Friday 25th July, the beginning of Kelli’s birthday weekend at Kaya Nyala, and we set off on a full day Chilojo Cliffs expedition. Celebrating birthdays and also celebrating lost loved ones.. beginnings and endings…. cycles and circles of life…

Driving over the Save River below our homestead Kaya Nyala, the beginning, the sunrise, promises a beautiful day ahead..

Family and dear friends, we are well wrapped against the winter chill in an open Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge vehicle.

We begin the expedition with a mighty baobab near Tembahata Pan. This mammoth is the iconic Hunters Baobab, (sometimes called Shadreck’s baobab although that famous ivory gatherer used certain other baobabs shown to Clive much more regularly). Home not only to errant hunters historically, but also to birds and bees and orchids,…

An amazing portal dug by elephants in the fibre of the great tree, topped by the pockmarks of generations of honey gatherers’ pegs, is like a window into another world, an open invitation to pythons, mambas and leopards to take refuge, and a receptacle of stories upon stories in this more than thousand year old tree.

Our journey continues past Tembahata Pan, where invisible submerged hippos and crocodiles are waiting for the early morning sun to warm the waters…

The Chitove crossing over the Runde River brings us a lone wild dog wandering in the open sand, who calls plaintively as he trots effortlessly away from us and up the bank, to where we can hear his pack mates answering him, echoing hoooo hooo hooo calls from three or more wild dogs floating on the early morning air.

We cross the Runde River and climb climb climb up the escarpment of the cliff road, and a stately giraffe sees us on our way ….

Reaching the high plateaux of the cliffs, we pass a cheetah kill, a leg of a duiker, and carcass surrounded by vultures, (identified by Clive) near Chidlambani Pan.

Ground Hornbills fly past our moving vehicle, always an inspiration for me to paint these majestic birds, black and white poetry in flight….

At last we reach the viewpoint, the roof of this lowveld world buttressed by the beige and pink striped sandstone of the Chilojo Cliffs…. with views forever over the ribbon that is the Runde River

And as we walk along the face towards the pinnacle, Black Eagles, a pair, soar silently alongside us ….

Uplifted and grateful, Kelli sets free memories of our dear friend Bob high above the Runde River below, Bob who travelled here years ago on a camping safari with us and his wife Belinda …..

And then a tribute to my father Arthur Barrie and my brother Steve Barrie, as we remember and honour them in this, one of their favourite wild places that they shared with us… cherished memories…

Overflown by the magnificent black eagles, we are humbled and awed as I read out dear friend Rolf’s poem that he wrote specially for this occasion…

We all in spirit will be there.

Perhaps Black Eagles in the air?

Their time had come,

don’t ask me why.

They’ll wing their way 

into the sky

where eagles fly

and stars are nigh.

Until we’ll meet again,

Goodbye!

Rolf Chenaux Repond

Leaving this high wild place in the care of the eagles, we descend to the floodplain beneath the cliffs and a stately gentleman, a kambako, sees us on our way,

Arriving at Chilojo Picnic site, and looking upwards, we view the site of Steve Gramps and Bob’s memorial atop Chilojo Cliffs, an apt and noble place from which to explore eternity…

As we drive homewards through Gonarezhou at dusk, twin baobabs on Baobab Ridge, haloed by golden rays, catch my eye and seem to echo Dad and Steve’s grounded love of all things wild, their branches, their arms, outstretched to each other in vibrant appreciation of nature.

And yet further along that baobab filled ridge, another three baobabs fill my vision as if on the Hill of Golgotha; Dad, Steve, and Bob; sentinels and witnesses to hope and light eternal, under that deepening, darkly hopeful African sky,

Special memory of Steve as well, with Save river sand in a a clay pot, saved for dear close friends to take to Chitake later this year, his favourite place of all time!

All photos are by Lin Barrie unless otherwise stated.