Yes, this is the right blog...

What is the opposite of Katavi?  You are looking at it.  Pennsylvania.  After five days there, we flew to Miami, rented a car and kept going south. 

In case you missed it, Chada camp is closed for the long rains and we are taking our leave.

As we write this, we are in the Florida Keys, it is 81 degrees ( Farhenheit...when in Rome...), and we are going snorkeling on the coral reefs this afternoon.

More to come...

Now You See It....

Now you don't

Chada is closing for a short while, until the swamps dry up, the grass turns yellow, the clouds roll out and the dry season returns.  Yesterday we waved goodbye to our last guests, the staff standing smart in their Chada Katavi uniforms, smiling broadly as usual.


As the landrover disappeared into the distance, the staff also disappeared into their own tents, only to reappear wearing green cover-all jumpsuits with the word Nomad stamped on the back.  And Chada was brought down in a matter of hours.

Leave nothing behind...

Chada's remoteness is nothing if not well-known, but now we are experiencing an aloneness rarely felt on earth anymore.  Where 24 hours earlier we sat in the glow of the library tent lamps, chatting with our snifter-palming guests, there is now an empty clearing in the shade of the Tamarind trees.               

Soon we too will fly away, leaving just three Chada staff to look after our little patch of wilderness, but for the next four days we will enjoy a silence we have never known.

For six months of dry season, the lions' tawny coats blended with the surrounding grasses in a perfectly matched camouflage, allowing them to roam the short grass plains while still maintaining their stealth. 

Then Katavi started turning green and the lions had to resort to more creative tactics for concealment...some more creative than others, obviously.

As we methodically study the individuals of the different Katavi lion prides, we sometimes give names to certain memorable lions.  I think we can rule out calling this one The Master of Concealment.  Maybe Captain Invisible?   

Fortunately for him, lions are social and he won't have to rely solely on his personal hunting skills to survive.

Laundry Day

Napkins and towels.  Incredible!

Another laundry day at Chada.  We did promise to give our blog followers an inside look at what goes on behind the scenes, so here you go.

We wash the dinner napkins and towels by hand, using a rather expensive detergent labeled as a Highly Concentated Biodegradable Laundry Compound.

Please try to appreciate, next time you are here with starched white cloth folded over your lap as you dine in the candle light, that no animals were adversely affected during the washing of this fabric.  Not that any animals come into contact with our laundry anyway.

Day of the Dudus

Now this is embarassing.  You never see the cobwebs until the sunlight hits them at just the right angle.  By then it's usually too late, and the guests are standing right next to you.

Actually...

Magic silver silken strings are hanging from the wild frangipani trees all around Chada, shimmering in the sunlight.  Alliteration gone wild, I know, but only because it is beautiful beyond my ability to capture photographically.

The tree fairies are back.  I wish we could just tell everyone that, and be believed and keep the magical aura hovering over the camp indefinitely.

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Photo Copyright Picker, Griffiths, Weaving

 Soon the camp will be closed for the rains, and while no one is looking, unobserved metamorphosis will spring up and hundreds of small, soft white butterflies will float above the empty camp.  For today, we only see their silken lifelines and the butterflies-to-be who dangle at the ends of them.

When they have finished feasting on the wild frangipani trees of Chada, they will wrap themselves in silken cocoons and drift off into the unknowing dreamworld existence of the once ugly, soon to be beautiful. 



Like commandos fast-roping out of a helicopter, these guys have devised the ultimate escape plan from marauding wasps and cuckoos who prey on them while they feast on leaves.  They dive from the treetops when they sense danger, then they climb back up their silk safety line when the coast is clear.

When they all dive at once, when the sun just happens to be casting rays through the camp at the purest angle,
it isn't hard to understand why we are fascinated by the spectacle of a thousand caterpillars diving for their lives.

Another Day at the Office

The view from our desks

This is ridiculous.  We didn't sign on with Nomad to sit in the office.  We wanted to interact with wildlife and have adventure.

Turns out it's the same the world over, office, office, office.  Should have just studied business and gone to London, New York, Mpanda...

Well, hindsight is 20/20, but for now we're stuck here in the office, dreaming about the days when we used to...wait...where's my camera? 

Life is good.

Hmmm

 

Not too much to say here, except that none of those are rocks, hippo bodies rather.  What a bold little croc!