The thunder rolls (I’m pretty disappointed that I actually know this is the title of a Garth Brooks song)

Seems like most of my posts recently revolve around rain, or the lack thereof. Well, I was pleasantly awakened at 1:30 this morning by a raging thunderstorm. The rain gods thankfully have stopped their embargo on Satara. We got in the neighborhood of 2 inches overnight which should be more than enough to shift the grasses back into growing mode and fill up the water holes for the animals. I didn’t even have to do a rain dance or sacrifice an impala, but was not far from trying. So now I’m enjoying a pleasant, cool day in my tent working on some manuscripts and letting the roads dry out.

If you have never experienced a thunderstorm from a tent, I highly recommend it. While you can easily sleep through rough weather tucked up in your bed at home, its impossible to ignore a thunderstorm here. The wind billows your tent walls and merrily scatters your dishes around the campground. Streams soon appear where there were none before, like under my porch. The leaks in the tent are strategically placed away from all the important things like my bed, computer, refrigerator, etc. Just a few puddles to clean up in the morning, nothing major. But now the bush is alive. With all the standing water the frogs are having a field day. Sounds like they have all crawled out of their burrows searching for a little love. I can hear at least six different calls as I write. The other animals seem out and about as well. There will surely be a horde of insects out tonight following the rains. I heard a lion call at around 8 this morning which is easily an hour and a half later than they usually stop calling in the morning. Can imagine that thunderstorms are great for hunting.

The thunder is different here from what I’m used to. Here there aren’t as many trees to muffle the crash of thunder like the southeastern forests back home. You understand what rolling thunder really means as it moves in waves across the savanna.