Up and Away in the Amatolas

“I will buy a beer for the first person to guess what caused those dips,” teases Dan Cornick as he shuttles us up to the Eastern Cape village of Hogsback. We eagerly study the ten-foot wide, two-foot deep dips by the roadside. “Meteor craters?” I suggest. Aliens, trenches from the Frontier Wars, elephants and dinosaurs are among the other increasingly absurd proposals.

Dan shakes his head. “I’ll give you a clue. It’s an animal, but it’s not a mammal. It’s not a reptile. It’s not an insect. It’s not a bird or fish.” Another clue ten minutes later should solve the puzzle. “The biggest specimen in the world was found crossing this road. It was 3.2 metres long, reaching a whopping six metres when stretched.”

“Millipedes,” someone blurts out. “Nope. They are made by the world’s biggest earthworms, members of the Microchaetus rappi family,” gloats Dan. “By eating in one place and pooing in another, the worms create that distinctive dip and mound landscape.”