Snapshots Of A Day On The Farm .....

Farm fields that stretch on as far as the eye can see ................ straight, prickly rows that seem to lead almost right to the bottom of Mt. Meru .....

Land which goes on forever, dipping and stretching towards the sky .... stretching towards the clouds .... stretching towards ...... nothingness

Hues of pink, purple, lilac, lavender, gold, silver streak the sky as Africa closes her eyes at the end of yet another day ......

And Tessa and Dibble curl up together on 'their' couch in the TV lounge for the night ........................ with not a care in the world

As we sit curled up beside the fire ..... watching the flames, warming our toes, listening to the distant throb of the generator, the cries of the bush babies & perhaps the odd nightjar.

Time for bed now though - for who knows what tomorrow has in store for us ? Because no two days here, are ever quite the same ..............

Zebra On The Farm !

It's so, so dry in the West Kilimanjaro area of Tanzania at the moment, which is where our farm is situated. We've had lots of game coming on to the farm - or passing through it - in their search for grazing and water. We passed this small herd of Zebra when we were leaving the farm the other day for a trip to the city (for baby vaccinations & a bit of shopping !) We also passed giraffe and wildebeest, but they were too far away to get a decent photo. The Zebra though, were right near the road. We have had elephant on our farm for several months now, too. (You can read a post I wrote about them in December - with photo's - over here.)

This is what Mt. Kilimanjaro looks like in our dry, Winter season. This photo was taken as we travelled towards the city - along a wide dirt road, about 15 minutes after leaving the farm. Her peak does not have that much snow on it at the moment. Even after so many years of seeing this magnificent mountain, and living in her shadow, I'm still always amazed by the fact that you can stand in the middle of the arid, hot African bush surrounded by wild game and look up and see a snow capped peak ! But as I've said before - that's Africa for you. A continent of contrasts.

Muddy Roads & Stuck Trucks ....

As I mentioned in my post earlier this week - the rain came down this weekend ............. and messed up all our farm roads again. They turn into a thick, sticky mess when it's like this. I know they don't look that bad in the photo's, but believe me they are a nightmare to drive on, depsite having 4 wheel drive - even our tractors get stuck !

A particularly nasty, muddy bend in the road above. (It's almost guaranteed that someone's going to get stuck here soon !)



At the moment we're busy spraying herbicide on many of the fields to kill off all the weeds etc before planting soon. The farm water truck (above), trails behind the sprayer so that there is enough 'water on tap' for the sprayer to mix the herbicide with - but he got stuck yesterday on the muddy road, so the sprayer had no access to water. Which was just as well, really - because as you can see in the photo above, the sprayer ALSO got stuck ! He was unlucky enough to snap an axle at the same time, though ! So .... no spraying until the vehicles are un-stuck and the axle is fixed !

And Mt Meru - all newly washed after the rain - rose up through the crisp white clouds, and seemed to smile down on us all !

Mountain Views .... From My Garden

A view of Mt. Meru (Africa's 5th highest mountain) early one morning a few weeks ago. Mt. Meru is 4566 metres in height (14980 feet) & last erupted in 1910. Some mornings she is completley covered in cloud & you wouldn't even know that there was a mountain underneath it all ! (One of the reasons why I won't fly in light aircraft anymore !)

Mt. Kilimanjaro is Africa's highest mountain and rises to 5895 metres (19340 feet). If I edit this photo and lighten it, then you can't see the top of her - so I've just left it. Can you see her peeking out of the fluffy, white clouds ? (This photo was taken from our back garden last week in the early evening.)

Just to give you an idea (one more, lightening the photo means that you can't see the mountain) of the location of Kilimanjaro from where our house is - here is a photo showing our back fence and the tops of the banana trees that form a sort of boundary before that. This is where our washing line is situated - I don't think we could ask for a nicer view when hanging out the washing !

Whistling Acacia Trees

A close-up of the Whilstling Acacia golf ball sized 'pods' & the long, spiky thorns which protrude from them !

These Whistling Acacia's can be found in abundance at the entrance to our farm

Thorn trees are very much a part of the African landscape, no matter where in Africa you travel. There are so many different varieties, each one of them beautiful in it’s own right. Many African bush and sunset scenes which you see in travel magazines and on postcards etc, usually have a silhouetted thorn tree at sunset somewhere in/on them - they are a true symbol of Africa !

Dried thorn branches are gathered & used by the local Maasai tribe here to form fences to enclose their livestock at night – they are very effective, too ! Thorn trees also provide homes & food to bird and insect life and a source of shade. (Oh yes - some of them with their long, thick needle-like thorns also provide ideal tyre puncturing material, too !)

We have several different varieties of thorn trees on the farm, but the one which I really wanted to tell you about is the “Whistling Acacia” tree, which I think is one of the more interesting thorn trees. We have these in abundance here, the majority of them are at the entrance to the farm (as the rest have been cleared to make way for crops).

Now, I’m sure that you are wondering why they are called “Whistling Acacia”? Well, each tree (they are mostly short, stubby bush-like trees) has several short thorns running along each branch, as well as longer thorns (around 7 cm/3 inches in length) which protrude out of individual hollow, bulbous “pods” which are also found dotted along the branches. (I call them pods but they are not actually pods as such).

These ‘pods’ (which are about the size of a golf ball) appear all over the tree and there are stinging ants which make their homes inside these pods by making small holes all over the pods so that they can get inside. When the pods are empty and the wind blows, the tree makes a whistling sound as the wind blows through the hundreds of holes (imagine a ‘forest’ of these trees on a windy day !), hence the name “Whistling Acacia”.

It is thought that the reason why the ants choose to live in the thorn tree “pods” instead of on land, is because the trees are usually found in places where the soil is either dry & cracked during the dry season, or very spongy during the rainy season – so it makes better sense for the ants to live in the “pods”. In return for a home in the tree, the ants reciprocate by swarming and stinging any intruders that drop by (like a poor impala or giraffe) looking for a leafy snack !

Isn’t nature wonderful ?!

Elephants On The Farm !

This photo was clearer before I put it on the blog, but blogger makes them smaller so it is difficult to make the elephant out - if you click on the photo to enlarge it though, you should be able to just make out a row of 5 elephants walking

A grainy photo as we could not get too close to them - but here you can just make out 2 of the 5 elephants seen on our farm last week (you can click the photo to enlarge it)

The other day on the way to school, we passed a few giraffe crossing one of the farm roads. Of course as luck would have it, I didn't have my camera with me at the time, so I couldn't record it. I commented to my daughter that she should count herself lucky, as not many children can say that they have to stop to let giraffe pass on their way to school in the morning, as she thinks that things like this are pretty normal and happen to everyone, as it's all she's ever known !

We also have a small group of elephant (never less than 5 or more than 10) which regularly visit the farm (at 3500 acres our farm is not fenced at all), in fact they cause chaos during the bean season as they love eating the bean crops ! (I secretly enjoy the fact that the elephant's eat our beans and return year after year at the same time to graze on them - and always point out to my husband that surely we can afford to lose a few acres of beans to support East African wildlife !)

Anyway, these Elephant are regular farm visitors (they wander through from Kenya) but of course I never have my camera with me when I see them so have not been able to 'catch' them yet. "Oh look !" my husband will say "The Ellies are back again, you should write about them on your blog" well of course I wanted to, but felt that I should back the blog post up with photo's ... which I didn't have up until last week .... so here, finally is the post !

On our way back from town last week, we saw them on the lower portion of the farm. A small family group of 5. They are very scared of cars, so we could not get too close (they have been poached in the past although poaching is illegal nowadays but of course some of these elephants are very old - they live up to 60 years - and as the old saying goes, an elephant never forgets). Also, our roads are quite wet at the moment so we did not want to get stuck with elephant approaching - they have been known to trample and overturn cars here, and kill people on foot. So, hence the somewhat hazy and faraway pictures - but at least you can get the general idea !

The Hippopotamus is Africa's most dangerous animal and responsible for the most deaths here each year, but the one animal which I really fear - and have a great respect for - is the elephant. Fully mature bull elephants reach an average height of just over 3 metres and weigh around 5000 kg's. Elephants have an excellent sense of hearing and smell, although their sight is not that great. They are extremely intelligent animals and are thought to communicate with each other over great distances with a sound which cannot be heard by the human ear (much like whales do) which has been called a 'secret language' and it is a well known fact here that Elephant mourn their dead much as we as human's do, hovering over their deceased loved ones and sometimes even covering them with branches etc. They are truly amazing animals and I count myself lucky that they are frequent visitors to our farm - despite my husband complaining about the amount of beans a single elephant can eat in one night !

The Blue Gum Walk

A row of Blue Gum trees on the "Blue Gum Walk"

You can see more Blue Gum trees to the right of this photo. The white buildings are our junior staff quarters, housing the permanent farm staff

Most farms in Tanzania have Blue Gum trees growing on them, and ours is no exception. They were originally planted as wind breaks, or to mark farm boundaries. Originating from Australia, these trees are members of the Eucalyptus family & grow very quickly, consuming vast amounts of water as they do. They can reach up to 55 m (or more !) in height.

The flowers of the Blue Gum tree are a good source of nectar & pollen for bees, and “Blue Gum Honey” is quite delicious to eat. Eucalyptus oil can be extracted from the leaves and bark of the tree, and the leaves are also known to have antiseptic qualities when applied directly to wounds.

These trees, however, are considered to be an invasive species as they spread quickly and can take over the natural vegetation in an area. They are also very messy trees, as their bark shreds and peels off regularly, littering the ground beneath the trees. (Not great on a nice cultivated lawn !) In some parts of Africa they are being removed and classified as a weed.

Africa has a shortage of trees, with entire forests being wiped out (mainly for firewood & charcoal) in areas where there is no control in a matter of years, so I don’t think that the removal of any tree here is really justified. Well, until us humans get the balance right that is. But will we ever ?

The Blue Gum trees on our farm are home to numerous insects, bird species and bush babies – so I would feel terrible removing these trees, which have grown peacefully here for years without causing much disruption to the environment.

The row of Blue Gum trees pictured in the photo above are on a part of the farm which I call the “Blue Gum Walk”. There is a long row of these trees leading up to our water storage area which continues further along to the junior staff quarters, and this is a pleasant, shady walk to take, even in the heat of the day. (One of the Blue Gum trees in this row has fallen down & my daughter loves to play on it and pretend that it is a boat !)

If you continue along this row of trees, they eventually end and after walking across a short stretch of open bush you will come to the edge of the Kilimanjaro forest, which borders our farm. The forest spills down the Western foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and is teeming with small game. I’ll have to do a post about that sometime in the future, and include some photo’s of this dense, lush forest for you to see.

The Old Country Club

Yes, I live on a remote farm in the middle of nowhere - but it wasn't always like that. This area was one of the richest, most fertile farming areas in East Africa and almost every single farm was occupied and farmed to it's full potential. The local village had a post office & basic shops and almost everything you could need, the farmers had a vibrant social life with 2 country clubs (that I know of) in the area. Regular social events and sporting events were held and provided an escape from day-to-day farming life. People also held house parties on their farms, and would have guests 'from town' to spend the weekend (I've heard of some notorious parties which are still spoken about over 40 years later !)
One of the old country clubs still stands, on a neighbouring farm to ours. The top photo shows the main entrance to the country club - well, where it once was. The first time I ever saw it, I was struck by what a coastal air the old club house had about it, because the architecture and finishes are straight from something on the Tanzanian coast. (I'd love to know who originally designed & built it). This photo directly above, shows the old bedroom areas, where people could stay the night if they came from far (or were unable to drive themselves home !) In the typical style of that time, hotels/clubs were built with one main area housing the dining room/lounge/bar/kitchen and then a separate outside building containing all the guest bedrooms - just a short walk across the courtyard.

These are the doors which still hang at the main (front) entrance to the clubhouse. They are traditional hand carved Zanzibari doors with brass studs - aren't they gorgeous ? The main entrance is reached by a dramatic flight of old stone steps (not pictured).


This room runs the full length of the front of the clubhouse, with a veranda opening off it and it has views out over what must have once been the gardens/playing fields and Mt Meru beyond. I reckon that this room must have been the main dining room. The wooden window frames are all still intact (notice a few glass panes have survived !) and I simply love the old stone floors.

You can see the old trees which still stand, similar to some we have in our own garden (maybe the people who lived on our farm at the time had something to do with that ?) - they were obviously once purposefully planted. These were the clubhouse gardens and playing fields - cricket was always a popular game. (Some of the old buildings behind the clubhouse also look like they could have been stables at one time.)

Of course I wanted more than anything to go inside the clubhouse, to climb the stairs to the top floor (imagine the views from there !) and explore. But the entire building is so rickety and looks like the walls may crumble at any time, I did not want to take that chance and upset something and cause parts of the building to collapse on top of me !

The current owner mentioned to my husband that one day he would like to turn it into a small hotel. Wouldn't that be wonderful ? I bet the old buildings would love to house guests again. If I strain my ears I can almost hear the sound of a piano playing, it's notes spilling out through the crisp Kilimanjaro air as people talk and laugh and the distant tinkle of crystal glasses and fine silverware call them in for a sumptious dinner ......

Hauntingly Beautiful - An Old German Homestead .....

Do you believe that certain places have a 'pull' that just seems to draw you in, as if speaking to you ? I do. Africa is a very spiritual place. One of the reasons (my own belief) is that this is where mankind began - East Africa in particular. When I first laid eyes on the old German homestead on the next door farm (abandoned by the German family who built and lived in it, sometime in the early 1960's) I felt an irresistable pull. I felt as though the house were calling out to me, beckoning me.

So, of course I went to explore it - with 2 female friends who were visiting at the time. We went inside, and it was - eerily - much as I imagined it was all those years ago - still beautiful, yet faded. Tarnished mirrors hang in the main lounges, empty coat & hat pegs hang in the entrance hall - the window panes are broken, the roof is caving in, damp is eating away at the foundations .... the bare rooms echo and beg for their secrets to be discovered .... the once landscaped garden, overgrown. Whose children used to play here, I wonder ? What meals were cooked in the stone floored kitchen ? What events were celebrated here, in what was all those years ago, an even remoter spot than it is today ?

I've travelled to many places in Africa, many different countries on this beautiful continent and I can honestly say that no other place has had this sort of an effect on me. This pull. This little house - when I am there, I am engulfed with a feeling of pure joy and peace. I feel that there are many happy memories here, and the house and surrounding area have a feeling of goodness about them. Goodness, and happiness. Yes, that's it. And, will you look at these views ? The house sits with Kilimanjaro towering over her, and Mt Meru in front. The views are part of what make her so very special ..... imagine waking up to this every day ?! Just imagine !

I ache, I yearn, to know more about this house and the people who loved her. I have sent word out to the villages nearby, asking if there is anyone, a village elder, who perhaps remembers the people who built it and lived here, who would be prepared to come and talk to me, and tell me their stories. Maybe an old staff member or farm worker ? There must be someone still around .... 1960 is not so long ago ......

The farm which the old house belongs to, used to be a diary farm - back in the day. Here above are the old dairy sheds and main dairy buildings. Look at those views, again ! (If you drive along the road pictured, it veers left and eventually takes you to our house - it's within walking distance).

I didn't mention anything about the pull the house had on me when I took my mother-in-law there recently. Yet she turned to me as we stood outside and said "I can feel something here, a spiritual presence, it is a good feeling - can you feel it too ?" So, I'm not the only one who feels it ...... this house speaks .... and as they say 'we all walk in the footsteps of those who have gone before us'. Even if we don't know who those people may be.

I hope that one day, I can find out, and find out the history of this beautiful old homestead. But until then .... well, until then I'll imagine, imagine what it used to be like, and make up stories in my head, about the people who used to live there, and the lives that they might have lead.

(If you'd like to read more about the history I've been able to find out about our farm and house, you can read some posts I wrote a while back over here and here).

Getting Stuck ......

The last Sunday my mother-in-law was here visiting us, we offered to take her for a drive to parts of the farm & the nearby areas which she had not yet seen. (The photo above is of some crested crane, in an area alongside our farm boundary - to give you an idea of what the uncultivated parts of where we live look like. Many years ago, prime diary cattle grazed these lands.)

After living in wild, 3rd world Africa for over a decade now (although it used to be a lot wilder than it is now !) I have learnt some very important lessons. Especially when it comes to road travel. Like, don't ever, ever, ever get into your car without water, snacks, cash, phonecards & a fully charged 'phone (if you are lucky enough to be in an area with mobile 'phone coverage - in the old days, all cars & homes were fitted with HF radios), suncream, blankets and your international medical evacuation card. Seriously ! And no, I am not talking here about a 1 day safari into the bush. It could be as simple as a 5 minute drive up the road. Since becoming a mother, the list has grown to include things like - basic first aid kit, wet wipes & toddler entertainment (colouring books, crayons etc).

So, when we popped out for a 'quick' Sunday afternoon drive on the farm, I was prepared enough to survive in the bush for a week if necessary. Which was just as well, really ....

Can I just pause here to add that as we had decided to take my car on this little drive, I offered to drive but my husband said "Well, we might be doing some off road driving along old roads which I'm not quite sure where to find, so it's better that I drive". Which was a bad move, in hindsight - because I certainly would not have driven the car straight into a furrow. *Ahem*

As we approached it, it just looked like a shallow little stream ... until THUMP ... we were stuck. Tyres spinning, water spraying, we all got out to have a look. It didn't look good. Miles from nowhere, and it being a Sunday no tractors out on the fields or farm staff on duty. So we tried to get the car out every way possible. All to no avail.

But, even in remotest Africa you are never alone for long. Sure enough, along came a friendly chap on a bicycle - on his way back from Church. He willingly offered to help. A few minutes later, another 2 men appeared on foot, also en route back from Church. Hemmed, one of our gardeners also stopped to help us as he wheeled a large bag of maize meal past on his bicycle. We soon had a whole team of cheerful, willing helpers.

My mother-in-law - who has several years experience of driving on dodgy African roads behind her - started giving orders to everyone in Shona (A Zimbabwean language - so everyone just stared blankly at her !) & gathering up dry grass to wedge behind the wheels. My daughter looked on in amusement, and to keep her occupied I started teaching her jumping games across the furrow.


After much effort, and over an hour, it took 4 strong men to "heave ho !" and the car was out .... however, just before this momentous event, I was getting hot, so I took my daughter to sit under the shade of a lone acacia (thorn) tree in the distance. (My mother-in-law was worried about her allergies, so opted to stay near the car). We sat and talked about our surroundings - Kilimanjaro was covered in cloud before us, but parts of her would peek out every now & then .... we discussed thorns, & livestock tracks, & all the different types of grasses and creepy crawlies ("Are there any snakes here, Mummy ?") & it was a special time .... I mean, I wouldn't willingly sit under a thorn tree in the blazing heat on a normal day, chatting away to my daughter !

The photo below was the view we had just as the car had been lifted out of the furrow, and we were making our way back from the tree, towards it.

Everyone was cheering, and we told them all to go to Frank's local shop / shebeen / bar & get themselves a couple of soda's each on us ... and we gave them a little cash as a thank you, too. I felt so bad as the men were all in their smart "Sunday clothes" which were now splattered with mud ....

My mother-in-law commented on how friendly and helpful the Tanzanians are, they weren't at all put out by the fact that stopping to help us was eating into their precious Sunday. I bet they had a great story to tell at their homes that night ... about the crazy mzungu bwana (white man) who was silly enough to drive his car into a furrow, and the crazy mzungu bibi (elderly lady) who spoke a strange language to them and the crazy mzungu mama (white lady) who took photographs of it all. Ha !

I think that the next time we decide to go for a 'short drive' on the farm, I'll get behind the wheel instead. ('cause I would never do anything as silly as drive into a furrow, you know !)

Dry, Dusty ..... Africa

It's dry here at the moment. So, so dry. It seems a world away from my post earlier this year about Africa rain. But, as I've said before - that's Africa for you - all or nothing, drought or flood, feast or famine - there's never really any middle ground when it comes to Africa.

The photo above is the main entrance to our farm (after you've just driven in to it & are looking back). The main road runs past it - this road will eventually take you to Kenya, if you keep on driving far enough. That small hill on the other side of the road is also on our farm, as it continues across the road. Our main entrance is deliberately unmarked and inconspicuous.

As you drive through our 'entrance', this above, is the road you see before you. We grade & maintain our own farm roads, which is why they are in such good condition (not lumpy and bumpy and potholed !) Don't you love the blue Tanzanian sky ?
This is what the unfarmed parts of the farm look like. You can just make out a few local village houses on the horizon - these are people who live on the outskirts of the farm.
Here's a view (above) which I haven't posted on the blog before. This is the view you get when you approach the main part of the farm from the back road - to the left (white tin roofed house) is where Justin lives, along with my husband's senior farm hand. The buildings to the right, are the farm workshops & between them - where you see that gap - is the entrance to our house. (Our garden is like an emerald green oasis in the middle of acres and acres of dry, brown earth.)

Nothing is signposted, and the farm entrance off the main road is quite hard to find - so I guess what I'm trying to say, is that if you're planning on unexpectedly popping in for tea, let me know beforehand so that I can email you some clear directions (like "turn right at the large Acacia tree and continue past the 3 large rocks on your left") else you might just get a bit lost *wink* Okay ?

Changing Seasons .....

It's interesting to see the changing seasons here on the farm ... the photo above is taken of our house in summer this year (with a field of wheat in front of it) and the photo below (although it's not taken from exactly the same spot - but you get the general idea) is one taken just a few weeks ago, quite sometime after the wheat had been harvested.

The weather this week has warmed up considerably - the garden is slowly getting a little greener and there is a lot of wind coming off the mountain ... hopefully bringing in more warm weather. The wind rattles the house, dry twigs fall and scrape along the roof and tree's creak as they sway (I'm always nervous that one is going to fall on the house as we sleep ! This happened a couple of years ago and completely destroyed Justin's home at the back of our garden - thank goodness he was not in it at the time).

I hope that you are having a wonderful weekend .... wherever you may be in the world, and whatever your season !

Morning View From The Farm Over Mt Meru

Mt Meru just peeks through the clouds. If you enlarge the photo & look just above the line of trees, you can see the magnificent hills & valleys leading to her peak.

If you enlarge the photo & look beyond the tree tops, you'll get an idea of the vast (almost ocean like) expanse of land which surrounds the farm. Aside from the 2 mountains, it's pretty flat in this area. Flat and vast. (You could get lost in all this space - you really could !)

No photo or video could ever do the magnificent views we have from our front veranda (or from anywhere on the farm, for that matter) any justice. I have posted a lot of sunset and general scenery photo's from around the farm on my blog, as well as some of the 2 mountains which rise to either side of us - Mt Meru and Mt Kilimanjaro, but those have only ever been taken in early morning or evening light.

These 2 photo's above were taken earlier this week on a clear day in the mid morning. This is the view which we have from our master bedroom, TV & Main lounge and front veranda. (I actually took these from the front veranda). The mountain top which you can just see peeking above the cloud is that of Mt Meru (Africa's 5th highest mountain) which as the crow flies, is about 30 to 40 km's from our farm and last erupted in 1910. (I tell you, 1910 doesn't seem so long ago when you have an earth tremor rumble and shake through the foundations of the house and you look up and see Mt Meru dwarfing the entire farm !) You can read a post I wrote about Mt Meru earlier this year over here.

If you click on the photo's you can enlarge them and see more detail. Like the blue/steel grey colours of the gently sloping hills and valleys leading up to Meru's peak. It is like a patchwork quilt of different blue's ... impossible to describe, and even though I'm used to the view it still made me catch my breath when I saw it this time, because no two views are ever quite the same.

A magnificent mountain - a magnificent moment. I hope you enjoyed sharing it with me !

Sunday Barbecue, A Drive on the Farm ... & Kilimanjaro Views

Would you like to see how we spent this past Sunday ? Come on then, I'll show you what we got up to .... firstly, we decided to have a barbecue for lunch, as my husband was at home for the day. It was a bit cold and overcast but nevertheless ... we fired up the 'barbie' and cooked some lightly seasoned steak and chicken pieces (Thai Chilli marinade for us & a Tomato/Worcester marinade for our daughter) and garlic rolls on the hot coals. I also made a potato salad and some coleslaw to go with it .... mmmmmm .....

After lunch we went for a short drive on the farm. Now a lot of you lovely people who read my blog regularly have been emailing me lately & asking me to please post some more farm/life/Tanzania photos ... & I'm happy to oblige - so I took this photo above for you to see part of the farm that does not have any crops on it - it's mostly just wild African bush. Such a pity it wasn't a clear day as the view here - right in front of you - is of Mt Meru (Mt Kilimanjaro is now behind you) and the plains beyond .... you can see lots of acacia (thorn trees) in the distance .... one of my favourite spots on the farm & every time we go there, my husband & I look at each other & say "Ooohhh ... maybe we should erect a few luxury tents on wooden platforms & start a small safari camp out here - it's just a PERFECT spot for it !" Ha ha ... I'll admit it's still in my blood (hotels/guests/tourism) & I'll "never say never" but right now ... well no, not right now. Not a safari camp, at least .....

Oh yes, thought I should also just point out those 2 dirt tracks on the bottom left of the photo - can you see them ? Oh, good ! That's what most of the roads on the farm look like ... not the 'main' ones but rather the ones which run between the crop fields and less cultivated areas. A little confusing at first, but you soon learn your way around ! (With trusty handheld GPS close at hand of course !!)

Then of course, not soon before the sun was due to go down and as we were making our way back up towards the farm house, Kili showed herself to us. I was standing on the edge of a field of yellow flowering safflower when I took this (which reminded me oh gosh, I haven't posted about the safflower crops on my blog yet, so will do so soon ....). I'll be honest with you, she's not the most attractive mountain, even though she is Africa's highest peak. She stands alone, quite oddly - as if she's just been dropped there by someone. Or left behind ?

Well the light was now fading fast, so I couldn't take any more photo's. We went back to the house instead and got the fire going in the lounge, ready to settle in for the night. Supper was leftover's from the barbecue and we had a nice, early night in preparation for the coming week.

I hope that wherever you were, you too had a wonderful and relaxing Sunday in your part of the world, & that you enjoyed sharing part of mine with me .... !

Come For A Quick Walk With Me .....?

As you can see above, the dogs heard the word 'walk' so now we HAVE to go ! Come on Josie, Zonde, Mbwenya .... but where's Dibble ? Oh ... there he is ! Walking up ahead with my daughter - those two are inseparable !

Now, if we just walk up to the back garden & out the gate towards the workshops ... look to your left - there's "Kili" as she's affectionately known. Can you see the snow on top of her ? She's quite elusive you know, we hardly ever see her in the late afternoon - usually just early mornings. Okay, if you don't mind ... let me just stop & take a photo of her ..... oh my, look at all the workshop staff staring at us. They must be wondering who you are ! Let's *wave* at them .... "Jambo !" They think I'm a bit odd, according to Justin - he says they want to know why I take photo's of everything all the time, like some mgeni (guest) when this is my home- hah ! Did I tell you about the shop Justin's just opened up at the workshop ? His first ever business venture. No ? Oh okay, remind me to tell you about it soon ....

Okay, now the sun is going to go down soon and we have a great view of that from our veranda, so let's head on back to the house ("Why does Mama Lynda like to take so many pictures of the sun every day, too?"). Let me put the kettle on, so that we can have a cup of tea. Oh sorry, would you rather have a beer ? A gin & tonic ? Fine ! Oops, sorry dogs, not such a long walk tonight ..... we have company ! Right ... look at that ... the sun is sinking fast - isn't it beautiful ?

Ah - look at that magnificent sky - those colours ! Let's sit here for a while until it's completely dark .... we might be lucky and hear the bush babies who live in the ancient jacaranda tree beside the veranda ... we could even SEE one tonight, they've been quite active lately ! Oh and yes, can you hear the distant clink of cowbells ? Those are the Masaai, herding their livestock back to their boma's for safety as darkness approaches ... and that soft humming sound is the sound of the combine harvester's coming in off the fields for the night ... and the distant throbbing 'putt putt putt' of the tractor and trailer, loaded with farm staff all coming home for the night. If you listen carefully, you can hear their excited chatter !

That deep, smokey smell ? Oh that ! It's the wood fire in the donkey boiler, Simon's getting the fire going so that we can have hot water for baths in a short while .... he throws a few mielies (corn cobs) on the fire sometimes too, as a snack for himself. Caught my daughter eating one with him the other evening - no wonder she didn't finish her supper that night !

Right, there the sun goes .... almost gone now. Soon it will be dark. You know, I'm not sure if you've heard this saying before "To touch Africa once, is always to carry a piece of her with you", but I hope that you've enjoyed this little piece of Africa today and as we say here "karibu tena !" ... welcome back, anytime - you're more than welcome & it was my pleasure to show you around ....