Author: 6000

Dirty Water

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The recent storm left a huge trail of destruction behind it, and clean up efforts are underway all over the Cape. Some bits will take longer than others.
There are roads washed away and there is farmland still underwater.

But all of that water has to go somewhere, and obviously, quite a lot of it ends up in the sea. Along with, it seems, quite a lot of the Western Cape:

That’s Table Bay, and Robben Island. And that is the outflow from Diep River, which drains from the Durbanville Hills and the West Coast suburbs of Cape Town.

If ever there was a plan to do some land reclamation in Table Bay, this is the time to start. It’s already half finished.

You can see the little plume of non-silt filled water popping out from the Black River, down south, but that’s nothing compared to the mess that’s been dumped from the north.

Anyone in Cape Town with a chainsaw and a bakkie has been doing snow angels in R100 notes all week. Seeing this, I suspect anyone with a dredging vessel (probably slightly more niche, I know) is probably doing the same.

China Power Pics

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Not a pro-China post. But also, yeah, a bit of a pro-China post.

China might be one of the world’s most polluting countries, but it’s also investing really heavily in wind and solar power, and the stats are nuts:

  • Last year China installed more than half of all wind and solar added globally. In May alone, it added enough renewable energy to power Poland, installing solar panels at a rate of roughly 100 every second.
  • As of late 2025, China leads the world in renewable energy, with total installed capacity exceeding 2,200 GW, making up 59.1% of its total power generation capacity.

2,200GW of renewables is huge. In comparison, South Africa has a TOTAL theoretical power output of 48.5GW. And that’s when it’s all working, which it never is, so we have an actual total power output of about 32GW.

Drop in the ocean stuff. But then – because this is the reason for this post – just look at the infrastructure that’s going into China’s renewable energy drive.

“From the ground, it’s hard to grasp the scale of these power plants,” said Chinese photographer Weimin Chu. “But when you rise into the air, you can see the geometry, the rhythm — and their relationship with the mountains, the desert, the sea.”

Chu has spent three years capturing the shift underway using drones to photograph power plants from overhead. His work, which draws from the visual language of traditional Chinese ink paintings, was featured last year in an award-winning exhibition, presented by Greenpeace.

Look, this can only be a good thing for the rest of the world’s air quality and attempts to slow down climate change. It might be less good for the global geopolitical situation in the future, but then things are looking pretty ropey on that front right now anyway.

More photos on that link above, and more information about China’s journey into the renewable energy space, here.

Cool story

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I’m not usually one for dramatised versions of true stories on the internet, but (if you ignore the third paragraph), this one doesn’t go over the top, and is an interesting account of the Koeberg bombing, with just enough whimsical input to give it that personal touch.

Some good insight into the way that MK and ANC operative worked in the Apartheid state, without too much detail bogging things down, and the personal story of Wilkinson – who is as far from James Bond as you could possibly imagine – gives it a very human edge.

The link?

Oh yes, here you go:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/05/the-man-who-blew-up-a-nuclear-power-station-koeberg-south-africa

Definitely worth 5 (or more) minutes of your time.

Landmarkr

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Done your Wordle today?
Sorted the Daily Challenge on Geoguessr?
Connections?
Flagle? Tough one this morning, hey?
The NYT mini?
Worldle? Completed. (Spoiler: it was Nepal.)

Good. Now you can get on with your day and start… HANG ON A SECOND!

Here’s Landmarkr!

Super straightforward: 6 photo clues to a Landmark, City or Country. The clues get progressively easier, and you get a guess each time a picture is revealed. And there are some helpful hints along the way:

Lisbon, Portugal is not on the right continent.

which can really help to narrow it down (this is sarcasm).

Much like Wordle, the quicker you get it, the better person you are. But of course, you’ll need to tell your friends about it so that you can boast to them about your superior record.

And with a full archive of over 200 days available, free of charge, it’s also super addictive. This post has taken me three hours to write, because I just keep popping back “for one more go”.

100% record so far.

My first failure will hurt.

Still pretty, still pricey

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Cape Town doesn’t look its best today.

It looks like a scene from a disaster movie, with floods, broken trees, branches and damaged buildings everywhere.

We did get completely battered by yesterday’s storm.

But… give it a couple of weeks (ok, or maybe a month), and all that will be tidied up and forgotten about, and Cape Town will still be the most desirable city on the continent.

Which has its drawbacks:

But still, you’d rather be here than anywhere else.