Thursday: I
just got done taking a shower at our outdoor rainhead shower under the light of
the moon and overlooking the waterhole outside our permanent tent where some
antelope are drinking – and that was just the end of an amazing day! And here is our lovely tent with John
enjoying our deck. And a picture
of the shower and toilet – what doesn’t show is a sunken tub next to the shower
which was very cool too.
This morning we came down the Chikhwawa escarpment –
something John has talked about many times from his time in the Peace
Corps. It was spectacularly
beautiful and I can see how it would have been very memorable when it was a
dirt road and he was driving a motorcycle. It has a very steep pitch and must drop about 2000 feet
easily so by the time we got to the bottom, the temperature had gone up about
10 or 15 degrees, another thing John talked about a lot from his Peace Corps
days. I’m sure it got to the high
90s today and the height of the hot season isn’t until November or December –
and by then the rains have started so it is humid too. I can’t even imagine – remember no one
here has air conditioning since only 10% of Malawians even have electricity –
how do they manage and walk for miles and work in their fields, by hand, no
tractors here either. Amazing.
We arrived at Thawale Lodge in Majete Wildlife Reserve
around 10am this morning and saw a lot of Impala and other antelope soon after
we went through the gate. The
Majete reserve was created in the mid-1950s but was decimated by poachers until
2003 when it was taken over by the African Parks Service, a non-profit running
parks in 5 different African countries. An electric fence was built
around the entire perimeter of 700 square kilometers and a full range of
animals was reintroduced into the park - currently there are over 6,000 animals
in the reserve including the “big 5” after lions were reintroduced a year
ago.
Over 100 local villagers have been employed by the reserve,
and part of the revenues generated by the park each year go to projects in the
nearby villages. Two more parks are slated to be taken over by African
Parks Service in the next year, both ones that we have visited, and the plan is
to replicate this successful model.
Poaching is a serious problem in Africa, not only by local
people hunting for food, but also by organized gangs. In African Parks
Service Annual Report they describe with great sadness an incident in Congo
where poachers in helicopters killed 15 elephants, and their tusks sawed off
for sale on the black market. The also describe many gun battles with
poachers and announced the death of one of their park rangers in a gun battle
in 2012. But Majete is a shining example of what can be done through local
education and employment and stepped-up security measures. In the long
run, effective wildlife management and tourism is a great boost to the local
and national economy and
African Parks Service is working hard to help make that
happen in Malawi and other parks in Africa.
Thawale Lodge has a watering hole just outside our permanent
tent which has a large patio(khonde) and we sat and watched impala, kudu,
warthogs, sable antelope and baboons come in the hour or two we were there
before lunch. They light the water
hole until about 9pm so we can watch animals come while we eat dinner since it
is dark here by 6pm or so.
After our delicious lunch(no chicken and rice – yay!!) we
went on a game drive – the breeze felt great, and although it was a hot wind it
still felt a little cooler when you are wet from perspiration. On the drive we saw even more varieties
of antelope, including Nyala which are found only in Malawi and Eland which are
huge – they weigh more than a water buffalo. By the Shire (pronounced sheer-re)
river we saw a herd of Zebra and then a lone Elephant who we followed for
awhile. Our guide told us that he
had his trunk caught In a snare before he was brought to Majete to recover as a
baby and now he lives on his own because he can’t eat very well and slows down
the herd. We followed him for a
while, I thought about how sad it was for him to be alone when elephants are so
social. Here he is.
Down by the river we saw hippos and crocodiles, and a few
more elephants, and then came upon some elephants with the big bull on one side
of the road and a young one and female on the other. Well, the bull decided he didn’t like being separated and
after a bit his ears started flapping followed by a mock charge – we got the
point and quickly left. Our guide
and driver had been watching him very closely and the driver had his hand on
the ignition ready to leave
Here is a photo of the baby – probably about 3 or 4 years old since he
has small tusks
Friday: Last
night just after we turned off the light I heard what sounded like a dog bark
followed by a very loud and indescribable noise. Because we were meeting our guide at 5:45 this morning for a
walking safari, I asked what the sound was and he said a hyena. I had never heard anything except the
laughing sound we associate with hyena’s.
It had given me enough of a start that I stayed awake for awhile
afterwards, and we turned on our ceiling fan to cool it off a bit for sleeping
so didn’t hear any noises after that.
We didn’t see any large animals on our walking safari but it
is quite amazing to get off the roads and just walk through the bush. We saw a fairly fresh track from a
rhino not too far from Thawale and were told it is not uncommon for them to
come and drink at our waterhole.
We saw lots of antelope who were very curious about these humans
walking, baboons, an aardvark burrow, many beautiful birds and lots of tracks
for animals.
It was an incredibly hot day. I spent a good part of the afternoon with a wet washcloth
wrapped around the back of my neck, and stood under the shower once or twice
then let the wind dry me off. It
was the only time of the day I felt a little cool, drying off in the
breeze. Our guides said it is
common around November, when it is the hottest, for the temperature to be 110
to 125 degrees. I think it must
have been close to 100 to feel as hot as I did in the dry heat which is usually
much more tolerable. Of course, I
am kind of a weather wimp too.
We went on a night drive and for quite a while watched a
large group of elephants, with several females and children of various
ages. It was very cool to watch –
and the temperatures did cool off a bit after dark which was nice None of the predators were seen, and
even though they have about 500 water buffalo we didn’t see them or the 15 or
so rhinos, they have but it was still amazing to be in the midst of all that
wildlife We must have seen 15
different kinds of antelope, and in such large numbers everywhere we
turned. The lions were just
reintroduced this year, and there aren’t too many leopards either but it seems
like Majete would be predator heaven here with all the antelope – and it will
help to keep the ecosystem in balance too so it doesn’t get overgrazed.
Saturday: I am
sitting on our patio as we wait for our driver to come and pick us up and am
watching a small herd of impala approach the waterhole. It is amazing to see how long they take
to approach – so wary of any predators who know to hide by waterholes since
none of the animals can survive without water, especially in this heat.
When we got back to Blantyre the temperature was much more
bearable. I loved Majete but
couldn’t have taken much more of that heat.
As soon as we got back we called our Malawian son David
Mhango who came to join us for lunch and then took us to his home. We had a great visit and made plans for
Sunday. We are so excited to be able to spend some time with them! It feels a bit unreal to see him and
the family when we know him as our neighbor in Livingstonia in 2008 –
Livingstonia is more than 13 hours from here. He was able to get work with the Ministry of Agriculture
here and was recently transferred to Blantyre with his family, so this is very
different than the time we spent in 2008, and Susan was just born a month
before we left in 2008 – named for me, but also called Ziegen for John. Here is
a great photo of his wife Naomi, Ellen 8 and Susan 5.
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