Today Joice served us up the usual lovely breakfast. Fruit juice and coffee rounded things off. Today we met Elvis, a naturalist who Joice had asked to come and take us out walking to explain the wildlife and plants that grow locally and take us down to the falls and explain the ecology of the area.
We came to meet him and he greeted us with walking sticks he'd just made by hand. As we walked he explained the medicinal uses that locals make of plants and showed us the trees that bear the tropical fruits that we import but cant grow because of our climate. Whilst we were walking, we were joined by a little girl who was collecting firewood and she joined our walk, wearing my hat and sunglasses. I feel terrible that I forgot her name, as she made a real effort to converse with us despite speaking no English.
The Falls at Songota
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The peace of the river flowing away from the falls
After walking, Joice served us up a smashing lunch and afterwards we chatted to Elvis for ages. Such a nice chap and so intelligent. A keen cyclist too with ambitions to create some great cycling adventures that combine the sport with exploring nature.
Later in the afternoon we had a visit from Sifuel, who was to be our lead guide on the mountain trek. He went through a few things with us and checked we had all out kit. He said we'd be picked up early the next morning, as we'd have to have a seperate vehicle to get us to the bus as the holes in the road to the lodge were too deep - which they are! - even the 4WDs struggle!
Again, Joice did us proud this evening with her cooking. We sorted out our kit and seperated the stuff we didn't need during the trek that Joice had helpfully agreed to look after. I started to feel quite aprehensive and didn't sleep very well that night, despite a couple of these
(the last for a while!)
That was incredible and unforgeable encounter as we share lot which add in our life time experience.
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