January 1

We wake up to a message from the lady in the cottage - the internet has gone off.  As it is New Year’s Day, I am not sure how easy it will be to recharge. I go to speak to her and explain how to use the stove which she says she doesn’t know how to operate.  It involves turning the gas bottle on which she says she has never done before.


I find out that she has come to Zimbabwe for her friend’s traditional wedding and is now going to spend the next two weeks relaxing. I was afraid that Rolo may have given her a hard time when she came back last night, but she says she just stood her ground and waited for him to stop barking.  ‘I think when he saw that I had a key, he was happier,’ she says to me, but I am not one hundred per cent sure of this reasoning.


In the afternoon, we make a big mistake by deciding to take the dogs out to Hillside Dams.  It seems as if the whole world is there. There would have been a time when Rolo would have cleared the entire place in seconds, but he is now much calmer and leaves people alone.  That does not stop some idiots from screaming and running as soon as they see him.