One a minute...

Malaria continues to take many lives prematurely here in Africa and at present one person (mainly children) dies every minute across the continent. It is completely avoidable and thankfully compared with year 2000 numbers have halved.

While Linda and Gary Nishioka were staying with us here in Greystoke a few weeks ago they decided thoughtfully to donate $50 towards some Malaria medication. This money has bought 12 packets of Coartem potentially saving just as many lives here in the local community around Katumbi village.

 Nurse Elizabeth at Katumbi clinic is extremely grateful for this and any help our guests can provide. She is overwhelmed by the generosity of outsiders to the area here just north of the Mahale mountains on Lake Tanganyika.

Flight of the "Big Bird"

It was nearly 4 months ago now that Big Bird swam in from Lake Tanganyika and promptly waddled up our beach here to the astonishment of lunching guests.
There had been a big storm that day and he may have been sucked up into a large cumulonimbus storm cell and relocated on the lake. The nearest flock of  Great White pelicans is considered to be in Katavi national park around 150kms away as the crow flies.
 He was young but already large, maybe 3 months old then. He couldn't fish without his flock. This species doesn't dive for fish, instead they corral the fish co-operating with each other and then scoop the cornered prey into their large stretchy pouches below the bill. So we have been given permission from Tanapa, the park authority to feed him.
 We only recently worked out that he is a male due to the size and shape of his bill and the colour of his facial mask (pink). He was all brown when he arrived but the colours are really coming through now and his pouch, legs and face are changing to bright yellow and pink, the colour of the mature birds. The male is also larger and can grow to 12 or 15 kgs and have a wingspan of around 3.6m. Only the Wandering Albatross has a greater wingspan of around 3.8m. So this Great White boy of ours is amongst the largest flying birds on the planet, up there with the Marabou Stork and Andean Condor.
 He didn't fly for some weeks but with encouragement he got the idea. We aren't sure how much flying he may have already done before arriving here but he was pretty shaky in his next attempts on the beach. We would run up and down flapping our arms and simulating flight for him. He would look on curiously until one day he showed us how it was done! It was short and uncontrolled and we would look away when he was landing as he seemed to not distinguish between ground and air speed coming in way too fast and endangering our beach furniture.

The link below demonstrates some of his more advanced flying prowess. We are so proud of him and he is such a clever bird. He can FLY!

Kayak fishing fun

If your legs are tired after chimp trekking and you want to use your arms instead we suggest time spent on the lake in one of our very bouyant and stable kayaks targeting the quite large Tanganyika Perch!

You'll know when you've hooked one as the line will soon be exiting your reel at an incredible rate. Make sure you have a couple of hundred metres available and remember to tie a good knot at the end!

These Forktails can grow to 11 or 12 kgs and around a metre in length. They hit the lures like a freight train swimming hard and then jumping to throw the hook.

Bringing one ashore is satisfying indeed. Our chefs await eagerly your return to clean and prepare the trophy catch for the dinner table that evening.
It's just one of many awesome experiences our guests can enjoy while staying between the lake and mountains.  

Laptops on the lake shore

A very generous donation of 9 laptop computers made its way to Katumbi primary school yesterday here in remote western Tanzania midway down on lake Tanganyika. The computers were kindly and thoughtfully provided by Chris Martin of Newbury Investments, UK.
 Katumbi school have been preparing a new classroom which will become a computer studies room. Probably no other west Tanzanian primary school could boast such a thing! The lucky children will learn vital skills which will give them a much better chance in life if they decide to move away from their families fishing and subsistence farming lifestyles one day.

The Nomad Trust are heavily involved in projects in our local village. If you would like to help here is a useful link to get involved http://www.nomad-tanzania.com/about/nomad-csr/how-you-can-get-involved

Outside of M group

The Tanzanian parks authority plans to start habituating Y-group who's territory is just north of the already habituated M-group. Y has about 40 members and does already share some of M's females who migrated there which may make the process easier. No bribes of food will be offered so it will be a case of living and spending a lot of time as close as possible to relax them in the presence of humans. It should take around 2 years.
 N-group to our south have been seen these last days by our boat-cruising guests close to the lakes edge. A nice bonus while out fishing and relaxing with a cold beverage.

Christmas in Greystoke

Two very happy families shared Christmas with us here in Greystoke this year. Luckily our guests had all behaved during the year and Santa managed to navigate his sleigh to our remote shores. He seemed to enjoy his glass of Amarula left out and reindeer stocked up on carrots for the onward flight.
Our families had a wonderful time with excellent chimping, relaxing lake cruises and leisurely swims in the deep open water.
 Even Big Bird enjoyed the festivities and was thankful our turkey arrived on time. Christmas in Mahale was truly magical!

Monkey hunting

Guests have been enjoying fairly relaxed forest walks on the lower slopes nearby to encounter our hairy cousins lately but as mango stocks in the camp trees are depleted, alternative food sources are being exploited.
With a lack of ripe mangos the red colobus monkeys have become very nervous as hunting parties of male chimps have been seen actively pursuing them. This is a very raucous and chaotic spectacle as the chimps use noise, decoys and general confusion to single out the young colobus they prefer. Captors get to keep the preys head but the rest goes to Primus who then distributes the scraps amongst those others who he needs to keep on side with.
 Bonobos arm seems to be nearly fully healed and Darwin remains thoughtful and has some great new poses for the cameras.

                                                           Primus with a red colobus

                                                               Darwin posing again

                                                                       Gwekulo