Territorial Dispute

Two Kudu bulls locked horns in an epic clash in the river bed this week.

In addition to the humans watching their fight there were some giraffe, a bush buck and an elephant.  Everyone waited with baited breath until finally the slightly smaller of the two bulls ran off ... presumably admitting defeat.

The danger of kudu fighting is that their spiralled horns may become twisted together so that the two animals are inextricably linked.  Nobody wins in that situation and both animals are likely to die in a fatal deadlock.

Taking Time to Smell the Roses

After our last post about the Slow Road we were inspired to slow down generally and took time on walks to look for flowers.

Aloes

The Lowveld bush can be a harsh place.  Certainly not somewhere one would expect to find abundant blooms.  However, as we discovered there is a myriad of little gems just waiting to be discovered if you slow down and observe closely. Most of these flowers are really tiny and one simply would not notice them in the normal course of events.

Once we starting looking for them we saw them everywhere.  Not a lush garden of large blooms ... rather tiny little plants struggling to grow between stones in the most arid of conditions.  Little flashes of bright colour in the dusty busveld hues.  Or papery petals protecting seeds.  The life of the flower short; it's purpose to perpetuate the plant.

Baleria