Just after midday on Saturday the 8th of October, staff at Cheetah Conservation Botswana’s Ghanzi camp received word that a huge column of smoke was heading their way. A brief investigation confirmed that a large wildfire had passed through from the neighbouring property and was heading towards the Research Camp and the Education Bush Camp! Many hasty phone calls were made and our neighbours swung into action, bringing equipment and knowledge to help protect our valuable buildings and resources. CCB staff and neighbours battled the flames by back burning fire brakes and fighting the waves of fire with water and soil. The work continued into the early evening as we all aimed to try to make everything safe; before retiring to a worried half-sleep. The night passed uneventfully, but the next day another fire came sweeping in, with our buildings safe due to the previous nights efforts some staff went to help our neighbours keep the fire contained while others stayed in camp to prevent the fire crossing our centre road and marching on to other farms. With hard work and lucky wind shifts the fires were out by mid afternoon. Unfortunately this was not to be our last fire for the season. The next Tuesday welding sparks from a contractor repairing our solar electricity system started yet another fire on our farm. The staff swung into action again and our wonderful neighbours came to our aid once more. Together we put our new fire fighting skills and experience to good use and we kept the fire contained in a small area where it quickly burnt out. With luck the rains will come soon and our ash covered farm will turn green again. We have learnt a lot about fire management in the Kalahari but are all looking forward to a fire-free rainy season!
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