Well hello everyone, I hope that we are all feeling full and contented after a fabulous festive season and that we are getting ready to welcome the New Year in with gusto and enthusiasm. Whilst speaking about this I am going to take the opportunity to wish everyone all the best for 2013. Quickly on […]
Hi there It’s Monday readers, I hope that everyone is feeling particularly festive and ready for the onslaught of Christmas!!! Here at Nkwali, Santa has visited the bridge over the lagoon and the baboons are completely terrified at his presence that they haven’t been on the bridge for the last couple of days… Other than […]
This week, we will hear from Chris Meyer who just came back from Liuwa Plain! Over to you Chris. “Not many people have been to the Liuwa Plain National Park in the far west of Zambia but many may have heard about it through the documentary “The last lioness” which highlighted the plight of the […]
This week we’ll hear from the guys down at Majete. So its over to Emma! “The changing of season has been toying with us for some time. We have had a few spots of rain (although nothing to write home about) but enough to liven up the bush a bit. Shoots on trees have started […]
Well, hello everyone. I hope that the weekend has been one of huge relaxation and everyone is refreshed and ready to hit the December festivities with gusto and enthusiasm. As you can probably tell, I am already getting excited about Christmas! My order for turkeys has gone in. I am heading to Lusaka to get […]
So after last week’s foray over to Malawi, we are bringing you right back to the valley, where it really is the most magical time of the year. I know you probably hear me harping on and on about it, but, hey, here I go again… The mornings start off warm and sunny, gradually getting […]
Trust you are well. This week we will hear from Dr Cheryl Mvula, a Responsible Tourism consultant. She has just spent some time at Pumulani to help us enhance our responsible tourism policy here. Over to Cheryl… ”The views of Lake Malawi from my, oh so sumptious villa at Pumulani were to die for – […]
I hope that you enjoyed another lovely weekend and are ready and raring to go for the week ahead. Well, today, I am afraid to say that I sat in front of my computer, word document open and was hit with a major moment of indecision! What to talk to you all about this week!!?? […]
Can you believe it another peak season has passed!! The lush greenery from May has been sucked up into the earth and replaced with a more desperate façade of dry dust. Whilst this sounds bleak, trust me it is far from it! One of the magical parts of this time of the year is the […]
Well the subject of the week is: “jeepers it’s hot!!” What makes things even better is that it is not just us feeling the heat. The elephants can be seen regularly in the river joining the hippos and cooling down. The animals are concentrating around the last remaining areas of water and the cutest was […]
Hope you are well! This week we will hear all about Claire’s new adventures at Pumulani. Many of you will know Claire from her stint up at Liuwa as well as hosting the Mobiles. Over to you Claire: “I have gone from the bush of Zambia to the lakeshores of Malawi. Pumulani to be exact. […]
Hope you are well and had a fabulous weekend and are ready for the week ahead. This week I thought we would hear from the team at Mkulumadzi Lodge. So it’s over to Emma: “Another year is drawing to a close and what an exciting one it has been for us (becoming a Big 5 […]
Hi there! I hope you are well, had a lovely weekend and are sitting comfortably to look up to the skies for this weeks flying tale. As some may know, and others may be about to find out, Zambia has a host of incredible natural wonders. Obviously we think that the Luangwa is pretty much […]
Yes you guessed! So the story always goes that the minute you do something different, the weather is going to put in the knife and have something to say about it. August we opened the new Tena Tena and we got an entire day’s-worth of rain! Tuesday night, Fran goes out to the plains behind […]
Dragging myself away from this dream and hitting reality once more it has to be said that this year we have had the most incredible wildlife experiences up on the Mupamadzi. The wildlife has really pulled out all the stops with the most enormous diversity of just antelope, never mind the rest of the game. […]
As I sit writing to you this week, the office is slightly on the toasty side! The fan is whirring at full speed and all the loose papers on my desk are desperately trying to take off from underneath the various weights keeping them under control. Yes the heat has arrived! Evenings are no longer […]
I hope that all you newly engaged ladies out there are sitting comfortably and ready to take this on as a suggestion to your fiancé, how about a 500 day honeymoon!!?? At this point I hear groans from all the guys out there thinking what idea have I now planted, but have a read and […]
Hope you have had a brilliant weekend and are ready for the week ahead! The guys at Mkulumadzi have had quite an exciting week with the release of “our” lions, so let’s hear from Emma all about it! “The last week has been very exciting for us with the long awaited release of the lions! […]
Hope that you have enjoyed a glorious weekend and are sitting comfortably at work, revelling in the fact that it is Monday and there is another week ahead of us all! Anyway for this week I thought that we would hear about the delights of the night sky, something that has always interested me and […]
So after last week’s nostalgia, I thought we would get back down to the nitty gritty of game viewing for this week’s Its Monday! First off, the great fruiting season is still going strong and we are surrounded by elephants at Nkwali as well as warthogs who have recently also joined in the fun. However […]
So we have obviously had a crazily busy few weeks not only with game but also with the new Tena Tena which I am delighted to announce has finally opened! The first guests are already in and we reckon the new camp is looking fantastic. There are obviously a few minor ironing out bits and […]
Hope you all had a fabulous weekend and are ready to face the week ahead. I thought it would be good this week to hear from the Mkulumadzi team, so it’s over to Emma: The season is in full swing now bringing with it many new and interesting guests to the park. The majority of […]
I was at a Project Luangwa meeting the other day, which is something new for me! Fuelled by the enthusiasm of it all, I realized that it has been ages since we have had any type of news on the project and schools, so I thought that it would be great to give you an […]
I hope that you’re well and sitting comfortably because for this week I am handing over to Simon Cousins… “Over the last six weeks I have been lucky enough to return to my home from home, the Luangwa Valley, no less than three times! I just can’t get enough of it! The winter months in […]
I hope that the Brits among you have not developed webbed feet from all the rain you have had over there! This side, we are all busy as usual! We recently received a lovely e-mail from Richard and Barbara Barrett, avid safari goers and long time Robin Pope Safaris supporters, so for this week over […]
I hope that everyone is doing as fabulously as we are. We are however slightly up against the clock with the building of Tena Tena, but then again it would be boring if it was all smooth sailing now wouldn’t! The floors for the rooms are in and we have started on the bathrooms. The […]
As I was sitting in the Landrover, bouncing around on the dirt road between Nkwali and Nsefu wandering what to talk to you all about this week (there have been many different happenings), I thought that we would take the short story route! The main spark to this train of thought was the fact that […]
Life is always sweet here on Lake Malawi, but this month it’s been even sweeter. The kitchen team have been on tenterhooks the past few weeks, eagerly awaiting the arrival of a special guest – Martin Shenfield, a top pastry chef from the UK, has now arrived to coach the Pumulani chefs on the finer […]
I hope you are well and had a smashing week. Since the last time we spoke, things have been rather fun. Up at Tena Tena , Claire was fast asleep in her grass room only to wake up to the sound of some very heavy breathing! She looked through the gaps in the grass only […]
So what is new for this week? To be honest with you there is very little that can beat last weeks epic tale of the great Cheetah hunt at Liuwa so I am going to step away from the fondly termed “eat yous’ and bite yous’ “ and I am going to turn your attention […]
This week, we’ll hear from Liz and Jonathan who recently visited Liuwa Plain. Touchdown Kalabo! More of a strip than an airport, with only a few derelict buildings around. We were stepping into the unknown. Then as if reading our minds out of the aircraft window, RPS guides Robin Pope and Jason Alfonso (known to […]
As most of you know, the camps have finally opened for the season and we are in full swing. So in the spirit of it all I thought that I would ask Claire (who’s at Tena Tena) to send us some news from her end. So for this week, over to Claire… I arrived at […]
This week I thought that we would branch out and go wild! As some of you may already know, when RPS took over the concession on which we built Mkulumadzi Lodge in the Majete Wildlife Reserve we did so with great plans for the future. The lodge is now fully operational and treating guests to […]
I hope that you had a splendid week and are sitting comfortably to hear the latest news from Liuwa Plain. The season there started only one week ago so, hot off the press, let’s hear from Polly, who has joined the team this year. It has been said that … ‘you haven’t lived unless you’ve […]
I hope that fine weekends have been in order for all. Here things have been rather busy, as per usual, but at least it gives me an awful lot to share with you Where to start? I suppose the obvious place would be the furthest then we can work our way home. Obi (AKA Obi […]
I hope that you are sitting comfortably and have had a lovely relaxing weekend. This week Zambia has been all go with staff, cars and equipment spread to their limitations. Robin, Jason, Polly and the rest of the team have headed up to Liuwa Plain to get the camp open for the first guests arriving […]
It has certainly been a week of ups and downs, arounds and abouts here in the valley. The serious high of having my family here was far too quickly turned around, as they left to go back to their everyday life dressed up in suits and slightly more colourful clothes. Then no sooner had they […]
Gosh, well, now I know what all the hype is about. I have always loved the bush and been fascinated by the wildlife but, very embarrassingly, have never actually taken the time to really enjoy it as a guest. Just to make everyone jealous, as I write this I sit on the edge of the […]
This week we start off on a sombre note with news of the passing away of the Malawian President, Bingu wa Mutharika; may his soul rest in peace. Our sincere condolences to the Malawian nation. I hope that everyone has had a fabulous Easter Weekend. Things here have been absolutely fantastic (even if I say […]
Hello – so then, how is everyone doing? Hope that we all had a great and relaxing weekend and are ready to hit the week with the usual amount of vigor and enthusiasm…. I was wondering what to write about this week, as there has been quite a lot going on. As Rob and I […]
It has been some time since we chatted as we had whisked you across the border to Malawi over the last two weeks so we are pulling you right back into Zambia. This week I thought that we would talk about our two shortest guides Braston and Daudi. What they lack in vertical prowess they […]
Chris and I arrived at Mkulumadzi three weeks ago after working at Pumulani last year then taking some time off before starting our new venture. It was a wonderful feeling being back in the bush and the first impala we came across took us off guard! I don’t know who was more surprised, the impala […]
We are almost there and ready to roll for the new season! Lots of hard work has been done during the off season to maintain the Lodge and its standards. A few words from Laura who has joined the team… It’s funny to think that this time last month myself and Luke were living in […]
It has been a couple of weeks since I last wrote to you, as we have been regaled by stories from Simon and then Anne Cousins. This makes my task this week tricky – what can possibly live up to their stories! I shall begin with excitement amongst the staff as they all rolled into […]
It’s Monday 27th February 2012 and back to South Luangwa I hope that everyone has had a smashing weekend and is looking forward to what this week has in store for us all. Can you believe that we are already looking at March – I mean where is the time going? Enough of that, having […]
This week I thought that it would be lovely to hear from someone different, so over to Simon to entertain you all with his tales from the last few days. “It was wonderful to be back in the bush again and to be here in the Emerald Season is extra special – such brilliant light […]
We start the week with exciting news on the soccer front, with a huge congratulations to the Chipolopolo Boys (Zambian National Soccer Team) on winning the African Cup of Nations this Sunday. An historical moment for Zambia, winning this acclaimed title for the first time. For those of you in Europe, we hope that you […]
Hope everyone is well and that those of you in the Europe are surviving the Siberian weather front that is currently en-route and also that none of you Ozzies out there have been hit by the floods we saw on the news. Crickey, what is going on with the weather at the moment?! Here after […]
I hope that you are well and off to a great start for the week. Last week I managed to digress so significantly that I failed to chat to you about Shoebills, so this week I am going to start off with this subject so as not to get distracted by all the other happenings. […]
Well what a week! Yes you guessed it, rain and plenty of it! So much so in fact that the river came up 3.5 meters in 3 days! Can you even begin to imagine the quantity of water that requires? It does also have its fair share of problems though, with the diesel tanker getting […]
So, if anyone had any pre-conceived ideas that farmers were obsessed with the weather, I can assure you that we happily knock spots off them!! Months of guessing when the first rains are going to arrive, then obsessive observations on dates and quantities of rainfall, followed by how much has the river gone up or […]
Happy New Year – it has been a while! I do hope that everyone has had a fabulous Christmas and New Year and that so far 2012 is treating you all nicely. As for us, we are back in the Luangwa after a two week holiday in South Africa and the UK. A fabulous Christmas […]