It is now coming toward the end of December 2004 and I shall be spending my first Christmas in Africa. I didn't plan it this way but I should have known by now that the best laid plans of English men are but nothing here in the bush where the pace of life is governed by other things than the clock.

I am sitting at a table in the dining area of Kanyemba Lodge looking across the river to Kanyemba Island and beyond towards Zimbabwe. Right now the elephants that have been hanging around across the water have disappeared but will no doubt return to play in the mud later. There's a gentle breeze tempering the warmth of the sun and all in all this is far better a place to sit at my computer than the 1960's office block in the West End of London where I first put up my enlarged photograph of an elephant back in August 2000 when this plan was born.

Back in October, I publicly committed myself to finally coming out here to do that book that I've been talking about for so long. No one could come up with a good reason to stop me, indeed even my own family and parents encouraged me to drop all my commitments in London and disappear into the wilds of Africa with a camera and a laptop with the counsel "if you don't do it now you never will and you'll always regret that".

Sadly it is not so simple as jumping on a plane and wandering off into the bush. I have got to know Africa in general and Zambia in particular well enough over the last five years that one must go through certain procedures. They are the reason that I am here now. The location that I have chosen to set up base is an idyllic location overlooking the Zambezi just a few kilometres west of the Lower Zambezi National Park that I found some three months ago when scouting the area for suitable locations.

Although the sight is currently virgin bush and scrub it is still owned and this particular spot belongs to the Chiawa Community Development Association. Renting a spot in the countryside of Zambia is a reasonably simple affair so long as you know the right people to talk to and with the help of my friends Ian and Lea I first started talking to members of the CHICODA board as soon as I had found the site and once back in England carried on a sporadic email correspondence that went nowhere until I agreed to return to Zambia and meet "face to face" so we can reach "mutual agreements and understandings". I actually drew up my own lease based on a standard British legal document for the rental of a garage. The Zambian legal system still holds many similarities to the British stemming from its historical colonial links with and more recently Commonwealth.

Having travelled eight thousand kilometres at huge expense it looked as the meeting might not actually happen at the last minute because two of the committee members were unable to borrow bicycles to get here to the lodge and anyway Jones had injured his leg playing football and would "find difficulty" in cycling. The lodge kindly stepped in and sent a vehicle to collect them. We then spent some hours plying with figures and terms until finding mutual ground and agreement at a table in the shadow of a wild mango tree.

Zambia is divided up into a large number of small Chiefdoms that equate very approximately to district councils in the UK. In this traditional system the local Chief has the overall say in what goes in in he region and it was important than my plans received the local Chieftaness' blessing both as a matter of courtesy and in the interest of promoting good community relations during my stay here. Riccardo Garbaccio, the owner of Kanyemba, offered to introduce me to HRH Chieftaness Chiyaba and we met for lunch in Lusaka. At our first meeting I was surprised to greet a personable and intelligent woman far from the image that had been portrayed by some locals who had crossed swords with her in the past. She agreed that my proposition could indeed benefit the community in the long term and said that she would favourably consider recommending that the board sign the lease that we had drawn up.

With luck, I'll be returning to the UK in a few days time with a signed lease in my hand and rather more than a fighting chance of getting my visa approved.

As they say, watch this space . . .

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