Not too much to report today. The Bush Camp itself, in its isolated position, far from any other human beings, just lends itself to relaxation, and enjoying the African bush in its natural state, rather than careering around it in a noisy 4X4. The open terrace of our hut made the ideal place to relax in this way ().

We did, however take a walk on the island across the river, again getting there by canoe, before crossing the dry channel of the Luangwa River on the other side, to reach the far bank. On a walking safari you don't really expect to get all that close to big game, but we did manage to get very close indeed to a couple of lions ()

As the only guests now in camp we were able to have a long chat with the resident management team, over more than a few sundowners, admiring a spectacular sunset () before another early night.

On an earlier trip a party of American ladies had solemnly taken in the instructions as to what to do if a lion ‘moment’ occurred – don’t run, walk slowly away, and all without turning your back. Later, on an early evening walk on the bank of a dry river bed, we came upon an elephant in a bad mood (), and dropped down into the river bed itself to detour around it.

Then, on coming around a bend, we came across a magnificent male lion sunning himself on the opposite bank. The writer was transfixed by this magnificent sight, just a few metres away ().

However the American ladies decided that enough was enough, and proved that they had carefully assimilated the advice given to them. The writer was then torn between continuing to watch the lion, or watch these ladies attempting to scramble up a 45 degree banking – backwards! In fact it wasn’t really a triumph of planning, since everybody was out of place. Strictly the scout should have led up the banking (back towards where the elephant spotted earlier might have been), but the ladies got ahead of him.

The guide should then have brought up the rear, which in practice he almost did, before realising that he needed to climb back down to forcibly collect the writer who was still admiring the lion (which at this point quietly slipped away into the bush).

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