A picture perfect Mahale day.

Our first guests of the season arrived on a beautiful Mahale day. Our guides and I were there to meet them.

It was a smooth landing and the Tanganyika flying company pilots were very happy with the upgraded airstrip.

Our guests enjoyed the 1.5 hour boat cruise to the lodge and we are about to have some afternoon tea, or a glass of ice cold wine on the beach.

A beautiful day for washing

Two days to go before the first guests arrive and the guys are finishing the last major job which is washing everything.

 

Normally we don’t do this on the beach but with no guests around we take advantage of the open space and the second largest body of fresh water, Lake Tanganyika.

Don’t worry, at NOMAD we only use biodegradable products, fish friendly.

New season re supply

At the beginning of every new season we receive tones of new supplies. A truck is sent from Arusha to Kigoma and all the goods are loaded into a big wooden dhow boat and then sailed down the lake to us at Mahale. Our problem is that the busier we are the less weight there is on the incoming planes for re supply. Therefore, we need to stock up as much as possible before hand.
As you can see our supply boat also doubles as passenger boat.

Our boat arrived on Tuesday and its been a frantic two days counting and storing.

Our holiday

I can here you all asking what did Steve and Kiri do on there annual leave.

Well, we toured the American South West National Parks.

The Big Sur

 Zion 

Bryce.

  

Yosemite

To tired to smile.

Grand Canyon

It's a long way up!

Sequoia and Kings Canyon.

And finally, Borrego Springs.

We also stopped by a few cities.

And did I mention the week in Jaimaca.

Pre season repairs

I hope our first guests don’t mind a view from their toilet’s.

Just joking, the guys are busy replacing the walls which need to be pulled down after the rains each year. This is due to the infamous Mahale mould.

Our biggest job is replacing all the Lodge walls, the material used is a natural sturdy grass we call Mirago. Local villagers weave the grass together creating a solid wall. It takes about 200 by 3m x 2m sheets every year.

River Crossing

I have had several people ask me who the Chimp is jumping over the river in an earlier blog.

Hassan our tracker confirms it was Carter.

My guides tell me that Carter although one of the biggest Chimpanzees in the M community has no real ambition and is not highly ranked. Just like us some Chimps want to be President and some are happy just to fit in. 

Here is a great shot of Primus attempting the same crossing. This guy is a real up and comer and may one day challenge for Alpha male. Watch this space!!

He managed to get across without falling in.

Back to work

Kiri and I arrived back in Mahale on Monday and we are busy getting the camp ready for our first guests who arrive on the 30^th of May. We came down the lake by boat and were lucky with the weather this time. It seems the rains have finally finished and the forest is looking green and spectacular. I hope to send our trackers, Hassan and Suleman into the forest later this week to find out where the Chimpanzees are hiding. I talked to the Japanese researchers today and they tell me that the Chimpanzees are healthy and doing well!