What came first, the Lodge or the Chicken-worm?

Something to think about…

A few nights ago at approximately 9:15, I took a long awaited rest on the before mentioned Kings Camp Bench, leaving myself "alone" with my thoughts of the next day‘s menu…

To cut a very long story slightly shorter, I found myself itching from neck to knee, and realized I wasn‘t so "alone – on the bench after all? everybody, I would like to introduce you to the Chicken-Worm!

It‘s a small "cartoon-like" fluffy worm, quite a cute character, just don‘t touch it or you might brake out in a itching episode, or worse, you have my luck, and the worm falls straight down your back!

Lets just say, dishing up my main courses looked like a scene from Footloose!

Although this was an utterly frustrating situation, I couldn‘t help the need to apologize to the poor little creature, if you analyse this situation, you will find that it wasn‘t a Chicken-Worm that fell on me but a chef "falling" on a Chicken-Worm!

(I believe there are very few chefs that can say that sentence!)

When I go on my leave every 36 days, I never come back without at least one person telling me how lucky I am to work in this place.

I suppose I do work in one of the strangest kitchens in the world.

In many other establishments the waiter would run to the chef and tell her that the guest spilt wine on the table, over here they run to me to tell me about the lions at the water hole.

And I for one am honoured to say that only a chef at a lodge could say this!

When I look at the lodge industry, and if I were to be negative I would see a perfectly balanced habitat being invaded by the human being, but I‘m not, what I do see is a beautiful world being destroyed by the human being, that is why I love the Timbavati, or any place, were what we have for now, is being preserved for those who still have to come in the near and far future. See Warren‘s entry "Elephant Research in the Timbavati".

Some people might think that the Chicken-Worm situation might prove that we are invading their (the worm‘s, the wildlife‘s) space, but I believe otherwise, it‘s a give and take situation.

We keep our wildlife safe, and they provide us with everything spectacular!

I am a chef and definitely not an expert on wildlife, so consequently, I cannot tell you any Biological facts of the Anatomy of the beautiful wildlife that surrounds me, but I can share with you that my favourite animal is the giraffe, and that I realize at this moment it might sound bizarre, but a hippo will eat an elephant if it has to.

I might not know all (or any!) of the statistic facts surrounding this subject on whether we are fair to our surroundings or not, but since this is the Kings Camp Web Blog, I can leave my opinion, and here it is, agree or disagree if you like.

We at Kings Camp help way more than we hurt, and the second everybody else can say that, that is the way that their cookie crumbles, the world, in my eyes, could be a better place.