Luangwa in Six Senses
You may think you go on safari to see things. So you do - but if you do it right, you get a lot more than you bargained for. You see things that no camera, no matter how skilled its operator, can ever capture, and you have all your other senses hard at work as well: for safari is a total experience. So here is the Luangwa Valley through six senses.
Sight
Not all great visual experiences work as photographs. From horizon to horizon a lion-coloured land… with lions in it. Somewhere.
The great sky, all blue bar a single small cloud the size of your hand – and a dark shallow vee that you know is a distant bateleur eagle.
The way a leopard moves.
A moving piece of darkness – the elephant in the camp.
Round the next bend: a wild impossible new vista of the mad impossible river.
Sound
Image by Dana Allen
The crump of distant lion… and the answer coming back.
A wood owl in the trees on your way to bed… now then, whooooo’s a naughty boy?
The frogs in the reeds.
The triple-note of greenshank: announcing the start of a grand riverside morning.
The swish of vegetation, the crack of a branch – it’s that elephant in the camp again.
Smell
The mopane-wood fire at breakfast; the mopane-wood fire with a night-cap.
Lion-kill from downwind: like the opening of the gates of hell.
Far from unpleasant: fresh elephant droppings on your morning walk.
Rain. The difference in the air before it comes, the explosive release of smells when the rain has stopped.
Africa. Wild Africa. It’s a sort of mixture of woodsmoke and pepper, tickling your nose from the moment you leave the aeroplane at Mfuwe airport.
Touch
The sun on your back, that life-giving dry heat.
Sand between your toes after wading the river.
The vegetation that snags your feet and curls around your body on paths the elephants have made.
The voluptuous pleasure of a good branch to sit on when you stop for tea during a good walk.
The sweet coolness of a good shade tree, as you step out of the sun on a morning walk.
Taste
A grass stalk, idly plucked as you walk, and briefly chewed.
Rooibos tea: breakfast with the great river before you.
Chilli sauce. Sometimes it’s homemade; chilli is a good local crop because the elephants keep away from it. But the locally produced Rivonia brand will also make your excellent lunch dance.
Honey. You haven’t tasted honey until you have tried the stuff the bees make in Zambia.
Mosi. The great beer of Zambia. Try one as the sun goes down, the elephant are crossing the river in front of you, a giraffe is drinking with its legs at crazy angles and from the bank a couple of lions watch it all with sardonic expressions. Now that’s what I call a beer…
Emotion
Stillness: the profound pleasure of simply being in the bush, with nothing to hurry for, and the life of the Valley teeming all around you.
Fear: you never forget that there are large and dangerous animals out there, and that puts the chilli sauce on the great feast of the senses.
Joy: the amazement that such wonderful places and such wonderful creatures can exist – and that you are privileged to be among them.
Weariness: the sense of delicious tiredness that comes from walking and being overloaded with enormous experiences.
Belonging. You are in the marvellous Valley, and you’re no longer an observer. You’re a participant. You have become part of the place, and the place has become part of you.
Now it always will be.
Contact us to book your Luangwa safari experience, or view all our wildlife trips to Zambia.
