24th November 2007

There was a distinct shift in the weather today. It felt different – as if the rain has gone. It’s full moon tonight, so that could be the reason…

“Our” goslings flew today! A major step towards a life of independence…soon they will leave this part of the river, and find their own territories elsewhere.

I went back to the crocodile nest – the mother was still there, in the water just at the river’s edge, diligently watching over her brood-to-be.

Now that the rains have come, we’re not seeing so much of the hippos. The mother and baby are still around, but seem to be spending more time in the reed islands slightly downstream, rather than directly opposite the house. The 18 hippos at ‘Hippo Bend’ seem to have dispersed. We’re not seeing many hippo tracks leaving the river around here, which is further evidence that the hippos are seeking pasture elsewhere at night. No doubt as soon as the dry times set in again, they’ll be back. Since the rain, the Kudu have not been coming down for their usual midday drink – there is so much moisture in the vegetation now, they may not even need to drink at all. The Impala and even the Helmeted Guinea Fowl are not coming onto the sandbanks either at the moment – there are so many new green shoots everywhere, they’re spoilt for choice and no longer need to rely on the riverine vegetation. However, we are seeing breeding pairs of Vulturine Guinea Fowl all over the place, which is really wonderful. They like the pristine bush areas in the centre of our property, where neither roads nor people disturb them.

Something which has caught my interest of late, is cross-section of seemingly ordinary plant varieties which we pass by every day without taking any notice whatsoever, for they look innocuous and uninteresting at first glance…take a closer look, however, and each and every one reveals hidden secrets: almost unimaginable intricacies and beauty. I spent some time photographing one such plant on the edge of ‘The Peaceful Place’ – it looks just like a “boring dull green shrub” and I don’t know what made me stop and take a closer look at it today. It revealed a whole new world to me, just in that one plant. I’d never noticed the subtle-coloured flowers before, nor the different texture of its leaves, nor the strange nodules growing on the surfaces of some leaves and not on others. Never again will I walk past this plant without taking a second glance.

I photographed the “four o’clock flower” plant again today, with its wilted blossoms, just to show how quickly these dry-country plants complete their reproductive cycles – most flowers only bloom for one day, and then they wilt.

I watched a Ground Squirrel run into its burrow today, and thought I would sit by the hole very quietly and wait for it to come out again. No such luck! Then all of a sudden I saw a squirrel about five yards away from me – I wonder if it was the same one, and it has a network of burrows, and exited from another hole? Or perhaps I was just seeing a different squirrel?