July 2008
Hyaenas
Since Matt left seven months ago, things to do have been few and far between. So when Cheetah conservation Botswana co-ordinator from Ghanzi, Lorraine, said she had some camera traps I knew exactly where to put them. Hyaenas have always visited us at night, but I always thought, and the direction of the spoor will bear me out in this, they came from the East. She, and I am just guessing here, would do a loop every other night come in from Watering Sands, go along the top of the ridge, take a right to go into the river bed, past the goat kraal between the two houses, and then turn right onto our main road out of the farm, to go back eastwards to Watering Sands.
This was the routine and the odd lamb would be found half eaten somewhere along that path.
So you can imagine my excitement when young Andries came to tell me one day that he had found a den, marked by scatterings of bones and dried out skin from cattle, steenbok, goats and even what appeared to be a playing area for Hyaena pups!
So back to Lorraine and those camera traps.
We took some pole to set the traps up, as there was not a single tree anywhere. One was attached with cable ties, (thanks Matt) the other with just a nylon strap. Cable tie camera was pointing directly at the hole where we hoped we could get a shot of the Hyaenas going in or coming out of the hole. And the other trap looking onto the “play area”. We only had two weeks in this spot because at the end of the month I was due to put the cattle into this larger winter camp, for the grazing. Dutifully, after one week, Lorraine went to check on the traps and change cards, all was fine no problem, not many photos though. Any way, the following week, I went to take them down and would you believe it but not only had the residents turned the cable tie camera away from the den entrance they had actually stolen the strapped camera. This was two weeks ago.
We are still looking for it.
I think it is down the hole.
The photos were fantastic though.
Kahn/a
12th May 2008
Whydahs, water, wind and winter
The rains this year actually turned out quite well. There were a few moments when I thought the rain would stay away, but as it turned out we ended the season on a high average. It was very effective rain too. It rained exactly when we needed it at the right moment of growing for the grass. We had water in all the pans so the game and cattle were kept out in the veldt for longer, this is good thing as it saves diesel, not having to pump water from borehole to kraal. And with the price of diesel these days I will take any saving I can get.
Our plentiful rains grew plentiful Tsamma melons, so all our game will be well watered and well fed over winter.
Winter is coming fast now, its cold every morning, but all the trees are still green. So a green winter at the moment not yet a brown one. It will only get brown in the few months before summer starts, and those really are the darks times for birds and game alike.
At the moment we have a couple of visitors. The paradise tailed whydah is making an appearance, his tail so long and impressive that he struggles to fly level. The shaft tailed whydah wearing his black cap and coat. Queleas, not in their impressive thousands of a few years ago but still flocked together in hundreds as they take off and land in perfect synchronicity.
Truffles did well this year too. As I said before, the rains came and ended at just the right time. Late rains, and just enough. Unfortunately the cattle are getting to them first in the main grazing camps, however, where there are no cattle, like in my garden!, we find lots every day.
Water source tubers are still growing at the moment but you can tell we had good rains ‘cos they are tasty. Over the next few months they will get bigger until during the driest months, they will be everywhere and nice and big, ready to be used.
Jewel beetles and moramas, the nice fat spinach plant all go to make up the salads that are “mixed” in the pestle and mortar. An excellent source of protein and vitamins.
Kahn/a.
March 2008
Wood Hoopoe
We have a visitor at the moment. A crimson breasted shrike with an orange breast!
Freak or unique? You decide but it is the only one we have seen here, ever.
Also visiting our little valley here are some wood hoopoes. Now we do get the regular hoepoe, the bushmen call it the warrior bird, and borrow the shape of its crest to make a sort of warriors headdress. The bushmen of central Kalahari do a similar sort of thing with the steenbok horns as demonstrated by Roy Sesana, many a time.
But the wood hoepoe is an altogether different kettle of fish, so to speak. Black in colour, a nice black not the glossy black of some birds, with white on the wings that is flashed at you when he takes flight. A curved beak he uses to pick underneath bark for tasty grubs.
Also around right now are the lilac breasted rollers. A very pretty bird. And although nice to look at when sitting in a tree, they are stunning when they take flight.
It is bitterly cold at the moment, just all of a sudden like. Ended the season with quite a good rainfall, bodes well to start the season again in November. Global warming? Don’t know, the effect here seems to be indifferent. We need to decide whether we are a low rainfall area in which case according to the boffins, we will get less rain in the future. We certainly border a low rainfall area, just next door at Aranos, their average rainfall is 120mm, which sounds quite low to me. We get 350 to 450mm average, further east and just to the north in Angola they must be on about 1000mm central Africa is only Zambia so we must border high rainfall area.
It seems to me that some years we are high, and some years we are low. If this trend is set to continue then we could have floods and a flowing river one year and drought and no river the next. Nothing is ever simple is it?
Kahn/a
2007 Trip to Kenya and back
Matt and Jason’s Big Adventure
So, we left Maun on the 12th October 2007, and headed for Kasane in the north of Botswana. The idea was to get to Jollyboys backpackers lodge, stay there for the night, and have a good run in Zambia the next day. It is huge when it comes to trying to cross it, and the roads are terrible. The potholes just slow you right down. I felt it was important, to start each new country with a new day. OCD? Anyway, getting into Zambia involved the usual gauntlet of money changers, and favour brokers, who are willing to go to all the relevant offices on your behalf to help you get into Zambia and through the red tape a hell of a lot faster. As it was, with their help, and being told which offices to go to, it still took 2 hours to get it all done. And that was after we crossed the Chobe/Zambezi on the ferry. This ferry by the way has the oddest queuing system in the world and only the money changers/favour brokers really know the system, if you pick the wrong guy you may not get on the ferry till late.
So, back to immigration. The things that need paying are as follows;
Carbon Tax, this is a complete mystery to me, they have the most expensive petrol, and at night the forests are on fire with all the local people burning charcoal. Where does this money go?
Council Tax, What? I found out later on that only the big trucks are supposed to pay this, but it seems even the police at road blocks, of which there are many, want to see the receipt for council tax. It’s can’t be for the roads, because they don’t do any maintenance on them.
Insurance, Ok this one you can maybe understand, here in Botswana, we have insurance on the petrol, so not all of us have third party insurance, but, they don’t care what insurance you have because they want you to buy insurance off them. That’s how it felt.
Visa. Now this is good. UK passports US $ 65.00, although for some reason when coming in from Malawi I only paid US $ 60.00. However the thing no-one tells you is that if you are booked in at one of the lodges for activities on the Zambezi they will waiver this “fee”. It’s cheap but very nice lodgings, bar, food, swimming pool and a chance to meet other travellers. Going to Zambia we stayed at Jollyboys, in Livingstone, as mentioned earlier, but on the return trip I stayed at Fawlty Towers. To me a much better place to stay. And they offer the same package but with a slightly better place, and free Internet! I would like to point out at this time that this was not the first time we had crossed paths with David Livingstone, and it was not going to be the last. The town as you can se was named after him, as he was the first white man to see the falls ‘Mosi Oa Tunya’ or the smoke that thunders in the local language. He, of course, promptly named them Victoria Falls. Which is the town on the Zimbabwean side of the falls. His statue can be seen at the entrance to the falls from the Zimbabwean side.
The next day we pushed on into the interior of Zambia. The place is dead. Not a bird, no wildlife, no cows, chickens, goats or donkeys. October is suicide month; well I can understand that. 24 hrs in the country and I was depressed. Everywhere you look is charcoal. There seems to be a system of slash and burn agriculture. The ‘farmer’ moves into a new area hacks out a clearing piles up the green logs covers it in mud and then sets fire to it, everything else is burnt, I suppose to provide fertiliser for whatever crops he wants to grow. We saw a lot of tomatoes and onions, what we thought were nuts but turned out to be some kind of fruit, that apparently doesn’t taste good but locals have a taste for. And wood carvings, lots and lots of woodcarvings. Another pattern seemed to emerge now. There would be long stretches of roadside stalls selling a particular type of produce or even a basket of groceries. For a stretch of about 5 to 10 km’s then the products would change and something else would be available, woodcarvings maybe, but only for 10 km’s. All the time though there would be charcoal, and at night the skies are lit with the flames from all the fires.
Arrived in Lusaka, which I have to say was a bit of a disappointment. Maybe it was once a shining jewel of African progress but since the ‘70’s it seems there has been no progress. I was a bit disappointed, these places had running water, electricity, and tar roads long before Botswana did and now they have been left behind. The tar roads have potholes in them, some are very dangerous and you have to be on your toes at all times.
The second night was spent at the Forest Inn. Sounds nice, but this was the start of expensive camping, warm cokes, and even warmer beers. We arrived late so it was impossible to know what the place looked like. I believe England were playing rugby in the bar, but I was so tired just went straight to my bed(roll) We awoke to chickens scratching in the undergrowth, the odd small bird and tall trees. A nice setting but still for some reason my depression deepened. Too much jungle I think, all that green is unnatural, cannot see the more than 10 metres into the forest, and never mind the horizon. Having said all that it was never hot, and I really thought it would be. I think if it were hot, it would really have put the icing on the cake.
The next day brought us to waterfalls, Shiwa House, hot springs, and US$10 camping per person. The waterfalls were spectacular although we viewed them from the top and I think the best way to see any waterfall must be from the bottom. The drive to Shiwa House was what I think all of Colonial Africa should be like. All the colonial farmers should have built houses like the one at Shiwa. A very impressive mansion built in clay face bricks, which were made on site. It apparently took him a while to build the house but the result is astounding. And the trees, giant Eucalyptus trees, a very impressive farm. And if you venture a little further, a lake, in fact the lake that gives the house its name. And when you drive on, a campsite run by the brother of the current owner, and direct descendant of the original inhabitant of Shiwa house. This campsite boasts hot springs and nearby a waterfall, we were told there was game on the farm but never saw any. Also a nearby hill that family legend has it that Livingstone is rumoured to have climbed. I am sure that Africa is scattered with such stories. We certainly came across houses that he was rumoured to have stayed in, and even if it was for a short time, it is elevated to museum status. The road into and out of this place was just a clay road with drainage ditches either side. I can imagine that those roads would be a lot of fun in the rainy season, but not today. So far on this trip there has been no need for the 4wd. I am hoping that at some point it will be necessary, but right now it seems a bit silly, driving on tar roads with such a car.
We push on to Isoka, a late breakfast, heading for Nakonde, this town only exists because of the border and looks like a classic border town, or frontier town, with guest houses that are just shacks hemmed in between shops that will sell you anything from a nut or a bolt to strips of inner tubing, which the transport bicycle people use to tie on their loads of charcoal or crates of coca cola, which is available anywhere, and always warm. The bicycle people also run a taxi service, between villages.
Nakonde seems to be where all the dregs of society congregate money changers, con men, prostitutes and of course the place is full of all the long distance lorry drivers. Through the border is a whole different world, called Tanzania. Different people, you can see you are no longer in Central Africa and have crossed over into East Africa.
Jason
