Zambezi Mini Break

After an absence of about 4 months I have just checked back in for the first time - tentatively wondering if I still even have a blog space here, after such a terribly long time away! It's truly impossible to try and describe the past 4 months so they remain unlogged, unblogged and unjournaled for now...

Seasonally speaking, I have missed the whole of winter, and we are now well into Summer! Although I feel that my life could make up a blogpost per day at the moment, last weekend's boating getaway with two friends seemed a good way to start over here...

Living in our special multi-border region does have benefits, one of which is the ability, after a minimum of Immigration formalities, to vanish into into the secluded and meandering Kasai channel, leaving the dusty town way behind us..

 

Eventually, exiting the sheltered reed fringed channels, we emerge into the fabulous Zambezi River which opens up in front of us in just the way that a mighty African river should...

Way downstream lies the Victoria Falls, but we soon turn a corner instead and enter a magical diversion - this sandbank shows the way to our destination..

... an island lodge- territorially in Zambia, just about an hour and a whole world away from home.  On arrival, this wooden walkway leads us through the island...

 ... all the way to the welcoming and beautiful main Lodge area. 

On arrival, we decided to drop off our luggage, then we jumped back into our boat for a day of exploration on the river.  It is so peaceful in these parts, well away from the buzzing tourist town that we call home..

One of our favourite locations, a perfectly white, squeaky beach with the clearest water ... perfect for a lunch spot.

A boat with a deck always makes a perfect mobile picnic table, if it is too windy to set up base on your chosen beach!

Eventually we succumbed to the lure of an afternoon siesta back at the Lodge, by which time I felt that I had been on holiday for a couple of weeks already! Here I am relaxing on the deck of our private tent... river in the background..

If you look carefully you can see the tent hidden away in the trees on the river bank - what a location!

 After a wonderful outdoor dinner, the next day brought nothing more demanding than a lazy breakfast and a morning relaxing on the main deck, watching our very determined fishermen trying their luck out in the blazing sun!

All good things always must come to an end, and eventually, in the early afternoon, we reluctantly packed up the boat and turned back towards home..

Having  checked ourselves back into Botswana well before border deadline time, we were free to enjoy a perfect Sunday sunset on our side of the river, before taking the boat out of the water and really going home.

The power of a mini break can never be underestimated!! I have had a crazy week, but I have coped with it much better than expected thanks to a beautiful weekend in advance. Another interesting weekend is on the way, this time one of our work trips to a new place as yet unvisited, in the midst of the bush.. that might well be another post, if I can keep up this blogging energy!

Wishing everybody reading this a wonderful weekend, and to all my blogging friends out there, I will try to catch up with you all very soon...

Oasis Ahead...

Hello world! My visits to this blog space have been so infrequent lately, but here I am with a bit of personal time to spend online for a moment.. slowing down slightly, on a beautiful wintry Sunday...

Last week, returning from a speedy visit to a cold, citified South Africa, it was with a feeling of intense relief that we turned our wheels north and put some distance between us and the traffic-ridden economic powerhouse of our neighbouring country!

The open roads of Northern Botswana are an alluring contrast to the cityscapes, and we feel thankful that they also happen to lead us home...

The days are growing ever shorter now, and we stopped over at Elephant Sands, to avoid a dangerous night drive. In this encroaching winter dry season, the lodge is a veritable oasis, in the midst of arid terrain with very little water available elsewhere in the bush. This herd was thoroughly enjoying an afternoon at the waterhole.

Oasis-like for humans, too, it was great to catch up over a glass of wine, and to hear the stories of the elephants, and the leopard that had been there the night before...

 ...and the little gang of three red billed teals who are the survivors out of their initial brood of eight. This mini duck flock races in and around the giant elephant legs...scattering momentarily when a huge trunk sweeps the water around them! I only had my small camera with me, but hopefully they are somewhat visible in the foreground! I have also taken a rather experimental video clip, but will have to figure out how to upload it some other time!

Although here we are facing east out over the waterhole, the sunset colours behind us are still reflected in the waterhole, with the backs of the furthest elephants burnished by the late, late afternoon light.

Next morning, suitably refreshed after our overnight visit, we happily got up in the early morning chill, off to work - two and a half hours away! The elephants had crossed the road just before us..

Old habits! yes, I still enjoy stepping inside these giant prints for some reason..

The rebuilding of our road is progressing rapidly now: from being the most dilapidated and dangerous potholed track a few years ago, we have watched it grow.. recently this section had been only used by elephants but now we have access to much more of the brand new surface, which makes a huge difference to life

Past a thriving crop of sorghum... no sunflowers this time, as the field was on the "wrong" side of the road, and, being so early in the morning, the yellow heads were turned away from us towards the rising sun.

Finally we arrived back, straight into the office, to deal with the piled up work, and craziness; then back home to spend some time with our growing family of animals, including a newly adopted puppy, and one of our older dogs needing treatment after a snakebite... Now, after two weeks of not going on the river, we can hardly wait to load up the boat and go, but that will have to be another blogpost!

Glorious Sunday greetings from over here, to all reading this!

Not entirely sure what happened...

This little window on my world has been closed for a while now.. how did I move from "last day of 2011" to halfway through March 2012, without posting anything at all?? It would be difficult to put it all into words, but I've just been trying to plot our progress through the year thus far...

Firstly, New Year  for us traditionally involves searching for Flame Lilies in the forest reserve, just behind our home...once again, nature did not disappoint, and provided abundant specimens of perfect wild lilies!

It is always exciting to spot their splashes of colour in the thick greenery... and the urge to take trillions of digital images goes without saying!

Just after New Year ,the Christmas decorations came down, duly "assisted" by the growing kittens! (Yes, I really have just posted a tinsel photo in March!!)

The rainy season has been in full swing during the past few months, but this does not stop us from escaping onto the river every Sunday for our dose of Nature's sanity. Rain and thunderstorms are not a problem for us, as the riverine trees provide natural umbrellas along the riverbank - here we shelter, and enjoy the effects of sheets of warm rain on the surface of the water.

Other places of refuge from the downpours include our local pub and restaurant. We took shelter there one Saturday lunchtime, and I could not resist photograhing a family of warthogs enjoying the volleyball area just after the storm!

The river level has been rising, as the annual floods have arrived. The current has increased in power and pace, as you can perhaps see in this photo, where I tried to capture the mood.

The current of life has been also been whirling us headlong through 2012, throwing flotsam and jetsam at us, sideswiping us into eddies, and trying its best to drag us down into whirlpools!

The first quarter of this year has just been a general tumble of rough waters caused by people, politics, bureacracy, business, vehicles, and the general economic climate. A series of  ill-timed simultaneous blows and events, I suppose. I really tried to sit down and figure out what's been going on in my life lately, and could only come up with a long string of words: overwhelmed, shocked, suprised, f-u-r-i-o-u-s, upset, mad, disbelieving, frustrated, outraged, insomniac, resigned, understanding, accepting, undaunted, crazy, financially challenged, stressed, but - yes, happy, too!

I'm not trying to be mysterious, but, seriously,  if I had to go into all the boring details, this blog post would run to hundreds of pages!! Apart from various other happenings, we have had fears for our business(livelihood!) which have suddenly been reprieved, maybe temporarily, or maybe we are on an upward trend again? These really are uncertain times, everywhere, I think. Having also taken on extra work, things are now very very hectic indeed..Life is rather strange, but nothing that can't be handled!
 
Luckily there is always this - the incredible Chobe river, and our special part where hardly anybody else goes. We launch our boat literally a few minutes away from home, and we are in another world. Stunning cloud formations at this time of year are very photogenic...

...as is the indescribable golden light of late afternoon.

A few minutes away from home in the other direction, by land, we can disappear into an almost untouched, untouristed area - here is a herd of Sable in the forest reserve.

In this area, I love to just get out and sit on the warm sand where the elephants have walked earlier...

... and watch dung beetles going about their business, cleaning up the area...

On the way home, we usually meet up with elephants ...they tolerate the vehicles in their world, but they are still wild animals, and strictly to be respected by us...

I'm remembering, thanks to my camera, another notable event this year: Botswana got caught up in extreme soccer fever! Our national team, the Zebras, proudly participated in the Africa Cup of Nations, and in our town, the streets were transformed into a riotous zone of noisy, zebra-striped, blue-Botswana-flagged vehicles for the duration of the tournament!

Pity I did not get photos of any of the stripy vehicles for my blog!  Even when Botswana exited the tournament, all regalia stayed in place as we transferred our support to our proudly Southern African neighbours, Zambia (who actually won the whole thing, too). The Chinese stores in town made an absolute killing with the Botswana flags they had the foresight to stock up on!

We've also been on the road, as usual, doing mileage for work and family business. The open road can still be a place of peace and solitude as the kilometres pass by... The seasons are definitely turning, and I just love the glorious roadside grasses at this time of year.

A joyous surprise to find a field of water lilies floating in the excess rainwater along the verges of the road!

Visiting Elephant Sands again, for work, we found the waterhole very full of water, although not experiencing so many visits from the usual elephants due to abundant water for them elsewhere in the bush.

The kittens are growing up rapidly, and are a source of constant entertainment and delight! Here Naledi poses next to her laptop and obligatory apple, to show off her new size.

Here is a photo update of the warthogs around our office. The piglets are all weaned now, and are beautiful and well fed looking.

Looking ahead to the rest of 2012... I captured this moment on our boat, recently- heading smoothly downstream. Stormclouds still loom ahead, but the surface of the water, while moving rapidly and strongly, is calm and peaceful.  I feel as if the extreme turbulence is over, and I finally feel up to the rest of the journey!

Wishing all fellow bloggers and others reading this, a peaceful Sunday, and a great rest of the year ahead. I hope to be back here more regularly, now that things are more under control!