I break my 3 week silence with this blog, sharing my memoirs of South Africa with you. For those unfamiliar with South Africa, quickly scroll down to the footnote*
Strangely enough, we flew British Airways again (if you can remember my ordeal with BA in a previous blog), mainly due to silly circumstances. The flight was pleasant enough (with a nerve wracking landing at Johannesburg International, made worse thereafter with the news of a BA plane that crash-landed)!
Johannesburg International (OR Tambo) was abuzz with building works as South Africa relentlessly prepares for hosting the 2010 Football World Cup; the hot humid weather pressing down on glistening ivory and ebony faces outside the cool air-conditioned interior of the building.
Soon thereafter, we took our connection flight to the Southern Cape: to my humble opinion, one of the most beautiful places in the word - to visit my parents. The weather was pleasant as always, with temperatures of around 22 degrees Celsius and a cool sea breeze tickling the nape of one's neck. After a few days of leisure - walking on the beach and a few barbeques - we took the road north: through the arid Karoo towards the Free State provence.
Beach near Mossel Bay
A view towards Mossel Bay
Making fire for a barbeque
A B&W portrait/ landscape by my wife, Daleen (near Mossel Bay)
A beach landscape near Mossel Bay
A drive through the arid interior of South Africa (called the Karoo) - is for me - always a pleasure. Through the winding pass of the Swartberg Mountains where the ocean air throws a cloudy blaket over the rugged edges and lush vegetation gives way to succulents over time as the air gets hotter and drier.
The Swartberg Mountain Pass
The Karoo: strangely green after abundent summer rains
Ostridges in the Karoo (near Oudtshoorn)
A rare event: cloudburst in the Karoo
Giant cacti at a fuel station in the Karoo
A tortoise crossing the road in the Karoo
After three hours of traveling, we stopped over in a small town called Beaufort-West by some friends of ours.
Typical architecture of Beaufort-West
Interior of friends' house in Beaufort-West
Strangely enough, we flew British Airways again (if you can remember my ordeal with BA in a previous blog), mainly due to silly circumstances. The flight was pleasant enough (with a nerve wracking landing at Johannesburg International, made worse thereafter with the news of a BA plane that crash-landed)!
Johannesburg International (OR Tambo) was abuzz with building works as South Africa relentlessly prepares for hosting the 2010 Football World Cup; the hot humid weather pressing down on glistening ivory and ebony faces outside the cool air-conditioned interior of the building.
Soon thereafter, we took our connection flight to the Southern Cape: to my humble opinion, one of the most beautiful places in the word - to visit my parents. The weather was pleasant as always, with temperatures of around 22 degrees Celsius and a cool sea breeze tickling the nape of one's neck. After a few days of leisure - walking on the beach and a few barbeques - we took the road north: through the arid Karoo towards the Free State provence.
Beach near Mossel Bay
A view towards Mossel Bay
Making fire for a barbeque
A B&W portrait/ landscape by my wife, Daleen (near Mossel Bay)
A beach landscape near Mossel Bay
A drive through the arid interior of South Africa (called the Karoo) - is for me - always a pleasure. Through the winding pass of the Swartberg Mountains where the ocean air throws a cloudy blaket over the rugged edges and lush vegetation gives way to succulents over time as the air gets hotter and drier.
The Swartberg Mountain Pass
The Karoo: strangely green after abundent summer rains
Ostridges in the Karoo (near Oudtshoorn)
A rare event: cloudburst in the Karoo
Giant cacti at a fuel station in the Karoo
A tortoise crossing the road in the Karoo
After three hours of traveling, we stopped over in a small town called Beaufort-West by some friends of ours.
Typical architecture of Beaufort-West
Interior of friends' house in Beaufort-West
Having dinner
After a pleasant dinner - chatting about social issues and psychological techniques such as 'gestalt' - we went to bed, trying to sleep in evening temperatures of around 30 degrees Celsius (not an easy task amid the super-imposed buzzing of mosquitos in your hot little ears).
The next morning - just before hitting the road again - my good friend Earle took me on what he calls a 'breakfast-run': on his Vespa, with two steaming hot coffees in hand, we were off to a quiet little spot just outside of town. Amid the Karoo mountains, with the sun just crawling over the tips, backligting our steaming coffees; we absorbed the stillness of the landscape as a Kudu lazilly strolled by - absolutely magical. It just reminded me again how foolish the whole rat-race is again...
Off we were again, on our way to Free State provence to check out our newly bought little house in an almost never-heard-of town.
The Main street in this small Free State town
Our planned future little home
Grassfields of Free State provence
We arrived in Bloemfontein (the capitol of Free State) 5 hours later. After a lightening-fast 2 weeks of catching up with more family and friends, it was time to go back to the gray and dreary winter of the United Kingdom. But this last sunset will keep my heart warm through the last stretch of the Northen Hemisphere winter.
* South Africa - short for Republic of South Africa - is a country at the southern tip of Africa where the famous Nelson Mandella and FW de Klerk won the Nobel Peace Prize for abolishing 'apartheid', and laying the foudations in the constitution for a democracy called 'The Rainbow Nation'.
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