Happy New Year!

Firstly, Happy New Year wishes to all who read this, in case I am not able to write again until next year. We are off on our travels for a few days and will only be back in 2009!

Yes, we finally found some stunning wild Flame Lilies yesterday on our return trip to the forest reserve! Here they are in all their glory...

And, we even located our half unfurled one from Christmas Day - still a while to go, but as you see, there's progress!

Till next time...  New Year greetings to all xx :-)

Searching for Flame Lilies

The sun emerged from behind the clouds on Christmas Day, and we decided to go looking for Flame Lilies in the Forest Reserve, just behind where we live. Usually around this time of year (we can never seem to agree on exactly when...) the stunning red/orange lilies flower wildly and randomly in the bush, and we love to go on a lily hunt, to photograph and just enjoy/celebrate them!

The Flame Lily, otherwise known as Gloriosa superba  is quite meaningful to anybody who grew up over the border in Zim (or the then Rhodesia) as it was/is the national flower. I seem to think it is still a protected plant over there, but would have to check my facts on that one... The botanical name is apt, as it's an outrageously hued, delicate and exquisite flower - both glorious and superb!

We packed cooler box and snacks, Southern African style, and set off in our eccentric red 4x4 truck, "Blink Stefaans". It soon became clear that our motivational goal of "an ice cold beer to the first one to spot a flame lily" was going to cause a very thirsty trip for us, as not a single lily was to be seen, after much searching!  

Tiennie and his eccentric truck!

Despite the lily-less-ness, we immersed ourselves in the beauty of the natural teak forest, with the purple teak blossoms studding the dense greenery, and tiny white and pink wildflowers peeping out of the grassy verges. 

The beautiful purple blossoms on the Zambezi Teak trees.

Shy waterbuck hid themselves behind the trees, in the more open areas, and the constant sound of bird calls was underscored by the heavy droning of gigantic black dung beetles in full flight.  A dung beetle in full flight is a sight to behold, and to be dodged at all costs! Sometimes they remind me of the golden snitches in Harry Potter's quidditch matches...

We lazily took another random turn in the bush track, and suddenly - I saw it! A tiny, fleeting, distinctive red/orange flash in the undergrowth... Yell of triumph, urgent reversing back down the track, and voila - One lonesome, semi unfurled Flame Lily bud!    

Obviously we were a bit early so will be revisiting the forest reserve after new year to seek the unfurled lilies.  This is how the track looks at this abundant time of year. It is such a unbelievable contrast to the dry season - do watch this space for more updates on flowers and bush tracks!

Special Kids

Yesterday I attended a Christmas Party and Graduation ceremony for the Kamadine Day Care Centre, which looks after a group of young HIV/AIDS orphans and vulnerable children from the Kazungula area. Eleven of the little students were being sent off in style to Big School - they will be starting Standard 1 at Kazungula Primary School in 2009. Here are two of them, with big smiles all over their glitter-adorned faces!It is always a joy to be with them. As I arrived, a bit early by Kasane standards, the kids were playing outside and they just rushed along from the playground for big hugs (at knee level!), or just to hold my hand, or gently touch my arm... I took hundreds of photos, and had some interesting moments sitting on the floor at child level, trying to get a few decent pics of my diminutive moving targets!

These little ones just always touch my heart,  but it was really a joyful, happy occasion with the kids and teachers dancing together, and a pillow-fattened, festive Father Christmas handing out gifts...Just being with these children always  reminds me to count my myriad blessings...

Satellite Magic in the Middle of Nowhere

Back at the bush camp in the absolute middle of nowhere – our mission, to install a Vsat internet system. So…a friendly chat via satellite BGan & Skype with the techie lads in Cape Town at the other end of the continent, swing the big satellite dish around, wave around a high tech instrument that aligns perfectly to the improbable and mysterious satellite orbiting kilometres above us in outer space – fiddle with a few settings and voila, permanent internet floating all around us and the bush camp is Online! This always feels like a small piece of magic to me…

Being the go-between - chatting to Cape Town

Having sorted out the communications - solar power and inverters quietly keeping everything going, it was a delight to take some time out and enjoy spending time with our friends in their unspoilt corner of the world, complete with a mini “baobab island”.

I enjoyed some alone time for reading and contemplation. For me, there’s something magically soothing and restoring about the African bush. The silence, broken only by insect and bird sounds; the blanketing humidity and greenery of this time of year; the sudden flares of sunshine/blue sky, competing with the brooding build-up of dark grey afternoon storm clouds.

Later in the afternoon, we escorted the tribe of dogs to a nearby water-filled pan where they splashed, wallowed, galloped and leaped to their hearts’ content! The arrival of the rain could not ruin their sheer joy in their watery adventure. Back at camp, nothing better than standing wetly next to the fire, feeling your clothes drying on you within seconds, whilst enjoying an ice cold bush sundowner!

Our sunset was absurdly colourful and changeable… from salmon and pale blue, to crimson, then purple and gold - finally fading to royal blue. Perhaps Tiennie’s photo can do it justice…

Eventually it was time to meander back home through the grasslands and palm treeseventually emerging on the fringes of the floodplain once more, ready to follow the river home to Kasane. There we found and photographed a profusion of wild red pincushiony lilies.

and of course had to stop in to buy some cokes at the wonderful “Kanini Kanini General Dealer and High Life Bar”before heading back to our comparatively civillised real world, for another working week!

Where Elephants Rule...

Last weekend we visited Elephant Sands again (see post # 5). Their signpost (the one not knocked down by elephants) states that this is "Where Elephants Rule"...

As reported last time the waterhole is still dry, muddy and brackish, and doesn't offer much enticement to our pachyderm friends. During the day, a huge water-bowser truck comes in from one of the drillling companies operating nearby to replenish the lodge's water tanks and the swimming pool with fresh borehole water.

This time round we noted that the surreptitious slurping under cover of night has been abolished, all caution has been flung to the winds, and for now the swimming pool appears to be The Official Elephant Waterhole!

At about 4pm the generator had been fired up for the all important Springbok rugby match on TV, spectators were in place, drinks in hand. As the match got underway, those of us not actually watching the rugby were treated to the sight of 5 bull elephants first giving a disdainful sniff to the natural waterhole, then lumbering up behind the unsuspecting rugby supporters, and approaching their "real" waterhole. After that it was divided attention for the rugby fans, and a wonderful elephant-watching opportunity for us.

Here they are relishing their fresh water..
A forest of legs....

"What is that thing?" they had to investigate the blue pipe!
Humans watching safely from not too far away..It was genuinely awesome to be so close to these magnificent creatures. They are so gentle, stealthy and silent in their slow walking gait, so playful amongst themselves, whilst also managing to perfectly convey a sense of massive power - and the potential danger of their presence as absolutely wild animals.
I don't think I have the words to adequately describe being close to elephants. There is an ancient and wise perfection about them, and I just know that to us and to so many other humans, they are special and beautiful creatures. How I wish that we as humans could just protect them all and not let them down so badly and so often...

Neglected Trees Rescued...

This is mainly for my dear green-fingered mother, in case she is checking up on my blog entries! Witness your beautiful self-germinated and lovingly nurtured indigenous trees finally off to their new home in the Selinda Reserve, and out of the neglectful hands at last of your not so green-fingered daughter!

Thank you so much Val(Monkeys on the Roof) for your heroic efforts in loading and transporting the soon to be happy trees to their new habitat. Here's a photo of KJ surveying the loading situation, and as one can see the Land Cruiser is in a much cleaner and more vertical state than it was during the onward journey. See Val's incredible MUD post for further details! (This post also kind of inspired my post!) I'll be back online after the weekend! hope you all have a great one...

Middle of Nowhere

Alas, I seem to have run out of writing time, dealing with month-end at work, while enjoying a most welcome and enjoyable visit from my dad, and also preparing to go away for a week... so I decided to just post a couple of photos from last weekend.

Just looking at this bush track and its surroundings makes me long to evacuate my desk in this crazy/busy town centre, and just hit the road...
NB If anybody feels like looking on Google Earth: this is vaguely in the area of Satau, Botswana, in the Chobe Enclave. It is a beautiful unspoilt area and we went there during the weekend to visit our friends Phil and Gabi at their bush camp. Out there the lifestyle is so simple, and reminded us of how we too once lived in a small caravan, and happily made do with very little...

These Baobabs are probably a well known and much photographed sight for any Botswana off- road traveller, being at the entrance to Kavimba village. I just love them...