...it's in the detail

Not so long ago, I was lucky enough to tick African Safari off my bucket list. It was a life-changing trip for many reasons. Somehow, on the Mara and in the Serengeti, brutality, majesty, drama, beauty and enormity conspired to make me notice the tiny and the specific. Accumulation of detail overwhelmed me.

...elephants have coarse straight eyelashes

...there is no Swahili word for willy-willy

...a hippopotamus really does smile

...a lion's paw looks just like a house cat's

... giraffes wear skin of batik

... weaver bird nests hang like Christmas decorations.

The splendour was humbling. Amazing took on new meaning — days spent inside a wildlife documentary. And of all the dazzling images and memories I brought back, this is perhaps my favourite:

This moment speaks to me of home, of Europeans in a foreign land, of family, friendship, sharing, of stillness amidst the flurry. 
Whole continents on a single blade of grass.