Postcard from Africa, March-April 2012

This trip was an Adventure rather than a Holiday!

I had a good flight from London to Johannesburg on Friday 23^rd, but after that it was a bit of a disaster! The flight from Jo’burg to Maun [Botswana] was cancelled, so they transferred all passengers to the next flight 3 hours later. However on arriving in Maun there were 20 or more of us with no luggage. I was then taken by a tiny little plane to Lebala Camp with no luggage. I could not have felt less like going on safari drives, so I spent the next 24 hours relaxing in the camp waiting for my luggage! However no luggage arrived for the day so I spent it trying to get to grips with no change of gear! All very challenging.

I did go on a safari drive on night two but was not the happiest of bunnies! Nor was I very happy when I came back from a rather boring early morning safari drive the next day to find still no sign of any luggage. However after a lot of bullying and emailing my agent back home, the luggage miraculously turned up at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

So I was able to get myself organised and go off on another safari – not brilliant but quite fun, especially having our sun-downers overlooking a hippo pool! My last safari at Lebala with my guide, Bally, was quite good – a few more excitements, like finding a Hyena, a huge number of elephants and giraffe, and having coffee by a pool with lots of animals!

At 3 o’clock that day I took off from the Lebala airstrip for Little Vumbura. There I was met by my guide, Denis, a rather

arrogant young lad. We set off on a safari en route the camp and saw quite a lot, including buffalo and the endangered sable, and then the rains arrived! We had a very wet journey with heavy rain and driving through ‘rivers’ and ‘lakes’ before we arrived at Little Vumbura boat station fromwhere I had a short boat journey to the camp. Once there, in the pouring rain, I found a nice room, even if it was a long walk from the camp, and was made to feel very welcome. However the rains poured and poured all night, so at 5.30 I declined my early morning safari, knowing how unpleasant it would be and the

animals would be hiding! By 8am when I emerged, the rains eventually eased so Denis and I set off on a morning’s safari – and how lucky we were! We saw a lioness with her three cubs playing around her, and then we saw a sleepy leopard up a tree. On my return I had a light lunch before retiring to my room to try out my outdoor bath! In the late afternoon I went off on another game drive, accompanied by a father and son. This time it was a very good drive – we spotted the lioness again but she decided to have a nap so we left her sleeping on the road and went on to search for the leopard, which we found. She was incredible coming out of the bush and so we followed her as she walked around, even climbing a termite mound to give us all an incredible view of her.

Eventually we returned to the camp as the sun was setting in time for drinks and dinner. The following morning we went off on safari again but saw very little – a herd of buffalo and a few sable were the highlights - we returned to the camp by a fast boat through the Delta! In the evening we went back on the Delta to the hippo pool to watch them for an hour or so, but not before our boat gave up the ghost and we spent 30 minutes in the sun waiting for a replacement boat.

The next morning on my final safari in Vumbura we had a very good sighting of a leopard and her cub who ate, drank and played in front of us. I returned to the camp to pack up for departure and had a very unnerving experience as baboons jumped up and down on the roof of my room for half an hour, then peering in to look at me and sit on my balcony, and then back up the tree and a good bounce around on my roof so the whole room was shaking. All a bit unnerving. Was glad to leave Vumbura.

At 1.30 I took a boat to the airstrip and took off at 2pm for Zambia. First stop was Kasene where I was driven by car to the Botswana border and then across the Zambezi River by boat to the Zambian border for an expensive visa. Finally a car drove me to Stanley Safari Lodge near to Victoria Falls. It was wonderful to have electricity again and to be able to dry my hair with a hairdryer!

My room had an incredible view and you could see the spray of the Falls. In the morning I took an excursion to the Falls – amazing views but very wet indeed and I chickened out half way through when it became uncomfortable. It was liking walking through a monsoon! We were only a group of five but the others soon followed me. In the early evening that day a group of 11 of us set off on a sunset cruise on the Zambezi. We only saw a small amount of game, elephant, hippos and crocs, but we did enjoy a beautiful sunset!

The trip from Livingstone to Mfuwe, via Lusaka, the following day was a nightmare! Our plane hit a storm and dropped a few feet which was very frightening. The Captain, who had not said word before that, then announced that he had a problem with his instruments/engine so we were returning [through the storm] to Lusaka. We changed planes and eventually arrived [through the storm yet again] in Mfuwe rather late. The nightmare continued as the weather at my lodge, Nkwali, deteriorated and the torrential rain came into my room – so every time I got up in the night, I had to walk through the rain! Needless to say a game drive that morning was too wet and we saw little so returned to the lodge early. Fortunately, as I was the only person in the camp, I got given a new room, but in that room you got wet sitting on the loo! All this not helped by the fact that I had a stinking cold and cough! The weather was too bad for an evening game safari so after some strong drinks and a good dinner and some cough sweets found by the manager I retired to bed and had a much better night’s sleep. The next day was better, at least it wasn’t raining, but the sun failed to emerge and I wasn’t coughing, streaming quite so much. We spent nearly five hours searching for ‘cats’ but all we found were the usual – elephants, giraffe, impala, etc. In the afternoon a Zambian village group acted a short play on the animals in the Bush for us, in aid of AIDs, and then we went off in search of Cats once again. The weather continued to be very dull and dreary! Fortunately that evening we were in luck, soon after stopping for our sundowners we saw a hyena cross the road in front of us, a leopard walk along the road towards us and then a genet [small cat] in the roadside grass. The next morning I woke to find I had been bitten alive my mosquitoes – hundreds all over my back and legs, but before my departure I made a quick trip across the river as some lions had been spotted close by, which we found – a pride of male, three lionesses and two cubs. After a quick breakfast I was driven back to Mfuwe airport. The weather continued to be very dull and dreary all through my three days in the Zambian bush!

I flew to Lilongwe and then on to Likoma Island in a very small plane. On arrival I was driven across the island for 15 minutes to Kaya Mawa on the beach of Lake Malawi. I had a nice room there with its own patio and sun lounges right on the beach but the room had no furniture other than the bed and a tiny bedside table just large enough for the bedside lamp! Nowhere to put anything! I did eventually get a chest to put my suitcase on so that I didn’t have to unpack on the floor! When a drink was delivered to my room I had to put it on the floor – not even a shelf! On my last night I asked again why no chair or table in my room, and when I went to bed that night miraculously they appeared! A bit late!!! My two days there were spent soaking up the sun outside my room – all my drinks, breakfast and lunch were brought to me on my personal patio! I went along to the beach for evening drinks and dinner! Sadly there were swarms of little black flies, so drinks had to be covered and so were lights otherwise your room would have been full of them. On Saturday 7^th I took a small plane with two others back to Lilongwe. The other passengers were particularly difficult and brought about 8 large heavy bags with them so only just room for me on board! Eventually on arrival back in Lilongwe life was on tenderhooks – the President had died and the Vice-President had been under House Arrest, so a lot of unrest expected. However they did eventually swear in the Vice President [a lady] as President, so everything calmed down. I was in a comfortable lodge and the owner took me on a tour of the City before relaxing back in my room for the evening.

Easter Day was spent flying from Lilongwe to Jo’burg and from Jo’burg to Cape Town. All went very smoothly, for a change, and I was in my lovely apartment by 9pm. The only thing wrong with it is there is no WiFi and and no lounger on the beautiful balcony, however the pool is quite close. I spent the first day stocking up the fridge, getting something for my cold that I cannot shake off, and generally getting phones etc working. After that I relaxed in the lovely sunshine by day and met up with friends each evening until the last two days, when sadly the weather changed a little and was quite cool.On my last day a couple of friends got in touch and I went out for coffee with one friend, and lunch in Hout Bay with another friend. Sunday was spent packing up and sorting out ready for departure that evening.

All a bit too much of an Adventure! At least the last week was relaxing in wonderful Cape Town!

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