Just went for my last early morning walk with shorts on! Ended up with "kneasels" big time! However, it was after a rather nice rain we had last night &, with the ground nice & damp, plenty of place for spoor. At a drift bridge near the centre of town, Duiker, Yellow Mongoose & Cape Clawless Otter mixed in with Guinea Fowl & Francolin tracks. It's one of the really nice things about this country, being so close to nature & our wildlife. Within 15Kms of where we live, some of the Big Five are around - not in cages or pens - but walking virtually free. The birds in the garden are still lively quite early in the mornings with the Cape Robin being the first up, although the Ibis start telling jokes & cracking up at about 3 am!
And then you look into the river itself - Polystyrene quick food containers, plastic packets that you have to pay for, cold drink cans etc etc. Even, at times, discarded rubbish bags although we have a fairly efficient refuse removal system. The biggest shock are the packets. Introduced some years back to stop the littering that took place with the old (tear quite easily) packets, these are now robust 'will not degenerate in your lifetime' jobs! And you have to pay for them! When will they ever learn?
Time to stop - I feel a song coming on! :)
