MY RETURN TO MALAWI

My first 2 weeks here in Malawi have been interesting to say the least. As usual no diesel. As you can imagine this not only makes it difficult for me to travel around but also makes life very difficult for all Malawians. I eventually managed to fill up with diesel after being here a week. Nothing much happened while in Lilongwe other than to meet old friends.

I have now been back in the National park for just over a week and again nothing very eventful has happened here. There are a few elephants around and the resident heard of puku and hippos are at the dambo. A couple of days ago one of the female hippos was killed in a fight. We cannot work out what happened or why this occurred but she eventually floated to the side of the dambo. I called the parks department officers and was not quite sure what they were going to do with the carcass. There are no crocodiles to clean up things like this. I soon found out what their was plan. A car arrived with twenty people in and they set about stripping the hippos leaving only a few pieces of skin and a couple of the insides that they will not eat. Job done, nothing was left to waste. On one hand it is sad to lose one the hippos but on the other it will feed a hundred people for around a month.

Not wanting to miss an opportunity to get some photos with my infra red cameras I have set them up around the remains and hope to get some pictures of hyenas and whatever else might come down to finish her off. One interesting observation was of a young hippos eating the contents of her stomach, all the grass. Was this possible her baby? Again nothing goes to waste out here.

Some good news for me is that the lodge has a new concessionaire, Quelccaya, and we are hoping to set up a collaboration between my project and the lodge.

If you want to see where I live go to Google earth, Malawi. About half way up to the west is Kasungu National Park. Follow the road into the park and to Lifupa lodge. Zoom in to the widest part at the end of the dam and you will come across a little house all on its own. That is my house. The Department of National Parks and wildlife kindly let me stay there in return for the work I do for them. I am slowly ‘doing the place up’ and with my solar panel I have electricity, I have water some days and have a flushing toilet. The donkey boiler outside still needs a little work and some of the water pipes need to be cleared of 10 years of ‘stuff’. I will then be able to have a hot bath. (dream on) a few litres of paint are still needed and the place will be quite nice.

I didn’t know Africa could be so cold. I am not usually here at this time of year so do not have much experience of the weather in July. During the day it is lovely but at night it drops to about 5 degrees C which is quite chilly. I have a fire place in the living room and will try a fire some day but I don’t want to burn the place down as it has a thatch roof.

Keep in touch and drop me a line if you like what you read.

P.S. I just received one of the best presents I have had in a long time. One of the girls bought me a blanket.