WPC: Narrow Street in Prague

A submission to this wee’s photo challenge: Narrow

Taken in Prague, this street is so narrow it needs traffic lights to control access.

A Trip to the Seaside

Yesterday we paid a visit to the seaside – part of a longer trip to the place where we hope (results depending) our eldest will be living over the next few years whilst at University.

Then it was down to the beach for a afternoon at the British Seaside (West Witterham). It was a lovely afternoon and though it was never going to match the temperatures of Zanzibar or Tanga- the sea was pleasantly warm as indeed was  the breeze – a fabulous way to enjoy a sunny afternoon. We even took a paddle in the English Channel (part of the Atlantic Ocean).

Then a short drive along the coast to Bognor Regis for “fish and chips” – (though as a non-fish eater it was Saveloy) on the shingle beach in the evening sun. All very British!

My First Kingfisher

Throughout our time in Tanzania we have seen hundreds of kingfishers Pied Kingfishers, Grey- Headed Kingfishers, Malachite Kingfishers even a Giant Kingfisher. 

However in Britain I have never seen a (Common) Kingfisher. For years I have looked along river banks hoping to spot that flash of blue and orange, but never a glimpse of this shy bird.

Until today that is… 🙂

It started at 5:30 – I’ve not been sleeping well having pulled a muscle in my shoulder. The sun was shining brightly which for me is taking along time to get used to (having lived with a constant 12 hour day these past two years). So I got up and dressed and headed out with my camera to get some early morning shots of Emberton Park – our home for the week. I headed for the lake and made for the bird hide. As I went I wondered whether it might be possible to see a kingfisher – but I had been to many such lakes and rivers over the years and never even seen flicker. 

I am a Christian  and as I walked I shot up an arrow prayer asking if just once I might be lucky. I don’t believe in a slot-machine God who does things to order, but I do believe in a God who cares and answers our prayers though not always in the way we expect – in the big things and in the little. This was most definitely in the little category. 

I sat there waiting patiently in the early morning light. Self doubt saying to me give up you’ve tried and failed many times, a little voice countering and saying be patient – twenty minutes and movement across my eyeline – in the light it was more black than anything but I followed it and carefully moved to the other side of the hide – there it was on a branch – fleetingly and before my camera could capture it, gone. 

My first kingfisher – amazed and thankful I nonetheless decided to wait on the little voice saying be patient. 

Ten minutes on and two flashes of blue zooming across the lake – still no picture.   I shot another prayer just asking for an opportunity to capture the bird. I positioned my camera towards the branches of a submerged bush and waited. Then finally a squeaky call and another bird flew into view. I got off two shots.  

I didn’t get a perfectly posed bird on a branch but God had answered again. He had answered in abundance but not the way I expected. I had seen no less than four kingfishers, having never seen a UK bird before. He will answer in the little things and in the big – if we ask and if we are patient and if we expect the unexpected.

Slipping Right Back In?

I am not sure what I expected upon our return visit to the UK this summer but I’m pleasantly surprised that for me at least it is very much a case of picking up where I left off in 2014. I imagined that there might be a greater discontinuity or even culture shock but it hasn’t as yet been manifest.

Perhaps the effects of Social Media, FaceTime, the BBC News App on my phone and a 4G has meant that a tenuous link to the UK remained even though I was well off the beaten track in Mwanza.
We are in the midst of a week long return to MK and yesterday had a great time catching up with old friends at St Mary’s Bletchley. Whilst much had changed in the Church Yard, it seemed to us that it was very much the same SMB we left in 2014. It was good to be part of that community again.  MK itself seems little different – a few new buildings in this ever changing new city but familiar nonetheless. 
We have all got older of course and the changes are most apparent in the friends of our children and in the older folk we have met. Even so most people are as they were. Here lies the most obvious difference. 

I suppose the past two years for us have opened us to a very different way of life and a plethora of experiences. Yet perhaps outwardly we have changed little too other than a slight tan and the use of a few expat colloquialisms. Yet sitting here in MK, we are visitors, curious onlookers no longer residents.

I wonder whether the longer we are away from Britain, the bigger the differences will become.

MK Bound

Today we arrived back in MK my home for 26 years prior to moving out to Mwanza. We are staying on a campsite to the north of the city.  A picturesque landscape of woodland and lakes near Olney.

It’s the first time back in MK and a great opportunity to catch up with old friends. 

We’ve actually been back in the UK a week now. Surprisingly it has not been the culture shock we anticipated – for me I have slipped back into the UK environment with no real surprises, though it has felt a bit cold. Maybe the 40+ years of UK living have made the experience much more ‘normal’ than I expected after two years on the equator. ​

Having initially stayed with family near Abingdon it gave  an opportunity to visit ex-colleagues in Thame and it was good to catch up and see them. Life has changed little, it seems, though perhaps I detect a slightly greater pressure on all as they embrace the challenges of the British Education Reforms – something I am glad to have escaped.

This week a chance for the kids to catch up with school friends and us all to meet church friends and wider MK friends as well as family. It also gives us a chance to sort out things for our son’s impending entry into University. MK’s reassuring familiarity is a real bonus. 

WPC :Look Up -Giant Fritillary

A submission to this week’s photo challenge :Look Up – looking up at this Fritillary from below – taken using the ‘selfie’ camera on the iPhone to get this unusual angle on this flower. I’ve shared this before but am happy to do again.

Taken at Hidcote Manor – Oxfordshire in April 2014

WPC – Look Up To The Skies

A submission to this week’s photo challenge :Look Up – looking up to see the birdlife around us in Tanzania and across Africa.

Palm Nut Vulture

Little Bee-eater

Black headed Gonolek

Spotted Morning Thrush

Yellow-billed Black Kite

White Throated Bee-eater

Bronze Mannikin

Hamerkop in flight

Grey-headed Kingfisher

Roller Turn

Black and White Casqued Hornbill

Yellow-billed Black Kite in the sun

Swamp Flycatcher

Red-billed Firefinch

Red Kite

African Paradise Flycatcher

Roller Close Up

Roller Landing

Klaas’s Cuckoo

Common Bul Bul

Trick of the Light

One of the strangest things to us about our return to the UK has been the sudden exposure to the extended daylight of the northern hemisphere summer.

Waking up first thing and heading to the bathroom emerging into the light to realise that it’s only 5:30am.

Sitting in the lounge and realising it’s 9pm even though it’s still light.

It’s only two years since this was the norm but you get used to the consistency. If it’s dark it’s either before 7am or after 7pm. The pattern is virtually fixed with limited changes as you move through the year. 

We took the opportunity to go for a walk after our evening meal last night and it was strange to walk through a local nature reserve at 8pm. Twilight here is also significantly longer here than in Mwanza where the sun sets quickly and the transition from daylight to night is less than an hour. It is nice to have the long nights, but I’ve got to get used to sleeping through the early morning light whilst we’re here.

 

One Year On (Day 1 – Mwanza to Dar Es Salaam)

A year ago today – our epic trip across Africa.

We are up at 5:30am in order to get the taxi to the Airport. The usual scans and searches at this provincial airport. Small as it is there are still two places where we need to remove shoes and ele…

Source: Day 1 – Mwanza to Dar Es Salaam

Back to ‘Blighty’

I sit here in the lounge of my parents-in law watching Wimbledon – the Ladies Semi-Finals (Kerber vs Williams). It’s almost like we’ve never been away.

It’s our first day back in England (Blighty is an old-fashioned term for Britain / England). It was a long and somewhat stressful trip back with Turkish Air / Fast Jet.

It all started back in Mwanza with a lengthy conversation  with a ‘jobsworth’  Fast Jet official who insisted that although on weight – we were only allowed one bag each on the plane – this was neither on the ticket or clearly described in the small print – we almost missed our flight!

In Dar Es Salaam – we discovered our 3 am flight was delayed by six hours – resulting in a sleepless night in the Airport. The reason for the delay was never fully explained though attributed to technical difficulties. The result of all this delay was that we would miss our connecting flight from Istanbul to London. Thankfully but after a hour long, 1 – 2am wait in the airport we were re-scheduled for a later flight.

The delay was almost 7 hours in the end and got us into Istanbul with a little over an hour to spare before check-in. So a quick taste of European culture (Café Nero) before boarding our Heathrow flight. Arriving back in the UK about 9pm we realised that of our 7 bags, 3 were still in Istanbul. One of the three belonged to Anita who had no clothes, one to me who had no other shoes but sandals, the other to my daughter.
These were subsequently put on another flight – but one bag only has arrived thus far – the others having taken an even later flight back and expected late this evening. Although all these will be couriered across – things are still very frustrating.

I’m told this is the perils of long-haul travel – just hoping our journey back to Mwanza will be less of an ordeal.

 

Sahara

One positive of our delayed flight today was the chance to see the Sahara from above. This vast desert stretches from Sudan in the South to the Egyptian shores of the Mediterranean in the North, from the Red Sea in the East to Morocco in the West. We fly over a narrow band to it’s East and flowing through it, the River Nile (a river we last encountered in Uganda). Here the river meanders through the desert providing much needed water and minerals which in turn allow the desert dwellers a chance to farm. Adjacent to the Nile, in the rugged brown ‘sandscape’ we saw strange circular patterns – more signs of irrigation as the farmers turn the desert green.

 

The desert is far from featureless for the most part with rocky outcrops of brown dispersed amongst the pale yellows, greys, beiges and whites of the ‘sandscape’. Pipelines cross the landscape delivering water or possibly oil. Elsewhere the sands are worn by long gone rivers and streams forming tree-like patterns.

Then out of the window looms as large stretch of water, the reservoir formed by the Aswan Dam, intricate filigree as sand meets water. Resembling the Norwegian coastline,  as viewed from space.

 

Then eventually Cairo and the Mediterranean, the end of the desert and a change to green then bright blue..

Out of Africa

By the time this is published we will be Out of Africa on route to Europe, back to Britain.

We return with anticipation and expectation and just a little trepidation. For the first time we will be in the UK as visitors. 

We are of course looking forward to seeing family and friends back in our former home – but Tanzania feels like home two years on. 

How much has Britain changed in these past two years? The events of the past fortnight makes us wonder how much Britain has pulled up the drawbridge and turned it’s back on the world. We are definitely (as most expats here) Internationalists and  have been shocked by the Brexit from Europe. There’s no intent to get political here – just a statement of fact.

The weather is somewhat uninviting to us, the rain and lower temperatures are a challenge. We are hoping for a heatwave in the UK!

Then there’s the cost of living which will be significant as we will need to exist on Tz Wages. An example Is such that a good meal out for 2 here is about the same as a couple of Costa Coffees. 

The pace of life will be faster than we’ve gotten used to here and two years away from most TV means we’re gonna definitely be out of touch.

We are looking forward to 

Cinema – the nearest to here is in Kigali (Rwanda) or possibly Kampala (Uganda).
Cheese – this is expensive here and limited in both variety and quality.

Wholemeal Bread – white is common here and fresh baked bread by our house worker is good – but I miss good brown bread.

Pork / bacon /sausages etc – available in places but very expensive in the main. Good Lincolnshire sausages are definitely on my list. Chorizo sausage is a definite miss – no such thing here. 

Coffee / Coffee Shops – although an expense we miss Costa Coffees and their ilk. Good ground coffee is available in Rwanda and Arusha/Moshi but is quite difficult to pick up in Mwanza. 

Good chocolate – though we have now found panacea that sell reasonable chocolate here – it tends to be the Cadbury’s variety. We used to indulge in the occasional trip to Hotel Chocolat back in the UK and enjoy a higher quality of Chocolate.

Italian Food – not easy to get here – Pizzas bought locally are dreadful (lacking cheese and containing carrot it avocado). There are no Italian Restaurants, probably our favorite food type. 

Last, but not least family – a chance to catch up properly without the vague ties of Skype and FaceTime

The major change coming our way is in our family as we are leaving Tanzania as four and will return here as three. My eldest awaits examination results, but all things well, will be heading to University in the UK in the Autumn as not returning back.

We have spent some of the last few days visiting some favorite haunts in Mwanza. Yesterday we visited Tunza and spent a morning there having breakfast and then playing Mah Jongg. 

Our journey out of Africa has not been smooth – from the FastJet jobsworth in Mwanza who nearly cost us our flight to the six hour delay which meant a 3am flight became a 9am take off.

In Mwanza the issue was that inspire of the fact our bags were the correct combined weight the aforementioned jobsworth insisted that we were allowed only one bag each – this resulted in a lot of discussion before a superior let us through.

In Dar we arrived to see that technical problems caused a 6hr delay and a long, sleepless night in the airport. Just hoping the rest goes more smoothly. 

I’ll Miss…. The Birdlife

Term’s over, school’s out and soon we’ll be out of Africa.

Not for ever ….. but for a couple months whilst we return to the UK. Here is a short series on some of the things I’ll miss whilst we’re gone.

It may not be a surprise to those who follow this blog regularly that the birdlife has been a major part of the experience here. You can find out more by clicking on the link below and working forward. A Bird a Day in June

Mourning Doves

Red Bishop

Speckled Mousebird

Black-headed Gonolek

Swallow-tailed Bee-eater

Spectacled Weaver

Dimorphic Egret

Spotted Morning Thrush

House Sparrows

African Paradise Flycatcher

Marabou Stork

Scarlet-chested Sunbird

Grey-capped Warbler

Speckled Pigeon

Swamp Flycatcher

Laughing Dove

Klaas’s Cuckoo

Variable Sunbird

Purple Grenadier

Bronze Mannikin

Lilac Breasted Roller

White Browed Robin Chat (Orange)

Grey-headed Kingfisher

Green-winged Pytillia

Pied Crow

Yellow-billed Black Kite

Red-chested Sunbird

Redbilled Firefinch

Eastern-grey Plantain Eater

Hadada Ibes

Grey-backed Camaroptera

Pied Kingfisher

Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu

Little Egret

White Throated Bee-eater

African Thrush

 

A Bird A Day (The ones that got away) – Day 35 : House Sparrow

Day 35 of a series illustrating some of the fantastic birds we see here on Lake Victoria and across Tanzania. Sadly there weren’t enough days in June – so here are some of the birds which got away. This is an apt one to finish with – a regular visitor we never expected to see here in Tanzania.

House Sparrow

House Sparrows

Other Sparrows

I’ll Miss…. The Weather

Term’s over, school’s out and soon we’ll be out of Africa.

Not for ever ….. but for a couple months whilst we return to the UK. Here is a short series on some of the things I’ll miss whilst we’re gone.

It rarely falls below 20°C here in Mwanza – and generally day-time temperatures hover between 25°C and 30°C – so I’m not looking forward to the ‘cold’ of the British Summer – let alone the rain.

I’m hoping for a heat wave back in Britain – otherwise it’s lots of sweaters and long sleeved tops – something I have hardly ever had to wear here.

We are now firmly in the Dry Season so not looking forward to the wet either.

 

A Bird A Day (The ones that got away) – Day 34 : Marabou Stork

Day 34 of a series illustrating some of the fantastic birds we see here on Lake Victoria and across Tanzania. Sadly there weren’t enough days in June – so here are some of the birds which got away.

Marabou Stork

Marabou Stork

Marabou Stork

Other Storks

Shoebill

Shoe Bill Stork

I’ll Miss …. Lake Victoria

Term’s over, school’s out and soon we’ll be out of Africa.

Not for ever ….. but for a couple months whilst we return to the UK. Here is a short series on some of the things I’ll miss whilst we’re gone.

Lake Victoria affords some amazing views. It might be full of Bilharzia and polluted, but is scenically beautiful, whether from Tunza, Talapia, Malaika, Yung Long, Wag Hill, Jembe Beach, Papa’s or Igombe it’s lovely to sit by the Lake, the gentle breeze blowing cooling air, watch the nature and relax. Sunsets are awesome.

 

Tunza Sunset

Wag Hill Sunset

Malaika Sunset with Dow

A Bird A Day (The ones that got away) – Day 33 : Pied Crow

Day 33 of a series illustrating some of the fantastic birds we see here on Lake Victoria and across Tanzania. Sadly there weren’t enough days in June – so here are some of the birds which got away.

Pied Crow

Pied Crow

Weekly Photo Challenge: Opposites (1)

A submission to this week’s photo challenge : opposites

The bee-eater stands out a vibrant green and blue against the drab brown background of the scrubland.

I’ll Miss…. The Sounds of Morning

Term’s over, school’s out and soon we’ll be out of Africa.

Not for ever ….. but for a couple months whilst we return to the UK. Here is a short series on some of the things I’ll miss whilst we’re gone.

I love the mornings here – particularly at the weekends – it’s light at 7 or so and the dawn chorus is the first thing to wake us.

Sitting on the verandah, coffee in hand on a warm sunny Saturday hearing the sounds of the garden and the neighbourhood -my favorite time of day.

The Sounds of the Morning