Wonderful News!

I say!

Wonderful news! Dr Z is back in Africa, undertaking further research in the Tuli Block. Perchance he will drop by Kalimbuka.

On a more sad note, my dear friend Elisha has been visiting Kenya, and reports that it has been very dry up in the 'Happy Valley'. The crops have failed and stock are dying. What very sad news from a wonderful part of the world.

Bad news from Ekwendeni, where a new disease has been attributed to Satanism. Not surprisingly, "Banda, who is also Moderator of the Synod, could not rule out Satanism as the cause but said it was difficult to prove."

To change track completely, here are some more snaps.

The first one is from the bhundu. Taken at Hwange, towards the end of a perfect afternoon. We found ourselves at a hide on stilts, surrounded by game. A magical snap, if I do say so myself, and one which is almsot prehistoric in concept. Of course, Menzies IV and Henry Morton were so excited that they could not keep quiet, and the game quickly dispersed.



The next one I took up at Motopos, in Zimbabwe, and shows an example of the rock paintings which date back - well, no one is quite sure, but probably thousands of years.



The next one shows Mrs M carrying Henry Morton over towards 'Livingstone's tree' in Botswana, where David Livingstone used to preach. A very old tree indeed.


Finally, a snap showing, in the distance, the roof of Africa - Lesotho. Wonderful place - don't miss the opportunity of going there, if you are in the area.



MM III

Cricket in Sweden

I say!

With Menzies IV to the left and Henry Morton to the right is Dr Z, our dear Swedish friend and academic. Dr Z is, like myself, an 'old Africa hand' and often visits these climes. He has, I believe, now given up crocodile hunting, but unlike myself, Dr Z is still a hunter, and has been known to bag the odd impala for the pot.

The following snap was taken when we visited Dr Z in Sweden, a while back, at a torp near Kisa. The torp was of wooden construction and dated back many years. It had its own lake, on which Dr Z took Menzies IV and Henry Morton fishing one day.


Naturally, we wanted to play cricket, but the pitch was rather overgrown.


Mrs M soon chipped in and did most of the hard clearing work.


With myself opening the batting and doubling as umpire, the visitors won the day by an innings and several runs over the locals, who appeared rather perplexed as to the rules of the game.

MM III

Where's Mrs M?

Can you spot Mrs M in the snap below? It was taken during a stopover, at a cafe in Amsterdam.

Both Hotboy and Mr Robmcj have been blogging about their dreams recently, and this cafe is the scene of a recurring nightmare that I unfortunately suffer from time to time.

In the dream, I am fixed to a chair at the cafe in the snap. I cannot move, for some reason, and neither can I talk. Although virtually catatonic, I can see and hear.

Looming over me is a ten-foot tall, drooling monster. The monster is very deformed, has steam coming from its nostrils, and is slavering and slobbering. For hours on end, the monster rants at me about retribution, retribution, retribution. I am riveted to the spot, and the purgatory seems unending.

Although there are other people in the dream, passing by the cafe, walking in the street, and a waitess, and so on, no-one seems to notice my predicament.

Finally, the monster reaches over to me, slices open my head, and sucks out my brains.

I wake up in a sweat, feeling for the top of my head.

Does anyone know what this dream means?



MM III

I say!

Wonderful result for the boys in Bombay the other day. Flintoff captained the side well.

I understand that Cricket Australia, the national cricket body 'downunder' has ruled that shouting "Pommy bast*ard" from the terraces is not an ejectable offence. Fair enough, is what I say.

This brings to mind an event from a long time ago - the 1932-33 tour of Australia by England. It was reported that after a particularly garrulous session the England captain at the time, Douglas Jardine, complained to his opposing captain, Bill Woodfull, that one of the Australian side had called him a bast*rd.

Bill Woodfull went storming into his (Australian) dressing room, and demanded of his team-mates "Which one of you bast*rds called that bast*rd a bast*rd?"

Whilst the Blogger going is good, I have managed to upload three snaps. The first one shows what was round the corner from the hide in my previous posting - some giraffe.



The next snap was taken in Chobe, in northwest Botswana. An excellent game reserve which I wholeheartedly recommend to you if you find yourself in the area. It teams with game of all kinds. At the time that the snap was taken, we were in an open vehicle and feeling rather vulnerable, considering that we were only a few feat from a pride of lions. Henry Morton tried to step down in order to stroke them, but I was able to restrain him.



This final snap was taken at some magnificent ruins near Bulawayo, in southwest Zimbabwe. Menzies IV is inspecting the building work, which is most impressive (if you click on the image it will enlarge and you can see the detail). These structures were built long ago, and no-one is quite sure why. They are certainly not fortifications, and bring to mind other building works at Greater Zimbabwe, a couple of hundred miles away to the east.


MM III

Wildlife

I say!

Still a fair amount of mvula here, and the place is slightly waterlogged. Never mind - its good for the crops.

Here is a snap of Mrs M at a hide in Matopos.



Blogger is once more defeating my attempts to post more snaps.

MM III

Overflow

Well I say!

Blogger appears to be working well today.

Here is a snap of the overflow carpark at the Makghadighadi Salt Pan Bar. Heh, Heh.



Finally, the snap I tried to post several times last week, Menzies IV and Henry Morton enjoying breakfast on Castaway Island. This is an excellent establishment, which I fully recommend to anyone in the Pacific region. Just drop in, and you'll be made so welcome, as we were.



MM III

Murray River

I say!

Thank goodness! Blogger is now working sufficiently well for me to post some snaps of Australia, taken during the Milngavie clan trip to visit Carslemane Foraix at Daly Waters.

The first snap was taken on the banks of the Murray River, at Albury. What a delightful place Albury is, I must say. Menzies IV and Henry Morton are shown in the soft evening light.



The next snap shows the astoundingly attractive railway station at, unless my memory fails me, Wagga Wagga. In the local language, 'wagga' means 'crow', and in past times, crows gathered here in large numbers. We did notice one crow during our brief stop there, which reminded me rather of Carlos Castaneda



I say! Blogger once more does not appear to want to let me post images - I do not get the message 'Complete' or whatever it is. Blast! I shall hope to post more on another occasion.

MM III

Murray

I say!

I promised to post some snaps of Australia, but there appears to be a problem with Blogger's method of uploading pictures at the present time, so I will postpone this for the moment.

MM III

Dinner on the bus

I say!

Mrs M reminded me over an aperitif this evening of the time we enjoyed dinner in a London bus in the Magaliesberg. I can't remember the exact location, but we were driving from Pretoria to Gabs, came round a corner, and there was a London bus, set up as a restaurant!

Well, we had to stop, of course, and what a wonderful meal it was as well. Veal, if my memory serves me.



MM III

Aberdares

I say!

How wonderful it is that people from other countries are visiting this blog. It warms the cockles.

Here is a snap of Mrs M in her lovely safari dress, which we bought especially so that we could keep up appearances for our visit to the Aberdare Country Club, which I mentioned in my last post. The Club is in the background, and one can see what a delightful vista there is from the khondi. Used to be forest all around in those parts, in the days of my dear Papa. Some misplaced Boers helped to clear it. In those days, a forest clearing workforce could number several hundred.



The next snap was taken from our hotel window in Lamu, looking down on the market beside the old fort. The fort served as a prison for many a year, but is now a world heritage site. I once attended a wonderful lecture and slide show, given by Richard Leakey, in the grounds.



Below is a snap of some buffalo, enjoying the salt lick at The Ark. I must retrieve some more wildlife snaps from my collection, because animals are the essence of the African experience. Lone buffalo are very dangerous, but if found in a herd, are normally relatively docile. A pride of lions can take down a buffalo, though often the hunt is aborted.



MM III

Chikungunya

I say!

Been rather busy with blasted paperwork, recently. One doesn't anticipate high levels of bureaucracy in hush hush work, and of course one never sees James Bond filling out innumerable forms, but I can assure you, the need frequently arises.

Whilst other parts of the world are concerned about avian 'flu, we are bracing ourselves for the arrival of the chikungunya virus, which has now reached Mauritius. It is mosquito-borne, and naturally, during this extended wet season, there are many of those blighters around.

To lighten the mood, here are some more snaps. Thankyou for the comments received from my last posting. That snap was taken at Shella Beach, on Lamu island. Lamu town is two miles inland from the beach, and is a very appealing place, what with its mixture of African, Arab and Portuguese influences. The first snap shows one of the old buildings that abound in the town. Indeed, some of the architecture is suffering from neglect.



To get to Lamu from Malindi, one must cross the Tana River. The next snap shows how it is done - by rope! I say, when it came to our turn, Mrs M, as usual, pulled her weight.



The Tana's source is many miles inland and is fed by snow-melt from Mt Kenya. A few miles west of Mt Kenya is Nyeri, where the Hamilton Gordon brothers used to live in a magnificent house. This house has since become the Aberdare Country Club, and I must say - they put on an excellent luncheon, which one can enjoy whilst being entertained by the peacocks. The last time we were there, Mrs M and myself enjoyed a superb kudu steak.



The Country Club is where The Ark, a Treetops-style 'hotel' is run. Now - what an excellent place The Ark is! I fully recommend it, the next time you are in the area. We had a most enjoyable stay there. If one has not overdone the MGTs (which both Mrs M and myself avoided on this occasion) one can elect to be 'buzzed' by the resident hunter if anything of special interest visits the waterhole over which The Ark overlooks during the night. During our visit, the buzzer in our room went at 1am. We both put on our dressing gowns and walked to the viewing platform, half expecting the nocturnal visitor to be nothing more than a rhino (very nice in itself, but one has seen numerous rhinos). In the event, it turned out that a bongo had decided to visit the salt lick! The bongo is an extremely elusive animal, and everyone was frightfully excited. During the course of a year, perhaps four or five sightings are made, at the Ark. We were extremely fortunate, and celebrated in the required way.



MM III