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It's good to know that the far north (Punda, Pafuri and Shingwedzi areas) has been spared the flooding...

But what I would like to know is: has it had some rain at least?.... or is it still dry as a bone up there?

And... if it has had some rain.... maybe even enough for the Shingwedzi River to flow properly instead of just having a little excuse of a stream about a tenth (or is that a twentieth? ) of the size of the river bed... does anyone have pics?

Rainfall at Shingwedzi - 18 Jan 26mm , 19 Jan 23mm - total approx 70mm the last 2 weeks . Shingwedzi river may flow strongly for ist time since late Dec 2011 , as there was quite a bit of rain in the adjacent northern areas in the 24 hr period ending 8 a.m. today :

LEVUBU 72
THOHOYANDOU WO 41
ZANEEN-WESTFALIA ESTATE44

Up till yesterday there had been no flood damage north of Mopani , but keep watching the tropical storm Funso development :

http://www.weatherphotos.co.za/guestbook1.html

I was up at Pafuri Camp last week.

Rainfall:

January 17th: <1mm (cloudy and windy with drizzle on and off)

January 18th: 55 mm (of which 45 mm fell during a very short period in the morning. Dry again by noon).

January 19th: 20 mm (steady gentle rain late night and early morning. Partly cloudy during the day, with the odd light shower).

Eco Training (8,8 km from Pafuri Camp as the crow flies) got 145 mm in less than two hours on the 18th, with another 100 mm on top of that. I have no figures for The Outpost.

No infrastructure damage that I could see, the odd tree down in the Fever Tree Forest. The access road to Pafuri Camp became a river on the 18th, but the alluvial soils sucked it all up in a couple of days.

The Limpopo pans from Makwadzi to Likangwa are brimming full. Banyini (in the northwestern corner) largely dry, with open water only in the usual pool between the little koppie and the mountain. Reedbuck Vlei at the other end had some open water, but was far from full. The adjacent Fever Tree Forest was also dry in the sense that there were no pools of open water. I did not have the opportunity to check Nwambi Pan, but the Nwambi Creek that runs to the Luvuvhu only had water in the deeper pools. The Luvuvhu River rose and fell a couple of times, but never reached anywhere near high levels. I watched the Ximuwana River come down in a raging muddy torrent, but the (high) bridge was never in any danger.

No roads closed, except for Nyala Loop. That was pretty pointless, as I drove it before they closed it, and the road was just fine.

Game viewing excellent, by the way. In my experience heavy rain usually does the game viewing a lot of good. Never stay in camp just because it is pouring.

Johan

I crossed the high bridge on the morning of the 24th, there was very little water in the river. I drove part of the Mphongolo loop on the way. The pools were very full, but the river was not flowing. I crossed the Letaba some hours later. It was flowing, but not stongly.

Johan

This is all good to hear . I'll hold thumbs for a little more rain in the area...

all

The north needs more rain, that's fore sure, expect perhaps for the area around Punda Maria, which looks really lush. A couple of days of steady soft rain for a total of at least 60 mm would be great.

Johan

Was last week at Shingwedzi for 10 nights. Area very dry. They need rain. the river is dry except for a few puddles in the river. There is still a lot of grass. Have seen Kanniedooddam with less water but it is the end of the rainy season. To the east it is beautiful. We have not seen Grootvloerdam so full in a long time. To the north is also not bad, Levuhu river is still flowing and Punda Maria green and a lot of water. It seems that area around Shingwedzi is the only area that was not fortunate this year. Red Rocks area very dry.

That is what we saw as well, very dry around Shingwedzi, hardly any water in the river. Lets hope they get some rain before the end of the season.

We were in Shingwedzi in May 2010 when there was a cloudburst - 80mm+ fell in less than an hour which left part of the camping ground somewhat wet! We'll be there again this May - chances of rain are therefore good! Hopefully, there will be some showers before then..............