Rain, and Various Creatures

Well, the rainy season arrived the night before last, announcing itself with an epic nine hour thunderstorm! You couldn't tell which lightning went with which thunder. I was trying to sleep when it started and I could actually feel the thunder rumbling. Somebody saw lighning hit our house but things must be well grounded because it didn't do any damage, didn't even blow a breaker.

The power up here is surprisingly reliable, considering it comes from a homemade generator powered by a waterfall. The current is a little erratic so the lights flicker sometimes, but we always have light and more importantly computers. There is even Internet but the bandwidth is limited so we can only do basic stuff.

Anyway the thunderstorm stopped around midmorning so we were able to go out after the baboons. Soaking wet baboons do not look happy; they tend to huddle together and their tails get awfully muddy. The rain muffles sounds so they lose track of each other so I saw several joyful reunions. Naturally I followed a small group of juveniles who got separated from the rest for a few hours, and they moved fast looking for the troop but they went the wrong way and took me on a longer walk than usual, with a lot of steep cliffy bits.

The rain stopped in the afternoon. It comes and goes but there is still a fair bit of sunshine in between. Everyone is happy about the rain. Laura doesn't have to water her tree saplings, Jordan's termites have emerged from hibernation, and it is not so hot anymore. Bonnie the cat does not approve of it though. She is young and has likely never seen a storm like that but she does enjoy the plentiful frogs. I don't know how we got so many frogs so fast. They are rusty red on top and brown underneath and they are very loud. I found one in the bathroom; it's not nice to find something large and moving when you are more than half asleep.

About the bushbabies, they do have huge eyes but you can't mistake them for anything else that lives around here. Yellow eyeshine up a tree is a bushbaby, orange eyeshine is usually a civet or jennet, blue eyes around knee level are a leopard (who should be left alone) and the tiny purple eyes right on the ground are spiders. Yes you can see spider eyes and the lawn is full of them! The cat has yellow eyes but she is much friendlier than a bushbaby.