San Camp Third Day

Last evening we went quad biking on the salt pans. Very exciting and especially when the stars came out- Milky Way and all. There is nothing out there. No noises, no vegetation, no insects which is a plus. This morning we looked at more meerkats.

And saw a very old baobab said to be more than 5000 years old because it has started shrinking.

Livingstone carved his sign on it as he passed by. Anne and Alex went out in the heat of the day because the lioness had been sighted and saw her eating her kill. I opted out. It was too hot outside and I was very comfortable.

I have taken a lot of photos of trees here. Most look dead and are waiting for the rains but there are a number of thorny shrubs which are carrying flowers like mimosa. But note the thorns which are two to three inches long.

 

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Nkwali Second Day

Another drive in the morning. More leopards, antelopes, birds and wart hogs. The latter two insist on moving away at high speed when humans appear so I have only limited photos.

Here is one of a bee-eater which I did manage to take. He. Is about five inches long.g

And here is a zebra. The tails are like well made braids, very regular in black and white with a black tassel at the end. I must try to get a photo.

A picture of the river crossing. We have taken to crossing a little downstream - by driving across. Unnerving. Yesterday evening we drove north up the main road to cross into the park at the main entrance. A different kind of landscape there. Rolling meadows with lots of grazing animals. One meadow had impala, warthogs, giraffes on it. When it gets dark, the driver's helper uses a powerful light to search for night animals. And we saw a couple of leopards. We watched a male leopard first as he searched for food then after 20 minutes or so, there was a ferocious snarling and a lot of movement which turned into the male chasing a female leopard up a tree. He sat at the bottom of the tree waiting for her but she was not having it. So he wandered off. After a while, she came down, had a sniff around and a hyena arrived feeling hostile at which our hero returned and the hyena retired rapidly to a great deal of snarling. All of this drama was lit up by a search light from our vehicle. I don't see why the animals ignore the light but there you are.

And I had a few textile thoughts this morning, to do with dead. white tree skeletons seen against a dark green background. I have not quite worked out how to do this yet. Weave the background and discharge it with a screen print of a tree. I will have to check but I have a feeling discharge paste rots silk. I wonder if a screen print using Seta colour would work or possibly that would run too much. Watered down acrylic paint. It sounds as though drawing is required as a start. Fortunately the current warp on the Megado is long enough for experiments. Manutex?

Off for tea now. The food is exceptional. I particularly like the salads at lunchtime. Anne and I have taken to writing down how we think the more interesting dishes are made.

 

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Nwali First Day

The flight from London was in uneventful and tedious. We were met at Lusaka airport which we were not expecting but the man was very helpful indeed, collecting baggage, getting it onto the next plane, getting us checked in and so on. The flight to Mfuwe was on a small plane - 38 passengers and full. Then a drive of an hour to the Lodge where we arrived about 1130. On the way, there was lots to see

A village with a market

Giraffes and baboons, hippos, birds. I am not doing well on taking photos of birds. The d****** things insist on flying away. At the camp, we discovered that a safari drive was organised for us starting at 1600 hours and we saw all sorts of animals. A lion,lots of buck, even more birds and a leopard.

And elephants

Then back to the camp for dinner and collapse into bed. I forgot to mention that South Luanga park is on the opposite side of the river so we drove downstream for a couple of kilometres and crossed by what the locals call a pontoon which it is not. A pontoon to me is a wooden bridge which floats. This is a raft which is winched across by two men working very hard. After all, our vehicle is a long wheelbase Toyota Land Cruiser!,

 

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Nkwali Fourth Day

We went to Kwasa village yesterday. Definitely startling. We went into a class room and the class stood up and sang a welcome song. I felt like saying 'Hold on a bit, we are not royalty'. Later they put on dances for us.

Dancers and drummers on the left. I managed to get close ups of all the dancers faces which have worked well.

Children in the classroom. This is about one third of the class. We saw the library - enough to make you weep. I looked through the jotters of two of the girls and I am guessing that they are two years behind the equivalent age in the UK. There are 750 children in the school and about five classrooms so they run a shift system. It must be hard work for the teachers but the teacher who showed us round was very proud of his students. A minimum of 50 per class.

We also saw the health clinic, one doctor plus one nurse for 9000 people. The nearest hospital is 60 miles away over bad roads. An interesting discussion on HIV in which he said that Zambia's effort to educate everyone about AIDS meant that the rate had really gone down and people were no longer afraid to seek help. The hospital verandah and grounds were crammed with people, all waiting for the weekly HIV van to come round and see them. I took no photos as I thought it would be rude.

We were then taken to a traditional medicine woman and, in some respects, it sounded like mumbo-jumbo. But I do wonder because some of the treatments were sheer common sense.

Part of the traditional medecine woman's pharmacy.

Making moonshine!!! We were given some to taste. It was like gin.

And we were given lunch. Corn meal cooked and really like thick corn flour and just as tasteless. Chicken (one of their scraggy bantams) and pumpkin leaves cooked with various herbs and tomatoes. Both of these were delicious.

The kitchen and the cook.

They went to a lot of trouble for us. I rather think this is a more organised chiefdom than many and I think they are out to promote tourism and get money for their facilities. Our safari camp organised this and were at pains to tell us that we could give any money as a donation for the school which would be more appreciated. And we should not go round handing out money to everyone.

 

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Nkwali Third Day

More of the same except we were taken on a bush walk. We were surprised to find that an armed guard from the Park Department had to go with us, rifle and all. We inspected footprints and droppings and - -. The evening had a highlight which was watching elephants wade across the river. Unexpected by the guide.

The other group had a much younger baby which hung onto its mother's tail in the deep bit of the river.

You can see the nicely braided tail on the zebra here. These were of a herd of 20 or so.

 

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In Lusaka

The journey to Heathrow was hilarious. My train was cancelled due to engineering works on the line. Well they do it on Sundays but there was no warning given. So since that route was closed, I took a train to Birmingham and it was a slow one which dived off to the NorthWest of Birmingham and entered from that direction. Malvern where I live is South of Brum. Then I took a train to Leamington Spa where Anne lives, got off, met Anne and Alex and we all took the next train to Reading and then the rail bus to Heathrow. So the journey took me more than five hours instead of less than three. Then the usual wait and then off. We were met at Lusaka which we had not expected and ushered through the formalities and into a lounge to wait for the next leg which is Lusaka to Mfuwe.

So we have not experienced anything of Zambia as we have not set foot outside the airport. Nor since any wildlife!!!

 

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Brighton Lanes

We went shopping in Brighton Lanes yesterday morning. These two needle felted and knitted people were in the cafe window where they always have newly knitted specials. I acquired various other odds and ends but the real treasure was 

a Far Eastern reed. I have seen things like this on looms in Cambodia. This one has fine carving as decoration on both sides and the original reed made of reeds! I found it in a junk shop labelled as 'wooden wall decoration £8.00'. I paid for it before I told them what it really was and they were slightly upset when I told I had got a bargain.

We set off from Brighton to Ruth's house in my car at 1400 hours. The journey takes 75 minutes but we arrived at 1730 because the police closed the M25. A nightmare journey. I am now home and have started on the last few jobs before I leave for Africa tomorrow, The first jopb was to make a list of urgent jobs and I have better make a start.

I do intend to blog while away but, as in China, there may be no access to the internet so the blog will be uploaded as and when I have a connection.