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As March turns to April, Alex starts work on his new campsite and begins to adapt to the pace and frustrations of Africa. . . Saturday, 02 April 2005 "What the hell happened to Friday? I appear to have completely lost a day somewhere here. Have we really already been working for two days? It seems that my mental calendar has been running a day behind as I was convinced that it was the 1st April today. So we actually started construction one whole day late. Anyhow, the site is now more or less clear. I have left the site a little rough to allow for adjustments when the kit arrives in, theoretically, nine days time. I had better start sending chasing emails this afternoon.
"I am sitting now on the soil that will be the floor of my dining and social area looking out on my own view of the Zambezi River. Behind me, the crew are working on the entrance track. The six men, Kelvin, Watson, Friday, Patros, Paul and Cedric seem to work together pretty well and do not require too much supervision. They are also working pretty hard and will, I think complete the task pretty much on target. The new site is placed in between two permanent gullies and so I am not able to construct a route into CC Camp as originally envisioned but am building an entrance way directly onto the main east west access route. "Last night, I experienced two firsts. I spent a good hour sitting within feet of a happy and relaxed elephant as he munched his way around the Cetengi at CLZ headquarters. While he was wandering through the bushes, often close enough to reach out and touch had I been so inclined, a frog decided that my foot was probably the safest place to sit and rested on my shoe for good ten minutes while constantly studying the elephant’s movements from his little viewpoint. The gurgles and murmurs coming from the elephant’s stomach were extraordinary. Although this elephant is a known and frequent visitor to the camp (easily identified by the kink or twist in his tail and known as Oliver as a result) it made it no less special to me as I was completely on my own and could enjoy his aura in complete exclusivity. It was also strangely rewarding that a nervous little frog might regard my foot as a safe haven." Thursday, 07 April 2005 "It is strange how quickly one becomes accustomed to things that are so very different to what was normal life in London. To have an elephant browsing over my tent at night is already part of the daily routine and I only mention it here today because the destruction that he left in his path last night included taking out a large part of the short wave aerial. Fortunately, since there is now a satellite dish here at CLZ headquarters that is not as big a problem as once it would have been but it will give the guys something to focus on today as it has been too quiet around here." Tuesday, 12 April 2005
Friday, 15 April 2005 "As the days tick by relentlessly I find myself having to think about where the time goes and what I have been doing. It is Friday already and I am finding it difficult to account for each day and what I have been doing. I have been told that in many of the local languages there is no word for tomorrow or yesterday and the different concept of time and the way things work out here in the bush is beginning to seep into my veins to mix with the various insect toxins I am absorbing making me put the purchase of a calendar onto my shopping list lest I run out of my two years without actually having moved from the valley." Thursday, 28 April 2005 "It is now nearly two weeks since I sat down and wrote up my thoughts and it took three elephants at my camp to remind me that this project needs to be documented regularly or I’ll forget things that may prove important for the book. "For a moment I could forget the frustrations and annoyances that are delaying my camp build so long and tediously. To stand at the waters edge on my Eastern beach thirty metres away from three contended elephants supping the cool water of the Zambezi from my western beach and to be able to watch them and for a while share their environment is a privilege and a real boost to my mood. "My trip, last week, to Lusaka proved to be an expensive waste of time where I achieved little and spent a lot. My lorry with the tents and fridge had not turned up from South Africa and was lost somewhere in Zimbabwe. Right now I am not sure where it is though it could be at Chirundu clearing customs. As part of a shared consignment I cannot do anything to hurry that procedure and have to be patient. "It is slow work with the camp, first of all I thought we could start making bricks but that is not as simple as it should be. To make bricks we need sand and not any sand but coarse river sand. There is plenty of that at the Chongwe river not far away but I do not have a trailer or even a tow hook and so I have to borrow a vehicle and trailer for CLZ for that purpose and as local safari lodges have abused their borrowing credits a freeze has been imposed on lending kit. Even finding nails and string is a mission; I found ninety nails in the village Muguramena where we went to find reeds for the fencing and that sustained us through yesterday but now we are at a standstill again and I am almost at the point of creating jobs for the crew. "Right now, I do wonder whether . . . all things will start coming together wonderfully. Still, I certainly know that I am alive here and not drifting from day to day aimlessly. I may not be getting where I want to go but at least I am trying to achieve something at last." |
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© Afrikeye 1999 - 2007 (certain items under permission of original copyright owner) |
"Last
night I declared a truce with the black, antenna bearing, crickets that invade
my tent nightly having now confirmed that they are harmless and just a nuisance
even though they are ugly little beggars. Since I have been here I have been
attacking these things with insect destroyer that merely stuns them for a second
before I crush them with a shoe. Now I have accepted their inevitable presence
that will pass in time and wait for the next critter to disturb my idyll."