The 🔥 flame and the stars⭐✨ on a lovely camping night.

Twinkle twinkle little star ✴️✨…how I wonder what you are…. beautiful kindergarten stuff race in my mind as I peacefully lie beside a camp fire high up Mount Kaumba. The cool breeze gently ruffles the fire but the dry wattle firewood keeps glowing, giving off constant heat. The chicken on the spit and the roasting beef give off a salivating aroma. In the full moon lit sky…. I gaze up, and marvel at the milky way and wonder to myself how beautiful the universe is.

Have you ever been camping?

To the East, a long crimson line of the veld fire snakes up the hills. The Neck area is up to its mischief again. The fire is threatening to breach the Eastern fireguard. We are camping up here to watch the veld fire progress, updating the Donjera base hourly. To the north is the Nyafaru village and to the North west is the Little Nyangani mountain, shyly glistening in the soft yellow moonlight 🌙. In the valley down below, the Nyamudendere river roars past the rapids into a beautiful waterfall,  giving a beautiful murmur to the gentle breeze. The universe.,.the night.,.the atmosphere and the wattle, pine and eucalyptus aroma plus the soft cool dew….it feels so good.

My companions are all now 😴😌, snoring and wheezing, adding to the sounds of the crickets and the hooting owls in trees nearby. A nightjar whistles nearby and an inquisitive hare races by. A bushbuck coughs close by. A startled shriek of a Samango monkey in the distance, must be a leopard on the hunt because a loud commotion of baboons join the fray….unusual during the night. Then all goes quiet again. The peace of the yellow night prevails…I enjoy my barbeque chicken and milkless coffee.

Sleep 😴💤 gently steals me….off to sleep I go, waking up at intervals to check on the veld fire. The veld fire diminishes in the late night, and I could sleep a lot longer with peace in the cool of the starry night.

Camping in the Nyanga mountains always feels good except in the rain, mist and drizzle.