My wonderful new world

Before I start on today's post, I'd like to thank you all for the very kind comments on my post yesterday. I also want to assure you all that I do regularly interact with other women. (Think blogging for one, LOL!)  As soon as the young man at the club had taken the photo featured in my post, I picked up my phone and forwarded the image to my two friends who weren't there that night saying I was missing them!  They responded immediately saying they missed me too and would be back soon!

Yesterday I also managed to get out of our camp, walk up to the client's camp and visit Tilla, the only other SA lady in town at the moment. We had tea and chatted non-stop for two hours! I do have Skype and e-mail and am in contact with many of you blogger friends, my sister in  Spain and my sister-in-law in South Africa. I also have regular text message contact with my friend, Sonja, in Dar es Salaam, my dear  friend, Sue in Kenya and a number of friends in South Africa.

On Sunday afternoon, for the second weekend in a row, Grant, Wessel (my IT friend who helps me with Internet issues) Marnitz, Grant's production manager and I drove out of camp into the bush. We left quite late and were rewarded with wildlife, BIRDS (YAY!) and a magnificent sunset.

 One of the mongoose family that I spotted on the side of the road

Last week I posted photos of the buck;  we saw a few again this weekend, but I wasn't able to get good photos. I also spotted a little family of banded mongoose (should that be "mongeese" ?) and Grant stopped so that I could get my first ever photo of this delightful little creature. 

 The lane of trees which lined the village housing a British community in years gone by

Once again we drove through the now non-existent village which I posted about on Sunday. My imaginations runs amok when I think of the families - apparently they were British -  that lived here; the women, prettying up their houses to create homes and making gardens, of which I found evidence, (see photo below) while the men worked on the mine in nearby Mwadui!  

A couple of bougainvillaea shrubs in this clearing, are proof that someone had a garden here in days gone by

We spotted many birds which I'll post about tomorrow and as we wended our way home, Marnitz saw a pair of Black-backed jackal. Grant had to reverse a long way back by which time the jackal had trotted off onto a side road. We followed them along this road but as the light was fading fast and taking photos through the windscreen, I only managed to get some unclear photos.

Black-backed jackal running along the road in front of the vehicle

The jackal in front, obviously unperturbed by our presence, stopped to lick its hind leg

And then it was time to capture the sunset. I've posted one of the photos and will post the others later this week on Skywatch Friday.

A glorious African sun setting behind an Acacia thorn

This post is linked to Our World Tuesday, a meme started by Klaus until his death last year and continued by Sylvia, Gattina, Arija, Lady Fi and Sandy. Thanks ladies! You can see follow this meme here