Becoming an uncle

Chilinda Camp, the final destination of our three day hike across Nyika National Park, is a beautiful and tranquil place. Built on the edge of a man-made pine forest, planted by the colonists many years ago, it is the base camp for game drives out into the surrounding area where you can see plenty of amazing wildlife.

Claire and I awoke after a lovely – and much deserved – lie in. We’d spent the last seven nights camping, two of which had been during our hike which meant we were cold and very uncomfortable. Therefore, the fact that we were able to sleep in comfy beds, with a log fire burning in the room to keep us warm, meant that we were pretty smug in the morning, as we ate our breakfast with a nice cup of tea.

We were told that there are many animals in the areas surrounding the camp, and decided to go for a stroll. We passed the lake that was situated right outside our room and headed off into the national park again, just the two of us, for a morning walk. This trip has been a real adventure. We have seen a lot and met a lot of people. However, there is something about those moments, the times when Claire and I get to head off into the calm and tranquillity of nature, just the two of us, that really do feel special. Whilst the rest of the world is carrying on and everyone is at work, we get to breathe in the fresh air in the sunshine and take in whatever magnificent landscapes surround us. This walk was a perfect encapsulation of that feeling. It perfectly represents what the trip had been all about. We had had an incredible week, meeting lovely people at The Mushroom Farm, before embarking on a gruelling, but utterly rewarding, hike for three days across multiple terrains. And then there we were. Just the two of us, having had a lovely night’s sleep and a nice breakfast, walking around some of the most impeccable scenery we’d ever seen.

And in the depth of that thought, whilst feeling a deep and sincere wave of pure contentment, we came across zebras. Claire and I had not seen zebras yet in our time in Africa, so this was an amazing moment. It was made all the more amazing by the fact that we were out in the open with the animals, not looking through a fence or out of the window of a van. It was just Claire, me and the zebras. No one else. These beautiful creatures all stopped and stared right at us, their fantastic markings clear in the mid morning sunshine and their fuzzy black mains stood on end. Then after a few minutes, they continued on their way, walking off into the field. It was at that moment that my mobile phone went off in my pocket. We had a message from Janine asking us if we were available to talk. All of a sudden we knew she’d given birth.

Now, throughout the walk across Nyika there was one thing that Claire and I talked about a lot. Janine, my sister, was due to give birth and we were expecting it to happen any time, and of course, we spent a lot of our time talking about the possibility that we may have a new family member any time soon. So, when I got that message, we knew we had a nephew!

Excited, I called Janine, but couldn’t get through. My signal was poor, which is fine considering we were in the middle of nowhere. After that I gave mum a ring and managed to get hold of her. The message was clear, “she’s had the baby, and everything is fine,” mum said before quickly getting off the phone as she was at Weight Watchers or Slimming World – I can never remember which one it is she goes to. So, again and again I tried to call Janine to get the lowdown. Eventually I made it through and managed to have a brief chat with her. She had given birth two days previous, everything was fine and the baby, which they had called Albert, was doing great. After the call was over, due to Janine having an appointment with the midwife, Claire and I continued to wander around the national park, sort of unsure as to what to do. I was an uncle, Claire was an auntie – sort of – and we were in the middle of nowhere. But I don’t think we’ll ever forget the moment we found out that Albi was born, as we stood in the magnificent and serene Nyika National Park in northern Malawi looking at zebras.