Rest of safari

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Thursday 3rd September
Yesterday's blog was sent from the comfortable bar where opportunist thieving baboons attacked Laurence's plate and snatched at his tempura. Then we were a little late leaving for the second safari as a group of elephants had collected round our truck and they needed to be chased away first. They, and the hippos, come to feed from the fruit of the sausage tree and other fruits and seeds. A few stones catapulted at their leathery rumps see them off. The baboons are a permanent feature of the park and we were warned not to leave food in our tents. Toby, the nine year old refuses to use he ketchup because he saw a baboon lick the top of it.
The afternoon/evening safaris surpassed all our expectations - we saw the pride of nine lions, a mixture of young males and females. They lay on the top of the bluff by the river waiting for dusk when, according to Thomas the guide, they would hunt. (The impala - the fast food of the park with the black 'm' marked on their rumps - were already collecting together on the open plain, where they felt a little safer.) We sat and watched the lions as the sun sank; one rolled on his back and paddled his legs in the air, exposing his pale, lean belly. He looked like a cute pussy cat. Some of the others rubbed their heads together. They are two or three years old and are learning to hunt until they are old enough to breed.
Next we saw the leopard, ambling towards the river. He didn't like us shining the light on him much, and went behind a bush. I felt sorry for him as we stalked him in the truck, and was quite glad when he went down the bank to the river where we couldn't follow him.
I have some fuzzy photos of many of the animals, which will need a magnifying glass and imagination to decipher, but the internal memories are rich and vivid: warthogs rooting through the grass on their knees, a flock of Lilian's lovebirds wheeling off the ground like a bright green carpet, and settling on a tree top, baby baboons with big bald ears peeping out from the protection of their mother's bellies to grab at a sibling's tail.
Wednesday evening we manage to stay up beyond nine o'clock and have a drink in the bar. These are western prices, in US dollars, as the Track and Trail Park, whose facilities ('ablutions', bar and pool) we share, seems to be a posher operation than Kiboko safaris. They have thatched mud huts on stilts with balconies overlooking the river, a dining area with tables and chairs, while we are on benches under a canopy. But we overlook the same river, and see the same glowing red sunrise and sunset.
Thursday morning we have a later start, rising at 6 am and leaving at 7. On the way back to Lilongwe, we stop off at the Tribal Textile shop where you can see hand painted textiles being made. Beautiful and not expensive for the work and skill that has gone into them, but I manage to buy not very much.
Thursday evening we went to Mamma Mia, an Italian restaurant in the fashionable part of town. Friday morning we come to Cool Runnings at Lake Malawi, a lovely lodge that I have been to each time I've been to Malawi. The drive here was lovely, through fertile hills farmed in terraces with neat thatched huts dotted round. Rashid, our friendly taxi driver points out what there is to see, and answers all Laurence's questions about life in Malawi. I sleep through some of this - my body clock is still set to safari time and I woke this morning at 5.30am.
Cool Runnings is as idyllic as ever, waves from the lake break on the beach, and birds twitter in the trees.

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