Martin on the first Shoebill trek!

19 Jul After breakfast we depart Buffalo Camp at about 7.50am and arrive back at Mano Gate at 11.35am. Carry on back to Kapishya and after a half hour stop for lunch (which doesn’t involve tuna sandwiches this time) we arrive at Kapishya at 2.20pm. Now about the tuna; only things Martin doesn’t eat is baked beans and tinned tuna. We had a packed lunch prepared for us on the way into Buffalo Camp and Garth forgot to tell them that Martin didn’t eat tinned tuna and you guessed it we had tuna sandwiches in the lunch. It was lovely to get back to Kapishya and to get straight into the hot springs for a soak – just perfect. Mark & Mel have a stunning spot and a huge big thank you to them both for making our stay so fabulous whilst there. Don’t forget to let us know when you are in the UK! We’ll make sure that there is plenty of Amarula. Total drive 95 miles once again.

20 Jul Depart Kapishya with some seeds for a beautiful tree that Mark assures me should grow in UK – will have to see how they go once I get back to UK. We leave at 8.50am and head towards Mutinondo Wilderness. None of us has been here before and so we use the satalite navigation system’s help. There is about 4-5 different Mutinondo settings in there and we select one which turns out to not be the main lodge. Nevertheless we arrive at the wrong place at 1.20pm. The drive in is stunning, there are heaps of what they call whaleback grantie hills around and also heaps of what looks like virgin bush. We finally arrive at Mutinondo Lodge at about 2pm. We decide to camp as some of the chalets are open which will be really cold in the evenings and the only other one doesn’t really have such a great view for the price. The campsite is lovely with great abultions anyway. As we arrived so late we opt to have dinner at the lodge as our meat is all frozen. We go for a walk in the afternoon and this place is great for walking, good tracks and loads of waterfalls and the birds are awesome. We get back to camp around dark and go up to the bar for drinks before dinner. Have a nice dinner and then off to bed for a well deserved sleep. 136 miles in total and the dirt road in is very good compared to the roads we have been travelling on lately.

21 Jul Martin & Garth are up reasonably early, but I take awhile to trundle out of my bed – the snoring last night was to say the least extremely loud and I feel terrible from lack of sleep. Martin & Garth have found a crack in the chassis of the trailer which gives us a fear bit of concern. We will have to try and strengthen it before we leave Mutinondo. Martin decides to stay and work on the trailer whilst Garth and I go for a walk. After I have made a huge breakfast for us all with lovely strong coffee as well. The plantlife, birdlife and whole surroundings here seem quite different from what we have seen so far. It is hard to capture the experience by photo, but we have a fabulous walk for about 3 hours or so – magical with loads of cool more birds for my book. We get back and Martin has only must received the metal to try and fix the trailer temporary to get us 30km down the road to a welder. We have some lunch and Martin fixes the trailer as best he can. We decide that either Garth or myself will drive out on the dirt road tomorrow as we are much slower careful drivers. We have dinner and also an early night as tomorrow could be a long day with the stop at the welder.

22 Jul Depart Mutinondo at 8.05am with a limping cracked trailer. We arrive at Munungu (at the quarry which has a welder) at 10.10am. The repairs are done to get us to Lusaka and we depart around 10.50am. We arrive at Pioneer Camp around 6.45pm – what a long day! We are staying in a chalet and order dinner at the bar, which will take an hour (almost too long for me as I just want to sleep)! Anyway we have a lovely dinner which I can’t really do justice to and then hit the hay!

I am trying to get as many photos on as possible, but they are taking a long time so may have to give up for now and try again tomorrow.

Love to all xxx