Bird soup- Luwawa Forest Lodge

There is a village down the road from here which is so remote that the police hardly visit. It consequently has a thriving marijuana industry. It’s illegal to grow marijuana here so it’s a valuable crop. I learned this today as I commented on the amount of motor bike activity I’d been hearing. Apparently the bales of marijuana are transported by motorcycle to waiting trucks on certain days and today was such a day. The best twist is one of the truck drivers is a policeman…often in uniform. Africa…

Today was a lovely day of birds, naps and birds again. We started at 5.45am with a guided birding tour with a legend called Patrick. We’d barged in on a tour he was leading with another guest, Mike, a wonderfully nerdy IT guy from Singapore. He was a proper twitcher with giant telephoto lenses and camouflage clothing. He was very tolerant of us luckily. Patrick, the guide, was extraordinary with his ability to find the tiniest wee creatures and identity them in seconds. Thirty different birds in an hour shows just how amazing the diversity is here.

Later that day after nap #1 we went on another walk by ourselves around a huge dam that they have built to support the vast wetlands and bird habitats. Saw almost no birds

#2 nap and then an evening guided session with Patrick again. It’s almost as if he has them trained and waiting in the wings (pun) until he has customers. It was a veritable feast of birds big and small, many of which I’d never heard of before. The highlight was a long crested eagle. Crazy big black bird with yellow eyes and a crest like an Afro.

It was a delight wandering through the wetlands and native or recovering forest as the sun set behind us. MacDonald (our driver/guide) joined us on the evening walk and is clearly very good with birds himself so we will be using that discovery for the next 10 days we are with him. Chatting to him and Patrick about their lives and the politics of Malawi was a particular treat. Traveling does make me appreciate how good we have it in Australia and how we never ever should have a President .

This place has really grown on me after a bit of a luke warm start last night (mostly due to the luke warm shower). What they are trying to do here with the conservation work is enormous and admirable. The staff here are delightful, food excellent and vibe very much like visiting a favorite aunt. It’s so high up - 1500m - that it’s cool and malaria free, so a very good first stop and jet lag recovery venue.

Tomorrow we go north again, this time to the main focus of the trip, Livingstonia. I am very excited indeed.

Some photos attached for you to get a sense of Luwawa. Chat tomorrow
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