What began as Cyclone Dando over the Indian Ocean, eventually made its way West over Mozambique and into Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces here in South Africa as a Tropical Depression. Despite its weakened status and winds, we experienced record rainfall between January 18^th and 19^th. Our rain gauge here at Mundulea house recorded exactly 270mm in a 30hour period. That equates to roughly half of our annual average!

All the reserve’s rivers and dams have burst their banks. The Karongwe river came up over the bridge on the R36, our main access road. The most damage seems to have occurred at Chipembere Dam, Karongwe’s largest. Despite washed away fences, heavily rutted roads and a few burst dams, the reserve is still functioning and the animals seem to be revelling in the wet conditions. We fall asleep each night to a resurgent chorus of African Bull Frogs and Bubbling Cassinas.

Hoedspruit, our local town, 50km’s away, has been declared a disaster zone after it received an incredible 370mm. Luckily, there were no casualties, but a number of bridges have been swept away. Mariepskop, the focus of our mountain phase, has received a reported 525mm! Kruger National Park was hit hard too, with a few tourists needing evacuation. Our volunteers will get to experience hands on conservation as we clean up and patch up the reserve whilst continuing to monitor our focus animals as they negotiate their much wetter habitat.

Normality seems to be returning, but with Cyclone Funso developing as I type, we hope that the rain continues throughout the season, but perhaps a little less intensely.

Andreas Fox

Base Manager

GVI Karongwe