The Cape Verde islands are just off the West African coast and one hour behind GMT which seemed odd but when I refreshed my geography I realised that the west of Africa is due south of the Greenwich and we were west of that so it made perfect sense! Sal, one of the islands, is a large piece of volcanic rock with undulations, which we found when we hired bikes for a day, and a constant wind which is great for the wind and kite surfers and good training when you ...

The last day of our holiday has arrived - but that means the next one is closer. Early tea arrived as normal but no walk today, instead I went to the pool for a 45minute swim. As we had seen leopard prints on the path behind our house yesterday I was hopeful he might be around but sadly no glimpses; instead I was greeted by two hyrax sitting huddled together on the steps by the pool trying to warm up in the sun. It was just so idyllic and peaceful swimming while...

Our daily routine of early tea and a walk continued - today we did our walk in the valley opposite Sultans House which was a first. We noticed that everyday at 8am it got noticeably warmer as if someone actually turned up the heat, fortunately this was the time we returned from our walk. Breakfast was its normal outdoor pleasure watching the birds coming and going from the bird bath. We saw bulbuls, slaty boubou, purple grenadier, white fronted go away birds and...

Election day dawned bright and sunny and we began as usual with early morning tea and a walk. The elephants were very active and close this morning so Solomon called for an armed ranger to walk with us. Thanks to him we saw relatively fresh wild dog footprints - so they are around. We also saw leopard prints very close to the Lodge.......indeed during breakfast we heard the Kudu alarm call and look and we heard, but didn't see, a leopard growl so we knew it was s...

Morning tea arrived at 6.15am, and we enjoyed it while watching the daybreak and the rock hyraxes warming up outside our window. At 7.00am Solomon arrived and we headed off for our pre breakfast walk - the clear fresh air and wildlife were intoxicating -however we ensured that we kept good distance away from the elephants. We arrived back for breakfast at 0830 and agreed to meet by the jeep at 1000 to visit the schools and village-Gill was going to join us. Firs...