clouds

it's sometimes difficult living here remembering how lucky we are - our days are repetative but each one unique - we sometimes need an outsider to come and ooh  aah to remind us of our special priviledge.

i'm home alone at the moment - if you call in close proximity to 1000 eland 800 gemsbok et al alone! - vicky took lara and brad to gabs - lara having her 18th birthday party even though she won't hit the legal drinking age until next february - her botswana friends are home for the holidays so good excuse for a party, and why not?

yesterday evening having no-one to share a cold castle with at sundowner time i packed a six pack in the eski and off with my two trusty hounds into the sunset. we had beautiful billowing cumulonimbus clouds must have been thousands of feet high like great big cauliflowers - i see them frequently but last night they were special, i really thought that we were in for lots of rain but no - i wonder who gets it - perhaps we need to start going to church. 

i must have been in a sensitive mood as everything seemed wonderful, or perhaps it was the charles glass influence. 

I wish you could see the burn in the north of the farm - just a few weeks ago this was a black burnt dust bowl - nothing left but a few charred stumps and ash - now it's a sea of bright green just like i remember england, the transformation is truly wonderous and difficult to describe.

last friday i had two of luke's friends here - james and tara - we drove kanana flat looking for game and saw virtually nothing, where does it go? last night round every corner there were animals, i came into a herd of around 300 eland with about 50 zebra -they were oblivious to my presence and i happily sucked on an ice cold castle and watched them meander across the road - brilliant.

my rhino sisters have gone walkabout and i saw their tracks at water hole no 4 this is around 20 kms from their normal stomping ground - this is great as ben, our resident bull is somewhere around there and sure will get a sniff and maybe do the business maybe we'll hear the patter of great big feet in 18 months time!

i'm off this afternoon to see my mate colin who is just finishing building a house on his farm around 40 kms from here - sure i'll be able to have a few more ice cold castles but this time not alone.

getting quite poetic - maybe time for a holiday in the big city and a dose of reality

if anyone reads this i would appreciate a comment or two - makes me think i'm not entirely mad

cheers for now

rain at last

the rain seems to have arrived - hope i'm not putting the jinx on it by posting this - we've woken up two mornings in a row to the patter of rain, bullfrogs appearing as if by magic in the puddles, trees are starting to come into leaf and green shoots appearing. the rain has been localised but we've had a little bit everywhere and a lot in some places. if we've had an average of 20mm all over then given that 1 cubic metre of water weighs 1 ton and 1 hectare is 10 thousand square meters then 10 mm of rain is 100 tons water / hectare thus 20 mm = 200 tons / ha x 30 000 hectares = 6 million tons of water which seems a lot more than 20 mm !!! sure is a lot of clouds full.

saw three knob billed geese at the hippo pool - never seen them here before.

christmas is coming and given the bird flu in the UK a turkey shortage is predicted, we may have to settle for knob billed goose, could be a new fad.

lara is on her way home - exams done and dusted, school now history - we're all excited and can't wait to see her again - arrives on the bus tomorrow.

giraffe

finally managed to upload this photograph - credit to luke who took it - all these were on a plot which he was visiting with a potential investor - think they swung the sale. the giraffe are mostly in the south on the stone veld at the moment this is because the bush has erupted in a sea of green and they're delicatly nibbling the new shoots, must have to nibble quite a few to keep those massive bodies healthy. When you give it some thought it's quite amazing that vegetarians like giraffe and rhinos have such bulk from a few twigs and sprigs - amazes me anyway but then again i have very little distraction except to wonder at these things.

still no significant rain - we are getting lots of blue clouds, flashes, bangs and wind but the rain seems to be avoiding our little paradise. this seems to happen each year and we get quite distraught and stressed waiting - just thrown the bones again!!

just had my sister, linda, here for a month or so. bit of a change from italy for her, it was great to have her here but like so often in life you don't really realise how great until it's over.

christmas fast approaching now - lara is in the final throes of her matric exams and then her school days will be over, seems like only yesterday that she was an uncertain little girl standing lost and waving us goodbye as we dropped her off at boarding school, now she's a confident young lady about to embark on her life.

this is getting a bit emotional probably not appropriate for a wildlife blog so will quit and go do a rain dance and rattle the bones.

been a while - i find this blogging lark difficult it's like shouting in the dark not sure if anyone's listening.
great excitement today a wayward elephant wandered into the farm, ellies don't bother with the gates and other formalities there he was in all his glory wondering what all the fuss was about - they're big and i mean big when you're on your feet and this was a small to medium job! anyway he's gone now.
what's been happening here in the boring kalahari? well we had a fire about 4 weeks ago - scary stuff flames 3m high - it was the week before the californian fires and i could appreciate their fear - we lost 9000 Ha of grazing but luckily very few animals. It was a day with fierce winds and we only got it under control at around 10 in the evening after a 12 hour battle. luckily since then we've had a bit of rain around 40mm so the grass now shooting and it's all green the animals love the green shoots and interesting to see rhino mowing along with their big mouths - they must have to eat a lot though so guess they're at it all day and most of the night - they've got no TV anyway.
ada and ivy the two rhino we caught in may are getting really tame - we've been feeding them lucerne to help them through the dry times and now they wait expectantly each day for us to arrive and snort and frolic with excitement as we arrive and show no fear, they come to within 10 feet or to be politically correct 3m. so far this ok but waiting for the fisrt nudge on the cruiser which may result in quite a panel beating bill.
vicky and i been travelling quite a bit of late, just returned from a foray to KZN in RSA to a wedding 4000 kms in 4 days, quite a trek
looking at going solar - with the price of diesel soaring this now becoming a serious optionwe're busy getting advice and quotes and would value any contributions both intellectual and financial! (only joking).
i'll now try upload some photos didn't work watch this space

First Rain!!

sky blackened, thunder rumbled, lightening flashed and the wind blew - had our first 12 inch rain of the season - that smell of the first rain of spring in the kalahari, if you've never smelt it you're missing something, difficult to describe but fresh, new rebirth might give you an idea.
our rhinos are up to something, ben's resident harem stompie and friend have left him and gone walkabout we're hoping this a prelude to stompie calving which willem says is imminent, we are looking for them every day but with the windy days we've been having quite difficult to see their spoor. we're trying to give them some lucerne a bit of green in their endless diet of dry dry grass - help with the milk we hope.
went to lake ngami on sunday with britt toby tj and vicks, the water has been piling down from the okavango through tonota for weeks now and is a sight to behold, a rushing river of blue crystal clear water gurgling and swishing under the road in a sea of yellow dry waving stalks of grass - the resident donkeys, goats and cows must think they're living a dream. getting to the lake is interesting to say the least - travelling east take any turn to the right after sehitwa and follow your nose, vehicles raise plumes of fine dust which gets everwhere - i mean everywhere ! the ground is tinder dry, not a blade of grass or a leaf on a tree, then suddenly the change a few wisps of green and then the lake opens up in front - it's a huge lake must be 30 kms long by 5 kms wide but not a sea of blue rather a sea of green it's so shallow, the grass and reeds are all you can see but careful the mud waits to suck even the best 4 x 4 down. birds birds birds for africa waders, storks, eagles and more what a sight. the ubiquitous cattle donkeys and goats wading around and are they fat. the amazing thing is that this is in the middle of a desert at the height of the dry season, one of the wonders of africa.
just got a quad for kanana, a necessary step to save fuel - big notices all over it NO PASSENGERS, UNLEADED FUEL ONLY - what happened? first thing our merry men fill up with leaded fuel then with groovy driving and !kgara passenger are off oblivious to mr yamaha's admonishments they had fun and japanese technology seems to take the punishment in it's stride must be designed for africa.
(editors note: 12 inch rain refers to drops being 12 inches apart)

spring in the west

Been suffering from writers block since returning to Africa from the so called First World, need to slow down.
We’re now in the suicide months on Kanana, very hot, waiting for that elusive first rain which probably won’t arrive until late November.
Grass is tinder dry, yellow and waiting for a spark and gust of wind to start an inferno. Amazes me that animals still thrive on this brittle forage they’re drinking plenty of water though, guess to wash it down.
The camel thorns showing signs of life and have come into leaf, the browsers – giraffe, eland kudu - must be chuffed.
Had Luke and Jess here for last few weeks, they’re doing a dry run for the permanent move in February. Jess’s baby now very obvious and she’s brilliant, so cheerful and excited, even though she’s given up the weed and limited herself to one glass of red per day. Difficult in this heat to carry that extra weight, glad I’m a man! I empathise with Jess though and carrying a bit of extra weight myself in solidarity!
We’ve finally bought a new TV, a 50 inch plasma job, I can now see the footie and I’m ready to witness Sunderland’s renaissance.
Lara’s back at school, final term for her - study study study then exams and release. Her five years at DSG has flown, where does all the time go? She’s still not sure what to do next year, maybe a yachting skipper’s course in Cape Town!

rocky mountain time

think i'm finally over the jet lag - if you call getting up at 5 a.m. normal - gets light then and i'm still a farmer
really like BC especially the wild islands and pacific ocean. lots of trees, lakes and sky there are many similarities to africa such as size, wilderness, solitude but also many contrasts when you hit the urban sprawls which is not my cup of tea - that's also rare - people here prefer "corefee" which can be like dish water!
found a really good draft lager "granville isalnd" - there's many a beer here and plenty breweries - now that's interesting!
RV's all over, some bigger than buses towing cars and boats, saw a ford F 550 - what a monster would love to take one back to the kalahari but guess couldn't afford the fuel would need a private well.
we're back in vancouver later today and lara arrives tomorrow, next week we're hiring a yacht and sailing around vancouver island - watch out for icebergs!
missing simplicity of africa and starting to look forward to return. when you see these north americans in action you better believe global warming very wasteful society
heard that the rhino sisters have settled down at seribe, hope ben (our big bull) will sniff them out soon and give them a seeing to!

vancouver

missing africa already although BC very nice, been here 2 nights / days, mind can't differentiate between the two yet - jet lag - don't know how the jet set cope glad i'm a simple african farmer. being in the first world - albeit briefly - a strange experience, everyone in a hurry, to do what? there's always noise, silence is a noise if you have experienced it.
looking forward to sunday we're off exploring to vancouver island and then on a tramp steamer round the coast.
mislaid my briefcase on the trolley in the car park on arrival full of everything vital, cash, tickets, camera, passport, driving license, new swarovski binos etc. within 1 hour RCMP had found a suspicious briefcase and returned it intact, now that wouldn't happen in africa!! thankyou Canada and the mounties could have been a bleak holiday.

rhino sisters OUT!

Last Saturday was the big day, up as the sky reddened in the east. Carefully we opened the boma, the sisters huffed and puffed, mock charging us as we carefully removed the poles. Makes the adrenaline rush to have 4000 pounds of rhino 6 inches away from your head, relying on it to shy away from the flimsy barrier. They didn't rush out to freedom. After an hour of peering suspiciously through the gap they were tempted out by their stomachs, lucerne just outside. First, big sister strode out confused to be surrounded by space and freedom then little sister joined her. The small one seemed to give the big one confidence and with a quick snatched mouthful of lucerne they took off west in a cloud of dust.
3 hours later we followed to see where they had gone, they ran for about a mile then slowed to a leisurely gait feeding as they explored their new home they seemed calm so we left them, Sunday I looked again, they had drunk water at Seribe so my main worry satisfied, the Kalahari very dry at this time of year. Should be OK now, hoping they'll return soon to the house tempted by the lucerne.
Sorry about the photo quality - first time my camera has stuffed up!
Weather warmed up a bit last few days after some chilly days, Vicky and I are off to Vancouver for a month to see Ada, will be novel to be part of the First World again, not looking forward to the flight though.

president's day

long weekend in botswana
this means we're busy - just because we're 700 kms from civilisation don't assume we're lonely - we see more people than most.
came across a herd of 300+ eland yesterday, beautiful sight, unfortunately there were 9 big blue bulls skulking at the back of the herd and i spooked them, one ducked under the fence, amazing as they weight 800+ kgs and stand 2m at the shoulder, he went under the fence where wires 100mm apart and only broke one wire, seems impossible - houdini style. pity for him as there are only cattle that side so will be lonely. usually they try and come back so i expect to see him ambling on the outside of fence for a week or two. once kobus, the neighbour, finds him he will be biltong before you can say jack robinson.
the rhino sisters are still in the boma near the house, getting quite tame and have settled down to their diet of lucerne and seem to enjoy it. they're quite tidy and do all their business in one dung heap which is getting quite big now, not to mention smelly! i'm going to let them out on wednesday so will try the dung in the veggie patch, watch this space for giant carrots!
caught another cheetah last week, a young male - very pretty, the cheetah ladies came and took him away, we'll see how long until he's back.
i'm trying to create a ben richards wildlife trust, in memory of my son ben, with the aim of doing something meaningful for conservation, i'm trying to persuade the cheetah people to establish a proper reasearch facility on the property and also interested in doing something with black rhino. first step is to formulate proper terms of reference for the trust - it's essential that it is seen to be transparent and beyond suspicion and not just a commercial benefit for kanana. to do this we need a board of eminient and respected people - i'm working on this. any ideas?

presidents

catching rhino

Some one read my blog!! Cheated really, but who cares - thanks Ada!
Had an exciting weekend 2 weeks ago, my mate -Larry "the vet" Patterson- caught and moved two young female rhino from Edo's camp to Kanana. Larry at 61 stalked the beasts armed with no more than a dart gun and from 10 metres darted them, then waited very quietly until the two ton rhino succembed to the drugs around 8 minutes. The larger managed to stand on my toe as we were shoving it into the crate, and it's true they weigh 4 x 500 kgs = 2 tons. The "girls" are sisters aged 6 and 4 and we now have 7, 5 females 1 lucky bull and a baby. The sisters are now in a boma next to our house, we want to habituate them hoping they will think of this as home and drink in our waterhole. We'll wait and see.
Been very cold recently, unfortunatley our thermometer broken so temp measured by thickness of ice on birdbath. Seems to me that weather more normal than recent years so hoping for good rain when time comes round.

winter saturday

Got the Government vets here today putting bolus into our cattle so that meat traceable from Mcdonalds in Leicester Square to Kanana Ghanzi Botswana !! Bloody EU and Tony Blair! Also innoculating for black quarter (not half!) contagious abortion and anthrax - and you thought flu jab painful.
My nephews here from Peckham south London Noah 5 and Ozzie 4 - they're interested in life on an african farm - questions questions most exciting thing for them is the big yellow digger - JCB forget lions rhino and elephants. focused little boys.
wondering if anybody ever reads this?

baby rhino spotted

very cold today - south wind blowing seems like all the way from antarctic -
mum and baby ate some lucerne last night maybe get to see them soon
lots of cheetah sign around very dry
busy cleaning fire breaks won't be long before smoke on the horizon - scary days especially when wind blowing

winter

It rained today - it's not supposed to rain in winter in the Kalahari - could this be a side effect of the global warming Bush and Blair are so concerned about.
Very cold I feel sorry for Georgie she's only 4 weeks old - do rhinos feel the cold - guess I'll never know
Georgies Dad chased me last Sunday, a close encounter with a 2 tons of muscle gets the adrenalin flowing

party time

saturday 24 march is sister vize's 90th birthday - that's old she must have been born while ww1 still in full swing.
ma vize was for years the only medical person in ghanzi in the days when there was no road no telephones not much of anything. as acting mid wife she has delivered most of todays poulation - or caught to use local parlance.
big party tonight at the barn to celebrate when the whole panoply of Ghanzi society will be there to celebrate one of it's most venerated citizens.

praying for rain

another hot and humid day - clouds, wind - all the signs but no Pula (rain in the local language) maybe global warming already affecting our remote paradise, curse the unthinking polluters!
got some friends here from the city, interesting to see our life from their perspective, somehow makes it exciting and realise again how lucky we are
found a dead kudu in the shade at the tree hide - big spiral horns would have been a trophy fit for a rich american trophy room but lucky old kudu died of old age - teeth no longer able to munch the sharp thorns
saw some black wildebeest far from home they must be getting adventurous! stupid things chasing their tails