This used to be a town dam, with water as far as you could see. Now there’s nothing except a dark stain in the centre where the last water dried into mud shards.

Careless owners of cattle and horses have left their animals to graze next to the dry dam and they are getting desperate for water.

One, more thirsty and unlucky than the rest, was caught in the last mud puddle and couldn’t get out.

Here’s how it used to look –

Blooming in the veld right now is Harveya purpurea, aka the ink plant (because the flowers turn an inky black colour if they are bruised). More sceptical members of the public might say that there is another reason for this to be the patron plant of journalists: it’s a parasite.

(Actually the colour varies a little from the standard Harveya purpurea as far as I can see – these flowers are far more white with only edgings of purple, and there’s less yellow than in the usual illustrations which list Harveya purpurea as occurring in the south and western parts of the Western Cape. Perhaps that simply means the local south east Free State version speaks a slightly different dialect.)