The mouse that roared.

We’ve got a resident mouse in the tent. You can hear him last thing at night, moving furniture while wearing clogs. The little bastard who stands no more than inch high (I’ve actually seen him washing himself!) is an African Pygmy mouse and the smallest mammal on the continent. But like Napolean and others of small stature, he is obviously determined that size should be no barrier to ambition. So far he has not only managed to gnaw his way through the thick moulded plastic wall of the large cooler box where all our non-perishable food is stored but almost every Tupperware container therein. (What I thought was wild rice, was actually ordinary rice laced with mouse droppings). He has also chewed through Elle’s books, notes, clothing, the tent ground sheet, canvas tent bag, a portable shower bag and undoubtedly numerous other items which have yet to be discovered. Nothing it seems is beyond his titanium-plated incisors. Even Elle who re-releases the tiny fish, which accidentally swim into the water containers when filling up at the river, admits her patience is wearing thin. ‘He is very cute but skating on thin ice.’ Mouse you have warned.

Going off today to try and find the ruin of David Livingstone’s Caprivi mission, which he used as staging post en route to his ‘discovery’ of Victoria Falls. It’s not even on a map and we are hoping that some of locals will know where it is.