Today Pamuzinda was almost toast. Literally!

When I first arrived at Pamuzinda, we had a fire in the vlei (dried-up water-course) in front of the hotel, and the wind was blowing it towards the building, so everyone at work that day grabbed a branch and started beating the fire out.

The thing is the hotel is entirely roofed with thatch, so a spark could have sent the whole place up in smoke. Enthusiasm was pretty much the word for it that day . . .

It was such a close thing that we even hauled the cooks out of the kitchen and gave them branches to beat the fire with . . . . . . . .

Combining our thatch roof with fire is something we try to avoid.

In fact, in 2010 the central section of the Lodge had a fire which destroyed the bar, restaurant and kitchen. These were re-built at considerable cost, and much improved the look of the hotel.  But we are very aware of fire.

This morning there was a frantic knock at my door at about 06.30, and a very panicked kitchen porter standing outside informed me "Sir, the hotel is on fire" - my heart stopped beating for a moment or two.

I even said a rude word.

Rushing to the hotel, I found smoke hanging in the air, and Cosmos the waiter and Akim the gardener on top of the roof with a fire extinguisher, the last tendrils of smoke wafting into the cold winter sky. Apparently flames had started pouring from the chimney, and a couple of embers had landed on the thatch - setting it on fire. Akim had tried to connect a hosepipe, but no-one told him that our borehole had burned out the motor the previous day. There was no water.

He then ran to the back of the hotel and grabbed a ladder, and with Cosmos he climbed to the top of the roof in 2 stages. They hauled a fire extinguisher with them, and when I arrived they had managed to put out the fire.

By the time they had managed to set up the ladder, haul it up to the next level, all the while carrying extinguishers, and walk along to the chimney, the fire had been going for about 5 minutes. The flames were about a foot and a half high, and growing.

From the time that the flames had first been noticed to my arrival had been just 5 minutes, and the guys had it under control.

Really impressive.

I called the Parks Manager who arranged for our Fire Bowser to come down to the Lodge - this is a huge water tank with a pump on it. We then  ran a hosepipe to the top of the roof, and thoroughly wetted down the area that had burned.

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos until everything was pretty much under control - but here is my morning, as it happened today . . . .

Framed against the morning sky with smoke still hanging in the air, the 2 gardeners, Akim and Square, hose down the area next to the chimney where the flames had been burning 10 minutes earlier:

The roof is quite high, but Akim and Square didn't seem too bothered,  chatting to their mates on the ground as they were offered advice and encouragment ...

Our Pamuzinda Fire brigade arrived about 6 minutes after being called. This comprises a water tank on a trailer pulled by a tractor, and though it may not be as smart as the Fire Services in London, Paris and Rome, once we start the water pump - it works just perfectly.

In the picture you can see the ladder, which was first used to get onto the lower roof, then hauled up and set up against the apex of the restaurant roof, so the guys could get up to the top.

So here is our Fire Engine . . . . .

The tricky thing is that the pump is not strong enough for us to spray water that high from ground level, so we had to haul the hosepipe up on top of the roof, before we could use it.

This is fire-fighting Pamuzinda-style!

Which sure puts Gangum-style to shame, no?

Square almost knocked Akim off the roof with the hosepipe.

Once the hosepipe was up on top of the roof, it was a simple matter to stroll along the apex of the roof to the chimney where the fire had started.

Then it was a matter of spraying water until there was absolutely no smoke coming from the thatch.

As I observed in my book, any tragedy in Africa - car crash or whatever, is sure to pull a crowd, and a fire on the roof is no exception!

The kitchen and dining room staff happily abandoned breakfast preparations, and they watched Square (one of the gardeners) climb back up the ladder to the top of the roof - half expecting him to come crashing back to earth. At this stage the ladder was balancing on the thatch of the lower level roof. (Thank goodness we don't have Health and Safety Regulations in Zimbabwe, or we would have burned to a crisp!)

Of course, as always, lots of advice and encouragement was offered by the various onlookers.

Everyone in Africa is an expert!

Getting down again was a little more tricky - and to my amazement Square and Akim decided the ladder was too dangerous (which I guess it was as no-one was supporting the base) and they just clambered down the thatch roof.

I am glad they were there - I would have pooped myself if I had had to do that.

Truly.

At least we saved the hotel. Though another 10 minutes later it would have been toast. But we saved it.

Which means we have to come to work tomorrow!

Luckily!

Have a great day!

(And don't forget you can see all my old posts at the top right of this page - there are almost 200 to date, and we have passed the 40,000 page-view mark.)

Views from the Deck. At Pamuzinda

Following my last blog posting, a regular reader contacted me and said how home-sick she felt after seeing the view from our Deck featured a week ago. She is now living in England, and said my last post brought back memories of wide open spaces, wild animals, and Africa. She and her husband have special memories of the Deck at Pamuzinda - she spent her honeymoon here several years ago.

Sooooo - here is a collection of photos taken from our deck at different times of the day.

Just to help those of you no longer living here remember the times that were . . . . .

Starting with an elephant swimming in the river just below the dining room at Pamuzinda, as seen from the Deck:

This is another photo of the river taken from the Deck - featuring a couple of canoes heading out for a leisurely paddle. We didn't tell them that there was a rather large elephant swimming just around the corner, and much to our surprise, 5 previously uncoordinated crews discovered they had the ability to paddle backwards in perfect unison!

I have somewhere another photo taken from the Deck of an old buffalo on the island, but I cannot, for the life of me, find it. Sorry for that.

Here follows a selection of photos taken from the Deck at Pamuzinda at various times of day. . . . .

This is again from the Deck . . . . .

The following picture is one of several I have taken of sunset from the Deck at Pamuzinda. My little point-and-click does its best, but I never seem to capture the true colours perfectly. Still - this is just another view from the deck!

And now a photo that has featured before - in another posting, but as it shows the Deck laid up for a breakfast, and as this blog is about the Deck, I figured I might as well add it in. On the floor, you can see Shungu in his new role . . .

Just kidding! Shungu is alive and well, and that rug has been in the bar at the hotel for a long time.

(For those who don't know who Shungu is - please scroll back to the top of the page and click on past blogs to catch up. He will feature again. There are almost 200 previous blogs - just look for the ones with "Shungu" in the title).

And now a photo not taken from the deck.

As most of my friends will know, I have a pathological dislike of driving motor vehicles, and far prefer my motorbike as a means of getting around. In fact I don't drive, and only ride.

The following picture was taken early one morning as I was starting a ride to Harare to take a couple of days off. I normally try to leave Pamuzinda late afternoon, and thus have an extra night at home, but sometimes I have to work the night before, and so I then leave as soon as it is starting to get light. I see some pretty stunning sunrises, for sure!

This, to me, is the quintessential African picture, and I stopped my bike just on the tar road off the dirt track to Pamuzinda at about 05.30 one morning just to take this photo. The colours are glorious, and the silhouettes of African huts framed against the sky should bring back memories for those of you now living in more cloudy climes than you were brought up in!

Remember - this is sunrise, not sunset. . . .

Just not the view you get from the Tube, Metro or Subway, I think? And snapped with my itsy-bitsy little camera. Not bad!

I hope that Tom and Betsy have enjoyed seeing Pamuzinda as it is today, and that some of the photos have brought back memories of their honeymoon all those years ago. And I hope the rest of you have enjoyed seeing a little of my world. Next blog will be on weddings. Or snakes. Or cakes. Or something.

Have a great day!

Wedding snapshots. From Zimbabwe.

Time for another posting from Zimbabwe - and apologies for the silence, but work has been quite hectic and things have been happening. I am now on 14 days' break, for which I am extremely grateful, so hopefully another posting before I head back.

So today will not be on individual weddings, but is a collection of photos from weddings we have done, with a little twist at the end.

The first photo is of a Bride arriving for her ceremony - in a downpour! This was a group of Australians and Zimbabweans who had one of the most 'lively' weddings we have had the honor of hosting.

Of course while it may not be so great for the bride, the rain is good for the plants, and after a gentle shower the flowerbeds are looking spic and span ready for the next wedding group to arrive . . . .

This is the cake for a wedding held at Pamuzinda. The amazing thing is that at every wedding we have hosted, the cakes are different. As those of you who have bought my book (for those that haven't go to http://www.amazon.com/Simon-Herring/e/B009FD0MIS/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1 and page down) can attest, cakes at Zimbabwean weddings take center-stage. You might think that some cakes would be similar to others, but I have never seen a cake looking suspiciously like one from another wedding.

This was the table for a small wedding we hosted for 34 people. The ceremony and reception were both held at Pamuzinda, as opposed to Chengeta, where we normally host our weddings. The balcony overlooks the river, and we managed to fit all the guests at one table.

Finally - our welcoming party generally comprises of one constant -  Leo, the hotel cat. He blends into the background, but is almost always present when the Bridal Party check-in at the hotel

And what a fine cat he is!

So that is a brief zip-though of weddings at Pamuzinda, as opposed to Chengeta. The next posting will be of weddings at Chengeta, and we generally use that as a venue because we have a custom-built marquee which can accommodate fairly large numbers quite comfortably.

The question, though, is this . . . .

Did you see the animals hiding in every photo? And I don't mean just the cat, either!

If you missed them all - go back and have a look. (And I admit that in one photo the rhino and elephant are not real!)

Have a great day!

'Sari for that!' (My incredible fashion tip for all you ladies out there).

Welcome to the 'Sari for that!' blog posting

This is when the African blog returns, and Pamuzinda steps back into the spotlight.

Or at least weddings at Pamuzinda and Chengeta (our lodges) do, because I hope to show you over the next couple of weeks just what we do when we host a wedding here.

And, as an added bonus, I intend giving the girls a fashion tip which may just change the way the world dresses for special occasions! I have to admit I am astonished no-one has ever thought of this before.

So - weddings.

We recently hosted a wedding for 270, and we had 80 people staying with us for 4 days in the build-up to the ceremony. As we only sleep 32 at Pamuzinda and Chengeta respectively, and 20 at Shumba, the folk moved between the lodges for meals.

This was our Breakfast Buffet center-piece for a breakfast for 80 . . .

The fruit salad was served in the watermelon shaped like a swan, and our chef spent considerable time carving the pumpkins - even engraving the name of the host onto one. The wedding was for an Indian bride from Zimbabwe who was marrying a Caucasian groom from Australia.

And because the Brides' family were Indian - the whole week-end consisted of vegetarian food throughout.

On the Cold Buffet we served fruit salad, 2 yogurts, scones, croissants, bran flakes and corn flakes, fruit juices and teas and coffee.

And a special pat on the back for anyone who can tell me why we have the picture  of 2 lions on the wall that we do?



Obviously the picture is there to deter monkeys from stealing fruit from the buffet.

And, yes, it works!

Because we were serving 80 people instead of our usual 32, we also set up a second buffet station on the deck overlooking the river . . .

Did you notice the reflection of the trees in the water?

With guests in-house for 4 nights, the hosts provided lots of entertainment such as Game Drives etc, and they also arranged for dancing girls to come from Harare and provide an open-air spectacle early one evening.
We set up a stage on the grass, waited for the moon to appear over the horizon, and the girls did their thing to the sound of our lions roaring and the crickets going crazy in the background. The lighting was provided by candles in paper bags.

A rather special occasion for our Australian guests I think?

As previously mentioned, the entire week-end consisted of vegetarian food, and a specialist caterer came from Harare to provide for parts of the meals. I thoroughly enjoyed tasting their food - with the exception of the red stuff in the bowl which actually had a warning label on it! (You can just see the warning folded on the side of the bowl).

How hot does something have to be if you consider it necessary to warn people from India about it? Sheesh.

I didn't taste it, but tricked my assistant into gulping down a teaspoon-full of the stuff.

He took a while to recover!

On one of the evenings we put on a 'Mongolian BBQ' overseen by a Cape Buffalo for the Indians and Australians who were in Zimbabwe for the wedding.

A truly intercontinental occasion!

We took our gas rings from the kitchen, and flash-fried julienne of vegetables with sauces and spices - each plate being constructed by the guests from a selection of raw ingredients.

But the purpose of the gathering was a wedding - and so the time came to prepare the marquee, with the smell of incense heavy in the air.

Every wedding we host looks amazing, and this was no exception . . . .

I hope you noticed the serviettes in the wine glasses which have been fashioned to look like birds?

This was very much part of the theme - something I shall come back to.

Just look at the wedding cake!

A peacock - with the tail made up of individual cupcakes - each carefully painted with edible gold paint - which unfortunately my little camera couldn't quite pick up.

But it was stunning!

And now to the reason for the length of this blog - the fruit and vegetable carvings which accompanied and decorated the wedding feast.

These were amazing, and I shall feature a few of them here - purely because they appeal to the hotelier in me!

They were carved by a specialist fruit-and-vegetable-carver who came from Harare, and who spent the entire night before the wedding in the cold-room - quietly carving. Our chef provided the buffet carvings featured earlier, but he was too busy preparing food to be able to carve for the wedding itself.

Enjoy:

and again - showing just how delicate the petals of the watermelon rose were . . .

And vegetables . . . .

Amazing stuff!! The carving below is constructed from a complete watermelon:

So - back to the wedding itself.

Somehow they managed to create a purely Indian feel to a wholly African setting. Garlands of flowers, rampant elephants, and rose cascades all contributed:

Then the question was - 'How should the groom arrive'

Well, we didn't paint them, (and their ears were a little big), but our little family provided their usual delivery service with aplomb . . .

Here are some of the ladies waiting to welcome the bride and groom to the marquee - their distinctive dresses and the garlands of flowers behind them all very much part of tradition & culture. And as mentioned previously, the bird theme was followed through in the bright, colourful and shimmering saris that all the ladies wore.

Again, my little camera tried, and you get some idea of how stunning the ladies looked, but nothing like seeing them in real life.

Kind of like you can never photograph our carpet of stars in the sky at night - just doesn't work.

But I tried . . .

There was an amazing array of dresses - the saris of India.

While the photo below again does justice to the colours, it loses the sparkle of the sequins and gold thread used so much in their clothing.

They literally shimmered in the sunlight like a flock of exotic parakeets.

And I failed to photograph the best one - a midnight-blue with silver beading and miniature sequins

So a whole lot of exotic sights, sounds, and flavors.

Which brings us neatly to the fashion advice I promised at the outset.

My chance to set the fashion world alight - even though I won't get any credit for it.

A most unexpected sight was the Australian ladies (from the grooms' family) - dressed by their Indian counterparts . . . in saris.

Amazing.

So my advice to all ladies out there is this - if you want to make an impact, to really, really cause a stir, arrange for an Indian lady to deck you out in a sari. Because the oriental dress on a Caucasian woman really does work:

Again my little point-and-click fails to do justice, but something to think about? Tough to dance in, to be sure, but what an impact!

A fantastic wedding and the next few blogs I will devote to our weddings.

Because (in my humble opinion) I think the team at Pamuzinda and Chengeta have got this wedding thing sorted! We put on a pretty good show in conjunction with the bridal family - right here in the wilds of Zimbabwe.

Whadd'ya think?

Have a great day!

Shungu the baby zebra - an update.

Lots of silence from Selous, because we have been busy with a couple of weddings which have been taking up much of our time. More of those later, but a quick update on Shungu the baby zebra, as I have had a few queries from a few regular readers of the Blog. Everyone wants to know how he is doing.

He is doing GREAT!

He has stopped tottering around and is strong on his feet. His wounds have almost all healed - just one bite still weeping a little pus but very definitely on the mend. All other cuts are fully covered, and his bruises have faded, judging by his ease of movement. In addition, he has stopped shaking his head as if trying to clear it as I mentioned in my last posting.

He has started walking to the hotel and stays the night at the stables. Just look at how strong he is now . . . .

Shungu has also met the other stalwart of Pamuzinda - Jasmine the giraffe. Jasmine has featured in several previous blog postings. Here are Jasmine and Shungu meeting for the first time on the lawns in front of Reception . . .



Introductions over it was time to settle down to the serious business of finding some food for the morning. Shungu has milk - lots of it, and we use skimmed milk mixed with glucose for him - he drinks it out of a little green bowl. He is costing us a fortune! Jasmine eats leaves and is quite cheap to maintain. (If you don't count the horse cubes she is addicted to).

Apart from the weddings I have been busy with for the past week, we hosted a group from South Africa who stayed one night with us before going to Kariba for a week on Umbozha - our luxury houseboat. We put on a braai for them - lots of meat grilled over open coals and served with lots of salads and accompaniments such as sauces, guacamole, olives, beetroot and garlic bread:

One of the specialties we laid on was 'boerwors' - the literal translation being 'farmers sausage'. These are homemade sausages which are the specialty of the farming community where they are made, and a certain amount of pride goes into the making of them, with secret recipes using spices and obscure ingredients. Ours, obviously, are made from game meat, and you can see them in the square tin, and on the griddle. . . .



So which game meat did we use for our boerwors?

Erm - in this case they were made of zebra meat.

But we didn't tell Shungu.

Have a nice day!

Shungu - kicked to within an inch of his life . . .

Time for another childish post from the wilds of Selous - and this time it is indeed all about kids. In this instance a baby - a zebra baby.

Called Shungu.

He was so young that he still had the remnants of his umbilical chord, and he endured a terrible attack by 2 stallions who tried to kill him. This is normal. When a new zebra stallion takes over a herd - he tries to remove alien genes while at the same time safeguarding against future competition for mares; in this instance 2 stallions banded together and tried to kill one of the foals. (Because of this, a female will often remove herself and her new-born male foal from the herd until it is strong enough to run). A guest on a game-viewing drive managed to film part of the attack, and I will try and get a copy of it.

It wasn't pleasant, but it was nature in the raw.

The guests requested to be removed from the scene, and the guide on the vehicle radio'ed back to Pamuzinda.  The battered foal was picked up by a second vehicle, brought in, and taken to an old dog kennels that we have on the property, where he collapsed to the ground and couldn't move. His eyes were glazed, his breathing was labored, and he was obviously in deep shock.

He was covered with a blanket, and one of the dogs that lives here, Eli - a pointer, stood watch over him for a couple of days, keeping him warm while not allowing any other dogs near.

When the second vehicle arrived, the stallions were still kicking him, and the person who picked him up said he was kicked at least 30 meters in the time it took him to chase off the stallions. It really was unrelenting.

Despite the beating he had taken, he staggered to his feet the second day we had him. . . .

One of the most devastating blows was a kick to the eye which must have left the poor little fellow seeing stars. Certainly he was concussed, and from day one he has been shaking his head as if trying to clear it. As a lion will attest, a zebra has got a really tough skin - and to tear it down to the bone like this, even on a young foal, takes some brute force . . .

That was from a backward kick, and he must have moved his head a fraction because the kick would have been aimed to take out his eye.

One of the stallions took the little foal by the neck with a vicious bite, and threw him several feet into the air; he landed quite a few yards away. There was substantial damage done, and the resulting wounds were deep and painful.

He was bitten in the side as well as his neck, and the stallions kicked him both with their front legs as well as thunderous blows with their back legs - aiming predominantly for his head and chest area. There was absolutely no doubt they were trying to kill him, and his mother could do nothing to stop the assault.

The first positive sign was when he started drinking milk and glucose.

And though Shungu is stronger now, and recovering from the massive beating he took, Eli still keeps a protective eye out for his new best friend.

He was ready to pull me away of he thought it necessary!

We all now think Shungu is going to make it.

The following picture was taken this afternoon - much much stronger than when we picked him up - and though he still shakes his head as though trying to clear it, he is so much more alert now. He still hangs his head, and once he lifts that, we will know for sure that he is well on the road to recovery. Some of the sores on his side have become infected, and he has been given an antibiotic in addition to the gentian violet he was first painted with, and he has another stronger antibiotic waiting in the wings if needed.

Though he took in a lot of milk since arriving, he only urinated for the first 4 days, and on day 5 he was given an enema by Kylie - the Weddings and Events Coordinator for the group. It worked really quickly, and he must have been desperate for a little help, because she had to have several showers after administrating it. (That's a story for another blog!). But at least Shungu isn't all blocked up, and seems to be feeling much better now.

That's why I am posting on him - because I think he's going to make it. Poor little guy.

And for those of you who were wondering what his name means - it is the Shona word for 'heart', 'spirit', or 'guts'. All the qualities shown by this little chap in his short life so far.

Shungu. Of Pamuzinda.

Have a great day!