Overnight visitor

The main cook at the camp, Luís, caters very well for guests. His default mode would be to serve up pancakes, eggs, bread rolls, muffins and accoutrements before 6am, which is when the work day starts here. In Maputo I’ve generally been on the coffee for breakfast and then eating around mid-afternoon.

That hasn’t been the healthiest of patterns but I can’t suddenly start troughing at 6am without needing an immediate nap. Today I took some fruit and cereals to the office and grazed at it gradually until 11am. This was much more my bag. Until I remembered Luis has lunch ready from 11.30am. Stomach, you’d better get flexing.

‘You’re going to be hot in that’, said Wim, pointing at my flannel shirt. It was before 7am and already pretty warm. I confessed that it’s because when I arrived back in Maputo most of my shirts were too tight after UK limbo lockdown bulk. Gone are the days of skintight little numbers, especially after a few weeks of Luís’ handiwork.

This pile greeted us in the morning and mid-afternoon I was told the elephant had appeared at the guest camp. As I drove over Luís and Alifa, another of the camp staff, were moving gingerly around, flapping their arms to signal an elephant in the vicinity. It was hanging around by their washing line, and they’d nearly walked into it when exiting their kitchen. I watched it for a while before it slinked off into the bush. Well, as much as an elephant can slink.