I have decided to split my planned post in two. One post sharing a little about what’s been happening here in Zim, and one pretending that it’s all just been a pleasant holiday. This post is the latter.

So, to recap, there was a three-day ‘stay-away’ strike in Zimbabwe this last week. The first we heard of it was arriving back from a walk in Mukuvisi with Tim, when his mother informed us that it appeared the smelly stuff was once again violently colliding with the fan. We drank some tea speculatively and then drove home in convoy.

So began what we’ve been jokingly referring to as ‘doomsday’. For some reason, the first obvious reaction among our group of friends was to dive headfirst into preserves. Plum jam. Ginger ale. Apple cider. Red grape vinegar. Lemon curd. Chutney. You name it, one of us was pickling it. There was no internet some of the time, but deep within Clare’s pile of recipe books was the secret of sauerkraut. Some concoctions still “need maturation” (a euphemism we’ve adopted), but I’m sipping some lemon-grass ginger ale as I type and looking forward to trying to make some different flavours tomorrow.

Shops were closed for a few days, and busy when they re-opened (everyone is doomsday prepping) but we are fully stocked with provisions, and even scored some Mazoe Orange Cordial yesterday – a rare find. In times like these, I love sharing food. Which made Thursday dinner even more special; even with communication issues we still had a good 10 people around to sample my potjie. Even better, a good chunk of those folks were free the next morning (can’t work with no internet!) so we got some more birding in at the Botanical Gardens. I’m starting to feel a little proprietorial as I lead friends around – “And this tree here is where I often see the Pytillias…”.

Besides finding things to ferment and friends to feed, we’ve been having a nice, relaxed time. Making PVC whistles with Scott, drinking lot’s of tea, doing bits of art or writing, reading, spending time with family… With such hectic stuff going on, it’s been good to help each-other escape temporarily and find some peace.

Brother David is leaving earlier than planned to Cape Town. This weekend we went with the family to Mukuvisi and then on to breakfast. And after church today we had friends round at my parents for some tasty food and slightly-harder-to-stomach defeats at pool. What a blessing friends are! And I am so happy to have such a loving family, happy to open their home and spread love around.

All this to say, we are happy and safe even if the country is in turmoil. Get hold of me if you would like to help (see my other post for more details) and keep us in prayer, but don’t worry too much on our account. God is good, and we are so fortunate in our little community.

“Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” – Heb 12:3

So far, we’ve shared some of the happy things we’ve done as we settle into Zimbabwe. But the people we’ve done things with have been hidden behind accounts of birds and beasts and places. Today we went to Mukuvisi woodlands again, this time with Tim, and saw Southern Hyliota, Yellow-fronted Canary, White-crested Helmet-shrike and 40 other birds. <- See what I mean? Let’s try a different approach.

Tim is a cousin of mine on my dad’s side. Don’t tell my other cousins but he’s one of my favourites. He’s also based in Oxford, but we managed to see him a few times during his stay in Zim, where he’s doing research on poaching. We got to hear him preach on Sunday. His love for the Lord and deep, earnest thoughts on things have made him an invaluable role-model for me. He leaves tomorrow, so we took him into the bush for a last taste of African sun and wildlife.

There. Humans are important too I guess. You’ll get to meet the rest of the family here in a post that Ellie is currently writing, so I’ll move on to friends.

We live in a little cottage behind the home of Clare and Gary Griffiths. They are wonderful, and you’ll struggle to meet a more interesting couple. That said, all the interesting people who might vie for the title seem to pop round whenever they feel like it – the kitchen in the main house is almost always full of fun humans drinking tea and examining plant specimens or chatting away. We need only to poke our heads out our door to be pulled into something fun. On Friday it was making plum jam, cutting up the tasty fruit with Mr Powels (my old Chemistry teacher, among many other things), Scott (a botanist who also lives in a cottage here), Glenn (who gifted us some baobab and snot-apple pods) and Brooksie (a whirlwind of sociable energy who is often around to share a smile and a chat). The Great Danes get in the way, Gary yells pleasantries from the next room and buckets of tea are made and consumed. This is the life 🙂

If living here wasn’t enough social, we could walk 100m across the circle on a Saturday night and join my old bible study. I’m speaking there next week. Picture 30 happy folk in late high-school/early university meeting to pray, share, study and eat together. A truly special bunch that has set many of us on firm paths for the rest of our lives.

100m is a bit far given the current fuel crisis, so Ellie and I have also devised a sneaky plan to bring the friends to us. On Thursday evenings we cook a ton of food and lure in all the cool peeps. This week was our first dinner, and our little cottage was filled with 14 people having fun and playing games. These are the special ones, most of whom I’ve known since the old days of Bible study and youth group. Here’s a snapshot of the chaos:

I am so looking forward to keeping up this tradition, opening our home to lovely people and sharing food together every week.

We’ve found a church (although we may keep exploring a bit longer) so I don’t think it’ll be long before we have some good friends there. There are also more people around than I’ve been able to invite to Thursdays, so we’re kept busy seeing them before they head off back to University or whatever. So I think you’ll agree that even if we get tired of birds we will have an abundance of two-legged creatures around to keep us happy.

Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. ~ Proverbs 13:20

We’ve been birding continuously (67 and counting) and enjoying all sorts of lovely green spots as we do it. One place we have yet to visit is a patch of damp grassland a few minutes from my parent’s house where flufftails and longclaws abound. Well. I say ‘yet to visit’. I mean ‘yet to visit *in daylight*’. Let me explain.

Sunday evening began with a braii. Sweetcorn, stuffed peppers and the smell of smoke as we chatted and caught up. Lovely, and normally not a situation one is eager to leave. But this time, I kept catching the eyes of Ellie and Scott. Time to leave? Shall we head out? You see, we had other evening plans as well, and we didn’t want to be out tooooo late. By 19:10 we could take it no longer, and muttering farewells we slipped away from the social and drove off into the dark.

Our mission was frogs. Monovale vlei, the aforementioned patch of grassland, was rumoured to contain something interesting and amphibian. Navigating the crumbling back-roads and trying to find our way, we quizzed Scott for everything he knew about this hobby that was so foreign to us.

It turns out, frogging mainly involved tromping around in the wet, looking for tiny creatures who make a lot of noise until you get close. We set off into the vlei, lights piercing the dark and reflecting off thousands of shimmering droplets on the reeds, left there by the recent rains. Every flick of movement was met with deep scrutiny as grasshoppers, moths and mosquitoes got out of our way as we pushed further from the road.

The ground was sodden, often completely underwater. Our breath fogged in the torchlight, and we were filled with excitement by the chorus of frog calls around us. It didn’t take long for Scott to find the first frog of the evening – a green reed frog whose identity was uncertain.

Many more sightings of our green friends soon followed as Ellie and I got our eye in. Around us, we could hear Bubbling Cassinas and another unknown frog calling, but try as we might we could never locate anything but those green reed frogs. Up and down we searched, scrutinising each clump of reads as we crept about. Eventually the sky dropped a few raindrops as a warning and we began to move back towards the car, still hoping for another species or two. No luck.

I started the engine, flicked on the lights and turned the car towards home. 5 seconds later, a toad hopped across our path and we leapt out of the car in pursuit. The toad got away, but on the patch of road where it had been was the cutest little frog you’ve ever seen – a Puddle Frog 🙂

We arrived home, but before we could retire to our separate cottages I persuaded Scott to come with us to inspect the garden ponds. There we found River Frogs and Guttural Toads, while Scott grumbled about ‘Canned frogging’ and ‘Cheating’. Call it what you like – we found as many species in those 3 minutes as we had the rest of the night! We had had a ton of fun, collected some good reference photos of the reed frog (believed to be Hyperolius nasutus) and added another adventure to our rapidly growing 2019 list.

PS. 105 – “Their land swarmed with frogs Even in the chambers of their kings.”

Today was a lovely lazy day. We relaxed in a hammock in the garden, read our books and introduced my dad to biscuits and gravy. He went fishing and hooked a nice one for George. Where did this fishing occur you ask? Just outside our back door!

This afternoon, we went for a walk in the Harare Botanical Gardens. Ellie and I plan on coming here most days – it’s within walking distance of where we’ll be living. Today was mostly an exploratory visit to find out about membership, but we did see some new birds and lots of lovely forests.

Now, I bet you’re wondering what the alliterative title was about. On our way out of the gardens we walked by some prickly pears. They were right in front of the offices and reception. As we all know, stolen food tastes better! Ellie had never tried these gloriously purple fruit, so I plucked one (following Baloo’s advice) and deftly popped it into a tea-cup before anyone noticed. I have on a previous occasion made the mistake of eating the spoils while still in the garden. My purple face and hands as I walked past the gate guards must have told the whole story! This time we got the loot safely home, and only got partly prickled. It’s OK on it’s own, but I couldn’t resist seeing what colour it would turn a smoothie.

These gardens are a little run down, but still so lovely. I’m excited about supporting their work and enjoying this patch of nature so close to our doorstep.

“Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy” – Psalm 98:8

New birds:

• Green-winged Pytillia
• Tropical Boubou
• Brubru
• Brimstone Canary
• … and lots of ones we’ve seen before, including the happy ‘paintpot’ Crested Barbet.

We are in Zimbabwe!

The last few days of packing and organising flew by as we spent time with family and got a last taste of Muizenberg life. In a fit of admin powers, I registered to pay tax in SA – I may want to come back at some point without worrying about an angry SARS representative meeting me at the airport. Admin meant town, which was a perfect excuse for lunch at the Waterfront and a trip to the Museum of Contemporary African Art with cousin Lamb.

With family density at critical mass, a new game was invented. I’ll have to explain the rules another time, but suffice to say that ‘Swoggle’ is now a thing, and we were gifted a ceremonial set to bring with us to Zimbabwe. Here’s a still from the video documentary I took:

Anyway, the festivities ended and we got an early night before heading out at 4am to the airport. Bless our wonderful family, who woke up early to see us off and observe our departure dance. This cheerful Ker tradition involves letting loose after security for the entertainment of family, airport staff and fellow passengers. I whipped out my ukulele and we gave it our best shot – here’s hoping it goes down in the family oral history 🙂

We were met at the airport by my folks, where the chaos of the parking lot welcomed us to our new home. Ellie smiled at me. ‘Any chance I can take a few weeks rest before I try to drive in this country?’ Zimbabwe’s scary traffic and crazy economics are enough to make anyone re-think their life choices, but 10 minutes later we were out and driving past Mukuvisi Woodland, with Eland and Zebra peeking over the fence and the green bush reminding me of all that I love about this land.

We’re staying with the parents, and everything is just as it has always been. The garden is happy and full of flowers and veggies. The dogs are getting older but their tails wagged just as happily as they welcomed me back as if I’d merely popped out to school for the day. Mum’s special chicken curry tasted wonderful as we ate a late lunch on the veranda, and my old bird friends flitted about as we played scrabble and sipped our Tanganda. This is a happy place.

From the smell, I think supper is nearly ready. I’ll end this post with some pictures from our evening walk around the block.

John 14:1-2 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?”

Thank you Lord for bringing us to this beautiful temporary home, and for setting us up with an even better eternal home, founded on the rock!

We had a lovely wedding, with tons of special people around. But once it was over, it was time to head off for some rest and special time together. We made our exit in style:

After a few days relaxing in our hideaway, we set off on a road trip towards Rocklands. Tucked away in the Cederberg, this is a place with many happy memories for me – the annual Highline festival, bouldering and hiking with friends. Whenever I’ve been, I’ve joined the other dirtbag climbers camping on the dusty field. Little did I know that just around the corner, luxury was lurking!

The Storytellers have three secluded, off-grid units styled as ‘glamping accommodation’. Picture a big tent. Bigger than that – in the first room is two bunk beds and space to store your bags. The second contains a queen size bed and some cupboards. Above the tent is a separate roof to keep things cool, and every window has views of rock and wilderness. A separate little cabin has a shower, bathroom and kitchen (complete with gas stove and fridge). Such luxury! 

Our cottage was called ‘Tortoise Terrace’, the most secluded of the three. Nestled at the top of a valley, we had the choice of heading down to the dam and company or up into the mountains for stunning views and adventure tea. Wherever we went we were accompanied by a pack of happy dogs, who led us through the wilderness to a lovely secluded swimming spot and brought us safely home from our waterfall hike.

Besides our four-legged friends, our campsite was visited by a host of creatures coming by to say hello. Lizards scurried around on the rocks, a whip snake slithered past, starlings called and dived overhead and speckled pidgeons coo’d from the rocky cliffs above. A tok-tok beetle, happy with the nice hard flagstones of our patio, spent each day tapping away merrily, broadcasting his love to the world. And if I sat quietly in our hammock, a Cape Bunting would hop out from the bushes and explore our campsite. I managed to get a sketch and colour it later:

Everything about this place was perfect. We could rest and read in a beautiful setting, explore the boulder fields, hike along the river or just relax together in our cosy campsite. The cabins were thoughtfully constructed, with everything we needed and nothing extraneous. The company (both canine and human) was friendly and welcoming, and I was with my beloved wife. What more could one wish for? If this is glamping, sign me up 🙂