2011 – Nyika Plateau

We woke to a sunny day but there is still a winter chill in the air. Mist or clear, sunny skies, the antelope graze on the hills in front of us. We have decided that it is so peaceful here that we are going to spend another night.

Today we decided to explore the northern sections of the park on our morning drive. The scenery was much the same as the southern section we had travelled the day before; gently rolling hills, covered with green grasslands. On the horizon are the sharp, black peaks of the Zambian Makutu Mountain Range. Travelling along the plateau, you feel you are on top of the world.

Every so often there is a change in vegetation. In one section, we came across the most beautiful grasses; in different shades of pink, purple and lavender, they looked like they have come straight out of a tapestry.

In the S.A. bush, coming across a roan antelope is considered something worth stopping for, taking pictures of and telling all about it on your return. Here we are fortunate enough to find them in herds.

Our return route, however, was not as peaceful and gentle as what we had become accustomed to. Gray, as only he can, will always find the most difficult and obscure roads imaginable; to make it worse, this time it was not planned and so totally unexpected. The gentle hills gave way to mountain passes and before long I was on the scariest ride I had been on in many years. The Sani Pass is like a National highway (a South African one, not a Zambian one) compared to what we encountered. We negotiated our way along a barely visible track, as it clung to the various mountain sides, that we ascended and descended at alarming gradients. To make matters worse, the vegetation, in most places, was so thick and so high that we were totally surrounded by it. On one ascent, the thick bush gave way and on the slopes were the most magnificent protea bushes; red in bud and white in flower. Gray was temporarily forgiven for his route.

Eventually, we arrived back on the main dirt road; with branches, leaves and undergrowth stuck in the bonnet and green caterpillars crawling across the windscreen. I have new and enormous respect for my Discovery and my idiot (but wonderful) husband.

On return to the camp, thick cumulo-nimbus clouds had crossed over the valley and a bitingly cold wind had blown in – making us head for our winter woollies and soup for lunch. Gray has been predicting rain since we arrived and all the locals just laugh and say its winter and it doesn’t rain here in winter. The last rains they had were two months ago. At present we are sitting in the middle of a downpour of note. I have on my fleece and my army jacket and I am still freezing. One advantage is that it is cleaning all the mud off the car and trailer.

The only other campers at Chelinda are a lovely couple from the UK, Kevin and Michelle. They are both teachers, who have taken early retirement, and have spent the last 3 years travelling around Southern and central Africa.

As the rain started to let up, we all headed for the kitchen shed to warm up. From there we had Malawian G&T’s at their site and they then came across and braaied at ours. We swopped stories of our travels around the camp fire.

We have are not sure from day to day where we will be staying that night, we have discovered that the best way to plan our routes and accommodation are by word of mouth. Fellow travellers, such as Kev and Michelle, who have travelled through Malawi are the best sources of how to plan the road ahead. Likewise, they are on their way to Zambia and we could assist them with planning.

Nyika scenery

The road ahead

The Protea

Bush buck

ZAMBIA

Mel

Zambia, formerly Northern Rhodesia, achieved independence in 1964. The first president Kenneth Kaunda, KK, as he is affectionately known, ruled for the next 27 years.

Zambia is an amazing place to visit and I certainly hope to return one day. We travelled across the length of the country, entering at Katimo Mulilo, in the south west and journeying across to Katumbi in the north east.

The country side is predominantly flat and the scenery is beautiful; you feel like you are travelling in the Kruger National Park, even when you are on a main road. Zambia has an abundance of water, in the form of rivers and lakes and the soil is fertile, giving rise to the lush vegetation. Zambia utilises its vast water resources to generate all its power via hydro electric schemes, hence all its power is clean power.

Over and above the game parks, there are plenty of natural and historical places of interest to visit. The accommodation ranges from 6 star lodges (particularly in the Southern regions) to very basic camp sites. What has been a pleasure, is the opportunity for campers (like us) to use all the lodge facilities.

There are many small schools visible all over Zambia and clearly education is encouraged. I chatted to a land owner, who has 3 schools on his property; he is however, concerned that the syllabus that is taught is rote and not practical for the needs of the children, specifically in the rural areas.

There are numerous road blocks, on all roads in the country. The police are extremely friendly and helpful, always interested in where we are going and wishing us a safe trip. Never once were we threatened but in the same vein, we were just as friendly and chatted about their wonderful country. Our papers were checked regularly and it is a necessity to have them all in order. Our police force could well take a few lessons from the police here, not once were we asked for a bribe.

By far the most impressive factor in this wonderful country are the people. Zambians; black and white, lawyers, camp assistants, policemen and children are bubbly, friendly, honest and helpful. I so wish we could take the nature of the Zambian people, bottle it and distribute it to the rest of the world. South Africans, black and white, who are constantly moaning about their plight in life need to become aware that their neighbours up north have so much less, yet are so much happier.

Highs:

The Victoria Falls, always a major thrill; Shiwa Ng’ andu Estate; the beautiful rivers and lakes; the Zambian People.

Lows:

The bad roads; long drops.

Graeme:

Still watching this space.

Day 31: 15/05/2011 – Nyika Plateau

We woke early and discovered a sight so different from the African bush we are used to. In front of us was this moor, covered in mist. Once again, we would have been forgiven for thinking we were staying in the English countryside.

The camp site itself has 3 large covered areas, complete with table and fireplace. We have nice hot showers, flushing toilets and a kitchen area with a fire stove. All this set on a large grassed field surrounded by forest on 3 sides and opening up onto the moors, teaming with antelope. As we sat drinking coffee, the mist lifted and on the hills in front of us were roan, eland, bush buck, reedbuck, zebra and jackal.

This morning we went for a drive. The scenery on the plateau is beautiful; rolling hills as far as the eye can see, interspersed with lakes and clumps of forest. We saw teams of the above mentioned antelope. Nyika has the most roan, we have ever seen in one place, it is quite spectacular.

Again, the staff in the reserve and at our camp site so friendly and so helpful – I wasn’t even allowed to do the dishes this morning (I might just stay here for a while).

We had a very lazy afternoon, tinkering around the camp site and reading. Occasionally we were distracted by bushbuck playing on the field or zebra wandering through. Our one big distraction, were these pesky ravens that steal any food left out; we were trying to dry out some shelled peanuts in the sun and the birds had a feast on these.

It gets so cold up at this altitude, especially as the sun goes down, so we decided to cook in the ‘kitchen hut’. We have 2 nights of meat left and not sure where or when our next shop will be. We had a choice or mince or chicken – so curried mince and rice was on the menu. It was such a novelty to cook on a wood stove, Gray filling it with wood and stoking it, while did the cooking. I guess this is how our great grandmothers cooked every night. It was fun but I think I still need my microwave, gas stove, electric oven, hot pot and so on.

After dinner, we sat around the fire trying to keep warm with Amarula (Gray is being fired as barman – no ‘Old Brown’ Sherry). We gave up and snuggled into bed at 7:30 to read, Gray was asleep by 7:40 and I think I made it through to 8:00.

The misty moors

Our camp area

Roan Antelope

Day 30: 14/05/2011 – Shiwa Ng’andu to Nyika National Park, Malawi

Zambia: Plan C

Having scraped Plan A to travel north up to the lakes due to bad roads, long distances and shortage of accommodation along the way, we headed east. Plan B was to visit the Luangwa Game Parks. In order to get to North Luangwa, we need to catch a pontoon, this is not operational at the moment, to get to South Luangwa Park we need to cross 3 rivers and bridges have only been built over 2 of them, so we would need to retrace our steps virtually back to Lusaka and head south east. It would make more sense to enter the park from Tanzania on our way back south (by then Africa Plan X may be in operation, so we will see).

Back to plan C; we left Kapishya Springs, after a wonderful 3 days and travelled north east into Malawi and heading to Chelinda Camp in the Nyika Reserve. The first 180km to Isoka, was along a badly potholed tarred road(the Great North Road), it took us just over 3 hours. Along the way we came across 2 overturned and one burned out truck. In Isoka we managed to fill up with diesel from jerry cans, this took about ½ an hour. We then headed east, along a fairly good sand road into the Makutu Mountains.

Once we started our ascent into the mountains, the road deteriorated badly. At one stage we thought if we went over the edge of the pass, no one would know where we were, or where to find us; it was a very sobering thought. At the same time, being forced to travel around 30kph meant we were pretty safe. Road aside, travelling along these mountain passes afforded us spectacular views of the valleys below and the mountains, still to be travelled, ahead.

The 180 km through the mountains to the Malawian border post at Katumbi took us 4 ½ hours. At 4:30 we arrived at a homemade stop sign and on our right was a small brick building. The chap sitting in front of the hut told us to wait. A few minutes later the Immigrations officer arrived, in civvies and slightly inebriated but very friendly. After taking a while to locate his keys to his draw, he found his stamp, took a few more minutes to try and change the date and proceeded to stamp our passports, without checking our photos. There were no forms to fill in and he seemed to think a handshake and a stamp was all that was required for us to enter Malawi. We had to get our Carnet book (for import and customs) stamped, this form he had never seen before but was more than happy, once locating a second stamp and date change, to do. There were none of the standard border post, currency changing, loan sharks to contend with. This was a far cry from the filthy, cockroach infested, caravans we had to go through in order to enter Zambia at Katima. There was also no Zambian border post there, so 15 minutes after arriving at the Malawian border post, we entered officially entered Malawi (I hope), after having unofficially left Zambia and with not 1 Malawian kwacha to our name. One wonders what happens to people travelling into Zambia at this point.

The roads in Malawi were no better and we arrived at the Nyika National Park at 5:30 to be informed that we had another 60km to travel to Chelinda Camp. We were breaking our “no driving in the dark” rule for the second time in a week. However, this time we were not really concerned as the roads in the park were much improved and we had no trucks to contend with. I had read that the park contained mainly antelope and was famous for its large herds of roan antelope. Therefore, it came as a bit of a shock when I saw this giant shape looming up ahead in the headlights – it was an elephant. Luckily, he was chilled and eventually wandered off into the bush. We saw zebra and giant eagle owls, one with supper in his talons, along the way.

We eventually found the reception, booked in and arrived at the camp site at 8:00. The 420km journey had taken us 11 hours. We set up camp in the dark, made dinner and fell into bed, or rather climbed up the ladder and crawled, gratefully into our tent.

Makutu Mountains

Malawian Border post

Malawian road

Day 29: 13/05/2011 – Shiwa Ng’andu – Kapishya Hot Springs

Gray woke up with what he thinks is a bout of malaria (he assures me the curry, wine and whiskey had nothing to do with his pounding headache). This is his second ailment this trip, the first; a worm that had wormed it’s way into his little toe and was making red road maps around the side of his right foot. We treated it with Vaseline, went onto Vicks and then I tried cortisone cream, eventually he just squeeze it. Whether it was putsi fly or footsie fly, we are not sure, but it has ceased squirming around.

Clearly our bonding session with Mark and the wonderful people working here, was a good thing, tonight we are sleeping in one the chalets (for no extra cost). We went for an early dip in the springs, packed up and moved into our new accommodation, a large rustic room.

This morning we went for a walk with Dave to some caves that he had discovered (he is obviously a bit of an amateur archaeologist; he goes in search of aborigine sites in Australia). It was fascinating visiting “Dave’s Caves” – there are rock paintings and implements which apparently date back some 65 000 years.

On return, Gray went for another walk with Tim and Carin, they hiked up a mountain that Livingstone had once climbed, in order to see the beautiful vistas below. I swam a few lengths in the swimming pool and caught up on some admin.

We were the only guests in the lodge this evening (besides the resident Chinese guys who are working on a hydro electric scheme at the waterfalls nearby). We were again treated to one of Mel’s wonderful 3 course meals and Mark’s entertaining stories. All feeling a little weary from the ‘party’ the night before, we had a fairly early night.

Our night in the chalet proved to be not so comfortable; the bed was small and sunk in the middle, so with our ‘combined delicate little bodies’, space was a bit of an issue. The shower was no more than a trickle. Much as we appreciated the gesture, we were more comfortable in the camp site. The debate now is whether this counts as a lodge night or not.

Gray and Dave in the Cave

Cave Paintings

Crossing the bridge on our walk

Day 28: 12/05/2011 – Shiwa Ng’andu – Kapishya Hot Springs

This morning we visited Shawa House, forgive my ramblings from here on, but having studied history, I find this place absolutely fascinating. This manor house is full of old family heirlooms, photographs and stories, told to us by Brad, whose grandfather worked for the original owner. Standing on the lawns in front of the house, you could forget you’re in Africa and imagine instead that you are at a 1920’s garden party.

Stewart Gore-Brown, a young British colonial officer, stumbled upon a lake that the local Bemba people called Shiwa Ng’ andu – ‘place of the royal crocodile’. He purchased 10 000 hectares from the local chief and began building his little piece of England in Africa. Shiwa House was constructed from materials made locally or transported on foot by porters. The house overlooks the lake, with abundant bird life and game. Around this grand house grew an estate, which included housing, schools, a post office and a hospital for his 2000 employees.

Obviously, the upkeep was expensive and Gore-Brown was also a very philanthropic man. His various money making schemes, such as perfume making from growing flowers, proved unsuccessful. He was financially assisted by his wealthy, Aunt Ethel, whom he was very close to. Gore-Brown insisted on discipline and his violent temper was legendary, so much so, he was given the nick-name Chipembere (black rhino). Unusual, for his time, he believed in African independence. He was knighted by George VI and was close friends with early nationalists, including Kenneth Kaunda. When he died in 1967, he was the first white man in Zambia to be given a full state funeral. We visited his grave site, on a hill overlooking the lake.

Through the 1980’s, his daughter Lorna and her husband continued to run the estate .They were murdered in 1992, it is assumed for political reasons. Shiwa House stood empty for several years and rapidly disintegrated. It has and is still in the process of being restored by Gore-Brown’s grandson, Charlie and his wife.

We went for a drive around the lake and saw some Kafue letchwe and played with a baby wildebeest, who is being hand reared.

Kapishya Lodge is run by Mark (another of Gore-Brown’s grandsons) and his wife, Mel. It is absolutely fascinating to chat to both men about their lives on the estate. We decided to eat dinner at the lodge, as curry was on the menu and we had not had a curry since leaving Jhb.

We had a stunning evening chatting to the staff and other guests (Nick and Sally and their friends have also since arrived here). The staff are; Tim (got fed up with living in England), Dave (a policeman, from Australia, who is on 8 months paid leave and arrived here for a night in January and is still here), Carin (from Ireland, who is doing a 3 months practical for her master’s degree in marketing) and Lulu (from Lusaka). A bottle of wine and too many whiskeys later (for Gray that is), we made our way back to our camp. We have to cross the springs to reach the camp site and it was just so inviting, so in we went, au natural, please don’t try and imagine the scene (sorry kids).

Shiwa House

Stewart Gore-Brown

A Panda and a wildebeest in Africa

Day 27: 11/05/2011 – Mutinondo Wilderness to Kapishya Hot Springs

We had a lazy start to the day, sitting peacefully around the camp fire, sipping our condensed milk coffee; then we heard the sound of hooves. Seven or eight horses came into the camp and started grazing in the forest around us. Two of the nosy creatures wondered across and started sniffing around our table and camp equipment, we indulged their curiosity until one picked up our straw mat (used to wipe our feet on before climbing up the ladder into our bedroom) and started eating it. The mat was retrieved and Graeme clapped his hands, letting the horse know he had gone too far, the creature slowly turned around, farted and wondered off. Much as I love my job, with mornings like these, I could happily retire and become Mrs Livingstone.

The Great North was not so great today; the thousands of heavy trucks and tankers, from all over Africa, that travel this road daily, have taken their toll and we are constantly dodging potholes.

260km NE from Mutinondo, deep in the northern Zambian wilderness, we drove through to Shiwa Ng’andu. This is a grand country estate and we felt like we had been transported back to England in the early 1900’s.

On the Shiwa Ng’andu estate, 20 km further along the dirt road, we arrived at Kapishya Hot Springs. The camp site is stunning and we pitched our tent about 3m from a stream with gently flowing rapids. We have been warned not to swim in this river because of crocs but when you have hot springs to soak in – who needs a cold river. The lodge itself is quaint with the most beautiful gardens, decks, a pool and great birding.

The springs are a short walk from our camp site. The setting is marvellous, a turquoise steaming lagoon of hot bath water, surrounded by thick palms. These are the first natural springs I have come across that don’t smell of sulphur. The springs are fed by 3 cold springs which permeate 6-7km underground, to be superheated and then forced back to the surface – loosing 10 deg cel every km, ending up at the surface at 40 deg cel.

We had a peaceful afternoon relaxing and chatting to Mark, the grandson of eccentric British aristocrat Stewart Gore-Brown, who established the estate and built the house.

We had the most stunning evening, sitting by the camp fire, sipping red wine and watching the stream flowing past. This is Gray at his absolute happiest. After dinner we went for paddle in the hot springs. At night the steam rises off the water and we floated in the hot water in the moonlight with water bubbling up underneath us.

Kapishya Lodge

One happy Panda

Soaking in the springs

Day 26: 10/05/2011 – Forest Inn (Mkushi) to Mayense Camp (Mutinondo Wilderness)

We woke early and had a good look at our plans for the next week and changed them completely. We had intended to head up north to Bangweulu Lake and Wetlands, in search of the rare and elusive Shoebill Stork. From there we were going to head up north to the southern parts of Lake Tanganyika. However, having looked at the distances involved and more important the roads we would be travelling on (it could take us 9 hours to travel 300km), we decided to head east.

Along the way I wrote a letter to Robs, e-mailed it to Al, via cell phone (at a point where we managed to get reception). She will print it, deliver it to the school, together with a letter for Jen, her daughter and it, along with all the other letters for the girls, will be delivered to Kamoka Bush School around Saturday. Isn’t technology amazing, how did Stanley, Speake and Livingstone cope?

I had read about a place in the Mutinondo Wilderness, about 300km from Forest Inn. What a find, this stunning area is littered with whaleback hills, called inselbergs, it looks like hulks of stone; in varying shades of black and purple, have been dumped in amidst the muombo forests. You half expect to see dinosaurs wondering around in the valley.

We stayed at Mayense campsite; set in the forest with all we needed. I was very happy, until I opened the door of a hut with a sign saying “Girls” and was greeted with a long drop. But hey, this one didn’t smell and there no flies, it also had a strategically placed viewing slot, so you could look into the bush while you had a wee – this was an eco loo with a view. Robs would have been seriously impressed, an eco camp, complete with recycling bins (a first this trip). The rest of Mayense Camp, a few chalets along with a bar and dining are built into the hillside and beautiful in their simplicity blend into the natural environment.

We arrived around lunch time, set up camp and went for a long walk into the forests. We soon came upon a mini waterfall that cascaded into a pond below, I was tempted to have a swim but got in ankle deep and chickened out, the water was freezing. We had expected to see lots of birds as there are 300 species reported to reside in the area but they must be on holiday.

The camp is owned by Lari and Mike, who are also on holiday in England. Jane, Lari’s sister (who is babysitting the camp and dogs) arrived in the camp as we were braaing chicken for dinner. She has lived in Zambia all her life (except for her schooling in S.A.). She is married to a farmer and has two sons, who will be studying in S.A. next year. Her sons get up at 3:45, cycle 8km along a farm road, in order to catch a bus to school.

During our journey along the Great North, we are aware of the school children, some as young as 4 walking along this main road to school. It would be the equivalent of our Gr R’s at Saints walking to school along the William Nicol. No neurotic moms, in their 4×4’s driving their little ones virtually to the classroom door here.

Mayense Inselberg

Help with the packing

Eco loo with a view

Day 25: 9/5/2011 – Mukambi Safari Lodge (Kafue) to Forest Inn via Lusaka

The 260 km into Lusaka was along a tarred road, in good condition. Oddly, the main mode of transport along the road, was by foot. Schools holidays must be over, as there were hundreds of school kids, in their school uniforms making their way to school. The ladies were dressed in wonderful and vibrantly coloured fabrics. We were stopped in 3 road blocks along the way; one was the immigration department wanting to check our passports and the other two wanted to see our insurance papers (the ones we obtained in the horrible dirty caravan at Katima). We also stopped in some dorp for diesel, they were running out and had some stashed away in jerry cans, but diesel is diesel. After a funnel had been fashioned out of an old Fanta bottle and diesel deposited in our tank, we were on our way.

We arrived on the outskirts of Lusaka around 11:30 and hit a traffic jam of note, their minibus drivers are worse than ours (is that possible?). The sides of the roads were littered with stalls, where you could buy anything from sunglasses, to motor spares parts, to chicken feed. It had a real squatter camp feel to it.

After fighting our way through the traffic, we arrived in the city centre with office blocks and shopping centres. We chose Manda Hill, a newly built centre; it was Sandton City, Gateway or Cavendish Square in the middle of Zambia (Kirst and Al, you would be in heaven). All the S.A. shops were here, including a Mugg & Bean, where we had lunch. We had heard that this was the first shopping centre to boast having an escalator in Zambia. The day the centre opened, the crowds arrived, not to visit Truworths, Total Sports or Game but to ride the escalators.

Provisions bought at Checkers, again well stocked but unfortunately with a leaking sewer system, so the floors were wet and smelly – wished I had worn takkies and not slops. The locals in the centre were all dressed very smartly and I felt kind of out of place in my bush clothes. We then went to the second major shopping centre because the book shop at Manda Hill only had maps of Pretoria and funny enough; we were looking for ones of Zambia (more detailed than we were able to obtain in S.A.). Maps and a bird book of birds South of the Saraha bought (we were coming across birds that were not found in our S.A. bird books) and we were back into the traffic.

The Great North Road from Lusaka to the North is reported to be the best in the country, as it serves as the main link to the Copper Belt. Good road but full of trucks and road blocks, although we were not stopped, others were and we could have up to a 15 minute wait at a road block. At Kapiri Mposhi we turned right and headed for Forest Inn. The day’s journey, with traffic and spending longer in Lusaka than we should have, had us way behind schedule. We broke our golden rule of vowing not to travel in the dark. We eventually arrived at Forest Inn at 6:30, 20 minutes after sun set. Nick and Sally were also spending the night there and had very kindly booked us in. Two other couples that they were due to meet later in their trip had arrived unexpectedly and it was nice to receive a warm welcome and some help to set up in the dark.

Forest Inn is a camp in the middle of Miombo trees, with nice ablutions and the only small complaint is that it is close to the road, so you can hear the noise of the trucks barrelling past during the night.

We had been told there flying squirrels in the camp that came out around 7:00 and were there for a few minutes only. We were fortunate enough to see this face (like a bush baby) peek out of a hole in a tree, then the squirrel, a lot larger than I expected, ran along a branch and the it flew off into the darkness, like a bird – it was an amazing sight to witness

We are so privileged to be able witness and experience such interesting places and wonders of nature.

Lusaka Traffic Jam

Manda Hill Shopping Centre

Day 24: 8/5/2011 – Mukambi Safari Lodge (Kafue)

OMG, we had a lion roaring last night, one of those frustrated roars that went on all night, I hope he gets lucky today so we can all get some sleep tonight. In addition, there is a resident hippo that likes to walk around our camp site, so you just have to hope you don’t need to take a leak at night (getting out of the roof top tent and down the ladder in the pitch dark is in itself a mission).

We gave Robs a call early this morning, as she leaves for bush school today and we will not have contact with her for 3 weeks. The only form of communication with the girls is by writing letters. She sounded a little nervous but in good spirits and I got a “Happy Mother’s Day” wish – I didn’t even know it was mother’s day. We have been out of cell phone range for days but keep contact with the kids via satellite phone.

Gareth also called later in the morning to wish me – I was blown away, what 20 year old boy keeps track of such things (not even my 49 year old can) – he giggled when I asked him how he had remembered and said, the restaurant was fully booked for Mother’s Day, so he was rushed off his feet and could hardly forget.

Happy Mother’s day to Jill – Gray and I hope you have an awesome day and we are thinking of you.

We went for a drive into the park this morning, it was a pleasant drive but I was a little disappointed in that we didn’t see a hell of a lot; a snake, an ele, some impala and loads of puku (buck that look like they could be the cousins of the impala).

We returned to the camp and another couple had arrived; Nick and Sally are great, they are from Cape Town and doing a similar trip to us.

I caught up on some washing – Mother’s day or not, it was my turn. I didn’t get coffee in bed either (Gray says I’m not his Mother) but he is taking me to the restaurant at the lodge for dinner.

After a swim, it is sooooooooo hot here, we booked to go on a game drive with the lodge. We arrived at 4:00 to discover Nick, Sally and a couple from Holland were also on the drive. Hans and Maryke (from Holland) were covered in big welts from tsetse fly bites from the drive the day before. Sally took one look at this and headed back to camp, she returned with all sorts of paraphernalia.

We then took a motor boat across the Kafue to a waiting Land Cruiser – it was so nice going for a game dive in an open vehicle. We were fortunate enough to see a cheetah; apparently they are very rare in this area. The down side of the open vehicle is that we are exposed to tsetse fly. As soon as they arrived, we heard Hans (who has a wicked sense of humour and I thought Dutchmen were serious) giggling, I turned around and there was Sally, looking like an alien bee keeper; she was wearing a peak cap with her whole head covered by a green netting and tied at her neck, she was clothed from head to toe in khaki with her pants tucked into bright red socks. She was then armed with a huge spray bottle filled with diluted dettol. The tsetse’s took one look at this, fell over laughing and headed for the rest of us. We were fortunate enough to be sitting in the front row with Sally behind us, so we got a constant spray of dettol mix as the little buggers landed on us (my Avon ‘Skin so Soft’ didn’t stand a chance to prove itself). Hans and Maryke, sitting in the back, were not as fortunate; the spray flew back and misted up their glasses for most of the trip. I have written the above with permission from Sally, although she had had a couple of double Vodkas by that stage.

After a 3 hour game drive, with sundowners, we arrived back at the boat, smelling like we had been in a hospital ward rather than in the middle of the African bush and crossed the Kafue in the moonlight, it was awesome.

The 6 of us, together with Tyrone and Vic (the lodge managers) sat around a camp fire for drinks and then had a delicious meal to together with lots of laughter. It was a wonderful evening with good food, good wine and good people.

Gray and I are coping very well on our own, no domestics to date but after an evening like we have just had, we realise how much we miss our wonderful friends back home.

Sun set

Puku

Golden Baboons