October 2023 Newsletter – Northern Kafue Safaris
Greetings Kafue Explorers!
This is a brief update on what is going on around our lodges in the Kafue National Park.
On the 6th of November, at midday the sun will be perpendicularly overhead our three lodges in the Kafue National Park, making all our shadows point directly downwards. On that day the sun will pour the full force of its fusion heat onto the lodges and the Kafue bushland that hosts us.
For the next few weeks our shadows will lean slightly north, until the sun bounces off the Tropic of Capricorn, and slides back, so that on February 7, again shadows will all point down at midday.
Having the sun almost overhead for that long will mean that vast quantities of solar heat will pour down onto the Busanga Plains and the Kafue and Lunga River basins. This is because our camps are situated in the tropics at about 12 degrees South of the equator.
If we look from a high macro perspective, the sun’s heating causes the air in the whole area to rise. This rising air is also affected by the spin of the earth, which in turn causes the air to twist and spill north or south into bands of prevailing winds.
For Central Africa these prevailing winds are generally from east to west, from the South Indian Ocean High to the Angola low pressure systems. As these winds pass over the warm Indian Ocean they pick up enormous quantities of moisture and carry this deep into the heart of Africa, where we are located.
Even as I write, the southward creep of the sun across the equator is dragging the belts of trade winds south with it.
By the end of October the Kafue will be sweltering under the sun’s glare, just as the trade winds drift far enough south so that their moisture bearing eddies meet the sun’s heat.
The dry winter season.
Above is the December thunderstorm activity – The sun is now over the tropic of Capricorn and it has dragged the trade winds south so that the moisture from the Indian ocean is blowing in over most of Central Africa.
As can be seen by the darker patches, the rainfall is influenced to some degree by mountains and big lakes.
At the micro level, when the moisture laden air is heated in this relentless way, it rises up in spectacular fashion forming massive cumulous clouds. These clouds are starting to billow up in the afternoons so high that their tops at 40k feet are blown sideways by the jet streams like the hair of a windswept lass, giving them the name of ‘anvil’ clouds. The moist air is pushed ever higher by fresh warm air being sucked in below. As the columns of air rush upwards they will reach speeds strong enough to rip the wings off an aircraft.
Rising and cooling the air is unable to bear the moisture which condenses into water droplets. The rub of the droplets creates the electrical charges that explode into lightning and thunder. If it is high and cold enough they freeze into hailstones, else they fall in great torrents of rain on the land below.
Late October is the start of our summer ‘wet season, which is often heralded by the sound and fury of one of these big bruising African thunderstorms, which are beautifully spectacular to witness.
It is in this way that most of the rain will fall in our area, and right across Central Africa.
The wet summer season..
Above is the December thunderstorm activity – The sun is now over the tropic of Capricorn and it has dragged the trade winds south so that the moisture from the Indian ocean is blowing in over most of Central Africa.
As can be seen by the darker patches, the rainfall is influenced to some degree by mountains and big lakes.
At the micro level, when the moisture laden air is heated in this relentless way, it rises up in spectacular fashion forming massive cumulous clouds. These clouds are starting to billow up in the afternoons so high that their tops at 40k feet are blown sideways by the jet streams like the hair of a windswept lass, giving them the name of ‘anvil’ clouds. The moist air is pushed ever higher by fresh warm air being sucked in below. As the columns of air rush upwards they will reach speeds strong enough to rip the wings off an aircraft.
Rising and cooling the air is unable to bear the moisture which condenses into water droplets. The rub of the droplets creates the electrical charges that explode into lightning and thunder. If it is high and cold enough they freeze into hailstones, else they fall in great torrents of rain on the land below.
Late October is the start of our summer ‘wet season, which is often heralded by the sound and fury of one of these big bruising African thunderstorms, which are beautifully spectacular to witness.
It is in this way that most of the rain will fall in our area, and right across Central Africa.
The other thing that the sun has pulled south across the equator with it and in some ways in an even more responsive manner are billions of birds.
The summer migrants have arrived. Some from just north of the equator, like Wahlberg’s eagles, and Paradise Flycatchers, and others from across the other side of the Sahara, across the Mediterranean and Levant, like the European Bee-eaters.
From even further, across the Russian Steppes, flocks of Lesser Spotted Eagles who will follow the rains and feed on the vast number of flying termites which will erupt from underground in vast numbers as they, in turn, fly away to seek fresh areas to colonize.
Others will arrive in mind-blowing feats of endurance, like the Red-footed Kestrels from eastern Siberia and China, needing to cross the Himalayas and India and the Indian Ocean to reach East Africa before heading on down into Southern Africa.
All these journeys become more perilous each year as mankind ploughs up the stopover, rest, and feeding points, turning them into housing estates, industrial areas, or shopping malls. Not to mention uncontrolled hunting, power line electrocutions, vehicle strikes, domestic cats, and collisions with reflective glass.
These days half of the birds that set out don’t make it. We haven’t seen white European storks for a decade in the Kafue. They are too easy to spot and too tempting a target to shoot at on their way south.
For those birds that do make it, for the next few months they will have a protected haven around our lodges and in the huge Kafue conservation area as a welcoming place to rest, recuperate, nest, raise chicks, put on fat, and get ready to run the gauntlet north.
During our southern spring there is no symphony as beautiful as the music of the birds at dawn, calling and singing from the rich bush lining the margins of our rivers as they set up territories and court mates.
Black Headed Orioles, Red-eyed Bush Doves, Emerald Spot Wood Doves, Bou-bou Shrike Duets, along with Black Collared Barbets. Red-chested Cuckoos, with their three tone distinctive calls, issued even at night. Not to mention Fish Eagles, Trumpeter Hornbills, and Hadada Ibis.
Ferrison, our maestro bird guide, one of the best guides in the country, not only for birds, has been keeping an update on arrivals. The first were the intra Africa migrants from Sudan and Ethiopia, like the Yellow-Billed Kites (arrived at the end of August), Plum colored Starling (also arrived in August) and the Chestnut Bellied Kingfisher (arrived 15 September).
They did not have as far to fly and needed to get here soonest to claim the best nesting territories.
The European Bee-eaters from Turkey, Israel and Syria arrived on August September 15.
But of course these migrants simply add to the plethora of stay at home species which if they have not already started breeding, like the Crowned Eagles, soon will like the Ground Hornbills.
In short, the spring has arrived. Soon the rains will be falling and the grass will grow high, and the trees will sprout leaves and the animals will be hard to find.
Most of our lodges will soon close, as it gets so wet that it is difficult to move around without getting stuck.
BUT, for the interested guest who is willing to walk around or move up and down the river by boat, and who doesn’t mind getting wet in a huge thunderstorm before returning to the comfort of a warm shower, fresh change of clothing and dry lodge, the summer can be the time of greatest discovery and interest.
The summer wet season is when the area reveals some of the small hidden jewels of Africa, its lesser known birds, flowers, butterflies, and more.
So let us know it you are interested in seeing how the grass grows as high as an Elephants eye, or how the flame lily unfurls its beauty.
Please come and see us at the Travel Show in Lugano Switzerland, 3-5 November 2023 and at the World Travel Mart, 6–8 November 2023, ExCeL expo center.