Every year, as those who have been reading this report for the last five years will know, there are fires in the Kalahari. Normally, they don’t happen until October, or later, with the earliest one we have had being 30th September. This is because they are, generally, started by lightning – thunder clouds don’t start building until October or so. This year, everyone was caught by surprise when a fire started at Phokoje Pan camp site – about 25km to the South of Tau Pan. Self drive tourists were camping there, when a cooking fire they had lit got out of hand, and in the tinder-dry conditions was more than they could cope with. Luckily they got away without injury, but what then happens in the Kalahari is something you only believe if you have seen it: the fire moving through the grasses at a huge speed. Tau Pan camp and its staff are well used to this situation. Even so, it’s a worrying time when you know there is a fire in the reserve. Extra hands were flown in to ensure that the fire could be diverted before reaching the camp if the wind changed, and to make sure the firebreak was extra wide. With some staff in the camp having recently moved from the Delta, and used to handling bush fires there, it took the rest of the team a lot to convince them of how much faster things move in the Kalahari. 25km sounds like a long way away, but it can move that fast in an hour. And sure enough, it tried!
With the help of a team from the neighbouring lodge (over 2 hours drive away!), workers from the Department of Wildlife, the whole camp staff, and a lot of help from the wind, the fire moved around the edges of Tau Pan, up to the firebreak in parts, and then shot off to the north. This created a huge second natural firebreak for the camp itself, so unless lightning decides to strike within the ring of the fire break, the camp should be safe for the year! (Touch wood!)
There was a small group of guests in camp at the time, who slept through the night-time excitement – but had their bags packed just to be on the safe side. Departing the next day, after their morning safari in a quite different looking landscape, they all said they would love to come back. And come back they do – the following week and the camp manageress was welcoming back a couple who two years prior, had spent a midnight hour with her and other guests at the centre of Tau Pan itself, when the a bush fire had come much closer and the guests & staff had evacuated to be on the safe side. A 1am glass of champagne back at the camp to toast the firebreak that held, and an experience that few have had.
And as for the animals, what do they do, not having cars to climb into and zoom off? If you are a lion, having grown up in the area, you do the sensible thing and move across the fire break to spend the day/ night in camp. If you are a small animal, you hunker down in one of the many holes in the ground – the grass fire moves so quickly it’s passed in a matter of seconds. The antelope and predators (at least the ones that are not as well-acquainted with firebreaks) smell the fire coming, and move out of the way, or to an area with little or no grass (Tau Pan itself being a huge safe-zone). If you are a bird – of any shape or size – and the grass fire is burning during the day, you swoop in and out, dancing between the flames, feasting on the many insects that fly up to escape the fire.
And now that the area is burnt? Is it not depressing? No, for now you can see far, without the moribund dry grass in the way. You can see the honey badgers digging for grubs, or chasing lizards. You have a clearer view of the bat-eared fox’s den. The antelope still graze on the open pan, and the cheetahs can stalk them – though with not much way of hiding! And everyone waits, for the first few drops of rain, that will turn the dry desert into a carpet of lush green.
