shepherd's tree

— Down the stony canyon, we pass Commiphora saxicola (related to Arabian myrrh – the balm of Gilead – or in Afrikaans, the Kanniedood) trees, rocks whitened over centuries by the viscous piss of dassies, portly phantom trees (Moringa ovalifolia), rocky hills with granite domes, sparrow-weaver nests, zebra-hoof tracks on the narrow paths, old bones in dry riverbeds, white-trunked and thickly leaved shepherd's trees, views over the petrified red dunes to the east.