At the risk of sounding repetitive, I am finding this summer’s weather rather bizarre.
The overcast and cloudy weather continued where we left off in November and December, punctuated occasionally by some sunny spells. Quite simply, the spectacular sunsets and sunrises are becoming the exception rather than the norm. Rainfall in this reporting period was 138.4mm. The temperature range was a low of 15 degrees Celsius and a high of 38 degrees Celsius. Humidity continued to be high and averaged around the 75-80% mark.
January is a rather slow month operationally as the staff that had worked through the festive period get their well-deserved break. Nevertheless, work continued where we left off in early December with attention given to the airstrip, the perimeter fence, and the continued extraction of the concrete rubble from the Sekgobela camp causeway. The causeway work is now 80% complete. Airstrip maintenance is ongoing as the rain continues to fall, both the aggressive vegetation growth on the surface and the compacting of the surface received attention. In addition, the vegetation lining the verges was cut with the tractor drawn slasher.
The tractor and slasher were utilized on the main road verges as well during the mid-month. This is a precautionary effort to try and curtail the road kills that have become too regular on the reserve roads. Slashing was done from the southern boundary of Argyle through to the eastern boundary of Goedehoop.
The marula fruiting season is upon us, and we are seeing the bigger elephant bulls circling the camp perimeter fence on a daily basis to try and access the ripe fruit. This is the first major challenge since installing the new fence to monitor its effectiveness to deter elephants. Updates on the effectiveness will be communicated in next month’s report. During this past January the only problem experienced was the breaking of the fence by a giraffe bull in the area adjacent to Wahlberg’s Gate. It is unclear as to what caused the giraffe to breach the fence, but we suspect either predator involvement or a dominance challenge between two giraffe bulls as there were no tell-tale signs of obvious spoor.
The remaining old thatch grass that had accumulated from the various building projects in late 2021 was safely burnt off in early January.
by Chris Mayes