It is official! Here, in the Southern Hemisphere, the writing is on the wall for summer with the arrival of the Autumnal Equinox on March 20-21.
We are fortunate that, in our Lowveld area, this does not mean freezing cold nights and grey days. In fact, some cooler weather might even come as a bit of a relief after some scorching of the scorching hot days over summer. We expect big, open, bluer than blue skies and warmish days followed by nights which are cool enough to encourage vicinity to the open air fire after dinner.
The colours of the bush change completely. Instead of abundant foliage and thick grass all in every shade of green imaginable, we get shades of gold, amber and russet brown. As the dry winter goes on these colours fade until (especially in a dry year such as this one) we find ourselves in a bleached out, almost monochromatic, world. In this world the impala stand out fiery orange against their background and one cannot imagine what on earth they eat in the harsh environment.
It is always beautiful but rugged and wild.
