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To all of our bushwhacking
friends
As the summer slowly (but very slowly) makes way for
the autumn, I thought it would be a good opportunity
to fill you in on some of the happenings around here
over the last few months. But before I continue, on
behalf of myself and the rest of the TWT staff, I
would like sincerely thank all of you wonderful
people who have continued to support us. To all of
those whom we have not yet met, but will soon, we
look forward to meeting you and welcoming you to TWT.
It has been a sweltering summer (as has it been
everywhere else, I believe), with a below average
rainfall for this area. We’ve had a total of 230mm
of rain since October (ave 300mm). Most of the rain
fell in November and December, often in the form of
vicious thunderstorms, resulting in a quite lot of
damage and numerous washaways. The Limpopo and
Motloutse rivers flowed for short periods and
without sustained strength.
The Mohave river came down three times, all in the
form of flash floods which went right through the
camp bringing flood havoc to the camp every time. In
December Heinrich Bosch and his party stayed in
Mohave, en-route to the north of Botswana. They had
the misfortune of being caught up in one of these
flash floods. They woke up in the middle of the
night to water running through their huts and had to
spend the night outdoors in the mud. They were
“marooned” as the roads were not really navigable
the following day and feared they would not make
their next overnight stop at Nata Lodge. Sheer
determination and the assistance of a tractor saw
them eventually get back on the road at 3pm.
Heinrich, I hope you guys made a speedy recovery
from the rather nightmarish start to your holiday
and enjoyed the rest of your trip. I blush about the
whole incident. Looking at the soil type in the area
and knowing the problematic effect rain could have
on it, Heinrich asked me what the chances of rain
were that night. I promptly replied that I thought
there was no chance of rain. Sorry Mr Hein – lesson
learnt - next time somebody asks me this question, I
will reply that there is a good chance, even if
there is not a cloud in sight!
On the night of 3 December 2006, we were hit by what
I call a “mini tornado”. The weather had been
building up all day and we knew we were going to get
rain, but did certainly not expect what we got. At 7
pm, during this brewing storm a sudden silence
descended upon TWT, followed shortly by a sound
similar to a low flying jet passing over your house
--- a few minutes later --- devastation! The roof of
the outbuilding behind the main house was completely
blown off and was strewn all over the garden. Huge
Mopane trees had been uprooted and were lying all
over the show .One of them had uprooted and landed
on the kitchen roof denting it rather severely.
Another had fallen on the electric fence. Trees,
bushes, leaves were lying in a total shambles
everywhere.
 At first light I picked my way through the debris to
Musth camp, passing uprooted Mopanes, some of them
with diameters of up to 600mm. On reaching Musth
camp, I wanted to turn around and run away as far
and fast as I could. Tent no.1 was totally wiped
out. The large umbrella thorn had fallen directly
onto it, collapsing the whole tent, tearing the
canvas to shreds, breaking poles – making the unit
unrecognisable. Every bit of furniture was smashed.
The poles anchoring the flysheets had been ripped
out of the concrete and snapped in half. It was such
a mess that only with the help of a tractor to pull
away all the tree debris, could we properly assess
the damage – which was bad.
To add to our distress, our regular tour operating
supporter was already en-route to visit us with
international guests! Fortunately we managed to get
a message to him not to come and make alternate
arrangements. Paul Girridan thanks for being so
accommodating. Anyway, after hiring a team of
temporary labourers, spending much money and huge
effort, we had Musth up and running within two
weeks. Another reminder; “Africa is not for
sissies.”!
A positive result of all this early good rain was,
once again, fields of yellow devils thorn flowers
and lots of grass which kept the elephant here over
the November – March period. This doesn’t normally
happen. TWT had more rain than the areas to the east
so more elephants and other game moved in to include
grass in their diets. This is also the reason game
viewing has, and still is, much better than usual at
this time of year. As more Eland and Zebra moved in
so did the predators. Lion and Cheetah have been
seen regularly of late and one lucky group recently
saw Cheetah, Lion and Leopard in one day!
The dam naturally filled up 100% and birding there
has been great. We’ve even had a couple of greater
flamingos there for a while. Last week we spotted a
Cutthroat Finch for the first time at TWT.
I had an amazing experience while out with a group
recently. We were walking down the dry Limpopo river
bed one morning when Johannes said something about
water. I was talking to one of the guests at the
time and not paying much attention to Johannes. He
persisted and the tone in his voice suggested that
he had seen something special. Looking upstream we
saw a pool of water with lots of bird activity.
Closer inspection saw a stream of water slowly, but
steadily approaching us. We watched it grow from a
trickle, until it was about 3 meters wide and
getting stronger. There had been no rain any where
in the area for ages, so this must have been water
from rain up near the Gaborone area. We couldn’t
watch it all day, but I went back the following
morning and it had filled up Pel’s Pool and was
still flowing at a steady rate growing to six, seven
meters wide. It’s these little unexpected, but
amazing phenomena that make nature so incredible!
Finally - the chirp of the year;
I was sitting on top of Eagles Rock with a group of
guests one morning. Ali, a six-foot tall girl had
told us on the walk up that she suffered from
vertigo. Ashleigh, a much younger girl in the group,
had not heard this. Ali kept well away from the edge
of the rock and eventually was encouraged to take a
lofty peak over the edge. Ashleigh innocently
commented to her, “Gee but it must be terrible to be
so tall and have vertigo. You must be scared all the
time.” I still smile when I think of this.
Folks, that’s about it for now. Thanks again for all
the support and we look forward to seeing you at TWT
soon.
Take care
Kind regards
Craig and the TWT team
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