The thick brush stopped abruptly at an inland cliff. Thick bands of red and ochre, threaded into the earth a thousand years ago, lay in vertical struts along the cliff face.

Beyond spread a thick wetland. A thousand shades of green shimmered in the mist. Water had swept channels through the elephant grass and had collected in a depression in the north that swayed and sank in the wind.

A heard of zebra galloped across the plain, churning the clear waters. White foam flew around their hooves and striped flank. An elephant waded into the marsh from dry land sending ripples into the water and making the reeds eddy in the tiny waves.

Next to the depression a flock of herons lifted from a patch of marsh marigold; they skittered over the mist and disappeared behind a grove of trees.