The lions have moved overnight to a far distant Kopjie, calling faintly as we awake this morning and brew a cup of La Lucie coffee. Natasha Anderson, of the Lowveld Rhino Trust, has stayed the night and shares the early morning with us before continuing on her way to meet Jackson, chief rhino monitor. Heartwarming news, her team in the Save Conservancy has located a female rhino presumed dead, but discovered now very much alive, with a new calf at foot! Great news to start our day.

Clive has a bowl of oatmeal porridge and now drives away towards Buffalo Range with a bemused expression on his face…half anticipatory, half dread. The day ahead is an unknown- he is on his way to meet the two planes that will shortly arrive at Buffalo Range Airport and spill out their cargo of twenty Ministers and Aides from Harare. All will proceed to the continued meeting of Chiefs, Conservancy members and potential partners, at Hakamela, Malilangwe, where the Chiefs have over- nighted, following yesterday’s energetic meeting. Basil Nyabadza, chairman of the Save Valley Conservancy, chaired the proceedings yesterday, and rightly gave everybody in the room free rein to express their views. As could be expected, some views were restrained and considered, others more impassioned….this was a valuable forum for everyone concerned to have their say.
Today could be groundbreaking if the Ministers feel that they have had sufficient feedback from everyone concerned. Decisions could be made which will enable us to go forward together, unified, and I am hopeful that some clear direction will emerge. Zimbabwe has such special people and such huge Tourism potential, it would be wonderful to see that develop, embracing sound Conservation values.

The heat builds during the day, as I struggle to concentrate and finish the Penman tartan cravat that I am making for Dad’s Christmas present. Still no rain..and we need it, new blades of grass beginning to wither, and I am wilting…

Sitting upstairs at my sewing desk, same level as the tree canopy, I can look over the garden below me as I work….

paradise flycatcher nest in my garden

I am watched closely in turn by the suspicious, beady eye of the female Paradise flycatcher who is incubating her eggs on a fragile, cup-shaped nest of spiderwebs, swaying on the end of a Brachystigia tamarindoides branch, almost within arm’s length of me…
When the showy, long-tailed male arrives to take over incubating duties, she sees him off with angry chatter, refusing to leave her post. Perhaps my presence has decided her that he is not reliable enough to watch the nest!

After a lengthy period he manages to persuade her to relinquish duties to him!…

Male paradise flycatcher on nest