We are sad to say that our amazing adventure at the beautiful Limpopo Lipadi Reserve has come to an end!
Over the past few weeks, we have been lucky enough to meet some of the Reserve's shareholders, which has been very interesting as some of them share the same passion for science and wildlife. Part of our team worked with them to carry out pumping tests in three different boreholes on the Reserve. This was done mainly to understand the availability of water and whether or not this resource was stressed for human and animal consumption. Through these tests it was possible to collect interesting data that was later used to simulate different scenarios, which helped us to define some of the critical points in terms of water availability and bush cover. We were also very focused on analysing the data collected, simulating possible scenarios and drawing meaningful conclusions in order to make some future recommendations for the Reserve, based on their current environmental practices and our findings. It is also important to mention that our research is only the beginning of further research. We think it is important because our results are based on the time frame in which we were there, but it would be good to have a wider panorama of the situation analysed and because the Reserve has a very large area.
However, the fun never stopped, and we enjoyed our last sunsets, stargazing, delicious dinners and drinks and game drives, spotting many different species of birds, brown and spotted hyenas, leopards, elephants, bush babies, zebras, baby rhinos and giraffes.
We are very sad to be back in the Netherlands after these amazing 2 months, but also very grateful to have had the chance to live and learn from the Limpopo Lipadi Reserve and its people, and we are happy to have contributed with some interesting research. We are eager to share our findings and final report with the Reserve and we hope it will be very useful. :) This has certainly been an experience of a lifetime that will stay in our hearts forever!
We would also like to thank S4S and the other sponsors who funded this project and made it possible for us to carry out our experiments. And we would really recommend other students to take the chance to visit Botswana and continue our project.
