'My Heart's in the Highlands'

It's getting toward Christmas but it doesn't feel like it here.  Following the storm we had six weeks ago, it seemed we had gone back to the hot dry weather  Since then the rains have arrived but they are not like the storm we had...now it's nothing more than the heavy rain we might have in the UK during spring.  And then it turns to what is most of the time very pleasant hot weather. So no sign of reindeer here other than the hats worn by Shoprite shop assistants.

Not that we have been short of seeing other kinds of deer (well antelope!).  We had a long weekend in Nyika National Park which is 100 kilometres north of Mzuzu so pretty far north in Malawian terms - though not as far north as my home town of Chitipa (you will recall I am known here as Musopole from Kameme District in Chitipa).  It rained quite a lot on the way up there and there seemed to be rain coming down (together with amazing lightning forks) all around us when we were there.  But we were lucky and I don't recall a drop of rain falling on us during our stay.

Nyika is nothing like the dry scrubland we experienced at Vwaza which lies just to the south. The green rolling hills seem to go on for ever in every direction.  There are lakes, streams, evergreen trees, bracken, beautiful orchids, mountain paths; there is low lying mist and dew on the ground in the mornings; there are heavy dark clouds with blue peaking through; there are log fires in the lodge and in the guest rooms for the cold nights; there is a small fishing lake in front of the lodge and little green wooden tables to sit at for picnics; there is even a friendly deer or two (bushbuck - looks like a deer to me but belongs, I think, to the antelope family) that come down to the lodge to graze on the grass in the mornings and evenings.  We were back at the hostel we stayed at in Lochranza (Isle of Arran) in August - or it felt like it!  

View across the lake to Chilinda Lodge

Liz by the log fire in our room at Chilinda Lodge - electricity is only on from 6pm to 9pm

Disa Robusta -one of the many varieties of orchid we saw in Nyika 

We went with Roy 'Tubby' Johnson, a South African who has lived in Malawi for a few years and runs Tubby Tours, and two other guests - Hannah who is from Korea and has been working as a volunteer near Zomba (the old colonial capital which is in the south) and Michael, a musician who trained in Karonga in the north and is now back living in Mzuzu which is his home town.  Roy loves Nyika and was really enthusiastic whilst taking us on game drives. On the Saturday, he took us to his favourite viewing point, Chosi Point, to see the sun set over the Zambian hills to the west. Unfortunately the rain clouds  over the hills hid the sun from view but it was a great spot and we returned the next morning, when the clouds had dispersed, to get an even better view.

Roy, Liz, Hannah and Michael at Chosi Point

The animals were not the same as Vwaza - none of those elegant, big-eared kudu, no impala, definitely no hippo and buffalo....but masses of roan antelope with their  trade mark white noses, herds of bushbucks running across the grassland, the ever present zebra, regular sightings of birds of prey and other bird varieties (for the connoisseurs amongst you, the spotting of Denham Bustards, a nightjar and an African marsh harrier), the occasional eland antelope (the largest antelope weighing in at about 1,000 kilo compared to the 500 kilo of the roan), and some unusual black monkeys with very long tales as we drove along the Zambian border on the way back.

A roan antelope with distinctive white marks on its face

Zebra Crossing!

Some of the bushbucks ran alongside our car

A pair of Denham's Bustards

Nightjar 

Nyika also has one of the greatest concentrations of leopards in Central Africa and we were hopeful we might see one on the night game drive we took but as first timers we would have been lucky.  We were able to pretend we were in the leopard's lair when, the next day, we went to the top of a hill which had a brilliant view of the antelope grazing in the valley below, good shelter in trees and rocks, and a smell of an animal marking its ground.  But, maybe luckily, we didn't come across the leopard itself!

Blessings and Watson were our very knowledgeable guides on the night game drive

The leopard's lair?

We saw fresh elephant dung on the way out of the park but no elephants. We stopped at Vwaza Marsh en route back to Mzuzu.  What a contrast with the landscape in Nyika! No buffalo this time but loads of hippos doing their wallowing best and quite a few warthogs. Godwin, who looks after the Vwaza cabins, was there again - he didn't recognise us from the previous time until I mentioned that I was Musopole from Chitipa and Liz was Nya Kaunda from Nkhata Bay at which stage recognition was immediate - clearly our names have caught on.  

In Mzuzu, the lights are back on - it seems that the coming of the rains has allowed ESCOM to reduce their load shedding activity!  We went to Macondo Camp for Thanksgiving (a lot of the time it doesn't seem like we are in Malawi - either Scotland or, on this occasion, the USA); both the cats are expecting what Tom calls 'blessings' - there's a 'lad' in the neighbourhood who is clearly up to no good and we suspect is not planning to fulfil his fatherly duties;  it may be their current pregnant state that makes them a bit more lethargic but 'catty' or 'catties' definitely hasn't/haven't got 'ratty' - last Saturday, I surprised 'ratty' when I opened a cupboard door and he used my shoulder as an initial landing pad before jumping down on the floor and scuttling past the bemused 'catties'; Elle has started making her home-made muesli from scratch by putting lots of fruit out to dry in the sun; we went back to Macondo on Friday to hear a recently formed local group called The Repatriation Band - they were 'rastas' who showed some devotion to their cause (at least the lead singer did) and every song had 'Repatriation' worked into it - there weren't many people there but the band made a real effort to entertain and they were great fun; Liz carries on helping out at the Crisis Nursery most days and has been showing children at Wongari Primary School how to play the guitar, playing along to them singing mainly religious songs, and teaching them to sing 'Blowing in the Wind' and 'Here Comes the Sun'; and 'Red Chile', which does  a lovely hot tandoori chicken, has changed its name to 'Blue Tomato' (Liz and I are a bit concerned about the marketing impact of this - at least with 'Red Chile' you had some idea that it might be about spicy food).

'The Repatriation Band' backing players

Mangoes being dried in the Temwa garden (with cinnamon and baking powder round the outside as a deterrent to the ants!)

Mushrooms are in season!

At Temwa, the Nkhata Bay Natural Way (NBNW) team have moved on from 'sensitisation' (the community awareness campaign which I joined at Kasasire in the upland area in my first week here) and 'verification' (the process of checking people nominated to take part in NBNW understand the commitment they are making which Liz and I joined in Sanga on the lakeshore a few weeks ago), to 'situational analysis' which involves getting a more detailed understanding of each individual beneficiary's situation: what experience they have of the Income Generating Activity (IGA) they're involved in, what land they have for growing crops, fish farming or bee-keeping and what support they hope to receive from Temwa. The team have been going out into the field every weekday and most weekends (they got back around 7pm yesterday, Saturday, and went out again at dawn this morning, Sunday!). 

Off to the field - Benson, NBNW Project Manager, with Emmanuel, Programmes Manager, in the background

The Nkhata Bay Natural Resource Initiative, which operates in areas not covered by NBNW, is currently trying to source and distribute potato tuba in time for the growing season.  The micro-finance team continues its work  assessing new clients, issuing loans, collecting repayments; I'm still hoping to join Jericho, the Project Officer, doing his round of the Nkhata Bay North area. It's been a quieter time for Fishani and Dyana, the health and education officers, following a hectic November - they've been catching up on paperwork, helping me put together the budget for next year and preparing for a review of their projects.

In the office - Dyana, Maria and Fishani

Chimwemwe (Happy) prefers being in the office to catching 'ratty'

We'll be in Livingstonia for Christmas and Likoma for New Year.  Liz's trip to Zanzibar is booked and I'll join her for the last part, before we take the Tazara (Tanzania to Zambia railway built by the Chinese in the early 1970s) from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya - a 24 hour journey which includes going through national parks - before making our way by bus/shared taxi to Mzuzu through south west Tanzania and northern Malawi.  Before she goes, we're hoping Johnny at Maconda will put on a Burns Supper (if we can source a haggis!).  There will be poetry readings and songs and I'm sure 'My Heart's in the Highlands' will be amongst them.

...and, getting back to Christmas, if you are still thinking about what to buy, why not try the Temwa shop at http://temwa.bigcartel.com/?  A bit late I know but...