Off to Kasungu Town

Sunday morning and I got up early to see the sun rise.

There was a group of hippos grazing on grass on the opposite side. Baboons were sitting on the grass, chasing the birds away and large deer were grazing on the grass higher up. 

Later we had breakfast and wondered if we would be lucky enough to see the elephants before leaving.

Ten minutes later one family appeared on the near side - our side of the lake - on the left hand side, then another family on the right hand side. Gradually, the two families met in the middle and there were 28 elephants greeting each other, playing in the water and making rumbling noises just a few metres away from us.

Elephants and Hippos

Saturday morning we met a young man in a green ranger outfit with a gun and after a safety talk set off on safari. After ten minutes we saw an elephant behind the trees. Gradually, eight elephants emerged from the bush - a whole family with male, female, teenagers and babies. One young male flapped his ears and made a noise and the ranger ordered us to climb up some steps to show we were retreating. From this safe area we watched them as they grazed on leaves and slowly moved past us. 

Over the rest of the safari which took nearly three hours we saw various deer and a huge number of birds which took flight as we approached - it was exactly like a David Attenborough video. 

Finally, we saw hippos. It was without doubt one of the most exciting three hours I have ever had. There were eight hippos in the water and every now and again they raised themselves up and bellowed.

Videos and pictures will have to follow as I cannot connect the iPhone or camera to the iPad so anything not videod or photographed from the school iPad can't be attached to the blog. 

KASUNGU NATIONAL PARK

Arrived at the national park after a long drive mostly off road on sand roads. One of the surprising things is how we perceive Africa to be the land where giraffes roam, lions lie under trees and elephants trample through the jungle. Not an animal in sight! Even after we entered the park...nothing!! 

We arrived and saw roundel huts set in front of a beautiful lake. Still no animals - not looking good for safari the next day. 

The young manager greeted us and told us to take a torch at night when walking to the restaurant area in order to check for snakes and hippos! And yes there are spiders she assured us 😳.

Having checked the roundel for spiders we rushed outside to look for animals.

This is a termite hill or mound.

That black lump in the water? It's a HIPPO!! Heavens they are noisy. Not all the time but every now and again a noise like a pig/donkey/goose.

This is elephant dung so we knew elephants were about but we might be lucky to see them on a two day visit...we were unbelievably lucky as you will see in the next post.

ARRIVED IN MALAWI

After a long flight on an enormous plane, I and several other teachers from Kent arrived at Addis Ababa airport in Ethiopia at 6 am. To our surprise it didn't feel hot outside the plane as we disembarked. We had a two hour wait for our next plane taking us to our final destination - Malawi. 

Leaving Addis Ababa

Ethiopia from the plane:

To get to Malawi we had to fly over Tanzania ... Was this black mountain top, peeking up above the clouds Mrs Penfold's mountain?

Before I continue I promised to say a special hello to DANNY!!

We flew over lake Malawi which is HUGE and then had a rather scary landing at Lilongwe - I feel the pilot should practise his landing skills...heavens! It is a very small airport so it wasn't hard to find Chris Knott and all the Starfish staff waiting for us. By now it was hot and the sun in Africa is low in the sky, big and bright if not dazzling! 

Today we have driven round Lilongwe town and we went into supermarkets very like ours (except there were quite a lot of police standing outside the shops). We saw people and children dressed in smart clothes but one young boy asked us for money and said 'Boss, boss I'm very hungry'. We saw another boy who walked with crutches because he had polio when he was very little. English children are given medicine so we don't get that disease anymore. All the babies and little children are carried on their mother's backs in a sling made from material which they love!

Tomorrow we travel to Kasungu national park to go on safari but I am sorry to say we might not have much internet access after this. 

If not I will post after I get back with more pictures. 

SPECIAL HELLO TO ELEPHANT CLASS.

Countdown

Countdown to the big adventure is 84 hours. 

I have set up this blog to keep in contact with everyone at Sissinghurst so fingers crossed and there should be diary updates, photos and videos  when and where possible - it will require internet access which may be variable but I will do my best!

Today is packing day: Malaria tablets; Deet; flip-flops; pictures for story telling in Boma school...

My only worry is... 

Hope I don't see many of these!!