Malawi #4 - Anteloping Around

Disclaimer: All photos were taken on disposable film cameras. Therefore they are pretty crap.

Whilst we were away, although we spent the majority of our time in tents at the site, we did all get a day or two of respite from such "tortuous" conditions. The most significant of these trips was our trip to Mvuu, which is a National Park in the south of Malawi, only couple of hours drive away from the site.


Everyone on site got to spend a night there, with a swimming pool, a real bed, and meals cooked for us, as well as one trip out on a land safari, which I'll show you some pictures from here, and one on a boat safari, which I'll cover in my next post.

Pumba and his family were the first wildlife we saw, from the dining room at the lodge, in fact! Interestingly, warthogs kneel down on their front legs when they are grazing, as their necks aren't long enough to allow them to reach the ground! There were a lot of monkeys and things kicking about the lodge as well, as the scavenge leftovers from the tables whenever possible. The lodge is built with low walls, and a roof held up by wooden pillars, so birds and other wild life could come and go. The park wardens tend to chase the monkeys away with a catapult, however, as they are pests, even if they are rather sweet.

Out on our drive we saw a lot of things I didn't manage to get photos of on my disposable camera, which is a shame, but then, there are lots of good pictures of these things online - far better than any I would take. The list of what I didn't photograph includes sable antelope, roan antelope, duikers, bushpigs, elephants, zebras, sparrow weavers, hartebeest, kudus and guinea fowl. Seeing the zebras in the natural habitat was particularly exciting as I've not seen many before, but they're quite a famous animal.

I did manage to get photos of the impala, but we saw loads of those, so it was easy to wait for some right near the truck.

I also got this one picture of a buffalo which came out alright, although it's still pretty far away. Maybe by the time I go again (which I probably will, you know what I'm like) then I'll have a decent camera with zoom lenses and things!

We also saw a few baobab trees in the park. These are pretty cool - rather esoterically African, so they were nice to see again. We actually went to Mvuu the last time I was in Malawi as well, and there were a few things I saw this time which I didn't see before!

After the game drive, we met up with the other jeeps and went down to the riverside. We wanted to watch the sunset but we didn't actually get there on time, so we just had drinks in the dark before we went back to the lodge for dinner.

Love and hugs

Part 1 - The Epic Journey
Part 2 - The Daily Grind
Part 3 - Not Your Average Sunday Morning

National Museum of Scotland

You will have noticed, dear reader (if any of you are still out there?) that regular blogging is not my forte. However, I have eventually returned with another offering.

Last week I took a trip to the National Museum of Scotland, recently reopened in my own fair city after a long refurbishment process. Anyone who visited the museum in the past will no doubt remember the fish pond? Alas, it has been removed. Perhaps all the fish were dying of copper poisoning... who knows.

But the refurbishment is great. I wish I'd had a better camera with me, although I still don't think it could capture the incredible space in the main gallery. It's a huge airy chamber with a glass roof, four floors high, with all of the display galleries branching off it. It's the kind of room I'd love to get married in - it feels like light and air, very uplifting. Like a cathedral but brighter.

So no pictures of that because I really couldn't do it justice, but one of the exhibits everyone's been talking about is the tyrannosaurus rex skeleton and indeed it's very impressive.

It's in the gallery which used to have (if I remember right) the skeleton of some enormous sea creature. But it's been so long since I went before the refurbishment that I don't really know for sure.



That gallery is also four stories high, but it's smaller, and the lighting is lower to preserve the taxidermies and things. And instead of that single massive creature that I only half remember, they now have a whole parade of watery creatures, including the ocean sunfish, with whom I made friends.


I also quite liked the painted stork - but you'll have to forgive the glassy reflections of my snazzy pink camera phone!


In the geology section, looking at how the Earth was formed and rocks from space and things, they had this enormous geode, full of purple crystals, which was formed by cooling lava. The bubble shapes cooled and solidified first, but the heat evaporated whatever solute was present, leaving these beauties to form on the inside of the shell. Incredible.


And the last thing that caught my eye was this slice of iron meteorite with "Widmanstätten patterns" on it. They're formed by the presence of nickel-iron alloys which cool over MILLIONS of years to form these big visible crystals, which you can only see when you slice and polish an iron meteorite. And because it takes so long to form, we can't produce them in a lab and they are proof of the extraterrestrial nature of an object - they're like as old as the Earth's core.

The museum also has lots of exhibits of foreign cultures which didn't interest me nearly so much as the natural history, and also some sculptures, including Greek and Roman ones, up at the top of the main gallery, on the top floor, which I enjoyed because I've studied Classics and I knew what they were about.

The Chambers Street section of museum has displays of British and Scottish historical artefacts which I didn't look at on this trip but which are definitely worth a look.

In fact the whole place is is worth a look - set aside an afternoon, or a whole day if you want to read through everything in the place. There's something for everyone, wherever your museum-based interests might lie, and this is really only the tip of the iceberg.

Love and hugs