NEWSLETTER                      Sept 2007

The U foundation charity Bike ride from London to Paris hit off with a great start as roughly 50 brave riders rode their bicycles through rain and sunshine from London to Paris in early June. All proceeds of the ride and money raised goes towards the building of two nursery schools in Zambia, Siankaba Nursery in Siankaba village, Livingstone and Mfuwe in Luangwa Valley.

The ride was a huge success and we hope to make it a yearly event to raise money for the needy. Siankaba lodge stars were Malindi Lubinda - Nursery school teacher, Mark Stephens –Siankaba lodge manager and Laurie Smart – Director who travelled to the UK to take part in the ride.

This season welcomes our new couple to the Islands of Siankaba John Malpas & Lizanne Zietsman. While Lizanne joins us from Zimbabwe where her skills in public relations and commercial art compliment her hosting and office roles at the lodge, John hails from the Isle of Arran in Scotland where his extensive knowledge on food and experience in the chefing world is most welcome at the lodge. John has introduced an exciting new dinner menu with a local twist while still concentrating on providing a world class menu to our guests. John’s experience working in a smoke house in Scotland has allowed him to diversify & experiment with local techniques and materials to mention a few: a smoked  pork loin using the locally grown Mopane wood chips that are prevalent in the area aswell as smoking some of our local game meats.

Some of John’s dishes also include Impala carpaccio with locally grown organic rocket & balsamic reduction as well as our famous Fillet of Zambezi bream with a papaya, ginger & coriander salsa.

Sponsorship and help for the local Mandia Primary school continues as we have had some very kind donations come in these last few months. Special thanks go to Richard & Liz Dawe who have sponsored books for each class this last term providing a variety of text & exercise books for the children. Our plans to help with a housing block are still in place for early 2008 as we extend the school to a Junior high and would like to emphasise the importance of education in the area.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mark and Tanya on the birth of their baby daughter. Amy and Mum are both doing very well.

Best Wishes the Siankaba Team.

Wildlife and Birds

The Fishing season in Zambia has only just re-opened and there have been some very happy fishermen recently, admittedly there were a few unhappy ones as well! Those who were not here for the fish have also had great bird sightings particularly as a lot of the trees around the lodge have been fruiting which attracts our bird life including the Schalow’s turacos and Trumpeter hornbills. Other guests were surprised on the nature trail as they came face to face with a pair of otters which had been very shy over the last few months.