Sacred Combe Safari III Day 5 We have all heard a good deal about the loss of biodiversity: but as I keep saying, we are also and crucially losing bioabundance. And though a good sighting of some rare and lovely thing does our hearts good, a glorious sight of biological plenty has the same profound… [Read More]

Sacred Combe Safari III Day 4 And now we walk. We won’t see a vehicle for the next five days.  Walking – walking towards camp — we stopped for tea. As we did so, three elephants, two females and a young male, walked towards us. So we shifted ground and started again. Tea tastes better… [Read More]

Sacred Combe Safari III Day 3 There are moments very dear to the professional safari guide, occasions that showcase both knowledge and skill in the same dramatic moment: so that it seems that the guide himself had personally called the lovely beast into being. Moffat Mwanza was about to have just such a moment as… [Read More]

Sacred Combe Safari III Day 1 Two rivers have flown through my adult life: the Liffey and the Luangwa. I mostly know the Liffey from obsessive rereading of Ulysses; I know the Luangwa from my obsessive need to return to the Luangwa Valley. If a book or a place is deep enough and rich enough… [Read More]

Sacred Combe Safari III Day -1 I had arrived in the Luangwa Valley in Zambia the previous evening, and dined with my old friends Jess and Ade at Flatdogs Camp in great happiness. The following morning, I went into the park with a guide called Byron and had a fine morning: getting my eye to… [Read More]