Sundown on the Shire floodplain

I am back in Lilongwe after 2 weeks in Liwonde National Park in Southern Malawi.  Since I had very little internet access at the Bat Research camp where I was staying (relations with the neighbouring lodge are strained; we are not even allowed to use the bar since someone from another volunteer organisation got drunk and started wooing the Malawian guides in front of the guests and the lodge manager). As a result I have simply too much material for a regular blow-by-blow of all the happenings and adventures of this time. Instead I’ll just put up as many photos as possible (warning – lots of birds!) and add some comments and stories. Here we go:

Bats

Setting up a capture site: Kate, Peter, Elenore and Emmanuel the scout

I am here as a volunteer of the Bat Research project. For various reasons we only go out Bat-catching 5 times  and catch a total of 7 bats. I get to handle a few but prefer to leave it to more experienced hands – they are so small and delicate I don’t wish to prolong their discomfort. We sit around the little table under the star studded night sky, the girls busy texting on their mobile phones, and take turns walking around the nets and harp-traps to check for bats. On the last night Emmanuel, the armed scout accompanying us, detects Elephants nearby as we are preparing to pack up; we dismantle the gear quickly and quietly and head home.

Schlieffin’s Twilight Bat – all 5 grams of it

The project is not just about catching bats. A study is under way to determine the benefits of bats for pest control.  Early in the morning (not a good time for bat investigators) we catch the ferry across the river and drive to a village where the study is taking place. The project has paid farmers to open and close chicken-wire frames so as to exclude either birds or bats (or neither for  a control) from small plots in their cotton fields. We are here to count damaged leaves and cotton-boles and to mark new ones. It takes hours and provides entertainment for a gang of village kids who follow us around – fascinated by our strange actions.

Early morning: Sonia pretends to be interested in Matt and Samuel’s conversation

In the cotton fields

Peter seems to be happy to have a day away from the mad bat camp

Finally the leaf counting is done and we head to “town”  on a bumpy and dusty track. It’s market day at Ulongwe and we have to restock our kitchen. I am a bit tired of vegetarian fair ( the standard meal is what I call “Student Curry”: cut up all sorts of vegetables and chuck in a pot; add lots of garlic, soy meat, tomatoes, peanut butter, any spices available, salt, water and boil for a while; serve with over-cooked spaghetti left to congeal – I exaggerate, it is actually quite good). Anyway, Peter, Kingsley (from the bat-study village) and I set off in search of meat and I am soon the proud owner of a large haunch of goat. Back at camp Peter hacks it to small chunks with a Machete and I cook up a pretty good stew which the 4 carnivores of the team enjoy for dinner and again for lunch the next day.

Rhinos

Rhinos are the flagship of wildlife conservation in Africa. Liwonde has 10 of these rare animals and great pains are taken to monitor and protect them. I am at a bit of a loose end due to the low level of activity at Bat camp. I walk around the area and watch birds but ranging further afield is not allowed. The Rhino team come to the rescue – I am invited to join them for a morning. Here’s my Diary from that morning:

I am up really early – I have time to make some porridge for breakfast before meeting up with Frankie and  Scottish volunteer Marie for my morning with the Rhino-tracking team. We drive off to the sanctuary where we pick up the scouts – Christopher and Maxwell and head north. The goal today is to locate one of the three Rhinos living outside the sanctuary (they escaped a few years ago when an Elephant destroyed a portion of the fence).

Maxwell tunes in

This one is a male with a transmitter implanted in its horn so we stop every couple of km to check the reading – it leads us on north to where the Shire rises out of Lake Malombe. I am riding on the back of the shiny white pickup, hanging on for dear life as Frankie whizzes along the trails. This guy knows how to drive in the bush, it’s a pleasure after the inept offroading skills of the Bat-team students. The cold morning air in my face, the sunlight through the Mopane trees, Hornbills and Grey-headed Parrots flying around – magic.

Flood plain

We reach the lake and a wide open tall-grass flood-plain. Here the bearing of the Rhino’s transmission changes – we are close to it. This is not a good place for it to be. Obviously the lush vegetation is attractive but this area is close to the park boundary and heavily poached by fishermen from around the lake who have a sideline in game-poaching. We drive in to the bush for a bit, Christopher on foot finding a way for the car through the tall grass. We park and proceed by foot, entering a Mopane thicket.  We zero in on a clump of shrubby trees where the Rhino is lurking, invisible – we can hear the Ox-peckers.

Rhino just ahead – everyone on tip-toe

Just then Christopher picks up fresh tracks of a group of people – poachers have been through here. He holds us up as he and Frankie check it out.The wind shifts and the Rhino scents us – we hear some snorting and crashing in the thicket and he is gone. It’s dissapointing – we did’t see him  – but we located him and , even better , he is moving south into safer ground. Christopher finds one track breaking away from the poacher group and follows it – a few hundred metres further on we discover 7 triple wire loop snares set in game runs. They are set low – for wart-hog and small antelopes but such wire can cause serious injury even to a Buffalo or a Rhino. We search around for more but that’s all we find and we return to the car. On the way back we check and see that the Rhino is still on the move, still heading South.

In between all this tracking and ant-poaching stuff Frankie keeps pointing out birds to me and identifying their calls – he is a really good birder and knows a hell of a lot about the bush, the park and all things African. On the way back I swap places with Marie and sit up front with F, hoping to draw him out a bit – I am intrigued by this immaculately dressed, pony-tailed oddball. But all I get is a long monologue about the history of the parks game population, especially the Rhinos. We stop to look at some Sable and a herd of Buffalos and part at the lodge parking lot, not before he invites me to join them in the afternoon to try and track the male Rhino again, once he has settled down. I must have made a good impression.

“Buffs”

Sable in the Mopani woodland

Up early again (the afternoon session didn’t happen – but Frankie arranged for me to tag along the next morning)  and meet up with Frankie and Marie. We wait a bit for Maxwell’s replacement who is arriving from across the river with the first boat. Marie is getting on my nerves a bit. She was quite surprised to hear I had been invited back for another session – didn’t seem very happy about it. She has an annoying Scottish accent  – one of those where e-v-e-rr-y l-ett-e-rr is ca-rr-e-fu-l-y p-rr-o-n-ou-n-c-e-d. She hangs around at bat camp quite alot and complains about being bored when there is no afternoon program. Bored? I can’t believe it! She gets to go out rhino tracking every day with brilliant trackers and with Frankie. Some people…
Anyway today she wants to be in the back and I am happy to sit comfortably in the front with Franky and chat as we drive to the rhino sanctuary. He tells me a bit  about himself. Turns out he has a Masters in Renaissance literature, trained as a wildlife guide in S.Africa and has been in Liwonde for 6 years as a guide and now as Rhino man. A real Renaissance man. We enjoy our talk, we are similar oddballs with a passion for the bush, wildlife .
We pick up Christopher the senior scout and enter the sanctuary, park inside and walk to  a small muddy waterhole. There are fresh tracks of a female rhino and a calf. Christopher explains that we cannot pick up the direction they headed off because the ground around is so dry and hard, Instead we make a wide sweep further out and he finds the spoor .

Has a Rhino passed this way?

We head off along on their trail. Francesco who is new takes the lead and follows the spoor. Its not easy in the dry leaf-covered ground and sometimes he loses them and Christopher has to move up from the rear and they cast about till they pick up the trail. Frankie keeps whispering bird names at me as he points out calls to me – I can’t really hear most of the time but I nod enthusiastically. I am not so interested in the birds – the rhino tracking is thrilling – I am getting into the rhinos head as we follow them on their morning jaunt, Christopher points out where they have nibbled at a branch, rubbed a termite mound and we find some dung, still faintly warm.

We are getting close and start taking precautions, testing the wind,  and being very quiet. But then we lose the spoor and after some casting around the scouts give up. Frankie is apologetic but I don’t mind at all. it has been absolutely thrilling. It is still early so Frankie gives the scouts a challenge – find a rhino in 30 minutes. This is a useful exercise he explains since sometimes they need to do this in a hurry, with no prior warning. There are several rhinos in the sanctuary with transmitters implanted in the horns so that’s the quickest way. However Marie, determined to do her volunteer bit, takes charge of the transmitter – not what Frankie had in mind but nobody says anything and off we go, driving, stopping , finding the bearing and driving on. We are stopped by a large bull elephant and scramble back into the car – the elephant is curious and circles the car, flapping ears, waving it’s trunk as Frankie talks to it and reassures it that we are no threat.

Elephant meets Frankie

It moves on and we go back to business. Finally we find a spot where we are a few hundred metres from the Rhino, the big dominant male. Franky takes over the tracking aerial Marie fiddles around with some other gadget and holds us up but we enter the thick bush and move quietly,  circling downwind from the rhinos, watching our step and finally Christopher points – There they are! The male and a young female, well hidden in a thicket about 20-30 meters away. With my super binoculars I can see their warty grey armour and huge bulk. Frankie and Christopher exchange hand signals and Christopher motions me to follow him to get a better view. I am so excited I don’t watch my step and tread loudly on some brittle dry leaves. The rhinos rush out of the thicket and we all freeze. They don’t go far, and I catch a quick glimpse of the male’s head and long horn as he moves to a new spot. They havn’t seen or scented us but are alert now. Through the bins I can see him now , facing us head on like a small battleship.  No photos possible through the dense thicket, but a great encounter. We back off and make our way quietly back to the car and drive home.
Frankie is pleased and goes so far as to invite me to a “small social” on Saturday afternoon. I don’t know (or care) what Marie thinks. At the Bat camp I share my Rhino adventure and send a text to Cazz who was on the Rhino project before LWC. I can die happily right now.

Birds

Blue Waxbill

The Bat project chose Liwonde as it’s location because of the high diversity of Bat species here. I have a lot of time on my hands and use it to go birding around the camp – I soon discover the same is true for birds. I cover a small area between the river bank, camp, lodge and a short way out in to the bush and keep seeing new birds. All the guides at the lodge are keen birders and I even see them walking around with binoculars in their free time, sharpening their birding skills – of course I am happy to tag along and pick up some tips. Liwonde is a birdwatchers paradise and one morning I meet two Dutch birdwatchers doing a “big year”: travelling around the world trying to see as many species as possible. They have just seen the rare Pel’s Fishing Owl and are setting off with a guide to look for Racquet-tailed Rollers, Speckle-throated Woodpeckers and other Ornithological delights. I have actually sen one of the Owls, at night flying past our bat-net when we set up along the river; we also hear their booming hoots at night.

Here’s a gallery of some Liwonde birds (and one Reptile):

Collared Palm-Thrush

African Hawk-Eagle

Lillians Lovebird

Black-necked Wattle-eye

Grey-headed Bush-shrike

Scarlet-chested Sunbird

Meve’s Starling

Orange-winged Pytilia

Pied Kingfisher

There’s more – but I guess I had better stop. You can get the idea, and I’m not such a good photographer, don’t have one of those bazooka lenses – but its birds everywhere!

Monitor Lizard

In conclusion

Back in Lilongwe I go for a walk along the little river. Something is different. After two weeks in the bush I move differently, I get close to birds much more easily and anticipate where they will be.  I have learnt a lot. I easily get photos of the elusive Peterson’s Twinspot. As for the Schalow’s Turacos which ran circles around me last time – they are almost eating out of my hand.

Petersons Twinspot

On one of my last days in Liwonde, after being stuck in camp for days (waiting for a new battery for the car,team members gone to Blantyre for new visas etc.) Kate, Elenore and I make a break for it. We drive downriver to where the Shire floodplain widens out and stop to watch the sunset. A herd of Kudu watch us from the forest edge and out on the floodplain are many Waterbuck and distant Elephants.  I would like to just walk off across the wide plain, forget about all the politics and conservation and research and stuff.  The distant palm trees beckon, its the call of the wild….

I don’t of course. We drive back to camp (seeing a Porcupine on the way) and I have some cold curry and peanut butter on toast.

Greater Kudu

Waterbuck