A Raging River of Dust

Dealing with drought is not the easiest thing to do, and at the best of times I believe that the moral of the nation dwindles and grows with the water level, and if you do not believe that, then you have more than likely not been in a situation where water is scares at a crucial level.

I recently went out on a 4x4 expedition where we extensively traveled through the dried up river banks of the Molototsi river in Limpopo South Africa, and although the day was approached with the idea of fun activities and making lite of a bad situation, it was still very hard to experience the extent of the drought and its consequences first hand.

This once glorious source of water has become nothing more than a river of sand, and although at first glance the outer banks of the river appears to be green - there is little to no grazing for animals, and death is a common occurrence, it was hardly uncommon to find the carcasses of cattle and goats sprawled out in the dry river sand.

We traveled through the dry river for about 7.5 hours, challenging our vehicles with the soft river sand as well as rocky terrain, and in the process I managed to collect a wide array of rock and mineral stone specimens, this included a great selection of agates, semi precious stones as well as crystals, but I will walk you through that in a later post.

After managing to get one vehicle stuck and freed out, we eventually ended the day with a barbecue, and refreshments (Not that there was any short of refreshments during the journey)

Nature even in a harsh state sure does remain medicine for the soul!