Tourista Africana listica

There is a species of African Tourist that always puzzles me. They are the “checklist” tourist (Tourista Africana listica). They travel around with thier little spreadsheet / card of birds, mammals and reptiles they should expect to see on their African Adventure. I am convinced they don’t actually care about what they’re seeing, they just want to be able to return home and parade their completed shreadsheet / card of “sighted” animals to their family and friends, with the presumption that the family and friends will be impressed.

Well, I’m not impressed. So that’s not a good start for Tourista Africana listica.

Experience Africa, people. Don’t categorise it into our otherwise categories lives. It can’t be put in a box or condensed into a checklist.

However, for the purposes of illustration, if I was a Checklist Tourist (Tourista Africana listica), my last 3 months would look something like this: (in alphabetical order)

• Antelope (the usual suspects: impala, puku, waterbuck, bushbuck, kudu, wilderbeest)
• Baboon
• Birds (no need to elaborate or we’ll be here all day!)
• Buffalo
• Chameleon
• Civet
• Crocodile
• Elephant
• Elephant, angry
• Elephant, baby
• Elephant, chocolate dipped
• Elephant shrew
• Genet
• Giraffe
• Hippo, hungry hungry
• Honey badger
• Hyaena, spotted
• Leopard
• Leopard, up a tree
• Lion
• Lion, cubs
• Mongoose (slender, banded, bushy-tailed, white-tailed)
• Monkey, vervet
• Porcupine
• Scrub hare
• Serval
• Snakes (black-necked spitting cobra, black mamba – both deadly)
• Squirrel
• Turtle
• Warthog
• Water monitor
• Wild dog
• Zebra

Tried & True

After reading Anne’s book review of Candy Freak, I had a distinct craving for chocolate. I am in the middle of the African wilderness, so-to-speak, so chocolate is a little hard to come by (and I refuse to eat my very last caramello koala which has survived the past 3 months in our refridgerator). My one saving grace was that I did have cocoa buried deep within the wilds of our dry store pantry.

As a result, I decided to make my moist-but-light-chocolately-choclate cake.

It was all going along famously, until I decided that I wasn’t satisfied with my tried & true moist-but-light-chocolately-choclate cake recipe. I wanted to mix it up a bit, try something a little different. “Don’t do it!” I hear you all shouting. Well, I didn’t listen. I did it.

I . changed . the . recipe .

I wanted a better version of my moist-but-light-chocolately-choclate cake, instead I ended up with something that was more or less like a brownie. Now, if I wanted a brownie, then it’s a competely different matter altogether. But I didn’t want a brownie. I wanted a better moist-but-light-chocolately-choclate cake.

Is it edible? Yes. Given that I am in the middle of nowhere, I will pretty much eat most things. Yes, including Hippo sausages, for those of you who are asking.

Will I ever change my tried & true moist-but-light-chocolately-choclate cake recipe ever again? Never, never again.