LIGHTNING, LIONS, CROCODILES AND SOLAR INSTALLATIONS
Lightning! What an awesome place Matusadona National Park is – there are many records of lightning strikes – sometimes thought to be witchcraft, or the spirit of Nyaminyami, the Zambezi River God, through the decades. A number of days ago, an elephant was struck by lightning and killed in Matusadona.
The solar installations by The Tashinga Initiative (www.thetashingainitiative.org) have sustained two lightning strikes since 2007, despite lightning arrestors, so perhaps we are lucky, given Matusadona is recorded as having one of the highest lightning strike rates in the world – fierce, massive and direct. The first was at Vulanduli Field Station, situated on the edge of the escarpment, when the lightning split open the wall of the house, moved boulders, gouged a gash in the earth, felled a tree or more, emptied the water tank of water and blew the solar pump! Sadly funding constraints leave the Rangers at this station without their solar water system. This year, new plans for ultra-major lightning conductors and the replacement of this pump are underway.
On Saturday, we recovered the burnt out remains of the solar water installation control box at Tashinga HQ. But the pump is perfect and awaits our return, possibly this coming weekend.
After dodging Lake Kariba storms on Saturday, Sunday was eventually perfect for our work to continue, the clouds burning away, to rest on the edges of Lake Kariba, and building into monstrously high, powerfully-charged puffy white towers of 50,000 and more. 
Matusadona lies to the south, green and blue hills, incredibly beautiful at this time of the year. We drove around Rhino Island or the old Elephant Point, enjoying the white clouds from precipitation resting on the low hills of the Matusadona range, the green-green panicum repens grass, and the 3 little lion cubs that Gabriel at first thought may have been warthogs, such was the thickness of the vegetation. This confusion was very quickly dispelled when Magnificent Lioness walked by, followed by two well-maned lions walking side-by-side!
I am not sure I have ever seen such magnificent wild specimens – not a blemish on their coats, in tip-top condition! (www.rhinosafaricamp.com). By this time the work programme was calling as the blustery stormy weather was easing and we set off in the speedboat.
To the east, Changachirere’s inverter needed attention. The Rangers were away at Fothergill Island, successfully rescuing an elephant that had fallen into a disused septic tank. Sweating profusely in the little radio room, all was repaired and full energy restored – such an important function for these remotely based Rangers.
I have a photo of Author Emmanuel Roy Mafuka smiling. He is presently based at Sanyati West: the toughest Parks Field Station in the country, lying in the northeast corner of Matusadona, on the shoreline and just in the base of the escarpment hills. The Rangers have a special name for it “DB”. Visit them and ask them!
We brought the speedboat into the shallow waters of a small bay immediately to the east of Sanyati West Field Sation – at1300hrs-ish, with two elephants about 200m away, and The Tashinga Initiative team. We clambered up a rocky, slate cliffside, to the thick bush of the old, unoccupied campsite. We walked along a very windy bush path, almost overgrown with rainy season vegetation, and up to the Field Station dwellings. Such incredible views, what a place this is!
The Tashinga Initiative is looking for further grants to restore this station, which boasts incredible views, a TTI solar energy installation for radio transmission and battery charging, some lighting, and a solar water system.
Mr Crocodile had found the only tiny 1m piece of polypipe associated with the solar water pump and has punctured it with his most awesome set of teeth. So The Tashinga Initiative team will return very soon to attend to the matter. In the meantime, Emmanuel and his colleague Ranger must walk down hill and up hill to collect water in their rustic containers for their daily needs. The Deltec batteries installed in 2007 at Tashinga, and moved to Sanyati West are still delivering what they should!
Those thunderclouds were now covering ¾ of the sky, and the thunder started to roll. We had done what we could and needed to return to Kariba as soon as possible whilst the lake was deliciously smooth. Please write to me with any queries: lynne@thetashingainitiative.org – thanks!
