Wow what a wild couple of months

Wow I can't believe it has been over two months since I last wrote on this.  I have been completely absorbed by my new life in the South Luangwa and boy has it been busy.  I have been busy opening camps as well as running them when open and we have had a new camp open pretty much every 2 weeks since the 1st of June.  I now have 5 camps open with an average occupancy across the camps of about 80% so it's very hectic here.  Unfortunately I do find a lot of my time behind a computer screen mapping out guest movements, which are constantly changing due to new bookings or cancellations or lack of vehicles etc etc.  I do try to get out into the bush as much as possible and have managed to get down to all the camps before each opened and then ever so once in a while to see the staff and check everybody is ok.
I spend an hour of every morning doing my radio calls to camps, which is like having my own radio show.  "Immy's Hour" on Radio South Luangwa.  This is when I find out how everybody is in camps, check the guests are happy and that the camp has no maintenance issues and also the daily sightings from the camps.

I managed to get a day off last Sunday and drove myself down to Zungulila, our most recent camp to open and my favourite.  It was my first 4x4 driving experience so I was a bit nervous.  I wasn't alone either, which was a good thing but also meant I had an audience.  But we made it safely down to Zungulila and in time for sundowners despite our late start and deliveries which I had to make at each camp on the way down.  We picked up Zillah (Chamilandu's manager) up on the way as she had no guests and we had a brilliant night.  Starting with a little bit of fishing from the bridge, then sundowners on the beach and then an amazing candle lit supper on the deck.

After supper Mike the manager at Zungulila had asked the staff to put on their dance show for us as I'd never seen it.  It was hilarious especially as I'm getting to know the staff quite well now.  They transformed the boma into a theatre and we sat in a semi circle to watch.

I then managed to have a lie in until 0630!!  Can you believe it??  Typical isn't it.  I didn't mind too much as the view you wake up to in the morning at Zungulila is just too special for words.  So I went down onto the deck and cuddled up in one of their woolen blankets and wrote in my diary and realised what a long time ago it was since my last post.  So here I am trying to catch up with the last few months.  So bare with me.