Well, hello there. I hope that you are well and have had a lovely weekend. Here in the Luangwa the temperatures are rising, the water in the Luangwa River is dropping and above all the season is literally flying by! Anyway, this week I am handing you over to Conrad to give you an update from Malawi and what has been happening there. Conrad over to you:
“It’s been a while since news from Mkulumadzi popped into your inbox, so we had to go through our diaries to remind us of what had happened over the past few months.
Back in May, Nelius & Gretha Hattingh visited us in Majete. “As soon as we entered the park we were fascinated by its beauty. Enormous Baobab trees, wildlife, colourful birds, and the pleasant smell of nature I can still remember vividly” they wrote us afterwards. “If I can choose a private chef, I will choose Chef Thomas. The food at Mkulumadzi is prepared with fresh local ingredients which gives it a unique flavour that you can’t get enough of.
Mali was our safari guide, and he was very keen and very patient, especially with Nelius who is an avid birder.
We learnt a lot from Mali. We saw a wide variety of animals. My personal favourite was the cheetah with her three cubs and two waterbuck bulls fighting on a riverbed – one of which eventually fled into the crocodile infested Shire River. Thank you, Geoffrey and the team, for hosting us. The staff at Mkulumadzi are just amazing, professional, caring, funny and helpful, all rolled into one magnificent team.”
In June it was time for Elias and his maintenance team to spend a few days on the hill outside of the lodge getting our star bed up and running for season. A few new planks, a new toilet, a new mattress, and a few pockets of cement later, it looked the part and was ready for adventurers to sleep out at. Since then, guests that had spent the night sleeping under the stars cannot stop talking about it.
Come early July, and the Gule Wamkule dancers came to Mkulumadzi and delivered a performance of a lifetime around the campfire. I was on my way out of Majete the next morning and offered to drive the dancers back to their village. Much to my surprise, they were still fully masked and remained so until I had dropped them off and disappeared out of view – they really keep their identity top secret.
August brought with it dramatic skies as the winter faded away – within a matter of a week the summer had arrived, making changes to the bush and its wonderful creatures as it goes along. We also managed to put the final touches to chalet 8 – which was engulfed with water from floor to ceiling during the January floods.
And there you have it. Its been a busy and fun filled few months in Majete and we’re looking forward to seeing what the rest of September and October will bring.”
Wonderful, thanks so much Conrad! Sounds like everything is going great guns down in Majete, thanks for the update. Other than that, and the mating lions that we have had camped out in Nsefu recently, things here are continuing as usual with some fantastic sightings and wonderful guests coming through but we will fill you in on all this next week. So, for now I shall bid you a very fond farewell and hope that you have a wonderful week ahead with plenty of smiles and laughter and don’t forget to look after one another.
