Its all about water

South African veld has many rivers, kloofs, gulleys and seasonal watercourses still free from development or invader exotic plants. These narrow forest strips meander along the long established routes where roots reach moisture. The abrupt cut-off from the flourishing streambank ribbon to the adjacent dry plains often presents a stark contrast.

Alluvial forest (German: Auwald) enjoys soil and nutrients from flooding of the banks, allowing the plants growing here a much richer diet than away from the stream. Where slopes of gulleys and kloofs allow the booming growth to spread more widely, vegetation density may become impenetrable, harbouring the many shy or cautious animals that watch unseen from protected lairs.

A few metres away the less fortunate live in biomes like bushveld, fynbos, grassland or arid land where scrub and succulent eke out a tough life of deprivation in full view of the privileged green.