Wednesday 30 December 2009

Christmas in the Wilderness

We travelled 7 hours on a dodgy potholed road to find a beautiful wilderness called Mutinondo- think Wales with some sunshine, swimmable waterfalls and endless countryside!
Despite Molly's slightly irrational fears of lions in the bush, we escaped unscathed- but we were chased by 2 enormous sci fi red spiders!

Wild swimming was a highlight- Lawrence took it upon himself to see if he could conquer all the waterfalls- resulting in a nosedive through the rapids- cut feet, bashed up knees but a kind of heroic afterglow...

December is the middle of rainy season here so we had plenty of moody landscapes- and one terrfying storm when we got a bit lost off the track...Molly wouldn't let us use the umbrellas as lightning lit up the sky- she had a raincoat and Lawrence did not...Juat as Lawrence realized the map was sodden and we should probably go back half way across the bush, we saw the shining lights of our lodge- we have never been so grateful to arrive home!


Gross insects abound in rainy season- millipedes with illuminous green feet and plenty of maggotty things....




The chalet and camp were simply divine and we virtually had the place to ourselves- morning coffee brought to your bedside before breakfast was amazing!




The sunsets were spectacular from the rock by the bar..






Day two found us horseriding- Lawrence's horse had to be changed after it refused to budge and Molly didn't exactly LOVE it at first but Zambuca, her horse, was usually used for frightened 5 yr olds so she did ok in the end







Christmas day- on top of the world!








On the way home we stopped off at the Cooing Dove Waterfall- a hidden gem with an amazing view

































We miss our fire the most in our open fronted Chalet! (Yes Molly did spend the first night in the raven proof cupboard as she got a bit scared- but lawrence relsihed the bat/owl/bird show that went on inside our very room!)



Happy Christmas!

































































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