Grant and Johnny in Zambia December 2005 to March 2006

Christmas to Hogmanay

Christmas Day, Sunday December 25.  We got up just after 5 in the morning and went for a game drive in South Luangwa National Park this morning!  How did you spend Christmas?

        And what a marvellous day it was!  We saw the biggest elephants we've seen so far, lots of zebra some of which we sat and watched for about a half an hour.  And hundreds of gazelles - especially impala.  It finally cooled down a bit and it was lovely to stay out in the Park.  Even thought it hasn't really rained much, the small rains we've had has really brought the vegetation on and everything has started to turn green.  It's harder to see the game now, but the countryside is really looking beautiful.

When we got back Rogers our older housekeeper had already left and Davis had returned to start his week.  But he was looking very poorly and said he had malaria.  Johnny quickly confirmed that he did in fact have malaria and put him on the anti-malarial drug malarone.

The Christmas meal.  Christmas Day was perhaps the coolest day we've had so far.  Heavy clouds kept the sun away, and there was a lovely breeze to keep things cool.  Thank goodness!  The thought of digging in to a full Christmas dinner at 40°C was not attractive.  The meal started at 14.00 so we had a shower and freshened up and off we went for a drink - a nice cool Mosi - the excellent Zambian beer.

It was excellent!  I sat beside and across from the two new part-owners Valentino and Jacqueline both of whom are from Friuli in northeast Italy near the border with Slovenia.  Butternut squash soup with croutons, fried bream with a sweet and sour sauce as a starter, turkey, roast potatoes and veg (whew! no Brussels sprouts!), and then Christmas pudding wrapped in sweet pancakes for a sweet.  Lots of bubbly and port to finish!  All taken very slowly and without any rush and then back home to recuperate!

Zambian birds.  The bird life here is fantastic.  I suppose the most fantastic of all is the lilac-breasted roller.

Lilac-breasted roller

We have seen them many times.  They are brilliant enough when they are perched, but when they fly they are a fluorescent flash of brilliant green. 

        But there are loads of other birds as well.  The dawn chorus here is amazing.  I'm only now just starting to be able to sleep through it.  It is deafening - and of course we have only screens in our windows so that all of nature's noises come in to greet us.  The bubu's are particularly amusing.  The male makes a beautiful high pitched note of absolute sine-wave purity.  Half way through each note, the female responds with a raucous croaking noise.  This happens about 10 times and then they both shut up for a time and then it happens again.  And there are canaries who burst into song every once in awhile.  Hearing them always reminds me of Dad and his precious little house canary 'Dickie'.  The canaries here sing just like 'Dickie'.  But there are then birds all the way from the enormous bustards down to tiny little finches and finch-like birds.  The weaver birds are amazing for their nests, but also for their brilliant - mostly yellow - colouring.  To name a few of the species here there are superb starlings, glossy starlings, sacred ibis, yellow-billed storks, maribou storks, hammer heads, vultures of many varieties, herons, greater egrets, cattle egrets, oxpeckers, ring-necked doves, exotic pigeons, night jar, tamarind, guinea fowl, hornbills of several varieties, Egyptian goose, Spur-winged goose, fish eagles, spectacular kingfishers, plovers of several varieties, crested cranes, fire finches, and many, many more.  It's a great place for the twitchers!

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