Just this week

Just this week on my Island paradise (not really an island but anyway!) I ate Kampango wrapped in banana leaves with rice and carrots in peanut butter sauce. All this washed off with a nice Chenin blanc. The moon was full and looked like a huge football suspended from a dark blue ceiling speckled with shiny stars clearly marking Orion's Constellation. There was a fire on the beach which we (my 3 colleagues and I) sat around listening to DJ mixes from the clubbing world that; when lying on the squeaky white sand feels so ancient and several lifetimes away. In the bush behind us came the wailing sounds of a bushbaby crying for attention, in seconds we were both on our feet to investigate. Malcolm spotted him acrobating from one tree branch to another but as soon as the flashlight was on him, he froze unsure of what to do, then slowly he slid behind the tree branch, hiding himself from the flashlight and us. 100meters the lake washed waves on the beach in soft rythymic comforting motions cleaning and smoothing off pebbles in the process.

Another day I sat on the porch digesting my lunch just outside the office. A monitor lizard came by unannounced and trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, he felt his way around with his forked tongue possibly looking for a snack to eat. The patterns on his body are vivid and work very well to camouflage him from human eyes, he blends well among the brown and green leaves and dark grey rocks.

had a moment of excitement the other day when 8 of our guests showed up in helicopters, landing right on our beach! Everyone (I mean EVERYONE) left what they were doing to go and check out the helis and see what the fuss was all about, probably the most fun and excitement we have all had since last year when we hosted the Dug out canoes race! For a moment there I thought we were in an episode of "tour of duty" or something

We took a time out one afternoon to lie on the beach, an hour later Maaike woke me up to point at a tree branch that was barely holding up to the weight of a large white bird with black wings, speckled white with a huge orange- red hornlike beak. She wanted to know what it was but unfortunately I missed that section in my bush course, later I found out it was a rare Tockus jacksoni, pretty cool!

Last night as the sun went down and I was enjoying a cigarette with Maaike, an owl landed on the tree branches high above us, he was quiet in his approach and his landing was quite smooth. It occured to me from the size; and shape that this was my first Pell's fishing owl sighting!

At 6am this morning I was struggling to stay awake as I made my way through the sand to the office, a beeeater perched himself just an armslength from where I walked on a low branch, I could see the pinfeather tips of his tail and the brilliant green and red that make up his coat, I immediately felt energize and could not imagine a better place to be.

Yesterday morning I woke up to the loud chatter of squabling weavers, they were in my hut having flew in from the wide gap above my door, good call for I probably would not have woken up otherwise.

If it goes on like this, I may never leave the land of Squeaky sand!