This time I was in the co-pilot’s seat. But, fascinating as it always is to watch those dials and needles and hands doing their stuff, it was what I could see down and ahead, and what I could see out on the right – sorry starboard – side that held my attention.
The Luangwa River. The Luangwa River in Zambia, a river no one has ever tried to control or confine or reorganise. It has simply carried on thrashing its way from one side of the valley to the other for uncountable millennia. It’s the wildest river in Africa. And it was why I was here.
I looked out at oxbows and meanders and bends, old courses now abandoned, new ones taken up just a few months earlier, many tributaries, almost all of them dry at the time of year, deep pools peopled with the brown backs of hippos. If you are a large mammal living down in this dry land – dry at any rate till the rains come again — you must go to the main river every day and drink. That’s why both sides are currently packed with life: those that eat plants and those that eat the eaters of plants.
The Luangwa rises in the Mafinga and the Lilonda Hills and travels roughly south until it meets the Zambezi 770 kilometres away. That’s as the fishing eagle flies: the total distance of the river’s course is at least twice that, maybe even three, so wildly does the river wind.
We alighted as gently as a butterfly kissing a flower – a rather passionate butterfly, naturally – and we were off to Takwela, right on the edge of North Luangwa National Park. It was good to see Alex Phiri again: he drove us first across the Mwaleshi, a still flowing tributary, and then across the Luangwa itself: carefully easing the Land Cruiser through the shallows, pushing a decisive bow-wave across the river.
And then we had arrived, and I was sitting in the camp which looks out on – what else? – the Luangwa River, perfectly situated opposite the confluence with the Mwaleshi. The air was filled with carmine bee-eaters, the water below me rich with fishing birds. I was to be there for the next six nights.
- I was co-leading a trip with Wildlife Worldwide https://www.wildlifeworldwide.com/discover/zambia
Simon, your story made me think how wonderful the same journey would be in a hot air balloon.
I dream about the Luangwa Valley nearly every day – and have visited it on a number of occasions, most recently in July 2018 with my daughter. I wanted her to experience it’s many delights. It remains magical – and the love it gives and shows to many has passed through Norman Carr, David Shepherd and Brian Jackman, is now in your descriptive hands. Thanks for sharing and reminding me of it’s beauty.
It’s a place that gets in your blood, that’s for sure. I first went there in 1989. Lost count of my return trips
Would love to read a work of fiction by you
You can try Rogue Lion Safaris, set in the safari industry, pub 1997. You’ll probably get a second hand copy from Abe Books. My more recent The Game’s Gone, about sports journalism, is available on Audible.
I hope you enjoy them!