Abuko & Lamin Lodge

On Sunday Paul’s uncle arrived much later than expected as the plane had developed a problem whilst flying over France so the pilot took the decision to fly back to Manchester causing a delay until a new plane arrived. He finally landed just after midnight, Paul had returned to the airport to pick him up and take him onto Mamma’s Hotel where we had booked him in for the week. After a good nights rest Uncle Chris walked to our house and was ready for his first outing to Abuko Nature Reserve. Whilst in the reserve we had our first sighting of a Red Patas Monkey as well as the usual birdlife.

Red Patas Monkey

We then made our exit crossed the road and walked through the streets of Lamin to the lodge. A young boy of Abigail’s age was pushing a wheelbarrow full of fizzy drinks which he was taking to the lodge. He offered to show us the way so Paul briefly helped to push the wheelbarrow. Once at the lodge we ordered a round of drinks and some food. As usual the monkeys were very inquisitive and one even managed to pinch a chip from one of our plates as the waiter was bringing them up the stairs. No sooner had we sat down to eat the same monkey made a grab at Abigail’s plate and managed to get some of her chicken sandwich. He then sat eating it in front of her with bulging cheeks. Paul decided to go and get a couple of sticks to keep them at bay and shortly after his return the waiter brought Abigail a plate of chips to compensate for the loss of the sandwich. After another couple of rounds of drinks we phoned Mick and Jenny to see if they were in. Mick had just gone off to the local shop to buy a bottle of gin. Abigail and Bradley decided to run on ahead down the lane leading to their house. When we arrived Jenny was busy digging some holes for plants and the kids were in a large tub filled with water, Abigail and Bradley had already stripped down to their underwear to join them. Mick and Jenny have been very busy since our last visit and have succeeded in building a bantabar as well as managing to start work on their new house on the hillside. The idea is then to offer their old accommodation to paying students who would like to learn about the charity and bee keeping. Once we had looked around we sat in the bantabar and opened the gin and a bottle of red wine which we had brought. One drink turned into another as we sat and chatted whilst the kids played. We then had a bit of a drama as we suddenly heard Teo shouting snake from down near the house. We all jumped up and went running down to check they were all okay, passing Abigail in our tracks running back up the hill. We found Bradley and Teo up in the tree house and Mea upstairs in the house crying. Apparently Abigail had spotted the snake when looking out of the window as it made its way from some undergrowth and into the bamboo at the back of their house. Its not the first time the snake has been spotted by Mick and Jenny and they believe it to be a large black cobra. It is looking likely that they may have to look at getting rid of it just for peace of mind with the children. What was only supposed to have been a couple of hours turned out to be an all afternoon drinking session. We finally made tracks for home at 7 o’clock after a most enjoyable and tipsy afternoon with Mick dropping us off at the main road so we could get a gelleh home.