A little distracted

Apologies for not updating the blog with all the wonderful photos from the safari, but I have been a little distracted with the very quick and imminent arrival of my son Noah!!!!!!!!!! More later I promise when I have time to update the blog. For now here is a photo of the little man.

The "All About Me" Safari - Part One - The Drive to Lusaka

First of all let me say one thing - WOOOOO HOOOOOO - it field break time again. This time I am not heading back to Australia but exploring my adopted homeland of Zambia in a 5 star all about me Safari holiday.

The holiday will consist of the following: drive to Lusaka, out to South Luwanwa national park for 4 day safari, 4 days in Livingstone to see the Victoria Falls and another game park with White Rhino's, down to Chobe national park in Botswana for another 4 day safari, then back to Lusaka for 2 days for shopping and stocking up, then drive back home to Lumwana.

So Part One - The Drive to Lusaka. Well what an experience. After leaving at 5.30am in the morning I finally arrived in Lusaka at 4pm, alive and in one piece but a little shaken. All i can say is that these dudes are crazy behind the wheel of a car, bus, or truck!

I have decided that the Zambian driving rules consist of the following 3 only:
1. Giveway is a myth, if you pull out in front of someone they will stop
2. Never under any circumstances use your indicators
3. Drive as fast as humanly possible at all times

There is also one other special rule that would apply to the guys who "maintain" the roads - under no circumstances should potholes be filled in! This would not only be a waste of time because they will just come back, but also it would take away the fun that a driver has in playing "doggem" with the potholes that could rip out the front diff of even the most hardy of 4WD cars.

So watch this space for more updates and photos (hopefully of the Big 5) of my All About Me Safari.

Nsobe Game Camp

The management team of the mine recently spent 3 days away at the Nsobe Game Camp, the plan was to develop the strategic plan for the operation and also do a bit of "bonding". The last few pictures show the management team as a whole on the last evening, also a photo of Brenda the Sustainability manager and one of Colin the Security Manager (aka Chief of Thugery) and Nathan the Corporate Relations Manager.

This was the first time I have had the new camera out and i must say the results are not too bad, mind you it was all done on the auto setting as i have only gotten through the first chapter of the instruction manual (i seriously dislike reading insruction manuals).

Anyway as you can see from the photo's Nsobe is a lovely place with some great scenery and also some of what I call really truely African animals. So my first real African animal sighting was the Girafe, such majestic animals and the baby (which was about 2 meters tall) was just the cutest little thing.

Nsobe is about an hour south of Ndola along the road heading to Lusaka. The accommodation is quite rustic, the cabin i was in was a simple A frame design with a thatched roof, some walls and chicken wire in the other places to keep the monkeys out! No air conditioning or fans but it was not really needed at this time of year as it is getting quite cold at night time. Sleeping under a mosquito net with a tonne of blankets on you to keep warm is just such a different experience but great at the same time.

Apologies for being a slacker

Yes i know i have been very slack over the last few weeks with no updates to the blog. I promise to turn over a new leaf and be a little more consistant with the posting thing. When i figure out how to download photos from the camera in a quicker fashion that will also help.

Stay tuned for the next installment...........

PS I have redisovered Gin and Tonic, or as us locals call it G&T!!!! Also know as mosquito repellant, it is apparently good for keeping the little buggers away, well that is my excuse and I am sticking to it!!!

Nchila Camping Adventure Part 3 - The Camping

After another hours drive past the source of the Zambia, in which we travelled only 17Km, we reached our camping destination for the evening, Nchila Wildlife Reserve and Hunting Lodge. Nchila is a working farm and dairy, wildlife reserve and hunting lodge that has been here for approximately 140 years and is still run by the same family. It was first started by someone who came over from Angola as a missionary and decided to stay. If you look on the map Nchila is located in the most western corner of Zambia, pretty much at the cross roads of Angola, Zambia and the DRC.

The camping grounds are amazing and are setup with open sky toilets and showers with hot and cold running water, a kitchen lappa and a huge eating and entertaining lappa, fire pits and lots of wood already provided. I LIKE camping Zambian style. The farm provides us with lamb chops and t-bone steaks, freshly "made" so to speak and fresh milk straight from the cow.

In the afternoon we went on a game drive with the owner, he has mostly antelope type animals on the farm, not any of the big 5 unfortunatley but exciting just the same. The animal I managed to get a photo of is a Sable, which are not very common in Zambia and are regarded as a royal animal, dont ask me why.

On the way home the next day we stopped in at a nice little lodge on the Zambezi for lunch, the Kwakuwahi Lodge. Kwakuwahi means beautiful in the local language.

The final photo is of William Rogers, one of 10 kids on the camping adventure.

Nchila Camping Adventure Part 2 - The source of the Zambezi

A very early morning start for the camping adventure with the Patterson, Rogers, Caro & Dave and Neil and Kelly families, plus myself of course meeting at 5am to begin the convoy to the source of the Zambezi River.

After 5 hours of driving on the challenging Zambian roads (see previous post), some interesting navigating through bush tracks and a little side adventure into the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) which was such a buzz I had to take a photo with the boarder crossing sign, we finally arrive at the source of the Zambezi.

Before beginning the trek to the source we had lunch at a "Lappa" in the forrest surrounding the national monument. A lappa is an outdoor structure with a thatched roof and no walls found throughout Zambia (like a Gazebo is the best way to describe it). It is generally nice and cool under the thatched roof so it is a nice place to be on a hot day. Thankfully the rest of the ladies on our little adventure were well organised and brought lots of food. Considering we had 10 kids on our little adventure, it was a good thing we had lots of food. A couple of photos are included of fellow adventurers, the Pattersons and Neil and Kelly with Lorna our youngest adventurer and Calem.

After lunch we started out on the long and arduous trek to the source of the mighty Zambezi river - well actually not that long and arduous at a nice board walk through the forrest to the source. Even with this though I was getting LaLa like towards the end, but dont stress family I had the pen with me and lots of willing people eager to jab me with it, there were lots of comments about Pulp Fiction which was getting me worried.

We eventually arrived at the source (only took about 30 minutes in the end) and would you believe it is just a little pool of water oozing out of the bottom of a tree, hard to imagine that is the source of the Zambezi but they tell me it is true. It will be interesting to see the other end of the Zambezi in a few weeks when i head to Livingstone and go white water rafting on the same river!!

Nchila Camping Adventure Part 1 - The Roads

A recent camping adventure to the far north western corner of Zambia has openned my eyes to the "interesting" Zambian roads. The first photo is of "major" highway, interesting. The tall grass grows right up to the side of the road which makes it like driving down a tunnel. Add to this all the people popping out of the grass, it is like dodgem cars.

The second photo is of a country road, this one was even more interesting, it took 3 hours to travel 50kms!!!! My first experience at four wheel driving, great fun i will admit but not something I want to be doing every day! I was very glad to reach the camping spot at the end of this road, find the esky and crack the first cider of teh day!

Greetings from the "Mzungu"

I learnt a new word this week, Mzungu, which means white fella in one of the local dialects. Another new word is Bwana, which i think mean boss i think but is a little more complicated than that.

A quieter week this week, only 1 dinner party, 1 BBQ and 1 going away party!!!!! I think I need to head home for a rest.

The one big benefit of people leaving is that they are selling off lots of things. This week i have managed to acquire a Webber, a rug, a wok, a DVD player and a Nintendo WII. Got to have some creature comforts of home.

The first photo is of my award winning and competition winning veggie garden, watch out little Brother and Dad, this garden is going to be spectacular!!! The second photo is of some of my team members at the going away function for the guy who I am replacing, Pierre. The last photo photo is of some of the ATS team, the guys who manage our camp and do the catering for all the functions.

I am off to Lusaka next week again, this time to play golf with the Zambian Revenue Authority, the equivalent of teh Australian Taxation Office! Its a hard life but someone has to do it!!!!!

Heading home at the end of next week, so see you all soon.

Cheers from the Mzungu

A day of bliss on the Consanche Golf Course

Well at last a day away from Lumwana. With the recent arrival of the new car, i can escape so today i joined 3 fellow Lumwana residents ( Bill, John and Craig, see one of the photo)for a day of golf at Consanche Golf course which is in Solwezi about an hour away (see map at top of page). The course is gorgeous, as good as any course I have played on in Townsville anyway, and they have kept many of the local Zambian features, like the huge ant hills. They have a few Zebra on the course but i couldnt get close enough to take a photo (hopefully next week) and some Impala as well, although they were hiding today. But i did see evidence of there existence, see the photo of the "Impala Poop" which just looks like little chocolate covered raisens. I played very average golf but had a great day and i have been invited back next week, yee haa! At the end of the day, after walking an 18 hole course, something i have not done in a long time, i was absolutely nackered but thank god i had a caddie which is almost as good as having a buggy! As i was the designated driver of the day, no booze for me to numb the pain but the guys introduced me to the "Malowi Shandie", a strange mixture of bitters, orange juice and lemonade i think. Very nice and quenches the thirst very well.

Now an evening of red wine, a little bit of pizza to assist with the recovery!

Update - One month in and still alive

It is now the end of week 5 and I have settled in very well. As you can see my veggie garden and most of my garden is now clear of weeds and ready for planting. Of course I am not responsible, all the hard work has been from my gardener Godwin, a very talented man. I think i will be winning the veggie garden challenge with my darling Bro.

I have managed to squeeze in a little bit of work between the dinner parties and the BBQ's, but not too much.

I now have wheels, i am the proud owner of a Toyota Hilux Surf. Shopping expeditions are now planned, as are the holiday expeditions. But the first excursion outside of Lumwana will be to the golf course, and that will be tomorrow. Pictures of the first expedition to come tomorrow.

Zambian weird thing No. 1 - The Ant Hills

These ant hills are all over the country side, well the parts I have seen so far anyways. The one in the picture is one of the "small" ones. Apparently the ants that built them are long gone and the ant hill are supposedly prehistoric (whatever that means). I'm just glad i dont have to meet the things that built these mosters!

The Veggie Garden

As you can see, it needs a little bit of work

The Zambian "Audi"

So far so good

Well I have survived the first two weeks and it has not been a chore at all. There is a great little expat community in the Lumwana town and they are a very social bunch. So far I have been to 2 dinner parties, 1 BBQ, 2 welcome parties and 2 Friday night TGIF drinks. As I said, very social!

I have moved into my duplex apartment and have been settling in well. Things are looking a bit sparse until all my stuff arrives from Australia, god knows how long that will take.

I have a great garden out the back of the duplex that has been let go so I have been having a great time getting stuck into that. I also have a gardener who will be doing most of the hard work. A nice little deck out the back with a BBQ as well, all setup for entertaining. The veggi garden is looking a little sad, but a bit of hard work (on the part of the gardener) will see it all back in order.