There are a lot of elephants in this game reserve, which means that there is plenty of wood lying around and its bone dry - so starting a fire is simple - and building it up to keep away things that go bump in the night and/or might spoil your evening is an acknowledged source of fun for boys of all ages.

It's baking hot around the middle of the day, so Tim and I retreated after our 1100 brunch (we were out game viewing from 0630) to the camp beds that we hauled up into this tree house. We came across the tree house yesterday whilst looking for a camp site and thought - why bother putting up a tent? Its a brilliant place. There are three lashed/nailed together bush ladders made out of mopani branches that take you up to the viewing/ sleeping platform, with an in...

Lots of dry wood around - mainly from trees damaged by elephants - so cooking on an open fire is easy. You are starving by the time you get back from an early morning game drive, so we had the full monty for brunch; sausages, bacon, beans, fried eggs, toast and coffee - and then crashed out for an hour or two during the heat of the day in our tree house.

You see more and more DHL and UPS vehicles around in the UK now and I've often wondered why people use them when there is a perfectly good service provided by the Royal Mail. Mail services in Africa, however, don't operate to Royal Mail time standards and there is also a significant risk that anything of value may disappear en route. Since our plans to drive to Zambia may not now be possible, my Plan B may involve flying to Uganda/Malawi/S Africa and hiring a...

Bugs generally only fall into the "interesting" category when they don't irritate or bite you - but there can be exceptions. Flies that attempt to get into every orifice and moths that self destruct on camping lights are pretty irritating, whereas mosquitos can be both irritating and dangerous. The scenario is a familiar one. You have sprayed your bedroom/ tent 15 minutes before entry, as recommended (because the insecticides have so many nasty things in them th...