'In the late 1960s my annual mid-year school holidays were spent camping for a month in the Zambezi Valley at Mana Pools, Zimbabwe. This had become a tradition ever since 1964, when my mom and I had arrived from Kenya after my father had left Mombasa and his company Martin & Paul Somalia had been confiscated by the Chinese. That year my step-uncle, Manuel Posser de Andrade, a blond-haired nobleman, who operated safaris in Mozambique and his wife (my aunt Francis,) took us down to Mana Pools for a weekend and we camped out at a lonely, well-shaded campsite North of Nyamepi. When we arrived at the campsite on that first trip (indicated by nothing more than a small sign nailed to a tree) we found ourselves at a very idyllic location overlooking the Zambezi river and we had been driving for ten hours. Bedraggled and subdued by bone-jarring corrugated roads and the oven-like heat our sodden clothes were no barrier to the bites of ubiquitous tsetse flies which infested the whole of the Zambezi Valley.
'Remember,' Manuel said, 'The first day of camping is always the hardest!' The tents were put up quickly, beds made, tables and chairs set out, a fire started, and the large ice-filled cool box dragged from the back of Manuel’s Land Cruiser. It contained a vast supply of beer, whiskey, aperitifs, cognacs and gin for the adults, as well as dozens of soft drinks for me. I can still vividly remember that first ice-cold 'arrival' drink, which I finished off in huge gulps as I took in my surroundings. Spread out in front of our campsite was the wide Zambezi which slid past silently even as low flying skimmers etched a pattern on its' mirror perfect surface. I can still remember that sunset evening and the riverine forest downstream of us where several kudu wandered slowly towards us. Through the haze I could make out the faint outline of the escarpment.
What made that day so memorable was the bream that Manuel caught just before the evening set in and I can still smell those fish frying in the pan as the sun set. That late afternoon moment is was what was in my mind when I worked on this painting.

.