I'm writing this sitting on a cooler box in the kitchen as it is a nice cool spot complete with treats. Dastan, Godfrey and Ally (our new trainee chef) are preparing lunch and I can't wait as it smells so good. They are quite intrigued at my typing skills and send their greetings to any of our past guests who are reading this…

The storm clouds are building every afternoon promising relief from the very hot days that we are having at the moment. Yesterday we had a few drops of rain and you could smell it in the air. Rashidi thinks we'll have 'proper' rain by the end of the week. The reserve is very, very dry now and it is hard to imagine that in a few months' time we'll be up to our necks in lush, green grass. Luckily the August winds are still with us to give a bit of relief from the heat. The Ruaha River has now stopped flowing and the remaining pools along it are becoming hot-spots of activity. The other day we counted over 17 giraffe all queuing for their daily drink.

The game viewing has been really good with lions in abundance. This morning Owen and his guests saw a pride of 25 lions feeding on the remains of a giraffe. The young cubs were more interested in tugging on its tail than doing much feeding. The day before they'd seen a pride of 12 lions feeding on another giraffe. (Not a great place to be a giraffe!) This pride included a couple of young males (about 3 yrs old) without any manes. This is rather unusual as at this age, they should be showing rough, scruffy manes. The lion dynamics in Ruaha are something special and really deserved to be studied. Owen thinks he's seen over 160 different lions since we've been here!

We've had all sorts of guests in camp (both two and four legged) and for our first proper season, we are very happy with how busy we have been. It's been great having a steady flow of guests who keep us up-to-date with what is happening out there in the 'real' world and the first night's conversation at dinner is often a question and answer session about who is doing what to who, how the rugby world cup was doing and anything else newsworthy. One of our guests left a car magazine behind a few days ago which has done the rounds - never thought cars were so interesting!

On the four-legged friend front, we've also had a busy time in camp. Quite a few herds of elephants have left their mark around camp. This morning, on my way up to the kitchen while it was still dark, I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of an African Wild Cat. I also surprised a bush-baby which moved away to a quieter spot and a large spotted genet. We've been serenaded by lions, leopards, hyena and jackal. Giraffe are common overnight visitors now that many of the trees are blossoming and it is beautiful to see them in the dawn light. All the fresh tracks we find in camp each morning also tell their own story and we spend a good while trying to decipher them all (we think there is a serval around regularly too).

Well that's about it. We are still waiting to hear about moving camp. Hopefully they will make their minds up soon as we should have moved by the end of November (if we are going). We quite like it where we are so it would be quite nice to stay.

Hope everyone is well. Regards to all who have been to stay with us, look forward to welcoming some new faces soon.

Take care
Colleen, Owen and all the team here in Ruaha