Whether the veld repelled or fascinated you at first acquaintance, and it has a habit of doing both, one thing is quite positive: you will never be able to forget it. At odd moments, and in wholly unexpected places, will come to you suddenly the irresistible Call of the Veld.
I grew to love the calm seas of yellow-grassed plains whose prolonged swells humped them up into faintly perceptible hillsides of wave and trough – level as a whole but never in their detail. Wide expanses of sun-bleached grasslands sweep to the distant horizons unbrokenly save where, occasionally, a long and rugged range of hills marred the symmetry of the skyline.
Some regions of the true veld offer nature in her larger and more expansive moods.
She provides a generous spread of canvas.
The majority have found an appealing sense of spaciousness and a rough hewn appearance in these vast landscapes, which are enormously attractive.
They have also experienced a satisfying sense of complete freedom in the solitude of that lonely vastness.
The veld of Africa can be hideous or beautiful, kind or cruel, sad or gay in the brilliant sunshine, forbidding or inviting – just exactly as the mood inspires you either to disparage or appreciate it.
Yet always, even to the very worst of your recollections, it is fascinating because it is so completely inexpressible.
Images: Fort Richmond Image credit: Marion du Plessis(Wayland) from: A Breath of the Wilds by Foran