Tis a dark and stormy night…

…and we are out on obs. There is lightening on the horizon all around us, but that has been the norm recently, so we don’t pay it too much attention. Around 19:30, we are out with a group of West hyenas test chasing prey. It starts to rain - oh well, we start to head home. We make it through Camel X when it starts to RAIN. Like, pour buckets. Two minutes later and we can’t see beyond our front bumper – the rain is whiteout and horizontal. &*#%. We stop the car, which is literally rocking in the wind, and hope for the best. Meanwhile, lightening is striking all around us, and then it starts to HAIL. Wait, this is AFRICA, it’s not supposed to hail here!! Brian and I are in the car with ex-Fisi-camp-superstar Jaime and her bf Than, and we are all thoroughly convinced that a) we will be struck by lightning and b) we will be sleeping in the car. We fall into stunned silence, and I personally contemplate where the lightening will go when it strikes the antenna and comes into the car via the coaxial cables (yeah, physics!). The storm ends about an hour later, at which point we look out the window to see the car sitting in....a lake. It has rained 56mm (2.2 in), which is just enough to cover all the grass on that plain, and the wind from the storm is rippling the water in an eerily convincing way. We chill out for a while, wait for the water to sink in a bit, and then Brian balls out-of-control to get us home!