New Year

   We spent Christmas and New Year at home in Bulawayo with our family.

   We returned to Sinamatella to find that the rains have apparently deserted us already and a lot of the pans and springs are starting to become pretty dry. There’s no need for worry just yet as the rainy season has a long way to go and I’m sure we will have plenty of rain before it ends.

  We had visitors staying with us last week. Aurelie, who has been with us before as a volunteer, brought her partner Rafael to see Zimbabwe and they spent three days at Sinamatella relaxing after a tough 2011 at home in France.

Another very welcome visitor was Trevor, who spent a couple of days with us planning the year ahead. We found time to go out and check on the pump at Bumboosie South and saw some wild dogs at Salt Spring on the way.

The pan at Bumboosie South is by no means full.

But the solar pump is working well and keeping the trough full.

We  also went to Tshakabika Hot Spring. The photo shows how dry the surrounding countryside is considering the time of year

But there’s still long grass in places…..

   While these various visitors have been with us there have also been less welcome visitors in the area. Spoor of five poachers was detected heading in our direction last week through the Robins camp area. Thanks to the transmitters fitted to many of the rhino last year our Rangers are able to try to protect them by locating them every day. One or two of the rhino don’t seem to understand that we are on their side. Number 87 (“Major”) who attacked us back in June last year charged a group of rangers on Saturday, injuring one of them slightly. Number 251 has also proved a problem, wandering such large distances each day that he is very hard to find. We located him today with a mobile team and will be looking for him again tomorrow as the poachers are almost certainly still in the area, taking advantage of the full moon to move around at night as well as by day.

   It isn’t only the rhino that are being difficult. Ranger Richard Ndlovu was bitten by a cobra in early December and has been in hospital ever since. He is slowly recovering. Thinkwell Nyathi also had a run-in with a snake, being spat in the eye by a Spitting Cobra. Luckily he had access to water and immediately washed the venom out so he has recovered fully.

   Finally, whatever other New Year resolutions Sue made, she clearly didn’t resolve to stop taking photos of sunset and sunrise. Here’s her latest addition to our already huge collection – Sinamatella sunrise, 5.48 am, 9 January 2012. Worth waking up early for…..

UPDATE......This post was delayed by an internet connection problem. Since I wrote it the group of poachers I mentioned turned back, strayed into Botswana and was intercepted by the Botswana Defence Force. Unfortunately that wasn't the end of poaching for the season. Another group of Zambians was detected by Sinamatella rangers near Tshakabika this morning and they ran away, abandoning all their equipment. Yet another group has also been detected in the area (by their spoor) and the rangers are tracking them. As far as we know at this stage, no rhino have been killed.