A farm on the Highveld

 
W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - ©Maree Clarkson

 

The Highveld is a high plateau region of inland South Africa which is largely home to the largest metropolitan area in the country, the Gauteng City Region, which accounts for one-third of South Africa's population.

The Highveld constitutes parts of the Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West, and Limpopo provinces, and virtually all of Gauteng and the northern Free State. The Highveld is bordered by the Bushveld and the Lowveld in the north, northeast, and northwest, the Drakensberg mountains to the east and southeast, the Kalahari desert in the west, and the Great Karoo to the southwest. The Highveld covers an area of almost 400,000 km², or roughly thirty percent of South Africa's land area.

The Highveld rainy season occurs in summer, with substantial afternoon thunderstorms being typical occurrences in November, December, and January. Frost occurs in winter.

Cities located on the Highveld include Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Vereeniging, Welkom, Carletonville, and the cities of the West Rand and East Rand. The diamond-mining city of Kimberley lies on the border of the Highveld and the southeastern Kalahari.

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African Wild Dog

Watercolour on Ashrad 200gsm watercolour paper - ©Maree Clarkson

Here is the link to my calendar South African Wildlife

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

The African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) is a medium-sized canid found only in Africa, especially in Savannahs and other lightly wooded areas.

It is also called the Painted Dog, Painted Hunting Dog, African Hunting Dog, the Cape Hunting Dog, the Spotted Dog, the Ornate Wolf or the Painted Wolf in English, Wildehond in Afrikaans, and Mbwa mwitu in Swahili. It is the only extant species in the genus Lycaon, with one species, L. sekowei being extinct.

There were once approximately 500,000 African Wild Dogs in 39 countries, and packs of 100 or more were not uncommon. Now there are only about 3,000-5,500 in fewer than 25 countries, or perhaps only 14 countries. They are primarily found in eastern and southern Africa, mostly in the two remaining large populations associated with the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania and the population centred in northern Botswana and eastern Namibia.
- Read more on Wikipedia

African hunting dogs are endangered. They are faced with shrinking room to roam in their African home. They are also quite susceptible to diseases spread by domestic animals.

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Time to Retreat

“You know … they say an elephant never forgets.
What they don’t tell you is, you never forget an elephant.”
-Actor Bill Murray

With a height of just over 3 – 4m (measured at the shoulder), a length of between 6 to 7.5m (that’s the length of an average motor car garage!) and weighing in at 6 tonnes, these mostly gentle giants of the African bush are highly intelligent with a strong sense of family and herd, and a complex social structure.

Here in Africa they are native to a wide variety of habitats including semi-desert scrub, open Savannah’s and dense forest regions. Besides its greater size, The African Elephant {Loxodonta africana} differs from the Asian elephant in having larger ears and tusks, a sloping forehead, and two “fingers” at the tip of its trunk, compared to only one in the Asian species.

Connochaetes gnou

 W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - ©Maree Clarkson 

Often, when travelling on the Sterkfontein road on our way to Lanseria Airport (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa), these Black Wildebeest cross the road, bringing all the traffic to a halt and resulting in everybody hauling out their cameras and binoculars. I always leave early for the airport, never know what you might spot on the road!
Swartwildebees [Afrikaans]

Black Wildebeest, also known as the White Tailed GNU, are endemic to South Africa, found almost exclusively in the Highveld areas of the country in South Africa. It is a very strange and comical looking specie with its black body, erect mane, long whitish tail, forward curving horns and facial crest. They were on the verge of extinction in the 1960’s, but are plentiful today as a result of careful conservation management. They are often found in herds of females and young males, with the older males either being solitary or forming small bachelor herds.

G stands for Gnu, whose weapon of defence
Are long, sharp, curling horns, and common sense.
To these he adds a name so short and strong,
That even hardy Boers pronounce it wrong.
How often on a bright autumnal day
The pious people of Pretoria say,
‘Come, let us hunt the______’ Then no more is heard
but sounds of strong men struggling with a word;
Meanwhile the distant Gnu with grateful eyes
Observes his opportunity and flies.

It was love at first sight... the day I met The Beach

Taken in Ballito, KwaZulu Natal

Dedicated to all beach-lovers!
 
That day, in 1973, at the age of 25, was the first time I had ever seen the sea – and it was love at first sight. The beach was all I had ever imagined it to be – soft, white sand, shells strewn here and there, little crabs scurrying for cover as I walked on the wet sand where the tide had left its mark.

I looked at the waves with their white crests, a beautiful sight to behold. Perpetual motion, hypnotic, soothing, yet disturbing. There and then I decided that the water was the domain of the sharks and the beach was mine – mine to walk, mine to search for beach treasures, mine to leave footprints on and mine to sit and dream, for hours, while the waves crashed in a never-ending crescendo, alluring, calling, but also warning,

“In joy thou hast lived.
Beware of the Sea!
If thou hearest the cry of the gull on the shore,
Thy heart shall then rest in the forest no more.”

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