As soon as Tshambo realised just how important the luggage was, his huge body swelled with pride and he trumpeted a loud message to the other elephants "this is a very special job we've got to do for the King, so we must help the famous explorer all we can". When they heard this the elephants immediately started to kneel down so that the luggage could be tied on their backs. You should have seen them help! Swinging their trunks around and picking people up and lifting them onto their backs so that they could tie the luggage and pass up the heavy packing cases. What a great deal of activity there was with the men shouting "next one please" and the elephants bellowing and lifting up the crates.

When all was loaded Tshambo picked me up with his trunk and swung me high into the air and placed me right on top of his head so my legs went just behind his ears. This is where the King normally sat and Tshambo was doing everything he could to show me he understood just how important his job was. I made sure I had some special sugar lumps for him as a treat.

We set off for the jungle and everybody waived and cheered and clapped. The drums banged and the elephants trumpeted and we swayed off along the jungle road. Sitting on top of Tshambo's head I had a magnificent view as I waived goodbye - "I'll be back as soon as I can" - I called - "goodbye". At first there weren't too many trees or swamps that we had to cross to reach the great Savannah Plains, where grass as high as Tshambo brushed against my legs and grasshoppers the size of saucers jumped high in the air at being disturbed. The size of the sky was huge as far as you could see and the heat mist on the horizon made the land appear a million miles wide.

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