Hello there. I hope that you have had a fabulous week and are sitting comfortably ready for this week’s update. Once more I have graciously had the job taken away from me as we have a wonderful update from the Van Oordt family who were with us over New Year. Regular guests Maryke and Robert decided to leave their children and instead have a holiday with their grandchildren. So, as a follow up to last week’s Its Monday from the Cousins Clan this week’s update is from a different clan of cousins. So, for this week, Maryke over to you:
“We have just returned home after out incredibly successful 10-day trip to Nkwali Camp and surroundings with our grandchildren. It was five cousins and two very happy and privileged grandparents, on a 2 -skip-1- generations holiday. And as way of reliving our trip, we decided to write an Its Monday as we had so many photos and memories we wanted to go through.
We had expected heavy rains, this was after all the wet season, but the upside of the slippery mud, impassable tracks and soaked but rainproof ponchos was guaranteed babies galore in the lush green grasses: the mothers postpone childbirth until the rains come so there is enough greenery to provide lots and lots of milk for lots and lots of babies.
We were mesmerized by this kaleidoscope of shades of green: the magnificent mahogany trees with their bright red seeds, the majestic sausage trees, the variety of elegant acacias, the ubiquitous combretum winding their long arms around whatever suits them. It was as if nature had been invited to a green-themed costume ball and everything wanted to look very very special. And in between all those greens the soft-reddish new leaves of the mopane shrubs.
As Emily has written, fungi definitely merit a closer look: yellow, orange, red, blue, cream – with impressive white ones large enough for seven dwarfs to shelter from the downpours. Small dwarfs of course.
But let’s not forget our encounters with “game” … A huge male elephant keeping his cool while regulating the traffic – standing immobile across the road implying that the huge breeding herd had the right of way and we just had to bide our time. Two sleeping full-bellied male lions; stately giraffes ruminating and minding their own business; vervet monkeys; baboons with babies on their backs or under their bellies; pods of burping and snorting hippo’s next to our sundowner (sometimes raindowner); packs of wild dogs and herds and herds of impala, zebra, and kudu.
Nobody was ever bored. So much to see and to do. Mateo (15) had borrowed our camera and photographed any bird he got his eyes on. Mia (14) decided to focus on animal tracks, Max (22) spotted a lazy monitor lizard basking in the sun, Vera (22) spotted a very angry male elephant who decided to chase us into full speed ahead, and Philippa (20) picked a beautiful pinkish grass stem that she will undoubtedly paint, and I indulged in my eternal admiration of the fascinating structures of tree trunks. And grandpa Rob made the most wonderful videos.
And all this and much more with the super friendly care and super professional supervision of the RPS clan!
Looking forward to a next trip to paradise. The fact that nature was so strikingly rejuvenating itself in this exceptionally unspoiled part of our seriously spoiled world, gives hope for the future.
Grandma Maryke”
Wow – amazing! Thanks so much Maryke and the whole family for sharing your memories and photos of your trip. We as always thoroughly enjoyed having you with us here at Nkwali and look forward to the next time. As for me, well very little else to say as Maryke has described everything perfectly. Instead, I shall say my goodbyes and wish you the most wonderful week ahead with plenty of smiles and laughter and don’t forget to look after one another.
