Blog Mar 2014 Bless the Rains

Blog 16 - Mar '14 - Bless the Rains Down in Arica

Unfortunately for all you blog readers I do love belting out Toto’s Africa once in a while. Also, enough people start humming it after I mention that a large part of my PhD is spent in Africa, so it had to be inspiration for a blog title. If you get it stuck in your head I apologise, but I needed to get it out of mine. But really, the rains have been amazing. They have transformed Etosha from what I described as Tatooine-esque last year into an amazingly green wonderland. Last year was a very dry year and this year, whilst not overly wet, it has has definitely had its fair share of water. So, on my drive into the park for the first time in just over three months I was amazed by the colour, the birds and the flowers. Last year I don’t recall seeing flowers. Maybe I did, but they certainly weren’t everywhere you looked. But now, Etosha is awash with green and a smattering of pinks, yellows, purples and crisp whites.

Then there are the birds (note- ‘The Birds are Back in Town’ was a close second for the title, sorry Thin Lizzy but Toto won). Within the first week I had seen numerous bird species that I hadn’t seen at all in the previous year and many species that I had only seen once or twice had become common. On my first drive east of camp I came across a couple of blue cranes which are listed as critically endangered in Namibia so it was a very exciting sighting. They seem to be nesting in that area to I hope to continue seeing them and possibly two offspring if their breeding season is successful. I’ve also seen numerous white-bellied storks and European bee-eaters (some of whom have stayed stationary for a full second to allow a photo) as well as a number of gorgeous little chicks of all species.

It’s quite fortunate that the birds are plentiful because the wildebeest aren’t. The wet season has been fairly bountiful which means two slight issues for me. 1) The roads are waterlogged with some completely shut and others becoming entirely inundated for days at a time causing truncated transects and some damage to my car, and 2) there are lush green grass fields and temporary puddles everywhere making food and drink plentiful so the beests have no reason to travel near the roads or to the permanent waterholes. Though, the solitary bulls are around as they are starting to mark territories in preparation for the upcoming rut, I just hope the females are on their way!

Also new in Etosha are the insects. Last year I contended with a few flies, mosquitos, moths and another bug or two. That is, other than the massive beetle hatches at the end of last year that had my tent floor so covered in little beetles that is appeared to writhe. But this year is something else. There are beetles and moths and numerous other winged things rushing to get into my well lit tent whenever I enter or exit it. My car has become a cemetery for countless less fortunate butterflies, stick insects and anything with more than four legs. I’ve also come across heaps of solifuges, millipedes, scarier looking spider species and scorpions on my walks around camp and in my tent.

So I sign off on a month that I will call rocky, but one that has also introduced me to a new Etosha where flowers bloom, grass is actually green and falling asleep to the sound of rain is great…until you wake up to a flooded tent.