RISING HEAT WILTING SEEDLINGS
When people ask me what the temperature is, I both think that it really doesnt make any difference, and its just too hot to even imagine what it might be. So my answer is its hot, HOT! The hottest its been in Botswana , as far as I know, is 51 degrees Celsius, a few years ago! The isolated rain we had in mid-October was a brief respite from the growing heat wave so typical of Botswana at this time of year. By mid November the sudden sprouting seedlings had turned a dull green and then yellow. The greenest grass was right on the verges of the paved roads, and that is where the livestock headed for every day. Driving along Botswana s paved roads is hell, and frustrating. No need for speed controlling traffic officers, the donkeys and cattle, goats, do it for them. The very round and heavily pregnant zebra started to give birth in November. The first newborn foal was seen at Meno A Kwena on the 17 th November. The little miniatures of their parents, like proud merry-go-round characters, stay close to their mums like they were attached with elastic bands. How they remember what mum looks like with all those stripes in close proximity, and especially at the waterhole when there is such chaos. Its those elastic bands! All through November the herds of zebra and wildebeest came to drink at Meno A Kwena in ever increasing numbers. Day after day, clear, cloudless skies grew hotter and hotter, the intense heat was draining. And the elephants came in growing numbers. Bulls. A dozen, then two dozen, we counted over thirty-one day.