Garden birding and off camping...

It's been a quiet few days - lawyers succeeding in confusing me completely as to what is currently going on, but not willing to discuss on the phone (insecure) and not managing to fight through the traffic to our meeting in a quiet corner of Arusha to tell me in person. So we keep waiting there. And I keep finding small things wrong with the car that have been achieved in the process of correcting the rather large problem that appeared from having the engine overhauled - at first they thought it was just the oil switch playing up. So we replaced that. No, still problematic. No ideas. So I took it to another fundi, who opened the sump and found a number of twisted metal items that had once been part of the fuel pump and an oil nozzle. Great! Happily, it seems they hadn't passed completely through the engine, so I got fundi 1 to make the repair on his own cost (a first for consumer relations in Tanzania I suspect), being supervised by fundi two. And it now seem to be working - this weekend will let us know for sure - but in the process they seem to have severed the pipe from the windscreen water to the windscreen, pulled the mirror off the windscreen (huh?) and lost the nozzle from the fire extinguisher in the back. What they were doing in these other places I have no idea. But I'll not be going back there again... And wonder what else remains to be found...

Anyway, did have fun yesterday as I dropped Kitty off at her new school and a friend and I took a little walk around the forest there that belongs to friends of ours. Given the 8.30 start it was impressive that we clocked up about 50 species in their 'garden', including one I'd not seen in Tanzania before (Little Rush Warbler, very nice) and four completely new for said friend. We even managed to add one to the garden list - number 450 something I'm told - in the form of Northern Brownbul (both of these birds could be described as, well, birders birds I'm afraid). (Rather better than out garden list which stands at a rather paltry 49 so far...) But we had loads of fun and decided to make a regular drop-off for Kitty! When the migrants start arriving we'll have to get out with a mistnet or two in the swamp I think - lots of fun to be had!

Anyway, now Mama is singing songs and silly things with her regular bunch of mothers and small people, and I've packed the car ready for heading off camping after picking Kitty up from school. A new campsite south of Lake Manyara, so hope we find it OK. Full report to follow...