Category: this is south africa

The journey home

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Back in Cape Town, where the internet works [nervously checks – yes it does] and it was a lovely journey home. We punctuated it with a few stops along the way. Some planned, like this one to get some shots of what’s left of the shipwreck:

And some less planned, like pulling over to get some shots of the rainbows over the South Atlantic:

And then this guy, who was bothering the teals, ducks and geese in the flooded fields between Struisbaai and Bredasdorp.

We spotted him, pulled over, and we thought we’d missed him before we heard that haunting, spine-tingling call (if you don’t know, click here). Geese (x2), teal, ducks, stilts, ibises (x2) and a Fish Eagle, all within 20m of the highway. All you have to do is stop, get out and look. It’s all right there.

He even went and sat on a nearby power pole (one of the ones that burned down here, I think) for us afterwards.

Sponsored by Kodak, as they used to say.

The rest of the journey was less exciting, but the Overberg is already showing signs of spring with the canola fields starting to erupt in colour.

Just another two months of rain to get through…

A trip full of hard work, but with just a bit of leisure time at the end, and a sparklingly clean cottage to look forward to for our next trip.

I have learned nothing

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The internet is back. It came back this morning, and it’s been here every since.

But I have learned nothing. I’m still leaving it late to drop a post in, even though the internet could disappear again at any moment.

And it might, because the weather locally has been quite… “exciting”.

The locals here are moaning about the state of the road out to the village, as if they are some special case that deserves to have their potholes filled and the municipality’s grader at their disposal immediately that there’s a bit of rain.

Especially the guy that EMPHASISES some of his WORDS in every message by using capitals somewhat RANDOMLY!!!

Honestly, it’s not that bad, especially when compared to the rest of the province.

[It was at this point that the internet connection completely disappeared – my deity, I’m such a muppet sometimes]

The cottage has been completely spring cleaned and we’re sitting in front of the fire and looking forward to some dinner.

And the internet is back so I’m uploading this RIGHT NOW!!!

Good idea

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Tonight’s plan for a beer and curry night seems to have been one of the better decisions I have made of late. At the time of writing, we’re 60mm deeper in water than we were this morning, and it’s dark and grey and stormy out there, with no signs of letting up any time soon.

It’s already added 87,704,000,000 litres to our dams in the last week.
No big issue with that – I might need to water my lawn in December.

Anyway, the good news is that with a beer expert…

I didn’t know what the word for this was, so I asked Google.

Beerologist, libationist, beer devotee, wert guru, beer maven, beer expert, hophead, pisspot, a tippler, a grog artist, a boozer, a beer buff, a slops surveyor, an ale addict, a hops handler, a quaffer, and the chairman of the brewed.

I was looking for a technical, official term, but I got given this. Unhelpful.

Anyway, as I was saying, the good news is that with a beer expert a pisspot coming over this evening, I have got some different beers in to taste – mostly local, but some from Germany, and one from Belgium – and I have cooked up two moerse curries: a lentil and butternut korma and a great-smelling, masala-style chicken dish. There’s naan, there’s achtar (mango, obvs) and there’s homemade raita with fresh mint plucked from the garden before things out there got scary.

We’ll light the fire up (spoiler – it’s already lit) and play pool, listen to the latest tunes from the hit parade, and enjoy some heartwarming food and company.

Tomorrow might be a little iffy, but let’s deal with that if and when we need to, because tonight promises to be a lot of fun.

Black Wattle

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A lot of people would say that throwing a 3kg chunk of firewood – specifically Black Wattle (Acacia mearnsii) – at their own shin would be something that they would even consider. But that’s surely only because they’ve never done it.
That said, I did do it this morning, and actually, I can see right where they are coming from.

I wouldn’t try it either. Good call.

Black Wattle firewood because here in South Africa, it’s a nasty invasive plant, and so chopping it down and burning it is a good – and environmentally friendly – way to get rid of it. Unless you live in a dodgy area of Bristol, that is.

But in Australia, the home of Black Wattle, the tree and the wood are revered, and they are useful:

All very interesting, and very impressive. But not what we need over here. We have our own trees for that sort of thing. And so, with the greatest respect, we’re going to just keep on chopping and burning.

Especially on these cold winter days.

And when I say wet…

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It has been raining a lot. And it is still raining. And there’s more rain in the forecast.

But just how much has it been raining?

This much:

367.8mm in the last few days just down the road from us about an hour ago. And I’m only saying “about an hour ago” because it’s almost certainly more than that now.

The rain has only really been falling for the last 4 days, so we’re looking at almost 100mm a day. And our local ground really isn’t set up for that. Hence all the flooding.

We might have a couple of dry days (T&Cs apply) before the next wave(s) of rain head in.

Right now, I’m going to watch the mud-wrestling rugby from the stadium in town.