The miracle of rain

In the spring of 2021, the drought-stricken parts of the Northern Cape finally received rain. It continued through summer, leaving puddles on wet soil, hiding sheep in tall grass, painting rainbows in the sky, and causing farmers to sigh with relief.

- WILLEM VAN DER BERG

When clouds forget the way to your house, it can take a long time before you see them again. If you live far away, you can sit and wait on your stoep for years and years.

Places like Bushmanland and the Upper Karoo are far from the cloud highways. Sometimes people's gardens are withered away by the time the clouds return and give a shy kiss. But it also happens that children grow up, old people pass away and animals starve before there's a happy reunion.

One of the most difficult places to reach is the far north of Bushmanland - a wide stretch north of the N14. The tracks in the veld are faded. Whether you drive there or float there on a thermal, you have to keep your wits about you or you'll lose your way.

That's why Arno Bekeer is so surprised to see me when we run into each other in March 2022 at Vuurdoodberg near Goodhouse, which is very far from pretty much anywhere. We first met each other at Romansberg, to the east of Vuurdoodberg, about two years ago. Back then, the drought was so severe that the only food Arno's sheep and goats could find were scrawny plants cowering under rocks. Now, the once-pallid plains are covered in bushman and sour grass.

"I've forgotten that it can look like this," says Arno. "We had seven, eight, nine years of drought. Or was it ten? I don't know anymore. When it doesn't rain for more than five years, you start to think that it never will."

Just when he'd made peace with the desert around him, the clouds blew in.

"When the first rain fell, everything was shocked. My animals, my son, my dogs... They'd never seen rain! The green shoots and dubbeltjies that sprang up killed the sheep. It was too rich for them. They only knew twigs and stones. I keep them higher up on the ridges now, where there isn't as much grass. They have to be weaned slowly off the suffering."