Nitani in Flood

Many of our friends and guests who have visited Nitani have missed this extraordinary event of nature. Between Thursday 27th September and Saturday 29th September we had 100mm ( + 4 inches) of soft soaking rain over Nitani. This is the first time that this has happened this early in the year - for the past 22 years our rains normally arrive in December.

The river came down in a solid wall of water on Friday night and continued to rise about 3 metres ( + 9 feet) overnight and through out the next day.

Nitani Island was surrounded by water and the guests who were staying in the lodge were simply awestruck by the entire experience. The end result is that all our pans and dams have filled and are overflowing. The green grass is growing so fast that one can almost hear it pushing up through the damp soil. Shortly all the 52 flowering plants will be in bloom, trees will be in full leaf and all our animals and birds have spring fever and sheer joy in their behaviour.

As the river clears, every pool bursts into life with hundreds of tilapia fish. We normally experience seven or eight floods in a season but we may be in for some surprises this summer, if the rains continue through to March next year.

This is such a life changing event for Nitani as the entire landscape is transformed from dry winter to green bush summer. This year we are spared the usual suicidal October weather and wondering whether animals eat rocks as there is normally nothing else visible to eat.

Hopefully for those of you who are visiting us over the next few months, you too will be able to witness this special event of nature.