Wasps like Helicopter Gunships

It’s warming up nicely now, 34 degrees in the shade. The daily swim is a real PLEASURE!

There seems to be more birds and general wildlife activity, I saw a Paradise Flycatcher yesterday, a Black Faced Bulbul and a Black Sunbird today, as well as fire finches and Blue Waxbills and some of the others we have seen before.

Baboons and Vervet Monkeys are in the mango and fig trees which are quite plentiful in the bush here. I have another batch of Green Mangoes and plan to make more Achar today.

I think the mangoes will be ready soon for consumption as fruit. The last lot I picked were kept 3 or 4 days and they were almost sweet enough to eat as fruit.

There are lots of insects as well. There are big wasps, some blue and some grey brown. They hover around now and then. They are big and look just like helicopter gunships, hovering and moving around in the sleepy air.

There are fires on the mountainside beyond the villages to the south, amazing that they have been burning 3 nights. It seems that the hillsides are burnt to get rid of old grass and scrub and make room for new growth. It’s amazing to see the line of the fire moving slowly across the hillside in the dark.

We have had local villagers here today, with more than 100 Kilos of tomatoes. Once trained the lodge promises to buy the tomatoes, so we end up with a glut it seems.

The lake has been wild and lots of white foam the last week or so, then yesterday, it became still like a mirror. Yesterday evening, as the sun went down it turned into a pool of molten metal, copper and fiery red. Today is flat calm as well and a beautiful blue colour, I feel there may be some snorkelling later today.

We had new guests arrive yesterday and they came from South Luangwa reserve with amazing stories about the wild life, that’s where we will be in four weeks from now, so we start to feel some anticipation. Elephant, Lion Hippo, Wildebeest, it will be very special and different.

We just had lunch and there we saw the sunbird that has its nest by the office, we have seen Mrs Sunbird, a dull brown colour but now we saw Mr, he’s a white bellied sunbird, all purple and green.

Now the fire is approaching the area of the lodge, the firebreak will be tested, this afternoon I will go to the firebreak with the team of builders and carpenters to make sure the fire doesn’t jump the firebreak. And it’s hot out there, man it’s hot, so I will be melting today! Moto, Kwam Bili, means fire, very much in Chi Nyanja! No Achar made this afternoon.

The internet is down; we suspect the fire smoke is interfering with the satellite signals? Not sure that can happen but clouds and rain do interfere so it seems reasonable. Hopefully it’ll be back tomorrow so I can post this.

Now its Friday, on Tuesday night we slept and at 3 am I woke and heard crackling of a fire.

I got up and looked around outside, nothing, then when I tried to sleep I heard it again. Up again and looked out the other side of the hut. There was the fire, up high and crackling loudly. Panic, up and dressed both me and Peggy, we dashed over to where the night watchman stayed. He was there, nothing g to worry about the fire is outside the firebreak, and is being watched and controlled. So off to bed again feeling sheepish, but it is REALLY hard to go to sleep in a grass hut when you can hear a fire burning!

Time is passing, the internet is intermittent, not sure why. I saw some new birds this week, a Chinspot Batis, Isabelline Wheatear. At night now we hear a nightjar, sounds like a French ambulance. You don’t see them though. And the Bush babies, so called because they sound like a baby crying in the night. They found one drowned in one of the chalet water tanks yesterday, nice shower!