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Surprised by joy: that, and the fact that elephants are really quite big

7 November 2017 by Simon Barnes 6 Comments

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. Rather, it’s a joyous sense of reconnection.

I know that on every trip to the Valley there’ll be something I’ve never seen before: and I’ve touched on that already in this recent series of posts, with the swimming lion and the heron eating a snake as long as itself. These novelties are further reconfirmation of my enduring ever-growing love for the place.

But every now and then the Luangwa Valley will hit you on the back of the head with a sandbag.

This time it happened on perhaps my third or fourth day of walking. I was in my correct place at the back of the walk, and had picked out, to my own quiet pleasure, the fluty call of a black-headed oriole. And then – bam!

There was a male elephant; perhaps it mattered that I found him for myself: at the back you don’t get everything pointed out to you. Not far from him a male kudu: tall and handsome with spiralling horn that made two full triple twists. There were a few distant buffalo, for this was an open plain and even in this late part of the dry season, there was food to be had here. The light had gone all gentle, the way it does here in the last hour of the day, the noontime harshness all forgotten. The faint sound of my walking feet, the faint sense of trespass, the faint feeling of danger, the faint feeling of privilege. A sense of all Africa, all life, all time suspended in a single moment.

And for some reason it was all too much.

It was as if I was aware of the Valley’s beauty for the first time, as if I had never seen an elephant before, never realised they were so big, never noticed they had trunks or tusks or ears in the shape of Africa.

And you know, for a moment I was a little dewy-eyed.

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

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

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Comments

  1. Anthony Bird says

    7 November 2017 at 5:32 pm

    Well, Simon, you make me dewy-eyed every time you put your fingers on the keys, but , you know,I would not have it any other way, just keep them coming.

    Reply
  2. CHARLES FARR says

    7 November 2017 at 6:15 pm

    It’s good to cry – even if it’s embarrassing.

    Reply
  3. heroicarules says

    7 November 2017 at 6:39 pm

    Another great post, wonderful insights.

    Reply
  4. Sophie Adams says

    8 November 2017 at 8:46 am

    Fantastic. You are very very lucky. We can only dream of this right now – hope to make it out there one day.
    Sophir

    Reply
  5. Jen Ferguson says

    9 November 2017 at 2:54 pm

    How wonderful it is to be in the Luangwa Valley with you…..thank you, thank you

    Reply
  6. Mike Davis says

    10 November 2017 at 8:02 am

    You’ve made me want to go back again – and take my daughter there too, to this heavenly valley, deep in the unspoilt heart of Africa. Will have to start saving the pennies again.

    Reply

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