ZAMBIA – THE LAST GREAT WILDERNESS?

Is Zambia the last great wilderness?

Finally then, a brief summing up of our incredible experience whilst the memories of that vast, dry, cracked, almost prehistoric African bush are still fresh. Where you feel intensely alive and completely awestruck by the raw, huge, immense, out of control world where you experience nature in it’s most basic form. Where you can sit on the edge of your bed feeling very small and defenseless whilst an enormous Bull elephant rips branches off a tree just outside your window, having lumbered up from the river to remind you that you are a part of a life force that is so so much bigger than you. There is something completely magical about seeing animals just being. In the wild. Where they are meant to be. Just thrilling beyond words. How can somewhere so dangerous feel so peaceful? Sitting by our campfire, under the stars in the moonlight, with no one else around but us, the elephants, lions, leopards, crocodiles and hippos we are the only people in the world. Feeling like travellers before us must have felt for all eternity, uplifted by being alone, humbled and very, very lucky.

As David Livingstone himself said “The mere animal pleasure of travelling in wild unexplored country is very great” and I know just what he means. Even after all this time, it still feels like that. A wonderful way to pass the time, living in luxury in the bush. Time for reflection. Simple pleasures that will stay with us forever – the pure animal pleasure of being somewhere so beautiful, so remote. Could Zambia be Africa’s last great wilderness?

To be honest, there was something magical about the whole trip. From start to finish. An experience we will never forget and as I add my favourite photos and a few words here and there, all that is left to say, especially to my two brilliant brothers and of course to my mother who honoured our fathers’ wishes and paid for us to go is “Zikomo for Everything” (as my father used to say).

My sort of camping:-

First morning on our own private island and happy, happy, happy:-

Breakfast at Tongabezi Lodge overlooking the Zambezi:-

Sunset cruise:-

Cheating death at the Devil’s Pool, Victoria Falls:-

The three elephants we saw as we left the Victoria Falls:-

Loving my sunset hippo photo – he snorted that spray:-

First time the elephant came into our living room!! He was huge!!:-

Me and elephant!

Outside my tent:-

I LOVE elephants – got SO many photos but loved this close up:-

Doing his stretching exercises:-

My preferred “Fifty Shades of Grey”:-

“The three little fuck-ups” as my father used to fondly refer to us:-

Canoeing;-

Pinheads in a jeep (well, me anyway):-

The Plane!! The plane!!

Can’t wait to get back out there.