Before Lisbon... Zambia

In complete contrast and as a gorgeous relaxed prelude to the busyness of the week in Lisbon, my husband and I were lucky enough to join my two sisters, their spouses and a group of friends, on an idyllic holiday on the Zambezi River in Zambia. I didn't do a lot of sketching - my few attempts at drawing the abundance of wildlife - lions, hippos galore, elephant and crocodiles, buffalo, impala and kudu were quickly abandoned as either they or the vehicle moved, or I was too entranced to take my eyes off them to reach for my sketchbook and brushes. These were some of the quiet moments I did manage to get down on paper...

A view from a pool deck at the lodge down the river.

Hippos grazed and grunted contentedly near the tented rooms - I sat on one of the patios and sketched them and a group of baboons picking at seeds on the mud flats - ready to run inside if they came any closer!

Boats took us to some watery by-ways, where scores of varieties of birds nested and fed, as well as some huge crocs and the ubiquitous hippos, the 'pigeons of the Zambezi'. I was grateful for the expert knowledge of the guides as to where to get out and stretch our legs! This was my husband, brother-in-law and his brother fishing for barbel. On another occasion, one of them had caught a fish from the boat and was reeling it in, when a croc shot up and took it, Matt finding himself with this huge toothy beast on the end of his line, a metre away - which fortunately turned and broke it before diving back into the deep.

Vincent, the fishing guide on this trip (my sketch doesn't look much like him, another moving target!), worked hard, baiting all the hooks and advising where to cast - he was extremely knowledgeable about the birds, trees, in fact all the flora and fauna, as were all the guides - getting a little time to fish himself in between work.

The bar hangs over the water and underneath a magnificent sausage tree, adorned with enormous sausage-shaped seedpods. It was a bit chilly in the evenings to make use of this beautiful sundowner area in July, two outdoor fireplaces inviting us to gather around and share every day's wealth of experiences.

The white fronted bee-eater, as my sister Vivienne noted, was the bird of the trip, there seemed to be one around or ahead of us, wherever any of us went, by foot or landrover. One of the guides said they try to lead people, or baboons to bee-hives, so that as you take the honey, they get the bees, wiping the stings out first on a rock - clever little creatures!

...and a jacana digging for food in the mud puddles.

On my last blissful day in the bush, we could choose to go down the river by boat cruise - which I did, having an unforgettable encounter with elephants along the way (photos below) - land vehicle, or canoe, all meeting at a spot on the river bank where a delicious picnic lunch had been prepared for us. I sketched the staff having a well-earned break before clearing up and getting us back via boat cruise or game drive for one last, perfect evening on the Zambezi.

Royal Zambezi

I decided to expand this to a family affair by posting my daughter Alexandra's gouache sketches she made while on holiday in Zambia last month. Bruce and I were there two years ago, and I'm ashamed to say it didn't even occur to me to take a sketchbook! The gorgeous no-comforts-barred lodge http://www.royalzambezilodge.com/index2.php belongs to my brother-in-law and sister, who've invited us to share some of their holidays there... wildlife literally roam right through the camp at night - you need to stay in your bungalow (picture on the left) so as not to bump into a hippo or an ellie on a midnight stroll! Incredible and abundant birdlife, and the gasping and grunting of hippos wake you up in the morning... just wilderness bliss.
At top right is the wonderful 'sausage tree' of enormous girth, that hosts the pub and it's viewing deck. The vertical squiggles are of the striking maroon and yellow flower bracts that then produce huge bizarre-looking sausage shaped fruit - according to Palgraves 'Trees of Southern Africa', used by indigenous people for purposes ranging from curing syphilis and rheumatism to a poultice for making babies fat!
The crocodile drawing is of a wooden carving, but there are plenty of real crocs lurking on the banks of the river. They certainly keep still enough to draw from, if you don't alarm them into sliding into the water, which in turn alarms you if you're sitting in a canoe with your sketchbook!