By Elyse Ruthenbeck of University of Vermont
When arriving in Botswana I was excited to continue to have warm weather and escape the Minnesota tundra back home. However, after weeks of relentless heat, I now find myself avoiding the sun at all costs. The biggest question we had at the beginning of the semester was “When do you think it will rain?”.
We are now at our fourth camp, Mopane Camp, outside the village of Sankoyo and there is very little shade. As soon as the sun rises and we are pushed out of our tents due to the heat, we either gather under the only mopane tree or seek shelter from the sun in the cars. If you are yearning for a nap after a transect, there is almost no chance you’ll be able to sleep without feeling the heat pierce your skin.
Almost three weeks ago now, we experienced the first big rains. Thunder, lightning, wind, and downpours of water surrounded us and began to rejuvenate the landscape. And with the rain came cooler temperatures.
The first big storm (October 31st 2019):
Pula e a na! (It is raining!) This was exciting, the big first rains were here. The storm began late at night and lasted until the late hours of the morning. The wind shook our tents in all directions throughout the night. The wildlife we were used to hearing while falling asleep were silent as the sound of rain and thunder took over. At 10 am, it finally stopped and we could emerge from our tents. Everything was wet and there were puddles everywhere, even inside our tents. The dusty ground that we had been walking and driving on for months was now mud. It rained so much that the earth had yet to soak up all the water. Part of the day was spent bailing water from our tent and attempting to dry our clothes and sleeping bags.
Jo and I bailing water out of our tent after the first big rainstorm (photo by Katherine Rigney)
It rained again the next day, refilling the puddles on the roads and in our tents. None of us had thought to bring a jacket but the rains brought temperatures too cool for just a t-shirt. For the following week, the rains came and went. It would rain one day and blast intense heat for the next three days before it rained again. Constantly opening and closing our tent windows trying to find a balance between not wanting to sweat all night and not wanting our tent to get wet is now part of our routine.
A few weeks after the storm:
If the rains had not come there would not be any shade in Mopane Camp. It is back to 45 degrees Celsius and I am not sure what I would have done without the newly sprouted Mopane leaves providing miniscule spots of shade. Since the rains have begun, they come and go every week or so providing us with a break from the intense heat. The leaves of the Mopane trees have returned bringing small pockets of shade and the landscape has switched from bare to lush in a matter of a few weeks. Just days after the big first storm, we were noticing changes. New sprouts were coming out of the ground and wildflowers were beginning to bloom. It was a whole new sight.
Depiction of the vegetation change over the past few weeks. The first photo was taken in September. The second photo was taken in November.
We travel on the same dirt road to reach all of our bush camps. Our first drive along the road back in September was dusty and the trees were bare. The landscape was all the same color; a sandy beige. Slowly, over the course of the semester and following the influx of rains into the area, the habitats alongside the road have become dense, green and full of vegetation.
An abrupt awakening (November 23rd):
The rains have followed us to Maun. On the morning of November 23rd at our home base in Maun, the sky was cloudy and the air was cool. Within about 15 minutes of a few of us waking up around 7:45 a.m. we decided to put our rain flies on our tents so that we wouldn’t forget when we went to bed that night since it had sprinkled the night before. Immediately after we secured the rain flies, it began to pour. The wind picked up and began blowing tents in all directions. Jo, Tica, and Rose’s tent flipped over, Mary’s ended up on its side in the kitchen area, and Jess and I stood in the rain holding ours as it blew around. The ground is usually rock hard but the rain made it soft enough that we were able to stake them down in hopes that they would not blow away again. We had to wait until the rains stopped and our clothes dried before we could assess the chaos that had ensued within each of our tents. Everything. Was. Everywhere.
New Wildlife!:
As the environment became wetter new species emerged. Along one of our transects in our previous camp, Dizhana Camp, KC stopped the car and told us there was a toad in the road. We were expecting to see a toad the size of a golf ball, but instead, we approached one the size of a volleyball. It was in fact not a toad, it was a giant bullfrog, Pyxicephalus adsperus. This species emerges from deep within the sand after the first rains flush them out. This also happens to the Damara mole rat, Cyptomys damarensis, they get flushed from their burrows and goes off in search of new one. Millipedes and velvet mites are newly frequently seen scurrying in the sand. The rain has brought thrilling new sightings we were not suspecting. Millipedes cover our tarp as Hailey leads us in yoga. It’s hard to relax and get into the yoga mindset when these slinky creatures are crawling around. Velvet mites have also emerged, and unlike the millipedes, they are a much cuddlier insect. They are about the size of a pea, bright red, and soft. My favorite new species that we have seen following the first big storm is the banded rubber frog, Phrynomantis bifasciatus, it walks instead of hops. The wet sand and dirt makes it easier for us to see tracks. We saw roan, Hippotragus equinus, tracks for the first time. And as the rains continue, I’m sure we will continue to see crazy, new things.
Botswana’s currency is called ‘Pula’. In Setswana ‘Pula’ means rain. For the Delta, rain is everything. It holds the highest ring of importance for cultures, as well as for environments. With the rains becoming a greater part of our semester and watching the changes that they continue to bring to the landscape, habitats, and wildlife, the importance of rain to this area and the communities within it has become extremely clear. At home we often don’t think about where our water is coming from or how we are going to get it, it’s just there for us. Water, whether it’s rain or the access to the resource within the delta, is always a concern for Botswana. Hopefully, the rains continue consistently and the delta and surrounding area is flooded with its most valuable, yet often times scarce, resource.