There is a place for all of God's little creatures - right next to the potatoes & gravy!

It is time for me to show you a little of what I actually do for a living. It is not all fun and games running around with a camera, let me assure you.

My job title is 'Hospitality Manager' and I am responsible for upgrading guest hospitality and service within the Dunhuramambo Group - comprising Pamuzinda Safari Lodge, Chengeta Safari Lodge, Shumba Guest Lodge, and then 5 Houseboats on Kariba - which I hope to be focused on in the new year. Right now I am based at Pamuzinda.

We do have have a few cracks which I am trying to fix, but generally our products and service quality are very good. Right now I am focused on upgrading services and standards as much as possible, slowly but surely. And the one side of the business I enjoy, as those who know me well will attest, is the food. So this week is all about the food at Pamuzinda, and I shall feature a recent menu.

Here, then, the dining room. In the background is the swimming pool, and the roof is thatched:

The starter was a squid pocket filled with minced and herbed wildebeest meat, served with roasted cherry tomatoes and hollandaise sauce. A kind of surf and turf thing, African-style . . .

In the background above you can see the roasted squid pockets before we sliced them.

For the fish course we served crumbed goujons of hake with a lettuce and grape salad. I also made a tartare sauce (not shown) with mayonnaise, onions and gherkins, into which I put a little horseradish sauce. One of my more successful experiments!




Then the main course comprised of roast impala with spinach & feta stuffing, served with gem squash, roast potatoes, a red wine gravy and rosella jelly:

Being such a long way from town, our meat-sourcing tends to be in supermarkets that would be unrecognizable to my American and European audiences. Suffice to say we do not have natural predators here, (the lions are kept in enclosures), and we only 'buy' old males from the shelves . . .

Of course, such unconventional shopping tends to lead to lead.

In the food.

If you know what I mean.

So we have to be very careful to trim our meat properly when it arrives . . .

Good save!

That may have caused a few toothaches, methinks.

In conclusion - several folk have contacted me through the blog who I lost touch with ages ago. If you enjoy following it - please do me a favor and click on 'share' below and the facebook icon. Maybe I will find more old friends popping up. Thanks.

Have a great day!

The bugs I live with are . . .BIG. And lethal!

The one thing that has struck me since moving to Pamuzinda is just how big everything is here. Maybe it is the water, or just a survival mechanism with all the wildlife around - I don't know. Today I am going to feature the large creepy-crawlies that share my space with me. With the exception of the scorpion - which I found at a wedding, every creature was photographed inside my house.

The first fellow pictured below clinging to my curtains is some kind of stick insect gone wrong. I have no idea what he is, but he was one big bug!

Apologies to regular readers because while I hardly ever post the same pic twice - in this instance I felt I had to. The scorpion below was featured in a very recent blog, but he still amazes me with his size.

The scary thing is that the folk who live here-abouts tell me he is not the largest type of scorpion we get. Can you believe it? If I find a bigger one - you will be the first to know.

So sorry if you have seen him before - but he belongs in this particular blog!

This is a moth - and while not the largest I have ever seen, he is big. When he flies around your face there is actually a buzzing sound like a large bumble bee.

The next fellow pictured is (Sarah Palmer skip this pic with your eyes closed) a spider. Though not overly large, he is the fastest spider I have ever seen in my life, and literally zoots around the floor of my house at full speed - about as fast as a scurrying mouse. I have no idea if he is dangerous, because he and I keep our distance, though we have shared the same house for the last 2 months.

Here is a picture of my bedroom.

I had been having a quiet afternoon snooze, when I was awoken by the sound of something ripping at the fabric of my mosquito net. I hurled myself out of bed and managed to take a long-range photograph of my attacker:

It was, of course, the world's largest mosquito - the anopheles giganticus. How scary is that?

These beauties grow so large that at the end of their life they simply die because they can't take off any more. If you are bitten by one of them, the strain of malaria is so virulent that you have about the same amount of time to find medical help as you do with a bite from a black mamba - 20 minutes.

And he was actively tearing at my net - trying to get to me.

Eish.

Here is a closer pic of him:




OK, so not true - this is just a flying bug. A big one (like everything in this place), but not a lethal one.

Seeing as everything I have told you over the past 3 months has been 100% true, and seeing as I state at the top of this page that 'Content is almost all true', - I felt I had to throw in a little curve-ball today, just to keep you on your toes.

Anopheles giganticus? A mosquito that kills in 20 minutes? Ha ha ha ha!

How gullible would you have to be to believe that?

And you did, didn't you? Eish.

Have a nice day!

A wedding with a difference.

Following on from my post about my daughter's Leavers Ball - I thought it would be about the right time to post about the weddings we host at Pamuzinda.

There are actually 2 properties here, and the following photos were taken at a wedding we hosted at Chengeta - the second property we have. In my recent post titled 'Scorpionzilla' (you can go back and see old posts by clicking on the titles at top right of this page) I pictured the marquee that we have, but there is also a vast open plain with a giant Fig tree growing in the middle of it, and this was the site of one of our recent weddings.

Both the ceremony and the reception were held under the spreading branches of the tree. We took comfortable chairs down, and the guests relaxed until a ripple ran through the crowd as the groom was spotted making his way to the ceremony from across the plain.

The Groom arrived in style, followed by his Best Man. This sure beats the living daylights out of arriving in a Rolls! Though maybe not quite as fast, certainly way more impressive . . . .

The bride then arrived riding solo across the plain carrying a bouquet of flowers. Her bridesmaid was waiting to receive her with hay bales for the dismount.

The one thing you are assured of at a wedding on the Chengeta plains is a set of wedding photos unlike any other. The sinking sun painting a riot of color and light across the African sky adds a grandeur that perfectly frames the bride, the groom. And we have extras with attitude . . .

So just how do you cater for a wedding in the middle of nowhere? Simple really, you make a kitchen by cleverly erecting a table, and then you just go for it:

And the results of this 'bush catering'? Well - judge for yourselves, but in my opinion the canapes were looking pretty snappy. Here are the mini vol au vents, the herbed scones and the bruschetta:

So what about our toilet facilities - being stuck out there in the middle of an African plain? Obviously we don't have water, and we are going to need ablutions at some stage, aren't we? Well, we got that covered . . .

Normally the toilet is a unisex one used by both men and women, because it is quite hard digging such a big hole for what we call a 'long-drop'. However at this wedding we had a guest in a wheelchair, so we created 2 toilets - with a nearby one as it is quite hard wheeling yourself across the sandy ground of the savanna. The whole arrangement is set a discreet distance away from the fig tree for privacy with a little 'runway' of fairy lights for when the sun disappears. When we leave, everything returns to the way it was before we arrived.

Here are our 'wedding ablutions' - and much thought has gone into the preparation of the facilities. We check the pit before the wedding for snakes, remove the spiders from the walls, (all part of the service, you see) and make sure there is an ample supply of rolls. Plus air freshener, because the ladies seem to expect it - even though the roof is open to the stars:

No little pig living in his house of grass could ever has been so well provided for!

Soooooo - if you have someone getting married, and they are looking for a very different wedding venue - look no further.

Have a great day.

Leaving school - what a ball!

This blog is a bit of a break from the creatures of Pamuzinda because last weekend I was in Harare, attending my daughter's Leavers Ball. So this week is a bit of a family post . . .

The school year in Zimbabwe ends in December, and my eldest daughter has completed her secondary education; next year she will attend the University of Cape Town in South Africa. At the end of her school career there were many farewells and ceremonies to be attended - not least of all the Final Prize-giving, where she was awarded the Leadership Cup - an award presented as adjudged by her peers. This will probably be the last time she will wear a uniform, unless she joins an airline or goes to prison.

Both, obviously, a possibility.

So here is photographic evidence of her last day of school . . . . evah:

As an interesting note - the chapel in the background is the same one pictured in an earlier blog in May this year . . . .

What a change that was?

And the change among my daughter and he classmates - from schoolgirls to young debutantes, was no less amazing - like butterflies emerging from their chrysalises, all the girls looked stunning. This is the transformation that took place over 4 days - from schoolgirl . . . . to really really scary! Speaking as a father.

And the reason for the sprucing up was the Leavers Ball - the official end to her school career. The last time that a group of girls who have been together for the past 6 years will be together.

Her date for the evening even managed to co-ordinate colors - how cool is that?

Even my daughter's parents managed to dig out their 'glad rags' - and though her mother always looks impeccably turned out, her father managed to clean up a little too . . .

Not too shabby, hey?

The venue for the Leavers Ball was the Wild Geese Lodge, and it turned out to be a typically balmy African evening, with warm breezes, dust-scented air, and a moon lazily climbing into a star-spangled sky:

The Banquet Room was prepared by the parents of the Leavers, and looked amazing. Folk who have never been to Africa and have only seen images of deprivation and squalor on television, may be a little surprised at the levels of sophistication reached . . .

Yup - this Africa!

So honor was satisfied, a fantastic evening was had by all, and kudos to the folk who spent so much time and effort getting everything ready. I think the smiles said it all . . . .

 Of course all the excitement, the late night and all the running around were all quite overwhelming (even for an old once-upon-a-time-party-dog like me), and so the Sunday was spent cradling 2 girls and watching replays of the rugby on tv as we tried to work out how on earth Wales beat South Africa. Everybody was, after the fun of the night before, a little deflated . . .

A fine evening, and a fitting end to a school career.

Have a great day!

More stuff that would like to bite me . . .

Continuing with my series on stuff here that seems to want to bite, sting or paralyze me, see if you can spot the potential danger lurking in the photo below. I had been about to walk through the gate of my house when an urgent shout stopped me in my tracks . . .  

It was a snake - his head at the same level as mine, and poking out in a 'ready-to-strike' posture, even though he turned out to be fairly harmless.

As an interesting note - can you see the Crucifix Spider on the gate? He builds a web with a distinctive cross weaved into it - I shall feature him in the next couple of days.

Maybe you will find the snake easier to spot against the sky?

How he was seen by the staff I am not sure - though I guess the local folk here have some sort of innate inbuilt antennae system!

This is a clearer picture of my door-ambushing visitor:

Would he have hurt me? Well, no not really - the spotted bush snake is not considered lethal, and so I helped him on his way with a few gentle prods with a stick.

Not the case, however, with the fellow pictured below. This is a black mamba, found hiding in the thatch roof above the buffet table . . .

Not an extremely large specimen - but they are lethal whatever size they are (you have around 20 minutes to get help), and this one was put permanently out of action by the gardener wearing green in the background. His catapult came in handy, as well as a spear that had been hanging on the wall as decoration. As some of you know - the black mamba is not actually black - the name comes from the colour of the inside of his mouth, which is black when open. Like the cottonmouth snake of North America - which has a white mouth.

This new home of mine has some biting stuff, for sure. I think I am going to hang spears on my wall at home for easy access. Maybe in the garden as well. In fact, I may take to carrying one around with me.

Have a great day.

Scorpionzilla!

Having promised that I would spend some time showcasing the animals of Pamuzinda, I was thinking of which animals to feature, and it occurred to me that an awful lot of stuff here can really hurt me - and would love to do so, given half the chance.

So the next few posts will feature those creatures I have met in the last 7 weeks that can really hurt me. And where better to start than with scorpions? Because. . . . we got scorpions here - and like most things in this part of the world, they sure grow big!

On Saturday (yesterday) we hosted a wedding in our permanent marquee. As I will show in later blogs, we host lots of weddings (3 in the 7 weeks I have been here so far) and we have managed to get everything looking pretty snappy, if i say so myself. Below is the dance-floor as it was last night:

However . . . . while the guests were gangum-styling and macarena-ing, the staff behind the bar were oblivious to everything as their attention was taken up by a somewhat unwelcome visitor:

We managed to coax him onto a piece of standard A4 paper, just to give some idea of his size, and I placed a standard ballpoint pen next to him. When I say 'placed', what I mean is I threw the pen next to him from about 5 feet away!

I find the fact that his pinchers are hairy is a little disconcerting, don't you?

This is a side-on view which shows quite clearly the sting and poison sack:

I even played 'chicken' with him in order to get a bit of perspective . . . .

But the strangest thing of all is this: big as he was, his sting was just a fraction of the pain, suffering and agony that would have resulted from a sting from the little fellow pictured below . . .

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get something to show perspective, but this little fellow would have been not much more than the first 2 knuckles on my baby finger if his tail was stretched out. And his sting is much more painful that the sting of the big scorpionzilla pictured above.

And where was this little chap hiding?

In my bath!!!!

How scary is that? Imagine the result if I had come along and sat down in the bath in one of our power shortages, and got stung on my dangly bits? Hmmmmm? Well, I would have become instantly fluent in Swahili and Urdu, as well as suddenly being able to execute the most advanced karate moves and ballet jumps on the planet!

A really sore sting, as one of our staff can testify.

Soooooooooooo - if any of you ladies out there are getting injections in your lips to enhance your natural charms, and are looking for a cheaper solution . . . . give me a call.

This could be a whole new venture for us - 'Pamuzinda scorpion lips'. Has a certain ring to it, and lends itself to a great logo and marketing campaign! No?

Have a nice day!

Study this, then!

So by now most of you will know that I am with the Dunhuramambo Group, where I have taken up the position of Hospitality Manager. In our stable we have Pamuzinda Safari Lodge, Chengeta Safari Lodge, Shumba Guest Lodge, and then 5 luxury Houseboats on Lake Kariba among them Umbozha, Karabezi and Liberty Bell. If you have time, go and see our web page. Umbozha is a 5-star boat, with swimming pool, air conditioning, and superb furninshings.

At the moment I am based at Pamuzinda - where the iconic animal is the giraffe . . .

Pamuzinda is a thatched lodge, located in the Selous area of Zimbabwe. We are about an hour's drive from Harare, and perfect for folk to pop out for a day, just to escape the city. We have even had some people fly into Harare in the early morning, catch a transfer to Pamuzinda, and then back to Harare for their onward international  flights. Hopefully some of my old guests and friends from La Rochelle will manage to find their way out here - it would be great to see you.

The park here has elephant, impala, wildebeest, kudu, eland, lion, tsessebe, zebra, warthog and more. Generally folk come out for a meal and a game drive. The lodge is thatched throughout, and tastefully decorated.

This is my new home - and my eldest 2 daughters came and visited just after I moved in.(My youngest daughter was busy attending a swimming gala and developing measles, so she didn't come out). As the area is hot - with temperatures generally around 40 centigrade (104 farenheit), my home has a tiled floor, and thatch roof, keeping it cool on most days.

At the time the girls visited, they had important exams on the horizon - my eldest daughter was preparing for her 'A' Level exams, and so spent quite a bit of time working and studying.

Of course my other daughter Dayna was also preparing for exams - in her case 'O' Levels. She is writing 9 subjects, and so had a fairly extensive workload ahead of her.

As always, Dayna does things her own way, so it should come as no surprise that she has a slightly different approach to preparing for academic evaluation. This is Dayna in full study mode . . . .

Over the next few weeks I will spend some time showing you Pamuzinda and the animals here. Life in Zimbabwe, as always, will be a feature of the blog.

Have a great day!