The Duchess of Edinburgh flew to the banks of the Zambezi river as part of her tour of Zambia, where she spent her third day learning about the fight against poachers, easing tensions between wildlife and local communities, and the sheer joy of seeing elephants in the light of an African sunset.
For Sophie, the visit also offered a chance to experience something she had missed when Prince Edward and their son James, Earl of Wessex, enjoyed a safari several years earlier. This time, she watched elephants in their natural habitat, spotted hippos from the water and filmed lionesses and cubs as daylight faded.
Behind those memorable encounters lay the work of conservationists and rangers determined to protect the animals. The duchess met specialist dogs trained to detect weapons and wildlife products, alongside a women-only ranger unit whose members had removed more than 200 snares this year.
HELLO!, the only publication accompanying Sophie on the visit, flew with her in a 12-seater light aircraft to Conservation Lower Zambezi, a non-profit organisation dedicated to safeguarding the fragile ecosystems of Zambia's southern border. Our reporter, Jack Malvern, filed this dispatch:
Duchess Sophie's elephant encounter on the Zambezi
The Duchess of Edinburgh is animated with excitement as she steps onto the banks of the Zambezi. Sophie has just finished a boat safari on the river that divides Zambia and Zimbabwe and is seized by the magic of viewing elephants in their natural habitat.
"That was the first time I've seen more than one elephant at a time!" she tells wildlife guides who have helped her come ashore. "It's so amazing just how peaceful they are."
© PA Images via Getty ImagesIt is all the more profound an experience for having missed a safari that the Duke of Edinburgh and their son James, Earl of Wessex, enjoyed several years ago.
James tried to spare his mother's feelings by downplaying what he and his father had seen. Asked by his mother what they saw, he replied diffidently: "Some elephants." Sophie has now seen a herd of her own.
"I didn't know that elephants could swim!" she says. "We saw one out on an island and I thought, that was an elephant! How did it get there?"
The safari, which also included sightings of pods of hippopotamuses and a herd of buffalo, are a testament to Zambia's efforts to conserve its wildlife. Sophie is so taken with the animals that she acts as an impromptu guide for the press boat following hers, pointing out an elephant herd and a submerging hippo.
Duchess Sophie's visit to Conservation Lower Zambezi
The Duchess has spent the day learning about new ways that the Zambian government and the non-profit organisation Conservation Lower Zambezi (CLZ) are tackling threats to its most endangered animals.
© PA Images via Getty ImagesI am three rows behind her in a Cessna Grand Caravan as she flies from the capital Lusaka to a tiny airstrip in the Zambian bush. It is an aircraft so small that the pilot delivers the safety briefing by turning round in her seat.
"We'll try to make it as smooth as possible," she says, ominously. Upon landing, we are taken to CLZ's headquarters on the edge of Lower Zambezi National Park, where rangers have trained dogs to track poachers.
How Zambia's anti-poaching dogs protect wildlife
The Duchess watches from a folding chair as Kalo, a Belgian malinois, demonstrates his ability to track down the scent of pangolin scales, which fetch high prices because of demand for use in traditional Chinese medicine.
Hammer, a fellow dog in the rangers' K-9 Unit, is let off the leash to seek an assault rifle hidden in a clump of bushes. Both dogs succeed. In their kennels hang buckets of items they have been trained to track, labelled bush meat, ammunition, tortoise, ivory and cat skins.
© PA Images via Getty ImagesSheleni Phiri, one of the dog unit's handlers, says that he used to catch "three or four" poachers on each of his ten-day patrols, but arrests have dwindled because the dogs are such an effective deterrent.
CLZ also has a classroom and a small museum designed to win over the minds of children to the value of conserving wildlife. Ian Stevenson, the organisation's chief executive, shows Sophie a handmade rifle that rangers have seized. Although crudely made, it could bring down an elephant.
Duchess Sophie meets Zambia's female wildlife rangers
The Duchess is also introduced to the Kufadza Female Scouts, a women-only ranger unit, who have disabled more than 200 snares set by poachers this year.
She is told that women are critical to the fight against wildlife crime at a roundtable discussion, at which rangers tell her that their families discouraged them from taking up a traditionally male career.
© PA Images via Getty ImagesDuchess Sophie spots lions on a sunset game drive
After Sophie's boat voyage, she boards a game drive, on which she excitedly films a pride of lionesses and cubs lolling in the fading light. Ian, sitting alongside her, tells her how success in the battle against ivory poachers has changed animal behaviour.
"Thirty years ago, the prides of lions were big," he says when I ask him what he told her. "They were going from one elephant carcass to the next because poaching was so common. Elephants were in big herds, which was a sign of pressure [to defend themselves]. Now they are in smaller groups, which is more natural."
As the sun begins to set, I join Sophie and her aides for a last look at Africa's fourth longest river. Looking back at us are a dozen hippos, grunting in apparent contentment.
