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Thanks to Joy Adamson I have been in love with Lions since I was a child. Seeing my first Lion in Kruger National Park ranks as one of the highlights of my life so far. However, after 15 ... oh, all right, 28 years of Lions dominating my affections, could Elephants be taking over? It all started in 2006 whilst on a Naturetrek tour to the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia - surely one of the best, if not the best, parks in Africa for viewing wildlife.
Nudging confidently into Agadir’s traffic our driver calmly joined the throng. We’d met Mohamed and Syed at the airport along with our fellow ‘adventurers’ Trevor and Ken and Pip and Ruth. First stop: lunch and a demonstration of mint tea pouring from Mohammed - terrific.
At 4.30am I was slumped on a cold steel bench in Terminal 5 at Heathrow idly observing a fellow early bird drape his long form in corrugations across the intervening armrests. By mid-morning I was bowling along an open road in Sweden with a small, disparate group of other hopefuls on my way to Vargas Wilderness Centre. That’s how easy it was.
I shall never forget my first Naturetrek holiday, taken in June 2009. It was a cruise to the high Arctic island of Spitsbergen. Standing on the quayside at Oban waiting to embark on the cruise ship, I could only wonder at what might lie ahead and I was feeling a mixture of excitement and apprehension – after all, this was my first foreign holiday – at the age of 64!
The summer days in Arctic Finland were certainly not without their pleasures. The hours passed swiftly by as we scanned the pristine lakes for birds, munched contentedly on reindeer stew, paddled in crystal clear waters and walked through pure forest to the Russian border, where a Golden Eagle swooped dramatically in front of our group.
