So we are a bit late with our April Newsletter. My apologies, we have been very busy indeed – lodge renovations, guests, guides training and so on! And of course a massive Easter Weekend. The rains have eased off in April, we only had 5 showers and the river has slowly dropped. The guides training was good fun, people from all over the Kafue thrown together in the ZAWA training school for 8 days. Then Easter – we had guests see Wild Dogs about 3km from the camp – on our side of the river. A fantastic sighting and really encouraging.
Anyway, the last newsletter we showed you some works in progress, now we can show you some more as well as finished improvements.
The bar now looks quite clean and modern, certainly different. Removing the thatching and some of the poles has lifted and opened up the whole main area. Julia made a completely new design for behind the bar, incorporating whitewashed local timber, decorations, seeds and even battered propellors! Already we have had some people enthusing about it.
I am not going to show you a close up: you should come and see it (and sample the offerings) yourself!
We also have bought quite a bit of new furniture and added colour to the main area. The closure of the old entrance has created a small intimate corner with a half mokoro bookshelf.
The old ‘lounge’ area has brightened up nicely, and we have added some more furniture to the deck so that guests can laze with a book while occasionally scanning for Otters and Finfoots.
Then we built a curio shop… All local construction, from grass to mud brick walls through to beautiful ‘Mukwa’ timber doors and shelves. We have started stocking it with a real mixture of LOCAL products. Stools, axes and knives made by some of the guys, Aprons made by Lizzie, Bush Jewellery from Julia and some of Isaac’s photographs. We really want to keep it as local as possible.
Some of the interior. We haven’t fully stocked everything we have ready yet as the windows are awaiting shadecloth and there are thieves around: Vervet Monkeys, not the real type!
Thats about for this month. However we are looking forward to showing you some wildlife – Isaac has got himself a used EOS 50D and we have lent him a lens, so we will have some interesting shots and sightings to share with you in a couple of weeks!