On safari

.... without a camera! We have just got back from an amazing couple of days at Mvuu camp with our first visitors my sister and hubbie) and before I had taken any photographs the very fancy digital camera broke!! We have a few shots taken on the video camera and when my sister returns I will pinch some of their amazing shots! The camp is very plush and all inclusive, so there is a boat trip in the morning and a drive from 3.30 until 7pm with drinks at sunset – very civilised. The first day I took our eldest on the drive and we took along a sandwich for her, the youngest stayed with Dad and had dinner at the camp. The second day we felt brave enough to take them both and they thoroughly enjoyed it. Each drive and boat trip was different from the others. We go very close to hippos, both in and out of the water, elephants, baboons, impala, kudu and lots of birds. The guides were very knowledgeable and obviously excited by what we were seeing and keen to share their enthusiasm. Once it got dark we saw different animals, well on the first evening we saw nothing but the second evening we made up for it with lots of smaller mammals. We saw elephants most trips and on our final boat ride a herd of about 30 at the river’s edge. The children enjoyed spotting the animals but maybe we saw to many because when I pointed some elephants out to our two year old she said that she had seen some already. The children were great in the jeep and the boat although it was a little hairy without any barriers or seatbelts particularly when we drove off the edge of an embankment into a stream.

 PS there are no pictures because we can’t find the cable for the video camera!!

 

On foot

I was offered the chance of a childfree walking safari at 6am. Three of us set off with our guide (Henry) and an armed guard we got to look at tracks, birds, poo and insects. Henry explained that if we saw any elephants we would be walking the other way because while they are quite happy with people in jeeps they do not like us on foot. We had been examining some fresh (warm) elephant poo when we heard an elephant off to our left by the river and then we saw another two in front of us. We paused, the elephant indicated that he knew we were there and we beat a hasty retreat. Another group of walkers on safari were closer to the river and as we were backing off we saw the elephant charge towards them. These beasts might be big but they can move fast, a few warning gun shots followed and with both our guide and guard looking a bit twitchy we moved off in the other direction. This caused quite a bit of excitement when we returned to the camp with Henry announcing that we had lost a couple of tourists. For those of you ever confronted with an elephant you should back off, take cover behind a tree or termite mound, failing that a few shots should scare it otherwise the guides carried whistles that would also scare it. If we ran we had to stick with the guide or we could end up hopelessly lost.

 

little miss muffett

Not been blogging much this last week as I am too busy entertaining visitors and managing staff! However, the appearance of the most enormous spider has driven me to write. I don’t mind spiders but this one was just outside my bedroom and it was huge. It wouldn’t fit into a cup to put it outside it needed a bowl! Even our guards were impressed by the size. I now have that tickly itchy feeling that makes me think something is going to be tickling my toes. It’s a good thing that we sleep under a mosquito net! Although we have had some issues with mosi nets this week. Our tailor came to make a set of curtains and a net in preparation for our visitors. The doctor drew a beautiful drawing of what we wanted - a big box to hang over our bed with openings in the side. It took all day but the net was ready by dinner time. There were very smart openings in the side but they didn’t close, leaving a large gap for the mosis to come and join us in bed. I have employed another tailor, who speaks English to re-hash the net so that we can sleep in peace. Note for my mum – we have bought a cheap net so we’re not sleeping unprotected!

online from my sofa

I am very excited, we now have internet at home. It is one tenth the speed of broadband back home and we have to pre-pay but it works! The doctor has just pointed out that I should be doing this offline because we have to pay as we go! So I will go back to e-mailing updates into blogger and get on with some surfing!

paradise

There are some perks to be married to a dr. Conferences in nice places is one, we are staying at Club Mac on the southern shores of Lake Malawi. The hotel is very posh and has its own secluded 600 M of beach, which we have had to ourselves during the day as the doctors are all at the conference! It is really beautiful, the lake is so big it might as well be the sea. The girls are enjoying the huge beach and the swimming pool. We don’t plan to swim in the lake this time, there is a snail that passes on a nasty disease via its eggs, it’s very treatable but as we can’t go snorkelling it’s not worth the risk.

not alone

Just to prove that we did bring the children with us!

our house

Or hoose as the Scots call it. Our house is enormous. There are 5 bathrooms so it’s good that I don’t have to clean them all. We have lots of space and fortunately most of the rooms have big cupboards for storage. There is a large khondi which is covered but open and leads from sitting room into the garden. The girls are enjoying the space to crawl and run where they like and the floors get cleaned regularly so they are slightly less grubby. The decor is interesting. Typically the skirting boards and doors are painted very dark and the floor is an amazing mix of blue and white and brown and white tiles and often they don’t match. The bathrooms are quite wacky too and there is a chandelier in the sitting room.