It's too long I hear, and you're right, since I wrote Chiawa's last newsletter but better late than never and we have lot's to write about with brilliant sightings galore.

But first, this is my introductory bash at a newsletter using our new database management tool which offers the opportunity to unsubscribe online but, more importantly, should get through most of your spam filters as many lambast me for not getting my newsletters often enough. Not always because I am lax but because your spam filters are getting better and better! I hope you like the new format and that you now get more reliable delivery of my updates and literary

I shall work backwards, starting yesterday with a pair of mating lions who decided to set up shop/bed under the winter thorn trees opposite camp and so we were blessed with amorous lions seen from Chiawa's incredible new tents' door/tent flap steps and even by two sets of arriving guests were treated to less exciting "between sessions" views from the boat. What a start to their safari. The previous night we had the lions in camp roaring at full blast during dinner, so close that I had to leave the table and go and check on our babies Scott & Lauren who had two guards with them and who said the lions walked right past our "predator proof/baby friendly" dwelling - both babies sound asleep and unaware of all the action around them. Escorting guests to their tents that night was interesting and a touch unnerving until it was clear the lions had headed off into the laundry, a good 35M further away, still sniffing about, roaring, growling ... real Africa at it's best, really.

Actually Scott and Lauren are hardly babies any more and as a proud Dad I am taking this opportunity to show them both off, including the first fish (a Chessa, subsequently released of course) that Scott caught all by himself including digging for and choosing the worm, which I think was his favourite bit.

This candid shot Kayla took really says quite a lot when looking at the contrasting expressions of interest of these two honeymoon lions. The male incidentally is quite clearly "Doug the Thug's" replacement and I am sure that whilst we will miss him, Douglas's replacement is one fine specimen (thanks for the portrait Charly) who is clearly getting on with the business of getting his bloodline into the system. It's been a week of lions as they have spent the past 7 days shacked up literally a couple of hundred yards (& at times closer!) from camp and with them once adding a little extra frisson to one of Chiawa's (in)famous Bedrock bush dinners, walking by silhouetted in the light of the moon.

Although it's our winter spring must be in the air then, not only with the lions but also these two grey Go Away birds, snapped by Morag, where one is feeding some fruit to his partner, clearly in exchange for favours of the carnal kind and typical behaviour found in other birds, especially the white fronted bee eaters who will hawk a butterfly, return to its perch, bash the hapless insect on a branch until dead and then offer it to a female - a bit like going out for a nice romantic dinner I guess! Speaking of birds, we have had some beautiful sightings like a majestic Martial eagle taking out a guinea fowl in front of us, swamp hens (or purple gallinules) lightly striding the reed islands, this unusual shot of a yellow billed stork with a grey heron (thanks John E) and, most importantly, TWO NEW SPECIES listed for the Lower Zambezi thanks to Rory & Paul's phenomenal guiding and our long "suffering" guest/friend/family member Peter W.

To most these birds won't mean much, an LBJ and a wader, but to the birding fraternity - an event of note. For the twitchers amongst us these will be the Little Rush Warbler and the and the Common Moorhen neither of which have been formally recorded in the LZNP. For the other guides in the Lower Zambezi, please add these to your bird lists.

Another unusual sighting is that of a white bushbuck that Rory has found twice for our lucky guests and has managed to record it well enough in this photo - by nature the bushbuck is a retiring creature preferring the thick bush to open country and this specimen lives up to its name! Rory has also been wowing us with his beautiful paintings which are available in camp - please don't forget he is also available to lead specialist art (& birding of course) safaris so do let us know.
 

But it's also been about some brilliant recent leopard sightings - in fact as I type Paul has just radio'ed in having found a leopard up a tree (10:30am), no, it's now come down and is stalking a small herd of impala ... wait ... no, it's now fallen asleep by a termite mound - where was I, oh yes, leopards; and how about this other shot by Morag, of a yawning leopardess who entertained us for two days on the banks of the Zambezi, lolling around our vehicles without any apparent cares in the world, or this beautiful specimen less recently snapped by Rikki S - that's an odd blue growth from its chin, some of you may remark? But look closer, it is really the very freshly killed mortal remains of an adult male vervet monkey giving the world one final parting shot of his proudest belongings, forever immortalised in this newsletter.

I must tell you that not every camp and guide can track down sightings like these but at Chiawa, with our renowned and always improving guiding team, sights like these are more likely than elsewhere. Nor is it anywhere else you may enjoy one of Silas's famous G&T's - said to be the best in Africa! On the other hand it's not often that our guides become the sighting so I could not resist this shot of them midway through their Advanced First Aid refresher course a couple of months ago.

And then not every sighting has to be spectacular and for the record books - our guests are fortunate to have access to one of Africa's most scenic and least traversed wilderness areas where hours can be wiled away watching a troop of baboons crossing a flood plain, dwarf mongooses (John E again) and crocs warming up in the late morning sun, contemplating the past of an old set of buff horns or simply to park in the shade and watch hundreds of buffalo do what they do. Every day is different and special at Chiawa, every morning the excitement by the campfire palpable and it's no surprise then that many of our guests come time and again for weeks at a time.
 

And just in case you were forgetting, Chiawa is not only about showing it's guests the best possible time in Zambia, it's also about taking care of the environment and the people around it. Thanks to support from SidEcole the Swiss Charity we donated 134 school uniforms plus stationary to two local primary schools, as we do every year, aimed at supporting the poorest of the poor.

Take care and with best wishes,

Grant and the Chiawa Family.