Robertson Karoo

There is always something to observe, to experience in nature. Habitat slowly adapts the characteristics of the plants and other species living in it. Conversely, inhabitant lifestyle determines the look and feel of their habitat. Interaction among all the residents of a region share the vagaries of climate and physical changes, some cyclic, others permanent. Thus, the living evolves over time, all the time, is new in some way forever because it lives; even if it is old.

The inanimate component of an environment transforms gradually or abruptly, swept along by erosion, weathering or some other driver of change. Fast changes are the talk of lifetimes, slow ones sneak in imperceptibly while no change is experienced or believed, until refuted in before and after pictures or other objective records. Calamity may arrive by stealth. 

Living things are all about change, they expect change, inflict change, are stimulated by it. People enjoy the benefit of leisure in nature seeking stimulation in same and new places. They may deem environmental changes ephemeral, cyclic or of no consequence or are overawed by them.

Travel satisfies curiosity and needs for new experiences in some; others enjoy the surprises of nature occurring in the same physical setting for a lifetime. Then there are those that rejoice in neither strange sights nor the home environment. Only some bother with the plants of the places where they live or the new places they visit. The older, bigger trees of childhood evoke a warm feeling if they are still there years later.

Return trips after many years may bring comfort from maintained sameness, or resentment over permanent changes. Sometimes shock over the backwardness of places where progress had been absent, however defined.

Timing of travels rewards in landscapes of preferred seasons. The contrasts revealed in off-season visits may surprise, winning visitors over in changing preferences in spite of possible hardships of a harsh season. 

Bloomtimes differ among plants of all regions, yielding something to see at all times and pleasing all consumers of plant parts and products, including insects and other pollinators that can’t afford to run out of seasonal flowers.

Nature’s rest seasons reveal features of interest in many habitats, whether seasonal changes are extreme or mild. Looking with new eyes broadens the range of experiences, sets the scene for the moulding of the mind, a major reward of life.