Fires have been a regular feature of the African veld ever since grasses evolved 20 million years ago. Originally lightning would have been the cause, but more recently man has seen the benefits of fire and is the main agent. Grass itself improves when correctly burnt. As winter – the dry season – approaches, grasses […]
The history of life is sometimes seen as a series of advances, with the obsolete being discarded along the way. As it happens, nearly all of these “failures” hang on somewhere, documenting the past in a living museum. The Drakensberg is home to many of these refugees. Liverworts represent plants’ first emergence from the water.
At the turn-off to Sungabala there stood a sad and roofless sandstone barn. Built with blocks hewn from the surrounding hills, this lovely old building had stood empty for many a year. At last it has emerged from its chrysalis and burst upon the valley as our beautiful new primary school – The Royal Drakensberg
Just outside the front door is a Strelitzia regina, with banana-like leaves and complex orange-and-blue flowers. Often quoted as a perfectly adapted partnership between plant and bird, it actually demonstrates that skullduggery in business is not just human. The sunbird recognises an opportunity from afar, its visual pigments being specially tuned to orange and red.
Within the seemingly organised and wonderful world of birds, there lurk cheats and baddies; birds that knock the system and get away, not with murder, but without lifting a finger (nor even a wing) to help with the bringing up of their offspring. These are the brood parasites, the birds that do not make their
Heterodontosaurus was one of the smallest dinosaurs, about half man-size. It often walked on its hind legs, and its three-toed footprints can be found in the Cave Sandstone surrounding The Cavern. “Heterodont-“ means having teeth of more than one design – unusual in anything other than a mammal. Some individuals, presumably males, had pointed “canines”,
Next time you are sitting peacefully at the edge of one of the many Cavern dams – either admiring the tranquil beauty around you, or maybe fretting at the lack of fish bites – have a closer look at the lovely dragonflies flitting so effortlessly about you. The first thing to note is that there
The Drakensberg has dramatic scenery, but a relatively simple structure. Except for the lowest slopes, the whole of the Berg is made up of only two rocks. From 1500 metres altitude (The Cavern) up to about 2100 metres is the Cave Sandstone. It forms conspicuous pale yellow-brown kranzes capped by an undulating plateau – the
The Zulu and Xhosa word for the moon is inyanga which is thought to be of Khoi-khoi origin. Whereas Europeans have traditionally talked about a “man on the moon”, the Zulus and other African tribes see a woman carrying a bundle of sticks. A Zulu tale tells that meteors (or shooting stars as they are
The scientific names of plants can be very daunting – a strange, unspoken language that we often reject as far too difficult. But with a little explanation they become interesting and very informative. More often than not the generic name is of Greek origin and the specific name from Latin. Take for example the Cheesewood
