We’ve had plenty more rain the last couple of days but the barbel/catfish at Chiloveka dam are still mud bound.
All the rain has fallen in the north, and lots of it. But right down in the south it’s still very dry although some rains have fallen but of no consequence. The barbel are now even more concentrated as their patch of mud is now nothing more than just that. Packed like sardines in a can in this thick mud it’s a miracle how they do survive. Apparently they can survive like this for a long time so long as the mud stay moist. These fish have the ability to breath in air directly and they have been known to ‘walk’ across land to other water if not too far away. But at Chiloveka the barbel don’t have an option but to sit it out and hope to be saved by the rains.
Trying to get in close to the barbel I suddenly broke through the crust and was right up to my knees in mud. There was no easy way out and I can see how animals get solidly stuck when they panic and rapid movement settles them deeper into the mud. Lying on my stomach I slowly inched my way out of there and was happy not to find myself in the same predicament as the barbel.
The dogs were off to a late start this morning heading west from Manyuchi. I was chasing after them through the dense raisin bush country until they pulled down this adult male impala. And again the pups demanded first pickings even though they were so well fed already and many of the adults weren’t.
They all suddenly stopped feeding to listen to lions calling in the east. No doubt this made up their minds to head west once they’d finished up at the kill.
I left them resting up at a pan in the mopanie, being sure to find these over fed dogs still lying around there in the late afternoon.
Wrong! When I got back there they’d moved a long way west. Were they still concerned about the presence of lions in the east?
With the big rains in the north, travelling with the dogs is getting rather sticky and tricky and I could just be spending my days deep in mud.
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