Rain in the Stanley's area

Earlier this week, I drove up to Stanley's Camp to check on my buffalo up there. There is one herd close to the main road, whose signal we picked up as we were driving in. We went off-road to try to find them and were getting fairly close but we were thwarted by a very large lake fed by several smaller channels. We returned to the main road and continued up to Stanley's, arriving without incident. However, the guys working at Stanley's told us that they have received over 300 mls of rain in January alone. All of the crossings, which should be completely dry at this time of year, are fully flooded and it has been raining every day, so the ground has had no chance to dry up. We tried to find a road across to where the collared buffalo are, but we got stuck quite badly with 10kms to go. We headed back down the road to try again with the others, but there had been heavy rain and even the soil on higher ground had puddles on water on it.

We therefore retreated back to Maun to review options and speak to one of my supervisors. He agreed that trying to go off-road in these conditions is futile and will result in numerous hours spent getting unstuck with very few results. Other researchers have also been having problems with driving off-road.

We have had a couple of days without rain so I am hoping that this weather stays, but there has been more heavy rain forecast for next week, and one newspaper article mentioned that rains may continue until the end of March. I will concentrate on office work for the next few days/weeks, depending on weather. I will also develop my vegetation sampling methodology, concentrating on areas very close to the road. Walking any distance from the car is not an option given the height of the grasses, so I will see how that goes. I will also try to fly over the herds to get some idea of numbers and composition, and the habitats that they are in.

Otherwise, the car is running well, and made it through fairly deep water without any problems. We had to give a hand pulling one of the Stanley's Cruisers out of the mud, which, together with the fact that we made it through all the water, helped to dispel their ideas that two girls doing fieldwork in a petrol Hilux are more than a little crazy. My assistant, Laura, is settling in very well and, of course, growing to love living in the bush.