Soup and Scotch Pancakes

Dinners and breakfasts at Garden Lodge (www.thegardenlodge.com) are an institution, with Gabi never sitting down to eat (so that is the secret of being super slim!!!) and Phil amusing us all. (That's Gabi on the left of this picture as the rest of us are sitting at the table - well, I am taking the picture!) There is no menu, as it is treated more as house guests than hotel guests, with everyone sitting at long tables together. When I got there new managers had recently arrived, and both spoke excellent English, although they are both German. I was made very welcome - after all there were no guests, it being the end of the season, and I was good 'practice' for the staff. This was Barbara & Guido with Phil supervising the harvesting of the bananas from the tree in the garden.

The rest of the staff have been there with Phil and Gabi for years, and I was taken aback when I was told how they all remembered me from my previous visit. I think this was a bit of flannel, it being more likely that they actually remembered Vic and Terry, and I was just the idiot woman who had come up with them before! I don't have illusions! Gabi assured me that when she told them I was coming they said that they remembered my laugh! Well, maybe....

On that first morning, as I said before, I went off on my first Game drive of my stay. As you know from my last posting and photos we had seen the snake which the driver had told me was a Green Mamba. When I showed the photo to Phil later, it turned out to be a Boomslang and Phil laughed and told me that to the African, if a snake is black it is a Black Mamba, if it is green, it is a Green Mamba! Simple as that. However, it still has a very potent venom which will kill from internal bleeding, so not to be taken lightly! Truth of the matter is that the average African is terrified of snakes and will not go anywhere near one at any price - hence the reason you will only see white people handling them. The African is very superstitious, and there are many and varied superstitions bound up with snakes.

We continued up into the Reserve, and the rewards came thick and fast. My video camera was being used most of the time, but I did take a few stills shots with you lot in mind! Sorry if some of you are disappointed in the quality of my photography - David Bailey I am not, nor do I claim to be good, so you will just have to bear with the best I have for you to enjoy.

After the excitement of seeing the snake being captured, we were into the Reserve and the first thing we saw - and this is by no means a common occurrence, let me tell you now, was this ...This was a wonderful sight - and there were 7 or 8 others sitting inside that bush! They were shy, though, and despite my calling 'Here Kitty, Kitty' they refused to come out and enjoy the 40°C temperature! She was just sitting there languidly on guard, watching for any passing impala with which she could enjoy a snack along with the rest of her family.

This young Lioness was obviously on guard duty for the others.

Elephants are a great favourite of mine and this one, enjoying a juicy mouthful of new grass, came out just beside us to say hello. And to hear an Elephant trumper next to you, is deafening! It is certainly not a sound I am ever likely to forget.

There are these graceful Impala everywhere, and I never get fed up with seeing them! There are big herds of them some days, and other days you might only see half a dozen.

A beautiful female Kudu

I had, as I have said before, delivered a 4x4 for Barbara and Guido, and then they told me that if at any time I wanted to use it, I just had to tell them and I could. This meant the world to me, because Phyllis sans voiture is unbearable! It meant I was able to go to the shop and buy ingredients to start teaching the kitchen staff some recipes, too. This is Mimi, who is the under manager for the Lodge, and the daughter of a Chief. We spent many happy hours laughing together, and she taught me lots of things about the Botswana culture that I would never have learned anywhere else. I count her as one of my dearest friends.

What a lot of fun I had in that kitchen. They are good at cooking main courses, but their knowledge is limited when it comes to starters and desserts. Although it is summer in Botswana, it is also the rainy season. Yes, albeit warm rain, it is still wet stuff and welcome a blessing as it is, it still can dampen spirits! So, being an adopted Scot, I set too to teach them how to make soups. You would not believe how quickly 5 gallons (yes! gallons!) of soup can get consumed. It is something they are just not used to making - well, after all, Botswana is hardly the Heilan's o' Scotland wi' the dreich days that have encouraged Scotswomen to be able to make a pan o' soup oot o a bunch o' heather and a haggis leg, is it?

First things first was a search around for all the surplus vegetables that were laying around the place. You know how it is, a couple of carrots, 3 onions that are beginning to sprout, a few wrinkling potatoes, 5 courgettes, a manky sweet potato etc. Chucked into a pot and some chicken stock added, 2 hours later you can produce the most delicious soup and the cost really has been virtually nil, as all those veg would have ended up in the bin normally.

There followed a number of variations on a theme, and each went down equally well. The chef makes the most delicious tomato and olive bread, so we were feasting in no time at lunch times. The equipment in that kitchen is basic - and when I say basic, I really do mean it. I think I had more equipment in mine the day I got married, and how I longed to have all my myriad gadgets to ease the way. However, they were 6000 miles away, and I just had to improvise. With no scales or measuring devices, I just had to remember being a girl guide (as opposed to a Boy Scout (!!!!) Writing down the recipes was a little more difficult. After all, how you write 'and a bit of baking powder to a handful of flour and a knob of butter' does seem a bit hit and miss.

I was surprised I could not buy oranges in Kasane. Considering we had supermarkets full of South African citrus fruits, I never thought of NOT being able to buy anything. How we forget the seasons for things. We are so used to having everything from everywhere in the world, that we forget how lucky we are. It was a salutary lesson to me. We take so much for granted, don't we?

I wanted the oranges because I make Orange shortbread, which makes a pleasant change to serve with tea and coffee, but it was not to be. Eventually I did find orange oil, but it is not quite so good - but it worked insofar as no-one there had ever tasted the real thing, so to them it was very good. The same with Scotch pancakes. I was making them by the hundred! I would make a few dozen, butter some and leave the others plain. Putting them on the reception counter, the next time I would look, they would all have gone. It is such a compliment to have people enjoy what you make, and as they had never tasted them before, I soon had them addicted. I worked on the premise that if I am fat, then they could be too and I would feel less of a hippo around the place! Treacle tart became another favourite, as did proper English Custard! Not the stuff out of cartons, but genuine, egg enriched, thick, creamy custard. Baked custard as well got introduced - oh yes, there in Botswana, you can now get a few old English favourites! At least you could whilst I was there, and I trust that they have continued making them - I did leave full instructions for everything I did.

Needless to say, this was not all about me going up there to cook. No, that was a by-product of my boredom at times. Boredom? Far from it. I was out in the Game reserve most mornings and what incredible sights I saw. Botswana is Animals - of course it is. Animals and birds, butterflies and moths, fauna and flora - a total immersion in mother natures bounty, really.

And there is always Gabi's dogs - here is Knudle and Tokolosh, the Irish Wolfhound.


It is said that the first time you go to Africa you only notice the Animals, the second time you notice the birds, and then subsequent visits you notice the butterflies and vegetation.

I love the birds, and this Bee Eater enjoying his meal was a glorious sight.
This is an African Fish Eagle.
My bedroom was usually made up with flowers tucked into the towels and pillows - such a pretty touch when I walked in at the end of a day!

Soon it would be time to go out onto the Chobe River for the evening cruise but that can wait until next time...