A Life Rooted In Nature

It’s late afternoon in the Bushveld north of Thabazimbi, near the border with Botswana. Retired banker Willem Frost opens the door of his Land Cruiser. Get in, we’re going to look at some trees.

- Toast Coetzer

Few things are as enjoyable as joining a farmer for a drive on his farm, to look at things that he values. Willem Frost’s farm, Matlabas Game Lodge, is north of Sentrum (a dot on the map, nothing more), next to the Matlabas River not far from where it joins up with the Limpopo. There are wild animals to see here, but it’s the trees that Willem loves most.

We drive to a certain point, get out of the bakkie and walk a short distance to a high fence – the border of his farm. He points to a big leadwood tree on the other side. It towers over the other trees on the banks of the Matlabas, which is dry at the time of my visit.

“Now that’s a leadwood tree – it must be seventeen metres or taller,” Willem says. His eyes shine with wonder. “If I could, I would buy my neighbour’s farm for that tree alone. According to the experts, if a leadwood grows in ideal conditions and it’s not damaged when it’s young, or burnt, or ruined by animals, it could take up to a thousand years to reach maturity. The wood is so hard and strong that it takes another thousand years to die. And when the tree dies, it takes a further thousand years for the wood to decompose and return to the soil. That’s a 3 000-year life cycle! If you take a piece of leadwood and throw it in the water, it sinks like a stone.”

The veld is dry. It’s May 2019 and rainfall has been below average. Willem says they usually get about 400 – 420 mm per year, but only 250 mm has fallen this summer.