Parque Nacional da Gorongosa Moçambique

On a clear mild afternoon in May my wife and I embarked upon a voyage that was, beyond all shadow of a doubt, the most delightful either of us has ever known.

…after three days in Beira we left for the National Park of Gorongosa. Right at the outset of our journey, between the Pungue River and Chitengo Camp, we had the good luck to experience our first thrill: a herd of elephants barred the way. There at a distance of about fifty meters the great animals slowly crossed the road, making for the river in the cool of the evening. Soon after, with the last glimmer of daylight, we reached the Camp of Chitengo.

We left camp early the next morning in the dark. But it was not long before we witnessed the brightest and most glorious spectacle that Nature can afford: the incomparable flaring up of life and light when the sun pierces the mist in the heart of the veldt. At first and for some time the great prairie, still in shadow and humid green, extended far away to long lagoons, fringed by white herons, that closed the horizon. On whichever side we looked, life--great free savage life--rested delicately on the tender grass where drops of dew seemed to have crystallized.
Everywhere great herds were grazing peacefully: dozens of zebra, hundreds of buffalos, thousands of wildebeests, all stretched away as far as the eye could see. Quite close to us, devoured by curiosity, a group of waterbucks were looking at us enquiringly, with the languid liquid gaze of antelopes. A couple of zebras were drinking from the deep stream, their showy stripes reflected in the faintly troubled water. Impalas with graceful lyre-shaped horns, pricked up at our approach acute satiny ears before returning to the most important task of grazing.

And while a web of roseate light radiated from the distant trees, spreading over the soft green of the elephant grass, one’s heart was filled with the infinite peace of that entire innocent and silent world. Everything there moved slowly, everything glided over the dewy ground like a pale fluid over supernatural velvet. A matchless harmony reigned, a harmony of delicate shades, a harmony of unreal reflections, a harmony of clean bodies and pure souls. Then suddenly the sun, the strong African sun, flooded the boundless prairie, flooded the long lagoon, flooded the dense savannah.

Gorongosa is like the sea: always the same and always different. There are a thousand seas in the sea; at Gorongosa the veldt has a thousand veldts and the savannah a thousand savannahs.

But the brutal necessities of life disturbed this enchantment. A few hours later, with the morning heat of eleven o’clock already blazing on the savannah, we met a pride of ten hungry lions. Seated near two palms marking the boundary between the forest and the veldt, the wild beasts resembled sacred statues taken from an album of the temples of antiquity: static as if painted stone, their life only showed itself in the glow of great yellow eyes—eyes which revealed a pitiless and inflexible purpose. We followed the direction of those magnetic, elongated honey-colored eyes. We followed with all speed the spot seen by those hungry lions.

It was vultures: waiting for the remains of a zebra that another great old lion was devouring. A strong scent of fresh blood and warm entrails rose in the motionless air. The ten hungry lions approached at an unhurried trot, their muscles rippling under their supple skin. One of the animals advanced, ostensibly to pull at one end of the half-zebra. Seized with fury, the old lion abandoned the carcass momentarily and angrily rushed to punish the offender. That was quite enough, the other wild beasts that had been watching the scene fell upon the spoil with a formidable confusion of growls and flaying of paws.

The day wears on. Where are we? We have the feeling of having made a long journey in time. Millennia of millennia crumble before our unbelieving eyes. A prodigious force flings us back into the past, hurls us into one of the great Mornings of the world. All around us stretches a paradise that has not yet known the tragedy of original sin. The mystery of innocence merges with those same fierce laws that govern the struggle for existence. Here is Great Nature living Her life.”