In haste...Termite mound makes feeble telephone station

Momentarily back in Pemba to collect food and deliver two Rangers to a guide course.  Set off rather late and two flat tyres later arrived!  However, this all feels like a holiday after the intense but (almost) comical patch we have just had in the bush.  ...All to do with me needing to send a vital funding bid with only a whisker of connection from one termite mound...and then my computer battery failing again and again until we wired it up to the car. 

A summary of events in pictures.


1. At the moment mobile connection is particularly bad on the reserve so we plan to drive to Pemba so I can send my funding application by the deadline at 12pm on 20th June.   Just before leaving Dominik unexpectedly goes on a drive to check some road work.  I wait and wait, until I recieve news that he is in a large hole....

2.  The Nissan is completely lodged and has to be pulled out with the huge German army MANN truck.  Now it is too late to drive to Pemba, we decide to try the Termite mound and  just hope it works...



3.  A shot of the communications hub

4. And here is the termite mound, the few feet of elevation makes a small but significant difference.  After a long, painful hour of trying eventually the document went, well it registered 'sent'...

Bush living is not without its stresses, in fact on such occasions they crescendo to a fever pitch rather like cicadas at Christmas.  I hardly slept wondering if 'sent' actually meant 'received'...?