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6 Sep 2010, 6:51 pm
I am really excited as I have just got 'Roberts' Multimedia Birds of Southern Africa' through the post. I can see your eyelids closing...
I was never really interested in birds until I went to Africa. In the UK most of the birds are rather dull in comparison to their African cousins although at times those cousins do visit the UK but it seems that they have to possess a 'dull' passport to get here. No, the African birds are gloriously coloured (like this white fronted bee eater), often have some really...
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30 Aug 2010, 11:22 am
Swaziland is opening up to be the place to go for adventure - whether it be white water rafting, horse riding, caving, hiking, abseiling or even extreme mountain biking, Swaziland seems to have a wide range of activiti4es.
And the the new adventurous activity is a collection of massive zip wires in Malolotja. Malolotja is a place of stunning beauty, and do not worry, this has not be spoilt with the addition of a zip wire. In fact, you can not see it until you are clipped in. There are 12 lines,...
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25 Aug 2010, 5:50 pm
 Whilst in Swaziland last month I was on safari in Mbuluzi Game Reserve. Mbuluzi is a small and intimate reserve where you can drive or walk at your own pace. In my opinion, it is the place for giraffe sightings in Swaziland as it is where you can see them up close and personal, it is breath-taking.
 It was the time of year where males were pumped up with testosterone, ready to take on some poor unsuspecting female. And if they had not...
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16 Aug 2010, 7:06 pm
I find that coming back to the UK is often more of a culture shock than arriving in Africa. This could be because of the lack of smiley faces in London this morning, the unhelpful attitude of the people in rail ticket office (my flight had got in much earlier than expected so my pre-booked tickets had me waiting for 2 hours for my train home) or maybe just the grey overcast morning that I had arrived in. It made me want to turn right round and fly back out to Africa.
Despite the lack of sleep, which I...
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7 Aug 2010, 7:47 pm
This was our second to last day of the expedition and one that the girls were really looking forward to as most of them had never been rafting before. There was also a new dam half way down the stretch of river that we were rafting, so some of it would be new for me as well. The Great Usuthu River is quite a friendly river to raft as there are rapids followed by pools of calmer water to collect paddles, rafts and people and as we were doing this in two man inflatable croc rafts it was likely that...
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5 Aug 2010, 9:55 am
This was one of the best opening ceremonies that I have been to, really well organised by Ellen and with some unexpected surprises.
We left the camp at 8 in the morning, to prepare for the opening ceremony, which had been arranged for 11am. On arriving at our newly built kitchen we had time to make our mark by signing our names on the kitchen wall, above the entrance into the store room. The ladies, who were going to use the kitchen, had cleaned the floor from paint splatters and everything was newly swept out, it was ready for...
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2 Aug 2010, 4:18 pm
Before even starting the conservation project we had two days in Hlane Royal National Park, looking for lion, elephant and rhino. This was the first time that we were camping and some were concerned about the proximity of the wildlife - there was only a very small barbed wire fence separating us from a herd of elephant. There were also a couple of small scorpions living in one of the showers, but these scurried away once the water was turned on.
Rhino were waiting for us when we first drove into the campsite, there were eight white rhino around...
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26 Jul 2010, 8:15 pm
As with moist projects in Africa, there is the "hurry up and wait method". Having arrived at the project site in Shewula, Swaziland we discovered that there was no cement, even though it had been ordered and there were not enough bricks - welcome to Africa! So, Bex, Kate and I drove to Cash Build to buy construction materials for a kitchen. You can buy all the materials for a building in fell swoop, load it onto a lorry and ship it to where you are going to build. So that is what we did. Simple.
Matola, the builder,...
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7 Jul 2010, 9:30 am
Mbuluzi Game Reserve in Swaziland, in my mind, is the one of the best places to see giraffe - up close and personal. This is probably because I have spent many weeks tracking giraffe in the reserve and after a while I could identify each giraffe by its manner, who it was with and its individual markings. I was amazed at how different each giraffe is in character, scratches and nicks as well as the colour variation. There is one giraffe called Othello (right) who has the darkest colouration that I have ever...
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29 Jun 2010, 12:36 pm
I am off to Swaziland in 2 weeks, well less than that, and I am looking forward to walking around Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary. Here you can trek wherever you want to and truly immerse yourselves into the African savannah. And I love to see the herds of zebra grazing out in the open and hear their whinnys in the early evening, it is enchanting.
Zebras are high up on the menu stakes. To counteract this, a group of zebra, or a 'dazzle' of zebra, bunch up together to confuse predators and mess...
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31 May 2010, 10:56 am
It is rather amazing that the Welwitschia has survived all these years; it grows in one of the most inhospitable places in the world, collects water only from dew and as it can reach over 2,000 years in age it is often sought after by illegal plant collectors. All in all, its survival does not look great.
Welwitschia are found in the deserts of Namibia and Angola, the plant population in Angola is fairing better as landmines prevent over zealous collectors. Each plant is made up of only two leaves, which split...
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25 May 2010, 8:35 pm
When I first lived in Zimbabwe, I was given an old farmhouse which the first Europeans had built back in the times when there were vast herds of game wandering across the plains of Africa. It was a beautiful five bedroom house, built out of teak, but had not been lived in for ages. I was not too concerned by this as it was four walls, (well more than four with all those rooms), and a roof over my head. With the house came an enormous garden that was over run, a large kitchen with a wood burner, the use...
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17 May 2010, 8:21 pm
There seem to be a lot of bees around at the moment which made me think about the African 'Killer' bees. These killer bees are a cross between the African honey bee and various European honey bees, mostly from Italy. Killer bees are descended from 26 Tanzanian bees which were accidentally released in Brazil and these mated with European bees that had been brought over from Europe in order to provide productive hives. Unfortunately the resulting cross were bees which swarmed more frequently, were more aggressive when there was a perceived threat, had a larger proportion of guard bees in...
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10 May 2010, 8:12 pm
At the moment I am surviving on mass catered food courtesy of the Navy. It is not that bad, but I am getting a bit bored of knowing what I am going to get as the chef's special each day of the week - it has not changed over the past three years. It was scampi tonight. And the lack of really fresh food is making my body revolt against it all. What I am missing is some fresh African cooked food.
There is something special about the food that is cooked...
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3 May 2010, 8:15 pm
At the moment I am working with Dave Thomas down on HMS Raleigh, and we were reminiscing about our trip to Swaziland. Dave has travelled to Africa many times but Lori, his wife had not, and he wanted someone to organise it all for them both. The only thing Lori was not too keen on were the creepy crawlies, so I planned the trip to be in Swaziland's winter, when no self respecting bug would be seen out in the cold. So there were Dave, Lori and myself, sitting around the fire...
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