…but we are here again. We left our trusty old Land Rover warmly tucked up in a dry workshop in Johannesburg last December, planning to come back this year to do out last trip around the bottom bit of this fantastic continent. At the end of this trip we plan to ship the L/R back to the UK for the last time (do I hear a cheer?).
As always the last few weeks before we left were chaotic, it’s amazing how these things creep up on you and there is never enough time to finish everything and say proper thank you’s and goodbyes. This time it was complicated by Jean having her gall bladder out a few weeks before we left then me going down with “query TB”. The good old NHS were fantastic and rose to the impending holiday challenge and I saw GP, Xray, specialist, CT scan and diagnosis in less than three weeks not without some help from some very kind, non-medical people on the other end of a phone. “Nothing sinister” was the verdict but “must try harder” when we get back.
Our good and patient friends Allan and Colette picked us up at the airport again and we stayed a week in their wonderful hospitality repairing and preparing for this, the final leg. Needless to say the pools of dried mud on the L/R roof suggested that storage had been neither warm nor cosy but internal water damage was minimal even though it leaks like a sieve. Staying with Allan and Colette is always an education in more ways than one and we learned how Allan plans to provide internet access to the taxi drivers of Johannesburg using solar power whilst Colette entertained us with tales of the South African political elite. They are, after all, married into these circles. Colette is well known in the South African musical world and children and parents of all races greet her at the amazing performances she gets us access to. It always sounds incongruous to hear her say “yeah burisit aaart?” in her staunch Liverpool accent with a South African twang. This year we were lucky enough to see the Witwatersrand (university) choir and their guests The Winston - Salem State University Choir from the US of A. There were more choir members than audience packed into the hall which reverberated with "A Celebration of the African American Composer". It's easy to see why these ‘people of colour’ spirituals were / are so popular in the American deep south and we weren't they only ones with the occasional dewy eye. Interestingly only the Wits choir was multiracial, amen to that. The two choirs combined for a finale of an arrangement of a mineworkers dance followed by an impromptu rendition of Shoshololo when everybody in the hall was on their feet, singing and dancing together. The next night we were off to the bioscope (cinema) for a 3-D presentation of Xmen. A feast of mutants and aliens with strange and wonderful powers. Fortunately the Americans won although we're still not sure where we learned most. We bumped into Turkana Boy again (one of the oldest human remains ever discovered who we first saw at Lake Turkana in 2011) at the Origins Centre at Wits University, a wonderful exhibition depicting what great travellers we are as our ancestors evolved from this, the cradle of humanity, to the extremities of our world. Our last but one night in Jhb was enlightened by a concert and prize giving of / for the 15 finalists of the Annual Schools Music Competition. We heard the best of the 150 competitors from all over the area. Close your eyes and it was impossible to imagine that these performers were still at school.
All good things must come to an end and we set off north to visit the beautiful Waterberg, a new part of South Africa for us. The scenery is dramatic and there is a plethora of small nature parks and game reserves. It is of course the middle of winter here and dark at 5:30. Whilst it’s a pleasant 18 to 20 during the day and we were warm enough at Allan and Colette’s we felt it was a bit cold at 0 to sleep on the roof of the L/R so at the last minute, we found a cheap room (£13!) so cheap, we discover, it has no heating or telly, the kitchen is next door one side and the bathroom the other. We slept under all the bedding and the carpet! Maybe we would have been better off camping, at least then we could have warmed ourselves by our fire.
Now we are at another cottage in the Waterberg (listening to Peter Knight on a golf ball sized thing, connected to the Ipod, that Paul gave us as we left) – an absolute gem of a place on a huge old cattle ranch that is slowly being returned to bushveld. The cottages are fantastic with log fires, loads of space, hot, hot baths and Wi-Fi and the owners do amazing things like “The Southern Sky” (he is a physicist and amateur astronomer) and infra-red photography of nocturnal wildlife and one can go at dawn to (hopefully) see armadillo, porcupine, and civet cats and the like returning to their lairs. There are a number of marked walks so we spent 2 hours walking today and saw both Zebra and Kudu, there is something quite special about encounters with wildlife when on foot. We hope to come back here with Steven and Sue when they arrive next week and try some of these other experiences. We found this place after a few days camping in the Marakele Game Reserve where we experienced our closest encounter with white rhino ever, literally four meters away. We sat quietly whilst it grazed its way closer and closer, eventually, with foot on clutch and one hand holding the ignition key and the other the camera, he grazed his two and a half tons slowly away from us. We could see his eye lashes!
At least Marakele gave us a re-introduction to camping African style. The sun blazes down here in winter, it’s in the mid-twenties but as the sun disappears the temperature plummets and it’s quickly two or three degrees. Condensation on the fly sheet and dawn not ‘till 0630 mean long nights only shortened by sitting around the camp fire, toasting your knees whilst articulating your shoulders. Most importantly we experienced the joy of watching the glorious, instant sunsets as the sun crashes into the horizon and diamond stars slide up over the black, thorn-bush silhouetted horizon. Those who have experienced it know, those who don’t still have time……..
