2016 by Simon Barnes 3 Comments

October 23 The day began with a crossing of the Luangwa River: a canoe journey of a few seconds. Then a short walk to Chikoko bush camp; nice zebras. Great familiarity does not impossibilise surprise: it makes surprises rarer and therefore deeper. Looking out at the flat area of dry lagoon beyond camp I was… [Read More]

Posted in Wildblog

The yellow snake coils in the water

4 November 2016 by Simon Barnes 7 Comments

First, many apologies for my long silence in this space. But look out – I’m just back from Zambia full of resolutions to do better. First I’ll send a retrospective daily blog from that glorious trip before attempting more regular reports from our bit of marsh and elsewhere. So… October 22 The aeroplane leapt into… [Read More]

Posted in Wildblog

Receive Blog Updates By Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to my blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 5,468 other subscribers.

Recent Comments

  • Penny Woollams on Swift as a bow from an arrow…
  • Rob Howell on Swift as a bow from an arrow…
  • Jolyon Barton on Swift as a bow from an arrow…
  • Michael Clark on Cousin Caterpillar… one day he’ll wake with wings
  • Alan P on Swift as a bow from an arrow…

Categories

  • Myblog (7)
  • Sportsblog (7)
  • Wildblog (215)

Archives

  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • July 2018
  • May 2018
  • February 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • June 2017
  • April 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014

© Simon Barnes · info@simonbarnesauthor.co.uk
Home page photograph © David Bebber · Bird drawings © foxillustration.com
Created by Purple Hippo