So after the mega floods of March we were glad to welcome April. While the rains reduced they were by no means gone. We had long periods of glorious sunshine and then a good few days of heavy cloud cover and rains. The long periods of cloud brought nice cool temperatures but didn’t do our solar power generation, pumped water and hot water geysers any favours! But as we kept telling ourselves (especially in March): “its just weather”. So yes, April showers and no packing away the ponchos just yet. Fortunately the rain seemed to fall around and not on some of the big American groups that we hosted.
We were delighted to see that goliath herons were back in the same nesting site as last year with another giant chick. Interestingly later in the month a second nest and a second chick appeared not 30m from the original.
The birding action continued with a very special sighting. JohnD enroute back from a game drive was boating guests down the river when he came across a pair of crowned eagles in a tree on Mantobo island! Phenomenal. I have always been fascinated by these birds since coming across a young one up close and personal in the Ghanaian rainforest. Of course John immediately took up back up river to find them but they were long gone.
The next sighting was another unusual one. A group of American guests were fully into morning Tai-Chi and so there was morning sessions on the deck. The one guest was actually a martial arts instructor and managed to persuade some of the guides and staff to also join in (and Lynda!).
The large numbers of Americans in camp meant that there was lots of singing and drumming… and it wasn’t all one sided either. While our staff are very very used to this (and highly skilled) we were very impressed by one guest standing up and doing a drum solo on his last night!
Our second 6m swamp cruiser boat has been doing sterling service already. Its one of those assets where now we wonder how on earth we ever managed without it… having space on boats for 22 guests but in an 16 bed lodge means that we can really personalise activities and provide total flexibility – which is something that we really pride ourselves on and work hard at doing. Our small fleet at rest on a sundowner island:
We have often mentioned Mike’s (mechanic) skills and how versatile he is. This month he went from rebuilding a starter motor in a morning to then sewing new umbrellas for the deck from canvas… All on a hand cranked chinese sewing machine.
All done on this!
We started having a regular visitor to the boat jetty (now that it was finally not under water). Fortunately it was about 8″ long and not a 3m monster!
The last of our big groups for the month was one of the absolute best ever. All friends travelling together and hailing from Spicewood Texas, they were an absolute blast to deal with from start to finish. Including the specially written song.
Sadly the group missed out on lions, and then murphy’s law dictated that on the way back from dropping them at the airstrip JohnD came across some luggage trailer lions:
Easter was a fantastic weekend – despite one of the last death throes of the rains!
Then the month of April kept the best for last! Repeat guests Johan and Antonia were driving out to spend labour day weekend at the lodge and came across what will almost certainly be the sighting of the year! A caracal kitten. Incredible. I personally have never seen a caracal in the Kafue, JohnD tells me he has seen one in his career here! 29th of April.
We celebrated with dinner on the deck that night and then dinner at poacher’s rock the following night!