Never give up!!

So hey we've all had mayor dissapointments in our lives...I can name a few in mine without even really thinking. Like when my 1st boyfriend cheated on me in highschool or when my visa for the states to go visit my sister was denied at age 19 due to me being "2 young and 2 single!" at the time...gutwrencing heartstopping dissapointments but little comes close to when you absolutely put your heart on something in a business you've worked ur fingers to the bone for the last 5 years and you get turned down. 

I'm known to be a trusting person, I believe promises and I hold on to them until the day you realise that there's not alot of people in business you can really rely on. I walked into my neighbors office today only to see she has written on her wall "remember why you started!" This really hit home. Sometimes we need to just sit back and look at the situation from the outside and remember why you started, something drove you to make every single decision that you made, a conversation was held or news broke in the industry, something sparked an idea....something got you to where you are now and this is where one needs to decide to not give up! 

Did you know that Henry Ford was broke 5 times without a cent to his name until he reached success or that Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper due to his lack of ideas before he built Disneyland? Abraham Lincoln failed as a businessman at age 22, at 24 he failed again in the same quest, the love of his life died when he was 26 and a year later he had a breakdown, at 29 he yet again failed as a young businessman in politics and at 34 he failed to make congress, this went on until the age the age of 51 he became one of the most powerfull presidents the United States ever had.

I do not for a second compare myself to any of these influencial people, what they did was truly remarkable but I do want to learn from their legacy and if there is one message here it is to "never give up"!!

I got most of the details above from a book I'm reading by Joyce Meyer, this woman was abused her whole childhood by her own father! Can u imagine! And she turned out to have one of the most powerful Ministry's in the world. These are the people I want to learn from. 

On a more positive note we had an amazing 10 day training session in the Zambezi Region, we did this at cost and I hope we changed some lives, here are some pictures...

Now ask me again why I started this project?

The fundraising continues....

Snakes!

Okay let's be honest, I know there is a lot of snake enthusiasts our there but unfortunately I am not one of them. I decided when I became a field guide that the subject you least enjoy is the one you need to know best, the encounter you least want to have with a creature of nature is the one you need to absolutely familiarize yourself with, the one that is most likely to cause panic, not only within your clients but especially within yourself! Mine is snakes.....never liked them...never will.

So we spend December in the Zambezi Region, thing is Matota is situated on an island and to be honest so is most lodges in this region so naturally when the flood plains starts filling up this time of year with all the rain the snakes find higher ground, who can blame them but I prefer not sharing accommodation with them.

Our first encounter is on the road from Divundu to Kongola, I see something in the road as Ian passes in the pick-up in front of me, I see it move, the next moment it strikes, by this time I am next to it, I am so close (and very thankful for car windows) I recognize the Black Mamba immediately, It is ready to strike,  I make a quick calculation by its height of the ground that it is at least 2 meters plus in length..... I call Ian over the radio  ""Did you see that???" his response..."fortunately no!", the hair on the back of my neck raises, the black Mamba is one of Africa's most venomous snakes.

The Signature Black Mouth (Black Mamba)

 

You see the thing is that the black mamba can raise it's body two thirds from the ground, thus if calculated it could as well strike through a car window, well at least in my opinion, then again I do get a little paranoid in their presence anyway.

The Mating "dance"

My business partner, Dusty, has told me how at a lodge they saw the mamba doing their mating dance (quite amazing to see this...even coming from me) their heads were sticking out above the 2m high deck whilst doing this dance, so you can do the calculations if 2m is two thirds of the body being elevated from the ground......

The next slightly concerning encounter was on our way to Matota, a Mozambican spitting cobra, we encountered him on the road, feisty little bugger, small but feisty, I closed the windows once again just in case.


From there on we only had a spotted bush snake (harmless) visiting on the deck in the afternoons, If I am prepared for them and see it coming I manage to still still compose myself however one afternoon I did cause for some entertainment when someone shouted "snake"and I hopped on the dining table quicker than someone could say "hop"... I have to admit even I  found my reaction quite amusing...here is a picture of the spotted bush snake curtosy of my friend Dana, taken most probably during the time I was on the table.

Spotted Bush Snake

Then our final day we had an encounter I am glad we dealt with well and to the best of our ability but surely would prefer not to have a repeat of this. We went to visit friends at a nearby lodge and a friend of mine walked into the curio shop only to shout "snake" once again, she acted swiftly and got herself as well as the kids out of there however another friend (after being warned) decided to have a closer look, by now we realized it was a spitting cobra and all is already searching for their sunglasses to prevent the spray of venom that is bound to happen upon removal. Well low and behold upon this "closer look" and not following the simple instruction to stay away this friend of ours got sprayed, fast, effective, both eyes...a matter of seconds. We run with him to the kitchen and start rinsing, this is all you can do in cases like these, rinse, rinse, rinse and rinse some more, luckily we had running water nearby but as guides you are trained that should this ever happen in the bush use anything safe, water, beer and even urine. The venom of the Mozambican spitting cobra if it comes in contact with your eyes it causes swelling to the cornea so you have to act swiftly and remove as much venom as possible...well some serious rinsing, accelerated heart rates later, antibiotic eye drops and a general wide spectrum antibiotic tablet just in case all turned out well. The spitting cobra has an range of 3 meters so should you ever encounter one of these specimens please keep in mind that if someone shouts "stay away" please do so and save the guides from an experience not on the top of any guides bucket list....

a clear warning sign

Holiday with the Smiths...continued

So we are all finally on Matota Island lodge, we start the new day with setting up children's entertainment, between the 4 couples we have on 10 year old, two 4 year olds a 17 month old and a 4 month old, this is logistically quite a challenge, we know from previous experience that it can get into the 40 degrees at the lodge so first up is the swimming pool, we set it up under the gazebo on the deck...absolute bliss...

We then need to get some more supplies from the closest shop, about 70km so myself and a girlfriend set off on the journey to get supplies, I reckon it will take about 2 hours there and back but a friend of mine reminds me we are in "Caprivi Time" now, she reckons it will take around 4 hours.... well 5 hours later we're back on the boat and on our way with the supplies, we're again using the small channel however the rain has washed alot of grass and roots into the channel so it gets stuck around the propeller, whilst helping Felix our guide and skipper to clear the propeller we hear a hippo grunt.......we give each other one look, he must be close and get the boat started, once we get going again it's smooth gliding across the channel and a feeling of absolute awe....untouched Africa...okay fair enough besides the channel but hey the hippo's has responsibility for this channel as well...

We get back to the lodge and decide to all go for a sun-downer on the Kwando river, cool-box packed and we cruise down the channel, numerous open billed stork sightings, some kingfisher and there it is again...that cry of the Fish Eagle, the sense of being home returns, we see quite a few hippo waiting for the sun to set but we don't seem to be much of a bother to them this afternoon, it starts dripping, we return home. We all debate if we should braai (BBQ) around the open campfire or rather get the gas cooker out and then the heavens open and it's pouring with rain, we run for cover and feel thankful for the rain our country so desperately needs...

Holiday with the Smiths....

So it's December holiday 2013 and we decide to spend Christmas at home and then off to Matota from the 26th, all is going well, relaxing at home, getting those little things done that you never get time for during the year!

We pack xmas day and set off for Rundu on the 26th, we have 700km to cover today, we arrive at Kaisosi lodge (well almost) when I realise perhaps my husband has been on tarmac road for too long today, he decides to "test" the swamp and as predicted he's stuck....

The distance to where my car is on solid ground is to far for the rope, I am not a happy camper at this stage, I go find help and a long story short and about 2 hours later the lodge owners at Kaisosi has got Ian out with a digger loader! Boys will be boys I suppose.....

We meet friends at Kaisosi joining us for the holiday, we have a great 1st night with great company and good food and at sunrise we set off for Kongola, we have only 400km to cover today but we do not know what access to Matota itself is like so we need to get going, it might be a long day! 

More friends will be joining us today, they have been on a weeklong fishing trip and are coming from Katima bringing our boat with,  the last couple of the group is about 3hours behind us. We all meet at Kaza-Kongola service station, a quick fill up of the boat fuel tank and we set off to Lianshulu lodge where we'll leave the cars and go by boat to Matota, we start the boat, It manages 100m down the Kwando and then nothing....we realise we never checked the new fuel tank and that it might've had water in! I call the manager of Lianshulu and he's kind enough to loan us a boat to at least get our luggage accross, luggage now en-route to Matota by boat now we just need to get there.

An alternative route would be a boat trip from the village to Matota it's alot shorter but the channel is narrow and the boat is small however sun is setting and somehow we need to get accross, We leave some vehicles behind and set off to Lianshulu Village, as we leave the lodge and close the gate I see Ian point, he's one vehicle infront of me and one of our guides Listar aswell as a friends son of 10yrs old is on the back of Ian's open pick-up....I look at where Ian is pointing and low and behold a pride of about 8 lions is a mere 10 meters away from Ian's vehicle, perhaps 30 meters or so from me looking straight at us. I see Listar jump infront of the boy....putting himself between the danger and the person he is there to protect and all of a sudden amongst all the panic and confusion (we were just totally unaware of them offloading and unpacking our vehicles here) I am so tremendously proud of him. He's done what he has been trained to do, he's calm and in control...he is a true guide. 

We head to the village, we meet the friends that was behind at the turn off, we get to the village and the small boat is waiting, it's about half an hour to Matota via the channel, we load woman and children first, the channel is low, myself and a girlfriend get off and push time to time to get the boat through the narrow spots, the cool water is well received even though we keep an eye out for hippo's, we're in their channel afterall.

The boat returns to the village and we realise there's still to much luggage left, he has to do a luggage trip first, it's hot on the river bank waiting for the boat so the remainder of the group pop into the local shebeen for ice cold Black Label courts, finally the last of the group is on the boat, going through the channel in the dark when hippo's emerge for the nights feeding is scary and surreal all at the same time but soon we are all around the camp fire, welcome to Matota....