Pterodactyl! You call out the names of birds as you see them and identify them; it’s a kind of politeness. Sometimes they look, sometimes they don’t. This time I certainly had the attention of my audience. They turned their eyes skywards to catch sight of the two monsters that flew overhead and no one contradicted… [Read More]

I’m not blasé, of course I’m not blasé, but at the same time, it’s not my dewy-eyed first time. I’ve been in the Luangwa Valley many times in the last quarter-century and my love of the place is about familiarity, not arrival-shock. I don’t go weak at the knees every time I see an elephant…. [Read More]

Like marriage, the Luangwa Valley isn’t all about bed, but that doesn’t mean bed doesn’t matter. First night out in Chokoko, a bush-camp set in a bend of the sand river of the same name. A whisky at the camp fire and early to bed, but not alone. I took with me the African night…. [Read More]

So we stepped out of the canoe and walked towards the lions. As opposed to away from the lions. And that moment when you reverse common sense always gets to me. At once you are torn in half. Half of you says: well, that can’t be right, can it? But the other half says yeah,… [Read More]