Rainy season: After one month

Same landscape, commiphora grassland

 

Same area, now with water

 

It has been one month since the rains started and the area is brimming with life. It's difficult to explain the rapid change in environment but photos do a good job illustrating it visually. Aurally, the air is filled with sounds of more birds, some of them migratory while others are simply more active. Insect sounds fill the air from crickets and grasshoppers buzzing to beetles hissing. The air is no longer hot and dry but rather it's humid and heavy. Clouds hang in the air greatly diminishing the suns powerful rays. 

I often think that visitors never truly understand tropical climates until they experience both extremes of the rainy and dry season. It's truly difficult to believe that the area can make such a huge transformation but life proves to be very adaptable. In the dry season elephants dig for water, turtles bury themselves for months until the rains come, seeds lay dormant and other creatures migrate. The rain brings everything back resulting in a rich proliferation of life. 

An ephemeral pool

It was clear that a group of ungulates had passed through this grass, if you look carefully you can see the trail