We’re now in the middle of winter, another couple of weeks and it will be the shortest day / longest night. It’s brrrrrr in the evening (wood fires and red wine time) but we have beautiful cloudless sunny days and so far no frost.It’s also marmalade time, the citrus trees are laden with orange, grapefruit and lemons intend to get cracking any day now.

We’ve had another baby rhino, that makes three so far! The first one is over a year old now and think that Ben is walking with Mum (hopefully more than walking) - the other two babies are recent additions, still trying to get close enough to sex them, quite difficult with the long grass and although white rhinos are usually quite passive when they have calves they can be aggressive and they run faster than me.

The kudu bulls are in rut and running with the females, go round a corner and there’s another herd haven’t noticed so many kudu before on Kanana, some of the bulls are monsters maybe it’s biltong time.

I was bitten by a horse yesterday, that wakes you up ! Those big yellow teeth may not be sharp but they sure hurt, I was stroking her neck and talking to John the groom when wallop, maybe a love bite. Think horses make nice salami must look that up on the www.

We’re grading fire paths ready for the August fires - our old grader a CAT 11 F must be an antique but seems to be enjoying a new lease of life in an agricultural setting, quite fun really, must be the little boy in me driving big powerful yellow machines.

Vicky has revamped our kitchen, stripped out all the old cabinets and we’ve now got stylish modern open plan white shelves - why do women always change everything - we just get used to everything in it’s place then voila ! can’t find a thing for months and then just when you do - repeat!

enough whinging for this episode

bye

Inspiration lacking - my excuse for recent neglect!
There´s been loads happening though in our neck of the woods. First we´ve had the arrival of Jess Luke and young Jack - momentous for them, one small step for man woman and boy, one giant leap for Kanana! to paraphrase my attorney! It doesn´t get much better than this having your children and grandchildren next door even if they are townies adjusting to the pace of rural africa ` Don´t forget to switch the lights off Jess!!´
Vicks has gone to Italy with the girls of ´58 - as I write they are no doubt atop the hill pretending that Ben´s vintage chateau ´07 red has a delicate nose and surprises the palette with it´s distinct crispy cheeky charm!
I´m away as well - but looking forward to getting back - if you live in paradise why go away - don´t know the answer to that.
We´ve got a couple of new rhino, a baby, seen the spoor but not the beast this the second born on Kanana - still not sexed the first one now a year old! and a new young bull from Khama rhino sanctuary just arrived to help old Ben, as if any was needed!
Thank goodness for the late rain - the veld is as good as it gets.
Larry, Ozzie Kyle and the boys have been catching game - eland, kudu, zebra, gemsbok, hartebeest and giraffe - Kyle flying chopper for the first time in anger - only got his license couple of weeks ago - one of the few who can shag and shear 100 sheep a day, drink two cases of Hansa lager and fly a chopper - in no particular order - good on you Kyle!
Promise to try make this more regular Luke

musings of a mad game farmer continues - getting nagged to be more committed to this blog - the reason i live on a 30 000 Ha game ranch in a remote corner of Africa is so that I can do my own thing and avoid stress and commitment to deadlines!

Woke at 3 a.m. last night to the sound of rain on a tin roof - if you haven’t done that take my advice and do it - if you live in a desert there’s no sweeter sound, had 20 mm and can hear the grass growing.

As I guess you know by now we are clever farmers - we’ve bought a double disc harrow to clean the road and fire breaks - gets rid of the grass and seeds which clog up radiators and spreads fires BUT it also leaves the road and / or fire break looking like a ploughed field - which I guess it is - ever tried driving across a ploughed field? I did this morning, drove round our northern fence needed 4 wheel drive and even then could only go dead slow - 50 kms = 2 hours boring!!

Experienced first hand Murphys law - studying for my theory nautical skipper license - i have visions of sailing the high seas once Luke and Jess get their feet under the table anyway got out my 2B pencil my rubber my dividers and my pristine nautical chart - whoops charts are quite absorbent to coffee that was that, not many nautical chart shops in Ghanzi

Ada, Vicky’s mum had a new knee last week this now seems routine everyone doing it - she’s chuffed to bits - now a week and no pain she’ll soon be back at centre forward. Well done Mr Orford! It’s not true what they say about you!

Just had Colin and Uwe on their ranch good times long live rock and roll not to mention Charles Glass and Johnnie Walker.

2008 has arrived - an old cliché and I guess a sign of old age but I wonder where the time goes?

We had Christmas on Kanana, very quiet just Vicky myself and Lara with Vicky’s folks and some old friends of theirs. I’m sure I’m now identified as an incurable alcoholic - I had a couple of Castles and perhaps a glass of whisky while the rest were abstemious - this a contrast to our usual friends!

The farm is only now waking up from the holidays. Zimbo workers are back from the catastrophe which is Zimbabwe today, they’re cheerful despite their worries and problems, maybe a lesson there somewhere.

We’re still scanning the heavens for signs of rain, we’ve had a bit but patchy some parts are lovely and green and other parts parched and black, farmers never satisfied!

As ever we’re busy putting up fences, taking down fences, exporting game, importing game sounds futile but in reality it’s progress!

This is the time of year for babies and we’re hoping to see a rhino calf soon as well as a young Richards - Jess!!

Wonder what this year will bring, our life was always so calm and predictable, that changed in an instant and we’re now conscious and fearful of each day, each shrill ring of the phone.

I hope that all who read this and a few others have a good, healthy and happy 2008.

It’s sometimes difficult living here remembering how lucky we are - our days are repetitive but each one unique - we sometimes need an outsider to come and ooh aah to remind us of our special privilege.

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 wondrous 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

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.

Finally managed to upload this photograph - credit to Luke who took it - all these were on a plot which he was visiting with an 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 delicately 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!!

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. “Is there anybody out there?”

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 have 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 option we’re busy getting advice and quotes and would value any contributions both intellectual and financial! (only joking).

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 its been 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 as passenger they 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)

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!