It's September 2004 and ...

It's Monday 6th and small critters cause a stir

We have had a returnee this week - "Jeffery of It's Monday" has been back for a visit with us. As many of you will remember, Jeffrey spent three seasons doing reservations at Nkwali and it is fantastic to have him back for a week's holiday. Today he has gone up to visit Tena Tena and Nsefu but he is going to write an advance It's Monday for us and we will send it out to you next week.

Co-incidentally we also have Karen Heshon with us. "Hesh" started the same year as Jo, 1988, and did 7 seasons at Tena Tena and Mobiles! Karen and Dave (ex guide) were married in the Luangwa in 2001 and they are expecting their first child in Dec. Last night we all had dinner at Robin and Jo's house and it was great to catch up and hear them reminiscing about the "good old days".

Tena Tena has had some unusual sightings this week. Firstly on a morning drive Ross came across two giant eagle owls hunting guinea fowl. They managed to catch one each and took them off a short distance to eat. But then a martial eagle appeared and repeatedly mobbed them, trying to steal the guinea fowls. However, the eagle owls bravely kept it at bay and the martial eagle eventually gave up.

On a night drive with Ross once more, guests came across a civet. Not so unusual but this one was harassing a white-tailed mongoose. He kept trying to attack it; chasing it and trying to bite it's backside. The mongoose intermittently would stop, turn around, growl and then the civet would back off for a short time but then return to annoy the mongoose. Guests watched this spectacle for quite some time and it seemed the civet was coming out on top!

John Nicholson is back guiding at Tena Tena for a few weeks and it is great to have him back, his wit and wisdom continues to entertain! He is also wandering around capturing shots with his new and modern video camera - very much the pro!

Guests have been crossing the river in front of Tena Tena to see the carmine colony and also watched a puku fight across the Luangwa from camp. The male chased the female and eventually head butted her rather unceremoniously down the bank.

A very cute sight was a little elephant taking a mud bath in the Tena Tena lagoon and the guides are also keeping an eye on a ground hornbill who is nesting in a tree in the area and we are hoping to see chicks soon.

Robin was back in the Nsefu sector last week and meet up with Frank and Barbara Jones and Paul Deniger for sundowners. These lively folks have been coming to visit us for many years (Paul's 15th trip with us) and it is always a treat to have them with us - they have already booked for next year so we must be doing something right!

At Nsefu Simon Bicknell, our other visiting guide, reports an interesting sighting involving a genet and puff adder. The genet was circling the puff adder which was striking at it and making loud puffy noises (this expression came direct from the guides!). The genet made about 6 attempts at catching it but eventually jumped away awkwardly, licking his shoulder as if he may have been struck. A civet was meanwhile watching the display and decided to come and investigate more closely. By this time the puff adder was understandably a little angry and the civet decided against further interference. Both the genet and civet moved away. Then Simon moved in for a closer look and the adder appeared to be unharmed but gave an impressive display of angry "puffing"

Stay well and have a great week
Cheers Kim

... and finally, a lovely photo of a lioness at sunset, sent by one of our recent guests, Vaughan Williams, from Australia.

It's Monday 13th and Jeffers reporting

G’day!!

Jeffrey here…back at my old desk for “one time only”!! I’m fortunate to be visiting RPS this week and from the moment I arrived it has been one huge, wonderful trip down memory lane. When asked (or rather, instructed!) if I might consider writing this week’s newsletter I was naturally very happy to oblige. In fact, when I drove into Nkwali, where I lived and worked for three years until 2003, my instinctive reaction was to “get on with some work”!! The happy reality is that I’m on holiday so I’ve been putting my feet up whilst everybody runs about keeping the RPS cogs turning!

I have to say HOW WONDERFUL IT IS TO BE “HOME”!! The past week has made me realize just how special “the Valley” is…how incredibly beautiful this remote wilderness area remains and what true friends I have here. Warmly welcomed by the RPS team, as all guests are, one immediately feels part of the family, gin and tonic thrust firmly into hand!

Apart from catching up with all the gossip (nothing worth mentioning here – this bunch are as good as gold, believe me!) I’ve had plenty of time to recharge the batteries and take a good look around. In essence, everything appears to be the same but it is amazing how things change so quickly! For a start, I’m sitting in front of a computer which is now connected 24 hours per day to the internet!! And Kim saw fit to have an air conditioner installed into my old office!!! Whatever next??

Back of house at Nkwali there is a vastly improved “cage” for staff to eat, drink and entertain themselves in and new housing dotted about. The vegetable garden is outstanding with possibly double or triple the types of plants grown and now all the leaf salads and herbs come directly from the garden! As you would know, Robin and Jo have built themselves a new home behind Nkwali. It is big, bright, airy and welcoming – as you would expect! I’ve enjoyed a couple of delightful lunches and dinners in their home whilst watching the elephant and giraffe drinking from the lagoon out the front!

You’ve heard about Nkwali’s new bar and deck – it is an obvious improvement and takes nothing away from the simplicity of the camp. One now enjoys a clearer view of the vivid red sunset whilst sitting on the edge of the new decking! I had a wonderful drive with Possum and Karen Heshon up to Tena Tena and Nsefu to visit the staff. The Nsefu Sector is paradise – at this time of year you can see for miles in all directions so it’s prime walking territory, the game viewing is superb and you rarely come across other people. The camps are looking fantastic – again, like I never left!

It will be so sad to say goodbye at the end of the week but I will definitely be back – this place gets into your blood!

Meanwhile on the game viewing front Kerri has sent down some pics from Nsefu. These include a baby giraffe and mother who seems to have moved from further north to Nsefu and is often seen getting up to mischief and coming close to the vehicle to get a closer look.

A hyena is also featured, obviously with plenty of milk and nursing pups but although footprints of the pups are all around the dening site they have yet to be seen. The matriarch was however captured by Kerri whilst chewing on a buffalo bone from an old kill.

An excitement at Nsefu was a lion in the lagoon just by the bar – everyone climbed up onto the termite mound in camp to have a closer look – meanwhile fearless Kerri popped around the front to take a photo of them all – hoping they would tell her should the lion decide to wish for closer inspection of Kerri!

 

 

Stay well and have a great week, Cheers Jeffrey

It's Monday 20th and monkey business

Helen, our "covering caterer" has been on holiday at Nsefu for a few days and writes of a pretty extraordinary sighting.

"Having escaped to Nsefu for a couple of days of bush relaxation, I jumped onto an afternoon game drive. Within 20 mins of leaving camp we heard a slightly hysterical vervet monkey chabbering away close by. As we approached the shaking tree, we nearly ran over a female leopard with a freshly killed money in her mouth. The leopard (a well known one-eyed individual) then calmly proceeded to lick all it's hair off before eating it, bit by bit. She was obviously enjoying it, when suddenly she choked on it's tail, which she'd been eating noisily, as if it was a stick of liquorice. After a loud cough and some embarrassing wheezing, the leopard buried the final remains in the fallen sausage leaves. She then did what all good cats do, she cleaned herself using her tongue and paws. After an hour and a half of watching her we drank our sundowners and watched her disappeared into the fading light."

Meanwhile Nsefu have been seeing lots of young around the area. A new hyena den has been spotted with tiny cubs. Also Jacob saw two new leopard cubs at the salt pan and on the same drive came across a serval - quite a rare sighting in this area. This morning guests were revved up for their morning game drive but ended up staying in camp watching lions hunting buffalo on the beach - what a start to the day. Robin had a wonderful mobile the week before last - unfortunately his report was over shadowed by the return of Jeffrey and so I have saved it for this week.

Robin was very excited on his return and announced that he had seen more mammal species on the 5 day mobile than on any other mobile he has taken in his career - so needless to say it was a big one. Robin was leading the Trollips from Australia, on their third mobile, and reports seeing the following between 7th and 13th September:

• Lions - two lionesses lying on the sand bank east of camp 3 and then separately, two males on a kill west of camp 3 on the Chifungwe side of the river. Then nine lionesses and a large male on a buffalo carcase near Tena Tena river crossing point.
• Elephant - distant group on Lundu plain. Large single bull with big tusks very close to lion kill between camps 2 and 3
• Roan Antelope - A large group on Chambowo plain
• Eland - two east of camp 3
• Kudu
• African wild cat - an amazing sighting after dark with the wild cat stalking close to the bumper of the support vehicle. Beautiful condition with eyes luminescent, smokey green and orange behind the ears and soft brown fur.
• Elephant shrew
• Squirrels
• Slender mongoose
• Banded mongoose
• Lichtenstein's hartebeest - two groups on Chambowo plain

• Oribi - two pairs and a single on Chifungwe plains
• Reedbuck - probably the most Robin has seen so far. In groups of four and a few singles on Chifungwe plain, camp 2 and camp 3
• Puku
• Impala
• Honey badger - the kitchen raider!
• Buffalo - a large herd at camp 1 and an amazing herd around camp 3 of thirty-one bulls, one calf and four females together (lucky ladies - Kim!)
• Bushbuck
• Warthog - one was approached to within about 10 metres by one of the expeditionaries.
• Leopard - close to camp 3, it got rather stuck springing up a gully and spent a few moments cycling with it back legs
• Baboons
• Vervet Monkeys
• Genet
• Civet
• White tailed mongoose

The above 25 species were all sighted by Robin, the expeditionaries saw further sighting at both Nkwali and Tena Tena on either side of the mobile camps including hippo and giraffe. Bird highlights had to be the palm nut vultures, one adult at camp 2 and another sighting, possibly the same bird between camp 2 and 3 a day later. One separate sighting of a juvenile near camp 2.

Wow is all I can say... Stay well and have a great week,
Cheers
Kim

It's Monday 27th and elephantastic

Yesterday Robin and Jo invited us to their house for a family Sunday lunch - a lovely affair, super food and company but it was out-done by the after lunch show. Just as we had finished eating, a group of about 10 elephants came to cool off at the watering hole in front of the house. They were busy spraying themselves and a little one was playing and rolling around in the mud. They are so efficient at covering every part of their bodies with the wet mud. The edge was quite slippery in places and of course the younger ones managed to slip and slide into the water - a couple even losing their footing and sliding in sideways - hilarious.

Almost at once another group appeared and then they just kept coming - in total we counted 42 elephants at the hole at one time. An amazing sight. As some moved off others came to join in and over a 30 minute period we saw 53 elephants pass in front of us. All seen from the raised balcony of the RoJo House. Such a treat. Robin led a 2 night fly camping safari last week - with a well travelled old Africa hand. Jo zipped up to join them on the second night (commuting from the office in her Rav 4 -hairdressers car! and across the bumpy Mutunda Plain!). The staff had spotted a HUGE python in the main tree of the site under which the 2 tents were erected. The girth was as large as a large thigh it was decided. That night, despite us all knowing the python is no real threat, both tents were firmly and tightly closed !! And yes - it was still there in the morning. Rocky writes about the last mobile group:

On arrival at Tena Tena they put in a leopard order during tea and almost instantly puku and bushbuck were going crazy just behind camp - there must have been a leopard lurking. They checked around but no leopard was found and the guests returned to camp without seeing one, but happy to have seen lots of other interesting sightings. The next day, just after this group left camp, a leopard was seen to walk right past tent no 5 to drink from the lagoon - missed again. Finally, on the third day, the group got to see their leopard - and discovered that it had made a kill the previous night - just 15 metres from Ross's house (Ross must have been tired to sleep through that!). It shows that perseverance pays off and that you do have to sometimes work for these wonderful sightings, even if they end up on the doorstep.

This week another 2 tiny baby wartlets were found abandoned and were delivered to our office. Hmmmmmm....a very difficult one. They were duly delivered to join Roxy, the previous baby warthog, whose new Mum, Anna, was delighted that he would have company. But they were very dehydrated and one had a possible broken leg. After much organising the tiny wartlet was flown down to Lusaka to see a vet. All is well and he should be returning soon. However, Jo has put her foot down - no more rescuing of baby warthogs as we enter the wartlet season. We will have hundreds!

Kawaza School update - the first classroom block is finished and the slab for the second is being thrown this week. We are delighted with how the project is going and a huge thank you for all those who have sent money. The project is being carried out in the name of Romilly and so the classroom block is called "Romillys Building". It has proved to be quite an interesting one as the local people have no distinction between "R"s and "L"s.

 

Stay well and have a great week,
Cheers
Kim