Tracking buff through mopane

We had a few days without rain, which was very pleasant and gave the roads at least a chance to dry up. However, 23 mm a couple of days ago topped all the road puddles up again. I managed to fly one morning, which was very still and pleasant. We tracked and found all three of my buff on this side, all close together in NG34, and very close to a road. So Laura and I drove across to have a look at the ground in that area to see whether it would be possible to do some field work off road.

The ground was very sandy and completely devoid of pans or any other nasty surprises. So we came back and packed the car for a few days camping to follow the herds. We drove back out despite the storm the previous night, and the ground was still very firm and fine to drive on. We found all three animals within a few hundred metres of each other, but all hidden in mopane stands. We did not want to disturb them during their resting period in the middle of the day, so we waited until 3.30 to try and get a visual. This was the right time to move, as they all decided to move off in a concerted march south. We followed their tracks for about 3 km, through rather dense mopane (which luckily usually bends under the car) until the tracks spread out a bit more and we found them in a section of open mopane that was apparently their destination. By this time it was getting dark, so we set up camp and went to bed. We heard the buff calling all around us throughout the night. However, it also rained for 6 hours that night, a good deal of it heavy rain, with very loud thunder and impressive lightning. This meant that by the morning time, the ground in the mopane had become completely waterlogged, so we left the buff to it and retreated.

Hopefully the rains will become less frequent, so that the ground can dry up in between the rains, as at the moment, the ground water levels are still very high, so that any rain takes a long time to sink through and causes the ground to become saturated and cloying.

We had a few close encounters with elephant whilst driving through mopane, but luckily none of them felt too aggressive, although some of the bulls we saw were enormous, with huge tusks (for Botswana). I haven't seen any predators lately, except for the ever hopeful spotted hyaena that comes around the kitchen most nights, even though it never gets anything.