It is Sunday but... pink grapefruit

Slowly wake, swim then eat an elaborate breakfast.  Half-way through they begin to clear up the buffet and so I ask quickly for an omelette and then spy the fruit bowl.  We have to buy everything for our visitors and blow it, it is Sunday.... it is ok, it is a buffet after all – so we take 2 pink grapefruit, 4 oranges, one melon and two apples one green one red.  Then we leave.  Luckily the bakery is open and we get a new canister of gas.  We track down Malcolm via Rebecca and Rudi and discover he wants to leave after midday.  That is manageable and in the end we set off to Rudi and Lesley’s place at 1ish. On arrival Malcolm and Rebecca a few rangers and one of the tourists have LEFT.  Apparently desperate to get to Mareja in time to set up the nets.  (There has been much talk of improving his Mareja experience after last year....when his vehicle broke down and 5 hours later D collected him, but apparently D had been called by Rebecca 3hours before that and only set off to find them once a helper arrived on a bicyle.  And then he fed them duck, the oldest most inedible duck ever.)  And now he has left without us, possibly not a good start.

We put Jim and Phil in the back with cushions and 2 park rangers and Bruno. Then collect lots of vegetables and some more fruit – mangoes and papaya.  We arrive at Mareja....Jim has not spoken much and seems cross or in pain or both.

Peter, the other visitor, has set up the nets and is hot hot from lots of work.  Malcolm is very grumpy – the two new rooms which I have many working parts for (tarpaulin and shower heads) are not ready and what would we have done if one of his other guest had not cancelled?  Jim who wanted a nice room goes in the ensuite and I try to ignore Malcolm’s obvious bubbling annoyance at Mareja and its antics. 

Antonio cooks a delicious supper of squid and spaghetti and we have a super luxurious fruit salad with pink grapefruit and I hope sleep will improve everyone’s mood.

WILDLIFE NOTE: bones in boxes and 3 large animals go on a walk.

I am fiddling in the kitchen and D exclaims that I should go and look at the bones Adamo has unearthed as part of renovating the ranger’s shed.  There are large dusty piles of many bones in separate plastic crates.  Kept for later study (D is good at this, he hordes everything...for later study or use in a mysterious new repurposed way).  The crates contain the skeleton of Lion, Wild dog, Leopard and bits of Sable and Bush buck.

Yesterday I picked up an interesting bone at the old encampment in the newly reclaimed machamba (farm) Maheapa  - I wrote about this wonderful place in October, if you would like it further explained see ‘Domestication v Wild’.  This bone had a double articulation like a pulley and may well be common but was quite new to me.  It is a little hard to know if these piles of bones are in the right boxes, D finds some teeth he thinks are monkey in the leopard box!  But in the large muddle of lion my eyes light on a similar joint to the one from the machamba.  Could it be that the old farmers killed a lion?

Here it is...can anyone confirm is this a lion bone?

Lion and Serval side by side

Later we take the Rangers with 3 workers, Mustafer, Alberto and new Cassamo, to cut more bamboo at the ‘Place of Tomorrow’ (about 1 hour drive into the bush)....on the way back a wonderful sight.  Plod plod three distinct footprints in the dusty track, on a stretch of road past the cashew tree and near home.  They have just passed – an elephant, lion and cat, probably serval. They have walked a long way together along the dusty road. What were they doing – an unusual mix. 



Elephant sauntering over our tyre tracks



Apparently old lion sometimes follow elephant and eat their poo.  I prefer to imagine a quiet evening stroll together.









Less is more and lions calling

The ranger house that is used to store for items confiscated from poachers (mainly lots and lots of snares) has collapsed.  The rainy season devastates most local buidings with their bamboo and mud construction.  It is being rapidly repaired before the big rains hit...any day now.

While it was being completely dismantled today by Adamo a snake was found and quickly killed.  It was an African egg-eating snake, a harmless thing with a small head and interesting adder-like markings.  We are fairly sure of the ID but it did not have a black inside of mouth – a defining feature.  So it may in fact be a viper?  Poor thing dies slowly with an arrow through its head.

Early afternoon - once again D tries to fill the Toyota to bursting with bamboo, we did the same yesterday and it all slipped off in the river bar one very small bundle.  Another lesson for today – ‘less is more’, somehow I think this is a lesson he will never learn!  But this time with two straps and five rangers on top the huge pile of bamboo arrives home.

Due to the mince hiccup (see earlier blog!) he cooks supper and I enjoy the fresh oil more than ever on spaghetti. We sit on the veranda and the moon is nearly full and the night forest quite clear.  Then the lion calls – a lower more growling painful song than usual and SO close.  Apparently he walked past the house one night while D was in Pemba.  Gosh I really think he is close by and again he sings.  (Here they describe lions as 'singing' not 'roaring'.)

Now D has activated the second lot of super 25 km radios, very kindly supplied by Jay and Blue Sky Botanics.  I am finishing my blog and he has taken his radio to the bathroom to update me on...any updates.  Nothing unusual happened there but now we have just found a lovely frog in the bag with the radio chargers in.  Enough blogging and wildlife for one day.

warning of DOMESTIC NATURE: Dominik has eaten all the mince!

I am fuming in a primeval, even evil way.  I prepared an extra large amount of mince for us last night which always involves more chopping, more washing, more diminishing light management and inhalation of smoke that you can conceive.  (Cooking over an open wood fire in a mud hut kitchen is a different sort of cooking.) I added this and that, including some specially imported Italian herb mix and a few precious bay leaf, plus the only hard carrot left etc.  Anyway we had it last night (HALF of it) and it was delicious. 

Food management is hard here, everything is bought on to the reserve and then tentatively maintained between monkey proof containers and a fridge operated by gas, which is temperamental and needs lots of checking and de-sooting. 

Well – I have been working all morning preparing visitor notes and feel a warm sense of achievement, they stretch to 5 pages.  I convince D that he should prepare us a simple lunch and after discussion we agree fruit and muesli.  My bowl is offered up...and he has none.  Why?  Oh, I have had noodles and mince.  What mince?  The one we had last night.  The mince, my carefully prepared and beautifully maturing mince that was going to provide a whole perfect favourite meal...for two, for you and ME.  Yes that mince.  What it is ALL gone – yes. 

Yes I am fuming – it may seem strange but this has really unsettled me.  It has dragged on the primitive cave wife. I had settled into other daily chores safe in the knowledge that the larder was full.  And now the cave man has eaten all the mince!  Well I have brewed to boiling point and tried to elicit a response, which goes like this:  ‘I will mend my selfish ways’...and he finally says it in a small inconsequential and disappearing voice - but he says it.  He better or I will have to do the hunting and build my own larder with a hand-crafted but deadly lock on it!

What is that bird? A boring buzzard…

We return from trying to gather a huge pile of bamboo.  Alberto had beautifully gathered it in bundles tied with string and we spent a great deal of time loading it onto the Toyota, it was very off balanced and finally disembarks in one loud clatter into a river bed. 

We arrive back (with a few sticks of bamboo) and Adamo has captured a raptor that was after the chickens, he got it with a bow and arrow and somehow it is now tied up by its leg.  It is magnificent with electric yellow eyes and a white chest with black splashes.  Poor thing looks quite out of sorts in this humbling grounded position.  I get water and manage to tip some into its beak- probably annoying further.  The arrow wound doesn’t look bad and it is full of healthy fury.  Adamo holds it down with the arrow bow and unties it…lots of pictures taken and finally it flies free.  Free to hunt D’s excessive and alluring chicken herd another day.  Although his encounter with Adamo may have put him off.  But what was this bird?

We study the book and it seems to be a European Buzzard – I have always thought Buzzards rather boring.  But this bird was a captivating, powerful and beautiful thing.  Today it taught me to mend my ways…buzzards are not boring.

guarda o porco branco pequeno

They are leaving today and we are driving half the party to Tanganyanga for the next leg of their ringing tour, 9 days in Ibo ringing waders.  There is some departure tension and the expected pick up by the Park vehicle does not arrive at 10am (not a great surprise).  A delicious large breakfast, no more disagreements and we set off only an hour later than planned.  But we all set off very squashed (9 in the back with cases and three adults and a baby in the front).  I am in the back and just beyond the mountain we meet the other car – what a relief.  We are divided between the two pick-ups  and  off we go with much wind but not too much sun.

We stop after 2 ½ hours at Quissanga for bottled beer, coconuts, dried smoked ‘oysters’ threaded onto strips of maize leaves and fresh mangoes.  The children are gathered around the mango tree waiting for them to drop – one has made this ingenious weapon from condoms.  Malcolm is very twitchy he must arrive on Ibo in time to put the nets up and we are meant to be hitting high tide at 2ish.  All is fine it is only 2.30 and we are off again.

There is a new bridge over the salt marsh (the scene of NY09 reckless 4x4 abandon, large hole and my mild concussion for the blue-moon sand bank celebrations…another story).  We approach the coast to see the tide has retreated – in fact at least 2 hours ago.  Luckily the park boat is still there lurking in the mangrove past a stretch of revealed mud.  Malcolm dashes forth across the mudflats and wades out to the boat.  We stand around with the luggage wondering what to do.  D decides we are not going and will head back to Mareja.  All the visitors are feeling the bubbling tension once more- the panic of bird ringing ‘this is NOT Africa’style! 

Malcolm comes back and tells us the rangers will guard the luggage and will get the boat on its return.  We kiss goodbye and hope we might catch up with them before they leave Ibo.  He asks that me to be sure the Rangers guard his white mouse who has been transported all the way from Johannesburg via a tube in the hold, to be used as large raptor bait.  A mouse…D comes up with the bright idea of calling it a little pig, it is  more likely to be looked after that way.  So I do, with my limited Portuguese instruct the returning Rangers to guarda o porco branco pequeno.  I say it confidently and they look at the mouse and nod enthusiastically!  Good – and off we go again back to the bush.

WILDLIFE NOTE: bird-ringing and some firsts for Malcolm

In the name of brevity and bloggability.  A summary of activities only:

Early rise for them and birds are caught in the net and bought back for measuring, weighing, recording, identifying, photographing and releasing. I sleep (am so tired and trying to stem severe culture shock from Oxford to wild bush/from 3 degrees to 30 degrees in 48 hours).

A host of people are gathered around the ringing station – park rangers, our rangers, 3 visitors Malcolm, Rebecca and 9month Eva Rebecca’s daughter.

Some firsts for Malcolm.  Stunning small things:

1. Chestnut-fronted Helmet-Shrike
2. Uluguru Violet-backed Sunbird
3. Livingstone’s Flycatcher

Then two birds that are not known to be in this region, so these recordings extend their known range:

1. Mocking Cliffchat
2. Marico Sunbrid

Amazing stuff.  And moods improving.