The long watch

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Two mornings, no convoy, no noise. He knows the back routes and he knows when to simply sit and watch. I came home with frames I didn't think I was capable of.

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My parents are in their seventies and I wasn't sure a safari would suit them. Amavin paced the whole day around them — shade at midday, no rushing, a flask of tea at the lagoon. They still talk about the buffalo.

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Booked it for the photography, stayed for the patience. He moves the jeep once, cuts the engine, and then you wait. I learned more about reading the park in a single morning than on three earlier trips.

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We'd done the convoy circuit years before and written Yala off. Amavin changed that. He waited where everyone else kept driving, and at last light we had a leopard on a rock entirely to ourselves.

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The most thoughtful wildlife day we've had anywhere. He framed the jeep for the photograph, not just the view. I came home with three frames I'm still living off.

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Amavin doesn't drive a safari, he reads the park. We sat for two hours waiting on alarm calls and then watched a leopard for forty minutes alone on the track. Nothing like the convoy trips we'd done before.