Here’s one of those odd things about life: the longer you’ve known someone, the more things you have to talk about. You’d think it would be the opposite. So there I was in Chris’s garden, a nice drink, nice weather, and the sound of church bells, one of them rung by Chris’s wife Nicky.
What did we talk about? Among an awful lot of things, including bell-ringing, his family and my family, we touched on the perils of missing your station after a jolly evening, Leonardo’s parachute design, the man who parachuted to earth from space, flying a Chipmunk training aircraft, the great whales, the virtues of Sydney (the city not a person), problems with pterodactyls in my current book, Chris’s business (he runs the wildlife travel company Wildlife Worldwide), the nature of greenfinch song, post-production problems with wildlife photographs and Pogacer’s solo breakaway at the Tour de France.
And yet — again and again — conversation returned to the Luangwa Valley in Zambia. To tell the truth it’s never truly left. We met there in 1989 (Chris was tour leader), and we have returned many times, quite often together. These days we co-lead the occasional trip: we know the place and its residents, human and non-human, with an intimacy that is one of the great privileges of our lives.
So we also talked about the identification of lanner falcon, a book about the Valley a mutual friend was writing, the curious ways of lions, the common leopard (which is actually a butterfly), guide training and the incalculably lofty standard of the guides in the Valley, the ordeal tree, an experience of trial by ordeal of another old friend, the flight of carmine bee-eaters, the incidence of Eurasian hobby in the Valley, the local organisation Conservation South Luangwa (Chris and I are both trustees), my CSL cap, whether whisky is a better campfire drink than Amarula, and an old favourite, recalled rather than retold, the adventure of Bob and the flufftail.
The Valley is part of us. Such a place… you might even care to join us some day.
https://www.wildlifeworldwide.com/group-tours/walking-safari-in-heart-of-zambia
Hello Simon
What an interesting and lovely chat with your pal. I had that privilege yesterday with a bunch of like minded pals, one of life’s pleasures!
It’s a good day for me – it’s my birthday and my husband gave me a signed copy of your Bad Botanist book. Love the Basho quote.
Thank you for a truly glorious stream of conscious post that highlights both place and person.
Lovely words there about the Luangwa Valley Simon ….you write so beautifully about nature – we are blessed .
After a day celebrating the life and mourning the loss of a dear cousin and friend on Guernsey, your piece gave me a blanket of congeniality at the end of a very sad day. Treasured moments with good friends are so very precious.
My friends are on another ‘tour’ as voluntary safari camp & bush doctors in Luangwa. Their latest blog talks all about the skill of the bush guides & their experience of a ‘hands free’ walk with one – with no protection – except the expert knowledge of this chap. Breathtaking.
Love the Luangwa truely, madly deeply – and after more than six visits I miss it terribly, Loved your Sacred Coombe book and intrigued to know when your mutual friend (and who) is going to have his/her book published. Does it have a working title? And looking forward to hearing more after your and Chris’ next adventure in “The Valley”. Uplifting and memorable