Americans watch in horror the slow destruction of the Gulf Coast's natural environment, the
presidential impotence in the face of disaster, and the corporate perpetrator
putting more effort into evading liability and
controlling public information than ending the crisis. It may help to know that on this beleaguered planet there are regions still unsullied by man.
US Person journeyed to a river valley in central Africa caught in a gentle eddy of time. To go there is to see what our distant ancestors knew in the cradle of their birth. Thanks to the valley's remoteness, even in the age of intercontinental jets, and the
tsetse fly's infectious bite, the Luangwa River flows as it did in the time of the hunter-gatherers. The rains still fall on the Muchinga escarpment to across a landscape of riverine deciduous forest, Mopani woodland, and flood plains all uncrossed by roads.
To the credit of colonial administration the valley was set aside as a game reserve in 1938 and later declared a national park, before the game was completely hunted out. Despite protection, hunting and poaching has taken a terrible toll on the wildlife. The black rhino population was wiped out in 1987. As late as the 1970's there were perhaps 100,000 elephants in and around South Luangwa National Park. Now there are only 18,000. But elephant families in Luangwa today often contain infants and adolescents. A visitor can still photograph lion and leopard hunting numerous antelope, encounter the formidable Cape buffalo on foot, or wonder at the physiology of the endemic Thorncroft's giraffe. Hippo pods dot the river at intervals like grey boulders in midstream. Eighteen foot crocodiles recharge on sandbanks in the strong African sun. The park's nocturnal inhabitants are a revelation of zoology. Animals rarely seen by first world humans can be found with the aid of a spotlight and competent guides: civets, genets, elephant shrews, eagle owls and bush babies. Luangwa is an enact ecosystem that is a rare marvel in the 21st century.
was ably hosted by
Norman Carr Safaris. Founder Norman Carr was a Northern Rhodesia park ranger who turned to the safari business after his retirement from civil service in the late fifties. Carr was determined to make tourism a business that paid dividends for local people and enhanced wildlife conservation. Today, the company he founded supports a local school, conservation efforts, and employs many Zambians living near South Luwanga National Park. His book,
Return to the Wild, is a candid account of the adoption of two lion cubs, whom he successfully reared and returned to the wild. Stay tuned to this space for more photos of Zambia's wildlife.
[female leopard feasts on impala--note the spotlight is not directed into the eyes of the predator]
