Week 9 - The Rainy Season

Well its been coming and boy did it hit hard. I made it back to the farm after New Years Day at the lake. Just as I arrived the rains started and they didn't stop for three days. Our drainage canal from the ponds doesn't really function as a drainage canal anymore, instead its a full, fast flowing river, full of catfish which have come up from the Shire River. Last year this issue resulted in a croc entering the farm and eating some of the fingerlings. This drainage problem will need rectifying when the rains eventually stop.

The rains have been particularly bad this year, according to the locals. The farm has become completely cut off from the outside world and my beautiful green ponds are full of muddy water, which backed up when the drainage canal flooded. There goes the feed trials! Worse still is the increase in bugs, all looking for somewhere dry, which just so happens to be my tent, office and toilet!!

Losing the feed trials is not such a huge issue, in fact, its beneficial for me to see the impact of the rains on the farm. I can now make sound recommendations for future development and construction. If I hadn't seen the farm in this state, money on reconstructing the farm may have been misused.

Unfortunatley, the rains did get particularly bad and I had to leave the farm one night. Trekking and wading through rivers to get to some dry land where a motorbike would get me back to the main road. It was a mission, made worse by running out of fuel, buying some off the black market, running out of that, then having to siphon some out of  a friends car. All to go 13km!

Africa.

This was our drainage canal, ponds to the left are compromised as overflow pipes are now inlets

The rains coming in

The effects of the rains on the ponds

This was the third spider found that morning, after one in my tent, one in the shower and nowthis bad boy in the office