If the great beasts are gone, man will surely die of a great loneliness of spirit.
Chief Seattle of the Nez Perce, 1884

It is difficult not to agree once you have seen elephants in the wild, or indeed any of the great animals of the African plains. We have visited a number of the reserves in

The journey there is an adventure, passing across the equator at Nanyuki, under the eternal snows of Mount Kenya (we used to stay at Mount Kenya Safari Club where you still dress for dinner and it is cool enough for log fires in the bungalows) and leaving the proper road at Archer’s Post, a name that conjures up frontier images.

Elephants are still a common sight in Samburu

This area can be dangerous with bands of well armed men having strayed from the troubles in Sudan and Ethiopia; one time we had to outrun an old pickup with half a dozen Kalashnikov bearing men that passed in the opposite direction, did a sudden U-turn and raced back towards us along the laterite road in a cloud of red dust; we didn’t stop to exchange pleasantries.

Each morning at Larsens Camp this Red-billed Hornbill would sit on my shoulder while I ate

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