Thanks to Wildlife and Environment Zimbabwe (WEZ) a borehole drilling rig has just been in the Park cleaning out some of the collapsed or silted boreholes. We have thought for some time that Masuma borehole was collapsing as the pump kept jamming up with silt and breaking the rods. When the team reached Masuma however, we were delighted to find that the borehole is clear down to about 80 meters - but along with that good news was the bad news that the casing is broken about 25 meters down and that is where the silt is coming from. The drilling crew hadn’t the necessary materials with them to repair broken casing so they went away for a few days, leaving the rig at Masuma, and they returned yesterday.
Sue and I drove out with helpers from Sinamatella. The drilling rig is pulled by a wonderful old M.A.N truck which we found parked behind the picnic site……
The crew hadn’t yet arrived so we continued through to Shumba to drop off a camp attendant. The rain trees at the Shumba picnic site were in full flower……
At this hot, dry time of year the flowering of the rain trees, and the masses of insects attracted to them, remind us of the rainy season to come in just a few weeks time (we hope!)
Back at Masuma, work was under way, getting the drilling rig into position…..
It isn’t exactly modern technology but Sue found it quite photogenic……
Sooner or later though, even the best machinery gets a bit noisy and dull so Sue went off to see what else she could photograph. She found some Combretum mossambicense in flower…….
And an amazingly well-camouflaged grasshopper, almost invisible to me, even at this magnification…..
No more than fifty meters from all the noise and disturbance at the borehole, Sue thought she heard a lion grunt. The pictures she took showed that it was in fact at least three lionesses and four cubs, almost as well camouflaged as the grasshopper as they rested in the shade of a ‘blue bush’.
Sensibly, Sue returned to the borehole and left the lions to their sleep.
Later we had another brief moment of excitement when we thought we had spotted an extremely rare bird. Surely an Egyptian Vulture flying over our heads? But no, when it came close enough it was only an immature Martial Eagle ….
The usual unexpected hold-ups with pipe joints that wouldn’t come undone and others that wouldn’t screw together straight kept us at the borehole for the whole afternoon but at the end of it we had a new pump unit working strongly at about 40m down, pumping a lot of water into the trough at Masuma. Many thanks to WEZ for bringing in the rig and to Pete Abbot and his team who operated it. Thanks also to the lions for not eating the photographer. What would this blog be like without her?
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