Cyclone hits Balule Reserve

The river behind our waterhole after approx. 175 mm of rain had fallen.

Out here in the bush rain is always welcome and so far this summer we had had 295 mm since the start of October, that is until Tuesday 17^th and Wednesday 18^th January, earlier this week.  It began raining on Tuesday and by 4.30 p.m. only 18mm had fallen.  Over the next 24 hours, however, a further 262 mm (10 inches) fell.  

The same river some 500 m upstream

As a result our normally dry river beds became raging torrents, audible even over the sound of the rain.  The largest river on the main road to the reserve gate was 40 m wide.  In the midst of this most of the local lion pride were in the area, on our neighbours’ property and here on Leopard’s View.  We even had to deliberately let water out of the splashpool at various intervals.  Luckily we have suffered only from erosion of paths and roads although we did have a mini-river flowing through one of the huts as the ground became saturated.  Giraffe Hut is now drying out and we have dug out around it to create better run-off management in the future – pictures to follow as the work progresses.

The main road through the reserve to the gate, Wednesday morning

At a stroke our rainfall total for this wet season has jumped up to 575 mm, which is 125 mm more than the annual average for Balule.

Afternoon of Thursday 19th - our river much subsided

All roads in and out of the reserve were impassable until the middle of Thursday 19^th and some routes are still closed.

The main road river shown above, 24 hours after the rain stopped

Our local town, Hoedspruit, which is 21 km away, was cut off by flood water and was declared a disaster area: some sections were completely under water.  Many major roads and bridges in the area have been damaged and the Olifants River came over the top of the high-water bridge.  The local Air Force base was active in the area, rescuing many people trapped by rising water.

Clean-up operations are in progress everywhere.  We hope that the cyclones now building in the Indian Ocean will not affect us this far inland over the next week or so.  With soils already saturated more heavy rain would undoubtedly lead to renewed flooding.

Water (Rain & the Swimming Pool)

Swimming pool

 We  began renovating the splashpool in mid-September but within a week we were side-tracked by problems with a septic tank.  The best solution was to build a new one, plus a new soak-away, tasks that took the next eight weeks to complete.  It was not until the start of December that we managed to get back to working on the pool.  Preparing the surfaces was a huge, tedious, dusty and hot job and as Christmas approached the race was on to get it ready in time for plastering (something that has to be done by professionals) before everyone went on holiday for three weeks.  Renovations were finally finished on the 21^st after several days of frantic activity and on the 22^nd the pool specialists from Hoedspruit did the plastering.  Early on the 23^rd we began filling the pool and by lunch it was ready.  The transformation has been pleasing and the new-look pool fits in much better with the bush environment.

Before

During - ready for tiling

During - tiled & ready for plastering

 

After - plastered and filled

Rain

 
The rains so far this year have been reasonably frequent but light, as was the pattern last year, and despite the regular top-ups the bush was getting dry.  However on the 24^th December we  had 48 mm and on Boxing Day another 74 mm, most of it slow and soaking.  These were the biggest totals for a single day since May 2010, which is unusual for this area and not a good thing:  some heavy rain is needed to make the small streams and rivers flow, to fill up dams and replenish underground water supplies. After the 122 mm in 48 hours the river beyond the waterhole flowed for a while and then trickled for a couple of days after that. The bush looks in excellent condition and dams and waterholes are full, not surprising after the wettest first three months of the rainy season for some years.