In September 2007 I went back to Africa for my fifth art safari. I’d managed to keep painting most evenings until I changed my day job and moved 200 miles from Surrey to Yorkshire. I needed a boost to my private life and so I booked myself a couple of flights and off I went to Malawi and Zambia. During this trip we had the most glorious luck with animals and an amazing walking safari. We were in Kafunta lodges bush camp and had seen a pride of lions basking in the sun next to the river. So we set off walking in that direction and they were still there. When they saw us they moved into the bush - in the open man is the predator and lion the prey, but in the bush it is the other way around. So we stayed in the open and got to within a hundred yards - safe in the knowledge we had a guard with a gun to scare the cats off. Continuing on this walk we came upon four elephants in some trees who quickly made for the exit and off they went. Further on we managed to get close to some Giraffe. The most I’d seen on previous walking safaris was a buffalo in the distance and a couple of snakes

Also on this trip we had a night safari where we followed a leopard walking beside the road for about 15 minutes. We saw 3 genets and about 8 mongoose. This was a truly amazing safari.