MORE GUNS CONFISCATED!

February has been very quiet so far. I am now over my Malaria and all seems well.

Last week we had many elephants around the lodge which is always exciting especially at night. All you hear is the braking of branches, heavy breathing, farting and the occasional trumpet. They came very close to the chalets and houses so you had to be careful. It has been known for people to walk into an elephant at night.

20 plus dogs were seen near the Lower Lingadzi but no photos were taken. If anyone wants to donate digital cameras to the scouts the would help greatly with recording of the wildlife.

There have been a few kudu at the dam but not a lot else.

The anti poaching initiative seems to be going well and the amount of arrests and guns has reduced significantly. Only 4 guns have been confiscated so far in January and February. These are very cleverly designed and one day when I get time I will study their design to see how they all work.

We are forming an alliance of all interested parties who want to help develop Kasungu NP and so far the meetings have gone well. Its looks like there are several groups which will help and their ideas and ideology are inspiring to me.

A member of WESM from Blantyre is going to arrange for a classical music evening in Blantyre and all funds will come to my project which will be a great help. Please support this if you can.

I am back in Lilongwe at the moment and will be leaving for South Africa, Kruger, Swaziland and Hluhluwe for a bit of a break before I return to the UK for a while.

Some of the guns and ivory confiscated over the past 2 months

We now have a reward system running which is designed to motivate the scouts in catching poachers in the National Park. Below are some of the guns and ivory confiscated over the past 2 months in the park.
All is fairly quiet at the moment because the park is very wet and the grass is growing taller so it is much more difficult for the poachers to operate.

If you would like to help with the reward system and donate some much needed funds please contact me on my e-mail.

Although some of these are shotguns some are well capable of killing an elephant. There is even an old Greener shotgun.

The dogs are still active and although I have not seen them this year I have reports from people at the main camp that they have been chasing the bush buck and duiker.

Have you ever been glad you had Malaria?

I am now in Lilongwe staying at a friend’s house where I have been for the last 2 nights. Last week I was feeling rough (light fever) so kept checking my temperature with no real reason for concern. On Tuesday night I carried out a do it yourself Malaria test which proved to be negative. Wednesday passed by like Tuesday, but feeling no better I decided to use the last of my emergency fuel to drive to Kasungu for more tests. I arrived at the hospital and because I was a paying patient I was seen immediately. The blood tests proved negative again.

‘Oh dear’ I hope it’s not sleeping sickness again. Could Kasungu do these tests? No.

I drove the 2 hours to Lilongwe were I booked into the ABC clinic where they carried out bloods test again. They diagnosed level 3 plus Malaria. WAS I RELEAVED? The doctor told me that if I had left one more day I would have lucky to crawl into the hospital let alone walk into it.

I have never been so relieved to know that I have Malaria. The alternative was probably sleeping sickness which having had it before I knew was much worse.

I was admitted to a private room, excellent, and plugged into a quinine drip for 24 hours (4 doses). They tested my bloods again and the result was now level 2 plus Malaria which was seen as a good result. I was discharged from the hospital and given Coartem 20/120 which consists of Artemether Lumefantrine commonly known as LAR. This kills the rest of the parasites and clears the body of the stuff left over in your blood. (sorry, not very technical)

The first night I still had quite bad aches and felt tired all day but last night it didn’t seem too bad and I managed to get some good sleep but still had a fever and the sweats.

They say I must eat! It’s a bit like a hangover in that respect. You know you must eat something but you think as soon as do you will sick it back up again. Anyway I forced myself to eat something every time I have to have the drugs. Coco cola is meant to be very good for your stomach so I have plenty of that as well as a milky orange juice that lines your stomach so that you don’t get ulcers.

So things are going well at the moment and ill keep the blog updated.

OH! Mangoes are in season at the moment so I hope to eat loads of them as well.

As for the project and Kasungu NP, things are very much the same as usual. The main and everlasting problem here is fuel. I have only managed to fill the twice in the last 8 months and even the government vehicles struggle to get fuel. They are charging their workers to go shopping and they have to buy the fuel from the black market. Some of this is dosed with paraffin or water and this in turn damages the engine. Food etc. seems to be coming into the country as the whole salers have found their own way of getting supplies of fuel.

During October and November the department confiscated about 20 fire arms and arrested 20 gun poachers which they trying to prosecute. I am trying to find the funds to set up a sustainable reward system to give the scouts a bonus if they catch and prosecute the poachers. Whether it will work or not remains to be seen. The first bill should be ready soon.

Most of the animals and birds have dispersed back into the woodland now so the main animals to be seen daily are the hippos and puku. The grysbok and duiker are still around my house and it is good to see them from time to time. We saw 18 elephants about a week ago and they seemed quite peaceful and quiet.

SEE WE DO HAVE FUN!

HELPpppppp!

MALAWI? Where do I start? Last week we had no phone connection or internet for about 7 days. The country still has no fuel. The compensation is that the weather is great if you like it hot and although we have had a little rain the proper rains have not come upon us yet. The trees are growing their new leaves and the grass is starting to grow again.

The sad news here is that yet another elephant has been killed by poachers. She was shot twice in the body and managed to walk a couple of kilometres before collapsing and dying. The poachers managed to get her tusks, trunk and a little meat before disappearing into the bush. The scouts went searching for the poachers but had no luck but because the carcass was still fresh the meat did not go to waste and was sold, rightly or wrongly, to the locals in Kasungu, the main camp and at the gate. Should the meat have been left to rot?  I am sorry but I am not qualified to answer that one.

A reward system is now operating to try and motivate the scouts to work harder in catching the poachers and we will have to wait to see if it brings in any results. If anyone out there that reads this blog has any ideas on this or any other way to stop this devastation please let me know.

On a positive note the bird life is getting better here and there are many birds around the dam. I estimate between 500 to 700 at any one time. The fish eagles and osprey are still battling over the fishing rights and there are many birds of prey here which I cannot identify. One caught a swallow on the wing the other day. There are spur winged geese, yellow billed duck, white faced duck, black duck, redbilled teal and knobbilled duck. The African jacana and lesser jacana are common residence as well as various egrets, storks, herons as well as rock pratencole.

The large male hippo has set up camp in the pool right next to my house and if I don’t notice that he is there before I see him all hell breaks loose. I am not sure what has happened to the hippos. Last year there were around 15 adults and 1 baby. Now there are 9 adults and 6 babies.

The elephants are still coming to the dam although they are in decreased numbers but they still swim and play like children. Nearly every herd has at least one baby as well as several sub adults and the other day 5 of the big bulls appeared at the same time in a little herd. I just hope the poachers keep their filthy little hands off them.

The painted dogs have been seen several times in the last few weeks and seem to be doing well although I am not sure what their long term effect on the prey species in the park will be.

I saw the large male leopard at the lodge the other night and the lodge manager nearly jumped out of her skin with fright. I have him on one of my cameras at the house along with hippos, elephants, bush pigs and civet. Some of them are literally knocking on my back door.

The project has nearly come to a standstill due to the diesel issues but I am working with the lodge management to try and get the volunteer program up and running. Hopefully this will give us a sustainable source of money for the project.

The lion man, David Youldon, came to see me a couple of weeks ago to discuss the park and project and wishes to get involved with me here to do a feasibility study on the suitability of the park for release of lions. He works out of Zambia and has recently made a program for ITV on the rehabilitation of lions back into the wild.

If anyone out there has any spare cash that would like to donate to the park or the project there a million things I could spend it on.

If you have any comments on what you read on this blog or my website please let me know.