12 Nunda River Lodge nr Divundu 6/5/15

Checked out this morning with the intention of going to Mahengo Reserve and then to Popa Falls Resort for something different.

Mahengo was lovely with an abundance of wildlife: giraffe, zebra, piggies, Impala, lechwe, duiker, loads of water birds, sable.

Popa was disappointing, likewise Rainbow ... So ... here we are ... back at Nunda's. Will take a lot to beat!

Nice male lechwe

Impala fleeing male

Rutting male

Lovely supper of roast pork, yum yum veggies and crochet spuds. Hake starter ... Very nice. Yet another awesome sunset over the river. Every one is different.

10 Nunda River Lodge nr Divundu 4/5/15

Sad to leave Mavunje. Long, tedious drive to get here.

Very nice place.

Nicest 'blutes we've ever come across with little indoor garden and spacious showers. Plenty of room to shower, dry yourself on a dry floor, keep all your clothing and towel dry, etc.

Swimming pool area is also pretty

Decided to treat ourselves to supper at the lodge: pea soup, spare ribs and veggies with lovely salads topped off by chocolate delight. Mmmmm!

11 Nunda River Lodge nr Divundu 5/5/15

Relatively early to bed. Nice ambience with river flowing over Rapids nearby. Woke at dawn to melodious, if somewhat repetitive, robin chorus.

Quiet day hanging around lodge, pool and campsite. Had a burger from the lodge for lunch.

A youngster befriended Luis. He was fascinated by Real Racing 3 - had to download it and get tips and guidance from Luis. 

Spectacular sunsets in this neck of the woods. Tried something different, Luis' suggestion ... use flash for foreground. Quite like the effect

Anyone who knows us well will know that I'm neurotically anti light and Luis is neurotically pro light. Tonight he had the hanging light above the braai area on and walked into it. Had me giggling. I was teasing him that if the light had been off, he would have "seen" it, only to be told it's the fourth time he's walked into that light today ... the other three occasions in broad daylight!!!

9 Mavunje nr Kongola 3/5/15

Slept reasonably well.

Took a 15km drive to Mudumu Game Reserve. On the tar road which cuts through the reserve, we had a lovely roan sighting.

Decided to go into the reserve. Road in some areas was thick sand ... really felt like we were off the beaten track. Saw some hippo and nothing else!
Stopped off at Kwando Camp to try our luck for breakfast. No such luck ... too late! Place is nice but very commercial compared to Dan's.
Proceeded to Kongola and had fried chicken and chips from a roadside Chicken Hut.

Went out on boat with Dan at 15:30. No ellies but plenty of birds and hippos. Dan's tilt and trim function (on his boat motor!) has packed in. Compounded with water level being down ... Luis and Dan had to get off the boat and push or pull it through the narrower channels. I've heard of horsepower but we had 2 manpower.

I was desperately trying to obtain a pic of a little bee eater in flight. We went to a place where they hang out in big numbers, I called it Bee Eater Avenue. I must have had over 100 attempts. This was my "best" result. They're contrary little blighters.

The Pied Kingfisher was a little easier

Magnificent sunset as always. Later, the full moon was up and Dan remembered that last year our boat ride was also during full moon.

Had a run in with some hippos ... Very exhilarating. Remember the tilt and trim problem ... It involved manual adjustment locking the adjusted position into place. The motor was tilted quite high to clear some shallow water. End result is when we needed to reverse due to angry hippos, the prop cavatated so .... no reverse. Much pounding on the water with paddles and the hippos fled. Adrenalin pumped! No pics, happened so quickly.

Safely back at camp around 7ish. Dan joined us for late supper. Great day!

8 Mavunje nr Kongola 2/5/15

Luis caught a small tiger last night ... scratched his legs to hell and gone getting it out of the water.
Nothing quiet about Namwi at night, that's for sure. Hippos, owls, bats, frogs: all contribute to a cacophony that can be quite painful on the ears. Add fruit bats eating the yellow soft nut type fruit on the tree above us, dislodging nuts that boing on the roof of Brutus and you're looking at a restless night but ... all good! Said bats poop yellow all over the place, even had in my hair this morning.
Got to Dan at 10:30 - he's on his way out for day trip on boat and then a .... wait for it .... night on the town ... in Kongola!!?? Boxing is on!
Spent a (nother) relaxing day. Can't do too much in this heat.

Our lounge, dining room and bedroom.

Baby yellow belied bulbul

7 Namwi Island, nr Katima 1/5/15

Early to bed .... Early to rise ...

Woke at 5 to the melodic duet of African Wood Owls, intermingled with a sporadic huhuhoooo of a Southern White Faced

Forgot to load pic of buff yesterday. Now using different app. This one posts from photo library but images are larger, so I'll slot the buff in here.

I would love a garden setting like Namwi. Beautiful trees, flowers and bird life. Birds have the knack of putting a bough between ones camera and themselves.

Retz's Helmeted Shrike and Schalow's Turaco are 2 of the more colourful birds we've seen today.

6 Namwi Island, nr Katima 30/4/15

No sign of what caused the huge furore last night.
Pleasant ride along the Chobe highway with decent sightings of sable, buffalo and hyena. Elephant and ground hornbill,as well but wrong angle for photographs.
Stocked up on provisions in Katima and organized data/sim for mifi. That took at least an hour!
Our oasis still looks the same and there appears to be only one other camper here. Nice!
No luck with fishing for Luis.
More people pulled in, still reasonably quiet.