I then went down to the bushcamps, which I was very excited about. The morning of the day I went down I woke up early and showered. There are times like these that make me wish I was keeping a video diary of myself in the bush. I was really enjoying my shower because the water was lovely and hot, which has been a bit of a rarity here at Mfuwe Lodge since we opened (solar heating isn’t quite what it promises to be). So anyway mid shower with a head full of shampoo and something falls from the ceiling and hits me on the head. I threw myself out of the shower so quickly that I slipped down the shower door and landed spread eagle, naked on the bathroom floor. Luckily I didn’t hurt myself but I just started to laugh at how pathetic I am. I laughed even more when on inspecting the floor of the shower to see what had fallen on me I found a tiny bit of wood or concrete from the roof above.
I then transformed into “bushgirl” as I’ve been working some pretty cool outfits for work but not quite suitable for the bush. So put on my brown linen shorts, a vest and my bush shirt. I had my backpack packed and was about to put my boots on when I remembered Dave always saying to me shake out your boots before you put them on. So I picked them up and gave one a half hearted shake not really expecting anything to be in it and it rattled. So after a couple of hard hits to the floor my toad prince came shooting across my bedroom floor. That explains why I hadn’t seen him for a while, he’d obviously bounced into my boot and couldn’t get out again so had died in there. So when people tell you to check your boots each time you wear them, they really mean it. I now keep my boots high up on a table just in case anything else decides to move in.
Before I left for the bushcamps I went to check on Chooks as she’d come down with malaria. She’d got through the worst but was still looking very pale. Quite a few people are down with it here at the moment. I’ve decided that I’m immune to it (well that’s what I keep telling myself anyway, positive thinking). From Chooks’s house I then walked up to the lodge and found a dead snake. A dead snake is better than a live one but still not nice as it reminds you they’re there. I’ve actually seen or heard about a lot more snakes than I wanted to in just a few weeks so can no longer keep telling myself they don’t exist. I carried on up to the lodge and of course my friends the baboons were there and the big Daddy was also there sitting on the path and he is very big. I carried on walking and kept my head down but as I got closer I saw they weren’t going to budge so I cut across the lawn around a tree and back onto the path. So I guess they’ve won as I’ll probably be doing that most mornings now.
The River road, which closes during the green season, is now open so we took that route down to Kapamba. It’s a nicer route to take guests along as the game viewing is much better and on our journey down we saw plenty of game including Puku, Impala, Elephants, Warthogs and a herd of Giraffe.
We did a site inspection of the camps still in construction on our way down. Our next camp to open in Chindeni, which is a tented camp on the Luangwa river and the whole setting of the camp is truly stunning and the tents are gynormous. They have a fitted bathroom and lounge inside plus deck overlooking the river. They are twice the size of the tent Dave and I stayed in at Lugenda. We stopped off at Kapamba to check on a few things there and I got to chat to Mike the camp manager there. The returning guests from Kapamba have been raving about it so it was great to get a chance to see it completely finished and it does look amazing. The Kapamba River, which the camp is situated on is completely clear and shallow (so apparently no crocs). Guests go out swimming there, which is so nice and in the evenings they have bush dinners on the island in the middle of the river.
On our way into camp we’d seen a big Puff Adder, which had put an end to any bravery I’d started to feel. We spent the night at Zungulila again, which I think is going to be my favourite camp when finished. It is another tented camp on the Kapamba River and the interior designer’s theme for the camp is “Out Of Africa”, which of course is one of my favourite films. I was in the same tent again on the end and after seeing that Puff Adder earlier I was very nervous. Plus Monty had seen a leopard on our way into camp. A herd of buffalo moved into the grassy area in front of our tents and the hyena were calling very close by. I could hear the warning call of the Puku and then for the first time I heard the rasping “saw” of Monty’s leopard, which I’d almost past for his imagination as no one else had seen it. The saw of a leopard is the name for his roar.
The following morning I got talked into going for a walk, which I found I couldn’t get out of. I was very nervous the grass was almost as high as it had been in Lugenda. Our first task was to cross a little river with a plank as a bridge. Once past we then parted the grass and started our adventure.
My nerves settled down as I started to enjoy really being a part of the bush. James was our guide and he was great. He pointed out loads of different tracks and we found the track of our leopard from the previous night. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately we didn’t run into anything exciting on our walk but it made me realize that this was what the real bush experience is.
So a bit of a breakthrough for me this week.
Oh and I almost forgot I got to go on a night drive with some clients and saw a male and female lion so has been a pretty amazing week for Immy in the bush.
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