middelmannetjie
A ridge between ruts made by wheels in a dirt or gravel road.
Spoor [of a hippopotamus] […] Well-worn paths, some 20 cm wide, lead up from rivers, the four-toed tracks running parallel, and clearly indicating a ‘middelmannetjie’.
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Afrikaans middelmannetjie (“little man in the middle”) (analysable as middel (“middle”) + man (“man”) + -etjie (“diminutive suffix”)), from Dutch middel (“middle”) + mannetje (“a short man”) (from man (“man”) + -etje, a variant of -tje (diminutive suffix)).
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry middelmannetjie (CC BY-SA 4.0).