The end of the dry season

This is (we hope), the end of the dry season. In the middle of October the heat was intense. For days on end the temperature didn’t fall below thirty degrees in our house, day or night, and at its hottest it reached thirty nine degrees. Outside, the view from the edge of the hill was of the flood-plain baking in the heat and almost disappearing in the heat haze.

   Then last week a few clouds started to appear, promising rain to come.

    Eventually the day came when the rain finally arrived. First there was a strong wind, raising clouds of dust from the bush across the Sinamatella River…..

   Then at last the rain fell and Sue rushed out with the camera to record the first drops falling on the verandah…..

   As usual we were not prepared and had to hurry around closing car windows, bringing in chairs and so on but we needn’t have bothered as the rain stopped almost as soon as it started, just leaving us to enjoy the smell of damp earth for a few minutes before it all dried up again.

    In one or two other places there has been slightly better rain and the elephants have gone to wherever it fell. They have left us with the bush around Sinamatella looking as if it can’t possibly recover. The Mopane scrub, which is the elephants’ least favourite has been broken down to elephant-height stumps with broken branches and hardly a blade of grass between the trees. It never looks exactly lush but now it looks awful

   More palatable bush such as Combretum which can be dense and green in the rains has been opened out in places until it looks almost as bad as the Mopane.

  And, for some of the trees the rain, when it finally comes, will be too late. Elephants have destroyed many small and a few medium sized Baobabs this year – a sad sight when they fall..

   But as usual, the situation is not as bad as it seems. The bush will of course recover, though we will need a couple of good years for it to get back to how it was at the end of last year.  Some of the plants are already preparing. This interesting purple succulent which we found near Chawato Sulphur Spring (and can’t identify), has flowered and sent out its airborne seeds to wait for the rain.

   And close to Bumboosie Springs the Rain Trees (Lonchocarpus)  and the Crotons have come into full leaf and have flowered.

    Meanwhile, back at Sinamatella, the Cicadas are singing, the sun is shining and we are still waiting for the rain. Last year, early rain was followed by weeks of scorching sun. We just hope this year isn’t a repeat of that.