After several dry years we were desperate for rain. By November there was only bare earth and dust around the Lodge, Lakes Ndutu and Masek were dry. The temperatures rose and clouds started to build by the middle of the month, a sure sign of imminent rain. By this time we became obsessed with rain and we talked of little else. The heat became unbearable and I found it hard to concentrate on my work although I did notice that our two carpenters still wore their thick woolen ski hats even in the hottest part of the day. It made my head itch just looking at them! We were all just starting to think that it would never rain again when the heavens opened and it poured.
It always amazes me how quickly the environment changes. The pale brown earth is now bright green with grass, the lakes are full and there are hundreds of thousands of wildebeest and zebra all around. There are flamingoes in the lake, weaver-birds nesting in the tree by the lodge workshop, elephants bathing in the water hole and hundreds of zebra and a small group of hartebeest outside my window as I write.
One of the driest years suddenly became one of the wettest. We received 166mm of rain in November and a mammoth 258mm in December making it the wettest month we’ve ever recorded in the twenty-one years since we started to keep rain records. We love rain but it did seem a bit too much at times and our humour was severely tested. The roads resembled rivers and the plains became lakes after particularly heavy storms. We seemed to spend most of our time pulling out stuck vehicles both day and night and the novelty soon wore off. Luckily this week the rain has slowed down a little, giving the area a chance to dry out. It amused me how one week in November people complained about the dust and within a few days everyone complained about the mud. If the conditions seemed bad, the game viewing was about the best it ever gets. Over a million wild animals scattered over the plains is a breath taking sight. If you were unlucky to be stuck, you couldn’t have wished for a better view!
There have been many lake crossings of Ndutu and Masek by wildebeest in December. These are very exciting to see and sometimes-huge numbers cross. Sadly a few don’t make it and drown in the confusion, these make easy pickings for the predators. I even saw a crocodile eating one in Lake Masek recently. As with the crocodile at the Big Marsh no one believes there is one until they see for themselves. Where the croc was hiding when the lake was dry is a mystery, maybe in the gloopy mud with the hippos?
Just a few weeks ago the highlight was the huge flocks of lovebirds drinking from the birdbath in the morning. They have now scattered in all directions, as there is water everywhere, it’s a spectacle I very much miss. They’ve now been replaced with giraffes, zebra or the odd elephant wandering past at breakfast.
A new addition these days are the buffalo bulls that stay close to the Lodge, especially at night. Maybe they get a feeling of security close to the Lodge from the lions we hear roaring lions during the night, although I don’t think this makes any difference to the lions. A lion walked past the camp- fire the other evening, this caused much excitement amongst guests. More worrying for us are the buffaloes that are much more dangerous than the lions. Our night watchmen seem to spend a lot of time explaining to visitors that the buffaloes are not cows but one of the most dangerous animals in Africa. Just as tricky are the steaming piles of poo they leave along the paths for the unsuspecting to tread in!
The lions look great at the moment. It was a different story before the rains started. They survived on giraffes, buffaloes and gazelles. I saw them on several occasions on giraffe kills, even large adult males, I wonder how they managed to bring down such a huge animal? The lions at the Big Marsh didn’t move very much during October/November and could usually be found in the vicinity of the two marshes. They also perfected a technique of chasing grants gazelles into the swamp where their cloven hoofs bogged them down.
Guests and film crews saw this behaviour on many occasions and I even saw it myself one evening. The last bit of greenery was around these swamps and the gazelles would graze there. The lions just ran at them from quite some distance, surrounding them on three sides leaving only the marsh as an escape root. The lions just ploughed into the mud to catch them. A grant gazelle doesn’t go far between a group of lions and after a great deal of growling, fighting and pulling, the gazelle was gone within minutes.
There’s been good elephant watching around the lodge and the causeway this week. We were all pleased to see the huge one tusked bull elephant known as Tabasco again. When we last saw him he had just broken his only tusk off and it looked very painful. He’s now tusk less and not a handsome elephant but a very impressive one. He looked almost twice the size of the other musth elephant bull he met and subsequently chased. He himself was in full musth which is the sexually active period large bulls go through when their testosterone levels go through the roof and they will fight for estrous females. The sight of these two bulls running as fast as they could was a bit scary and we wouldn’t have wanted to get in the way. They were last seen going over the horizon, Tabasco still chasing the other male.
If December is anything to go by we ought to have some exciting times ahead. Today the sun is shining and there’s a faint smell of animals in the air. I really can’t think of a better place to be right now.
Paul,
Ndutu
January 2007.
