April 2006

Again busy with everything except writing a book, this month Alex has time to look around at the wildlife in camp . . .

Sunday, 02 April 2006

"I think that, maybe, the rains are finished. There is a different feel to the air that suggests the beginning of the dry season.

"This morning, while I was updating the website and downloading some software for my GPS, I heard an odd noise and a scuffle from the other side of the wall. Looking over, I saw a monitor lizard in the process of killing a tiger snake. I had not seen a tiger snake before and had to look it up when I got back to camp. It was quite a struggle as the snake was not giving up and kept trying to strike the lizard but the lizard was protected by its hard skin and eventually shook the snake into submission.

"Then just after lunch I found a spotted bush snake with a frog on his mouth in my new water supply ditch. It seems today is a day for the cycle of life and the food chain to be illustrated again. Of course, I did not have my camera ready. I am going to start keeping it with me more now."

Monday, 03 April 2006

"Even with my camera sitting there waiting I was unable to get my clothes on quick enough to capture this morning’s visitor, a new elephant. It was early though, just before sun up and I was pretty much still asleep.

"I decided to take on the first casual yesterday, a guy called Sunday Shumba. I hope he works out all right. The guys have got him on early duties this morning and we will see if he can retain sufficient information to carry out the jobs. At twenty-three years old he has never worked before. It still surprises me when there is work about.

Thursday, 06 April 2006

"Yesterday we had a very successful go-come mission to Chirundu... I got Kelvin to do a lot of the driving and he is getting better though still having problems with clutch control and thinking ahead. These skills will only come with practice.

"Last evening, I invited Riccardo, Adrian and Anna round for sundowners and they stayed for a very pleasant dinner. Riccardo and I knocked up a simple cabbage pasta dish that tasted great and we chatted around this and that. It was all pretty inconsequential but good company makes a meal."

Friday, 07 April 2006

"CLZ held a bring-and-braii for everyone in the valley who wanted to come. The only blacks there were Kelvin and three guides from Safpar until Chiawa arrived with a couple of their guys. It was the normal round of chitchat and banality but there was plenty of food and the evening was a good chance for people to get together at the start of the season.

"Our drive back into camp was interrupted by three elephants, the third of which was not in the mood to let us pass on the road and we had to crawl along slowly behind him as he made his leisurely way along the road. He eventually disappeared into the bushes just past Nyala Tents, it was as if he had known where we were going and was deliberately slowing our progress.

"The water tower is close to completion now. In spite of all my efforts to get the guys to do a good job it is going to be a bodge. They managed to cement the centre, weight bearing pole ten centimetres below where it should be or the four corner posts ten centimetres too high. Either way it means that they have had to put a short plug in at the top to bring the support to the right location and now they will have to put extra wedges in to support the centre cross planks that are now supported only by bolts through the centre column. I explained the theory to Kelvin several times but he still did not seem to get it. What can I do?

"Elephants are plentiful round here right now. I just got a mock charge from one on the driveway while I was walking back into camp from the water tower. The camp is too messy for a photo so I hope we get visited again when the holes are filled and the place is tidy."

Saturday, 08 April 2006

"Last night, for the first time, I heard lions on this side of the river. It seems as though a lion or two have come across the Chongwe. This is fabulous news. I doubt whether I will see them but just knowing they are there gives me a real boost."

Friday, 14 April 2006

"Safely back in camp after four days in Lusaka, my office is full of large boxes containing my new communications system. I hope everything is here as I have yet to see the aerial itself and can only guess it is among the packing.

"The camp is also full of workers, two from Precision, three from the truck and four Nyala guys. The radio mast will be going up today, actually is already going up. It is going to be tall, very tall. It has come in the standard mast colours of red and white which will need to be repainted lest it becomes a blot on the landscape. I pity the poor soul who is going to have to climb up and paint it."

Tuesday, 18 April 2006

"So now I have the tallest lightning conductor in the valley. It is not yet an aerial because the engineers brought down the wrong cable for the antenna stack and I had to send them back to Lusaka to get it sorted. Hopefully they will come down later this week with the engineer to install the satellite as well. It was very disappointing and a little annoying but that sort of thing is par for the course out here. Things probably do not go wrong here any more than anywhere else. It is just that it takes so much longer to sort them out because of the complexity of logistics and transport. Rolf Pfeifer (the owner of Precision Communications) is off in Hong Kong which does not help much but at least I can get him through email.

"At Community Campsite work is now underway. Mweemba is back on the building programme and is currently putting up the reception and bar building which I have high hopes for. I am going to have to make a custom frame for a serving hatch and security grille which I shall get the welder in Central Market to make up for me."

Thursday, 20 April 2006

"Francis, the rigger, is back to finish the aerial. Hopefully then, I will be able to have better communication up and down the valley. We are still going to be without satellite for a while yet though. I am not sure what is happening with that."

Tuesday, 25 April 2006

"It was the first day of the Safari Guide Examinations yesterday and Anna and Adrian felt the pressure and frustration of getting anything done in this valley that requires co-operation and commitment from other parties. Anna gave vent to that last night as I found myself marking papers into the evening with them. Only Garth, Lynsey and Andrew had turned up to help and they arrived somewhat later than they had said.

"It still vaguely amuses me how many times a group of people can sit around and discuss and agree how things should be done only to disperse and things carry on exactly as they did before.

"Last night, again, I had a bat in the bedroom. It was reluctant to leave and I had to prise it off the mosquito net as it did not move off when I approached it. Fortunately, I eventually persuaded the little creature to fly out the door as I knew I would not sleep with it flapping around the tent all night bumping into the walls."

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