The last post

I've been in South Africa for nearly two years now - which means I'm seeing my third spring, with the jacaranda trees once more in exuberant blossom, astonishing me every time I see them, like chemical clouds blown in from some alien planet and temporarily snagged in among the normal vegetation, invaders lining the streets, enlivening the parks. See my first reference here - two years ago.

And so enough of this blog, I think. I've started to repeat some experiences (and I might still get excited when I see a lion up close, but I realise it's a bit different via a blog, for the tenth time) - and I suppose the novelty of living here has worn off to some extent - although in many ways I still find it a very strange place, and a long way from home. But I'm no longer having those "wow" moments which I wanted to share, through this blog; this is undoubtedly a failure on my part, there's certainly a lot more of this massive country to explore and much more to learn - but my next holiday will be in Europe, because I miss it and need to go back, so I'm not going to have much that's new to report for the foreseeable future. In some ways I suppose the places I've already seen in SA and the photos I've taken have captured some of the surface essence of the country. There's a LOT more to say about South Africa, of course - it's an incredibly complex country and you probably need to have lived through its recent history to have any real insight into what people have experienced, and suffered, and you probably need to be a historian or a sociologist to address the big themes - so anything beyond superficiality is well outside my knowledge and ability - and this format.

So enough. I don't like blogs that just stop without explanation, or stutter into silence with a few final random posts - and this one was heading that way - so let this be a full stop. Thanks for visiting, and thanks especially to the few who came regularly to check on me.

"Go well", as they say in South Africa.

Above: jacaranda trees I can see from my balcony.

A lesson from the Minister

The Botswana Daily News of 30 August carried a front page story about a visit to Kasane, in the far north of the country, by the Assistant Minister for Public Administration, Mr. Masisi. The Minister told residents that they could help to eradicate poverty by ceasing to expect handouts from government and that they should become more autonomous by setting up businesses such as bee keeping, vegetable production and fishery, "among others".

The residents responded that they found it difficult to make a living in such a fashion because there was a chronic water shortage in Kasane so vegetables didn't grow, while requests to government for new plots of land took more than five years to clear; they also had problems with wild animals and annual floods destroying any crops they planted. The Minister answered these objections by saying that residents should irrigate their back yards "with used household water and to desist from washing their cars using hosepipes in order to save water". So there. Just how many Kasane residents actually own cars isn't stated; and the journalist's personal views on the Minister's advice are not given.

Gabarone

I had a quick business trip to Botswana - the capital, Gabarone, is just down the road by African standards - a mere 50 minute flight. Botswana is one of the success stories of the continent - the fastest growing economy in the world from 1966 to 2005, mainly due to the discovery of diamonds - but more than that, a governing class that resisted the robber baron mentality of many of their neighbours and ploughed a lot of that wealth into schools, hospitals, and employment. In 1970 GDP per head was 200 dollars, only 2% of the population completed elementary school, there were 100 University students, and there was a single paved road 12 kilometres long. Now the GDP is over 14,000 dollars per head and adult literacy is now 74% against a subSaharan average of 58%. There is also very little crime, a wonderful and relaxing contrast to Botswana's delinquent southern neighbour. However, there are some big clouds on the horizon - the diamond fields are expected to dry up within ten or fifteen years, there's very little other industry to speak of, and arable land is a mere 0.7% of the total - most of the territory is dominated by the Kalahari desert.

I didn't see much of Botswana - just the road from the airport and the pedestrian street in the centre - the latter, oddly enough, reminded me of the pedestrian areas in provincial Eastern European towns: grim institutional architecture, large open spaces covered in large flagstones with no provision for trees, and people using these spaces to sell a motley variety of goods, from shoes to vegetables to CDs to crafts to clothing - but with no attempt at pressure salesmanship or indeed any salesmanship at all - take it or leave it; this is also relaxing and refreshing.

Drakensburg revisited

Although Johannesburg is a vast, sprawling city - sixty kilometres across - with lots of green spaces, the restrictions on walking make it feel claustrophobic. (Whether these limitations are really necessary or just paranoid wimpishness is another matter - lots of people do go walking in public parks etc but the sense of background risk is always there - muggings certainly do happen, and recently there's been a spate of mountain bike hijacking - so you're not necessarily safe even on a fast bike...) A lot of Joburg residents must share this claustrophobia, because on any weekend, and particularly a long weekend, there's a vast exodus for those who have vehicles and can afford it - which brings another level of risk to all involved, as SA has some of the worst traffic fatality statistics in the world, mostly due to extraordinarly dangerous driving (I've learned to keep a careful eye on any car I overtake as casual drifting across lanes is not uncommon.) But once you get off the major motorways you're very soon in rural SA which is another reality entirely - few cars, few buildings, small sleepy-looking towns, the occasional cluster of "informal housing", baboons at the side of the road (or crossing the road, another hazard), a bush fire now and then - and then, (going south east) at the edge of the flat and rather dull highveld, the spectacular scenery of the Drakensburg mountains.

I've been to Cathedral Peak before - the longer I stay in SA the more I'll revisit places, inevitably, though I'll try not to repeat myself too much in this blog. Here are some more photos. The contrast with city life could hardly be more extreme.

Vegetarians not welcome

Menus in Namibia tend to be weighted towards the carnivorous. Above: pork knuckle "guaranteed at least 800 grams"; "bushman skewer" of ostrich, crocodile, zebra, kudu, and, er.... chicken. We also ate warthog, hartebeest, springbok, gemsbok, impala and er.... snails.

(and yes, I've noticed the contradiction between the previous post and this one: we don't like to see our animals stuffed and hanging on walls, but we don't mind eating them.)

Taxidermy

On the way from the airport to Windhoek you see these extraordinary signs at the side of the road (first three photos) - on the way back we were curious enough to call in - the souvenirs were pretty standard and we only bought a single car sticker - but we were encouraged to visit the taxidermy workshop and sales point, which was a surreal experience: many of the animals we've gone to great lengths to see in their natural habitats had been captured, frozen in position like 3D snapshots - in hyperperfect detail. It was spooky; we agreed that we wouldn't like to be locked in overnight... Would anyone like to buy half of a full-size elephant to stick on your wall?

Walvis Bay - the return

I've blogged about Walvis Bay before - so here are just a few more photos to illustrate again the contrast between the richness of the marine life there and the barreness of the land - it's an amazing moment when you reach the sea after hours of crossing the desert.

Above: the jetty; jellyfish; pelican; dolphins following the boat; humpback whale with its head out of the water; seal colony (all the dots are seals - they bleat constantly like a vast herd of sheep; the bigger colonies can't be approached because of the SMELL); jackal on the beach (the small doggy shape near the water - they prey on seal pups); dolphins in the bay. There are sharks too but we didn't see any.