Simon Barnes Author and Journalist

Sports and Wild Blog

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

How to have fun in bed in the Luangwa Valley

2 November 2017 by Simon Barnes 4 Comments

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.

It seems such a waste to go to sleep. Shame to waste the murmurs of the night with slumber: better to savour the restlessness of the crickets, the bleeping call of the fruit bats, the calls of the owls, scops and pearl-spotted. And every so often, the whoop of hyena, to add a thrill of danger.

All the same, I was dozing off – or had I already done so, and was awoken? – when a great double-syllable roar broke the night open. I was alarmed, because this was an alarm call, and like the baboons who made it and the baboons who heard it, I knew what it meant.

It was followed by a series of short, sharp whistles from the puku, the foxy-red antelopes for whom darkness is ten hours of legitimate fear. They too could hear it, or smell it or perhaps even see it. Or were they picking up on the baboon’s call? The baboons know they have an enemy that can climb almost as well as they can and which specialises in stealth.

I knew without needing to see that there was a leopard out there, close at hand, and that its hunt had been foiled. And I was pretty sure what the leopard would do: lie up in a gully – probably on the sandy bed of the Chokoko – and wait for the tumult and the shouting to die down. Wait for the antelope and the baboon to grow complacent and then try again…

The greyness brought me awake again. Not daylight, nothing like daylight, but the mere promise of a day to come roused me. Your senses are more in tune out here, and besides, there’s not much in the way of curtains or for that matter, windows.

And with the greyness came the roaring at the dawn: a sudden solo from a not-distant lion, rising, rising and then falling away. How close? Too close. Not close enough.

By then the day-shift was clocking on, the ground hornbills’ didgeridoo chorus in full swing, the first phrases from Heuglin’s robin. Another day of savage beauty lay before me: lay before all of us who survived the night.

Now the doves were calling. Tea, the camp-fire, another Luangwa day…

· I was co-leading the Sacred Combe Safari with Chris Breen from www.wildlifeworldwide.com

http://www.wildlifeworldwide.com/group-tours/sacred-combe-safari

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Posted in Wildblog

Comments

  1. Carole Nicholson says

    2 November 2017 at 8:26 pm

    Beautiful writing, Simon – describes it perfectly.
    Felt a privilege to have been there with you.
    Carole

    Reply
  2. hilda denham says

    2 November 2017 at 8:28 pm

    Wonderful!

    Hilda

    Reply
  3. Sue says

    3 November 2017 at 6:52 am

    Love how your words wrap me in a blanket of mystery. Magical

    Reply
  4. Anthony Bird says

    6 November 2017 at 10:11 am

    Well, Simon you have done it again! Raised in me the desire to be there with you, to experience the sounds at first hand, but it is just not possible so your writings will have to do.
    Will you be publishing an illustrated account of this trip?
    Many regards and keep ’em coming,

    Reply

Please leave a comment Cancel reply

Receive Blog Updates By Email

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

Join 6,287 other subscribers.

Recent Comments

  • Michael John Clark on Midsummer – it must be time for a swift drink
  • Sue on On the whole, stoats are better than work
  • Michael John Clark on On the whole, stoats are better than work
  • Elaine Slee on On the whole, stoats are better than work
  • Keith Owens on Midsummer – it must be time for a swift drink

Categories

  • Myblog (7)
  • Sportsblog (7)
  • Wildblog (217)

Archives

  • June 2022
  • 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