Kingsley Holgate on Mumbo
If you read the last newsletter, then you know that Kingsley Holgate and his crew came to Chembe Village, Cape Maclear, to distribute mosquito nets to women with babies and toddlers as part of the United Against Malaria Initiative. The distribution went off swimmingly, as did the celebrations around it. The soccer match was exciting and the prizegiving for the art competition was well received. All in all it was a very happy day in Chembe Village. 

Kingsley and his crew arrived at Mumbo at about 4pm and then began a full evening of eating and drinking. We brought in an extra chef, Francis, to help with the cooking - and the whole catering team (Andrew, Douglas and Francis) did a fantastic job of producing enough food for the whole expedition crew and then some: local fish curry, Thai curry, bean stew and heaps of rice. In fact, the whole island team did an amazing job, pulling together to make everything look great, including all the extra tents on the new pilates deck. It all went so smoothly you would think we catered for that many people all the time!

Kingsley was very generous with his Captain Morgan during the postprandial fireside chats and the Australian contingent were so impressed with the Amarula that they emptied every last bottle on the island. Eventually, at about 11pm (a very late night by Mumbo standards), everyone went to sleep!

Birds, Otters and Monitor Lizards
Tania, our island hostess, is going through the bird list at the moment trying to take photos of as many species as she can. So far she's photographed a couple of Hoopoes, Bishops and a Trumpeter Hornbill. 

The spotted necked otters can be seen almost every evening at dusk, swimming across Mumbo's little bay in search of fish. And those who have been fortunate enough to be snorkelling when the monitor lizards are also doing their laps have often been temporarily nervous - a large lizard can look very much like a crocodile at an underwater glance. But never fear, they have fewer - and much tinier teeth!

Mumbo is not heart shaped for nothing!
In other news from Mumbo, we have had a spate of happy honeymooners over the last few weeks - all of whom have been very impressed with just how special the island is. Unusually, even when there were three honeymoon couples on the island on the same day, they all sat down to dinner together, (though we did not neglect to give each couple a surprise dinner a deux on a secluded deck on their last night).

Our record so far is three honeymoon couples and two proposals on the island in the same week - is there something in the air? One clever fellow proposed to his girlfriend whilst kayaking around the island: as she turned to take the ring (fortunately a plastic decoy) she knocked it from his hand with her inexpertly wielded paddle and it sank irrevocably to the bottom of the lake... The other fortunate wife-to-be was given a hippo tooth ring from our shop (made by our boatman Akim). It's clearly the thought that counts after all!