August already and things seem to be beginning to happen. Maybe Alex will write a book after all . . .

Monday, 01 August 2005

"I have just made another decision. Kelvin, has gone down with a sore throat and runny nose and I’ve let him stay in bed for the day. I think he might be brought back to health with the promise of a jaunt and as we don’t need to go to Chirundu on Wednesday when I fetch Mweemba I think that it might be a good opportunity to start chasing the story of the screaming trees. A little trip on that front and whether it has anything to do with Namulimba or whatever it is called – that’s the ancient site marked on my GIS that no-one has ever heard of.

"Chrispine has just told me a fascinating little trick that we might need to try to protect our newly made and still soft blocks from our regular visiting elephant. The traditional deterrent is to burn elephant dung when the intruding elephant is nearby as this puts the elephant off. We will certainly give it a try if the elephant comes tomorrow morning. I’d prefer if he leaves us be for a couple of days to be honest as I am not particularly keen on chasing elephants off and causing them any aggravation."

Wednesday, 03 August 2005

"Today Kelvin and I went in search of Namalimbya, the only marked Ancient site in the immediate area. It was good fun and at last doing something practical for the book got me in a very positive mood. No-one I had asked about this place had heard of it or knew what was there so we had no clue what we might find when we left the vehicle at the roadside by a path about 900 metres from the co-ordinates on the GIS.

"There were paths through the bush and a small village just off the southern side of the road. Kelvin explained that the people had recently been moved here because the land they had occupied before had been converted to crops. When I asked if they had made a fuss he told me that they had moved without voicing any objections and resettled happily in the new location.

"I mulled on this as we slowly approached the co-ordinates that I had plugged into the GPS taking first one narrow track and then doubling back to take another that might twist and turn a little closer to our destination. At thirty metres from the specified point, there were no more options; we turned of the path to strike into the thorny bushes that blocked our route and struggled through to more thorn bushes. There was nothing there but bushes and small trees, certainly nothing to indicate an ancient site worthy of record.

"Kelvin was disappointed and ploughed through the bushes to what he thought might be promising spots nearby while I stayed where I was and had a think. I had already given a mental margin of error of 500 metres around the point indicated in the GIS so had not been surprised that there was nothing at the exact spot. I would have been more surprised had there been something there. The only clue I had was a small piece of petrified wood that I had noticed at the edge of a maize field that had been on one of our false paths earlier. Another mental note that I had made was that there was a valley over to our right as we walked towards the river. As we made our way out to the path I explained to Kelvin that the GIS data might not be accurate to the metre and I wanted to widen our search to a quarter kilometre radius from the mark. The valley I had noticed was less than 200 metres away, a five minute walk in the thick cover along paths that twisted and turned upon themselves to follow the easiest path through the rocks and thorns. When we got there I was happily proved right. There were petrified logs protruding through the dry grass and out of an ancient river bed that at one time must have fed the Zambezi. There were logs everywhere that I pulled aside the dry grass, certainly if this was not Namulimbwa it would do for my purpose. I took a few photos, one of which with Kelvin thoughtfully looking at a log – for scale. The only problem is that the fossils look so like wood that it is very difficult, just from the picture, to identify them as petrified."

Friday, 05 August 2005

"OK, time to make a plan. It is the same old story I need sand and I have no truck to collect it. If Bonzo does not come then I am stuffed until Tuesday when we are scheduled to head into Chirundu and I can make a deal with Constande. Either way, the three days I need for the Chakwengwa trip do not fit in the schedule any more. The best plan at this stage is to put off the trip until the fourteenth August. The positive of this delay is it gives time for me to get used to driving the car with the rooftop tent in place."

Sunday, 07 August 2005

"Another decision made. I cannot be bothered to go through all the hassle of organising payroll through CHICODA so I am going to register the partnership as the employer. It is pragmatism and practicality that has forced this path upon me and though not an ideal situation, I could wait forever for CHICODA to play their part. This way they at least have two years and it won’t affect the way the partnership works or their autonomous running of Community Camp."

Thursday, 11 August 2005

"I have, for a week now, been trying to catch a picture of the pied kingfisher that used to perch on the branch overhanging the river right in front of me every single morning. Since mounting my camera in position the bird has only flitted past its regular perch and gone and settled elsewhere as if it knows that I am after it and is playing with me. It is not a particularly spectacular bird, not a rare bird but this has now become a bit of a battle and I shall get a truly disproportionate sense of satisfaction when I finally do catch it on camera... In consolation, I did catch the other resident kingfisher, a Giant Kingfisher, taking a dive from the withered acacia that overhangs the Zambezi at the front of camp.

"I have a bit of a cash crisis right now. This is simply because I have had to pay out rather more than I had expected earlier than anticipated, particularly giving Bonzo a million kwacha for his work the other day and to purchase the gum poles and generator store door. That advance of five hundred thousand threw out my kitty such that I am going to be short of cash to pay the wages by about one hundred thousand and have absolutely zero emergency funds. To pay Constande [a local truck driver] I had to make a deal with diesel and give him a hundred litres in lieu of cash, turning my precious asset of fuel in the current shortage to my advantage. It takes a long time to siphon a hundred litres, over ninety minutes.

"People are starting to ask about the book now and I am beginning to realise that I actually don’t have a clue how to write one. In particular a good one with a beginning, middle and end. As the guys get the brick factory back in action today, hopefully for the last time, I think I’ll try and work on a structure and theme to try and focus a little more."

Monday, 15 August 2005

"This weekend I sat down and wrote the chapter about the eviction notice on Ian and Lea. It came fairly easily once I had settled into a style that allowed my imagination to roam a little. I wrote it as fiction which meant that I could make up conversations as I imagine them to have been and set up my own causal links which I believe lay behind the affair."

Tuesday, 30 August 2005

"This morning, interrupting my last minute packing for Lusaka, Kelvin came to point out that we had a visitor last night. He took me out to the camp entrance and there by the mango tree were the clear tracks of a leopard. The leopard had passed within a few metres of my head as I slept last night and I did not hear a thing. It must have spent a little while here too because the tracks did not go straight from one side to the other but circled around a bit and got a bit messy where the animal must have found something to interest him.

"On the way up to town, I took Kelvin to meet his Great Aunt Nyamachili to find out the story behind the screaming trees. Not only did she tell us that but also the story that was the origin of the Chiyaba tribe.

"I am not sure how much got lost in translation because she was talking for about an hour and Kelvin only told me what is above. I shall grill him again to make sure I didn’t miss anything, important or not.

"When she had finished Nyamachili advised us that she had just been revealing traditional secrets which was not allowed and we would need to make some recompense. We settled on 200,000 kwacha, a high price but definitely worth it after the length of time I have been waiting to get a genuine traditional tale."

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