I asked Robin about the dangers posed by walking in big-game country, and which animals he most respected. “Elephant and hippo,” he said, without hesitation. “They’re the ones you have to watch. Elephants because of their sheer size and unpredictability; hippos because they have this habit of hiding in thick bush. In all my years in the valley, I’ve only had to drop two animals. Both were hippos.”

Like all true professionals, he appeared utterly relaxed, yet never dropped his guard. His senses were alert to the wildlife in whatever guise it might appear: a flash of wings; the bark of a bushbuck; a flick of an ear in the long grass.

But what I found most striking of all was his total respect for nature — like the day we went game-driving and found a leopard. She was resting on the banks of an oxbow lagoon, and for an hour we sat and watched her, while the sun passed down and the light turned to gold, and the wood doves called above our heads. When at last she wandered off, we could easily have followed, but Robin shook his head. “I think we’ll leave her now,” he said quietly. “Don’ t want to push her too hard.”

Later, after sundowners by the river, we drove home in the dark with the spotlight on, picking out the bright eyes of Luangwa’s night shift: porcupines, mongooses, slim-line genets. And soon afterwards, we came upon a male lion padding down the road.

We stopped, and the lion circled around us, then lay down no more than 30ft away and roared and roared, loud enough to shake the sides of our vehicle. Surely, I thought, Africa doesn’t come any wilder.

BUT THAT was before I flew up to North Luangwa to walk with the lions of Kutandala.

When Rod Tether met me at the dusty airstrip, we drove for an hour down a rutted track, then parked on the banks of the Mwaleshi River. “It’s boots-off time,” he said. “The camp is on the other side. We won’t need the Land Rover again until you leave.”

Unlike the Luangwa, the Mwaleshi flows crystal clear and is, Rod assured me as we waded across, virtually croc- and hippo-free. “Although we did have a rogue hippo last week,” he added. “It demolished one of the deck chairs that we had left on the beach. Then it defecated on it for good measure, just to make its feelings known.”

North Luangwa is serious wilderness. Imagine a park the size of Cornwall with no roads, no permanent buildings and no people except for the likes of Rod and Guz, his wife. Their camp, Kutandala, is one of only three in the entire park and accommodates no more than six guests at a time. It’s a place for safari purists. “I’m a Luddite when it comes to bush camps,” Rod confesses. Not for him the glitzy lodges with their safari-chic furnishings. Instead, my home for the next three nights was a rustic affair of reeds and thatch, with rush mats on a bare earth floor and a shower open to the sky.

Every day began the same. At dawn, a tea tray was brought to my bedside. The bamboo blinds — lowered at night to deter lions and hyenas — were rolled up, and there was Africa beyond the waist-high wall at the end of my bed: a wide-screen vision of a red dawn sky, the river flowing, and a frieze of woods beyond. Then off we would walk beside the Mwaleshi to see what we could find.

There was always something new. Where the lions had been the day before, a column of Cookson’s wildebeest were now galloping down to drink, and two hunch-backed shadows were crossing the river. “Chimbwi,” said Tryson. “Spotted hyenas,” Rod translated.

“There are still local people who believe that witch doctors can assume the shape of a hyena and go flying through the night,” said Rod.

I didn’t see any flying hyenas. But I did spot a bat hawk, a dark brown falcon with mad yellow eyes, scything through the dusk on switchblade wings. That was on my last evening, at the end of our last walk, as we sat and bathed our feet in the river, nibbling canapés, drinking champagne and trying to pick out the moons of Jupiter through Rod’s telescope.

Does life get any better? I doubt it.

Brian Jackman travelled to Zambia as a guest of Tim Best Travel

Tour operators: prices for a week’s safari with Tim Best Travel (020 7591 0300, www.timbesttravel.com), staying three nights at Tena Tena and three nights at Kutandala, are from £2,485pp, including flights from Heathrow to Lusaka with British Airways, internal flights and all meals. Regional add-ons are from £50pp.

Other tour operators who offer Zambian walking safaris include: Sunvil Africa (020 8232 9777, www.sunvil.co.uk); The Ultimate Travel Company (020 7386 4646, www.theultimatetravelcompany.co.uk); Wildlife Worldwide (020 8667 9158, www.wildlifeworldwide.com); Scott Dunn (020 8682 5010, www.scottdunn.com); and Steppes Africa (01258 650011, www.steppesafrica.co.uk).

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