It’s been a while, so we’re heading away for quick break before some stuff which is happening back here in Cape Town.
A foolishly early flight has been booked, because we’ve got some driving to do at the far end, and so by the time you’re reading this, we’ll hopefully be thinking about landing and heading even further away from this corner of Africa.
We’re hoping to see some wildlife, so keep an eye on the old ‘Gram and live vicariously through us for the next few days.
Let’s go!
Wow. Look at that.
It’s the 23rd January 2025, and that means it’s exactly a whole 21 years since I upped sticks and moved from Oxford to Cape Town. A whole 6000 miles from civilisation… (if you can call Oxford that).
Since then, several (or maybe even more) things have happened, including marriage, kids, a beagle, a couple of houses, a cottage and maybe the odd Castle Milk Stout here and there.
Nothing special planned today to celebrate – maybe just an early night, given the lack of sleep this week.
But hey: here’s to the next 21.
Another lovely day here today and the forecast looks set for more lovely sunny days in the week ahead:
Those temperatures aren’t anything to email home about, but it’s nice enough and, as Mrs 6000 pointed out, it’s hardly summer, is it? Which it absolutely isn’t, no. That would only start on the 1st or the 21st of December, depending upon which system you’re using.
But we shouldn’t be complaining, especially when looking back over at the UK. This image has been doing the rounds over the last 24 hours, indicating the number of hours of sunshine around the UK, the Isle of Man and Ireland over the first 7 (seven) days of November.
Ouch. Eina. My fok. Goodness gracious.
Bearing in mind that London is sitting on an average of about 9 hours 20 minutes of daylight each day, they could have had over 65 hours of sunshine. They got 2.
The Isle of Man – averaging just over 9 hours of daylight last week – got not a single hour.
In seven whole days!
Aberdeen was the big (and rather unlikely) winner. 8¾ hours of daylight each day, and a whole 13 hours of sunshine in seven days. That’s 21% of their daylight as sunshine. Incredible. Their local Burns Unit must be bursting at the seams, just like it is in late January each year.
We made hay (not literally) while the sun shone today, with the Boy Wonder driving himself and his friends down to Agulhas for a long weekend, and LM 6000, having recovered from her singing last night, riding a horse over some big sticks, rather amazingly.
But now it’s time to sit back with a glass of local red, and catch up with the Youtube videos I haven’t had time to watch this week. I’ll be incredibly knowledgeable and a brilliant photographer in about an hour.
Just watch. Literally.
Despite the danger from wild animals around every corner (and on every golf green), South Africa is still a really popular tourist destination. Decent weather (T&Cs apply), loads of varied stuff to do, a single flight from and a very small time difference from a lot of Europe, and THAT EXCHANGE RATE.
It’s pretty rubbish for us living here, but the ever-weaking Rand makes SA deliciously attractive to tourists. Follow anyone who has come here (on social media, not like stalking them), and you’ll hear them wax lyrical about the service, the wine, the scenery, the wildlife, the people, the food and the prices.
I can’t believe that we got all of this – including drinks – for less than fifty quid
is a regular line at the end of every 4 course meal shared on the TikkityTok. And if you’ve ever been to the UK, you’ll understand exactly why that seems amazing.
And then I saw this:
I did some rudimentary calculations and worked out that at an average of about R40 (this is not Fireman’s, Forries or the Waterfront, obvs!), we’re sitting at about the €1.98 of Hungary for a 500ml Castle Lite or a Black Label. Sure, that may not be your tipple of choice, but this isn’t just about you, and if you’re going to want to drink something “Crapft”, then sure, things can get silly quite quickly.
But this is about the average price for 0.5 litre domestic draught beer in restaurants.
Like it says on the map.
And that shows just how cheap this place is when you’re coming from somewhere that’s yellow, orange or red. It also demonstrates that needs to be more than just cheap beer prices to take into consideration when choosing a holiday destination. Because Ukraine looks very inviting on this map.
But… well… you know…
I remember going to Czechoslovakia (when it was just still Czechoslovakia) and buying a bottle of beer for the equivalent of 2 English pence. I thought they’d misrepresented the price or I’d mis-converted it, and it should have been two pounds (which would have been very expensive for someone from the North of the England in those days), or maybe 20 pence (ridiculously reasonable).
It turned out that I just needed to move my decimal point along again. Amazing.
Looking back, I demonstrated some incredible – and some might say, foolish – self control on that trip.
Beer has gone up a lot more in the ex-Czechoslovakia in the last thirty years than it has in the UK.
And it’s definitely more expensive here since I arrived as well, but then isn’t everything? But like I say, if you’re coming out to Cape Town from London, then you’re probably going to think that they’ve undercharged you for your beer.
Still, the “cheap” beer is also a good thing for us locals. It’s just a shame that these days we can’t afford anything nice to eat with it.
Look, we live in South Africa, and while at least some of the rest of the world [waves to the USA] think that wild animals roam the streets, it’s not quite like that. Well, not every day, at least.
Outside the cities, you certainly might come across ostriches on your drive, and if you’re near certain bodies of water at night, there’s always the chance of a notoriously unreflective hippo.
More likely is that you’ll hit one of the big buck though: and that Kudu a lot of damage to your car: a bull can weigh 300kg.
Sadly, it rarely ends well for the Kudu, either. But thankfully, these events are fairly uncommon in the greater scheme of things.
Even less common are encounters with lions.
Well, that is until recently. Because suddenly, there seems to be a lot of lion in the mainstream media.
Please note that if you’re reading this out loud for the benefit of someone else, you’ll need to clarify that I mean the big cat, not a lack of truthfulness. That wouldn’t be unusual at all.
Here are three very recent examples. Happily all up North, a long way from here.
There was a lion… ahem… lyin’… on the M18 between Pretoria and Centurion last night:
The original image was posted on X, and as the Citizen says:
A reverse image search on Google revealed similar photos of lions spotted in the Kruger National Park.
Well, yes. Similar, because that’s what lions look like, but actually not the same.
So was this claim genuine? No-one seems completely sure.
The truth is out there. And maybe there’s a lion as well.
More concrete evidence was provided by Skukuza Golf Course:
Guests at the Skukuza Golf Club, famously dubbed South Africa’s wildest golf course, recently witnessed an extraordinary scene when a group of predators converged on the final green to share an impala kill.
In a rare sighting that perfectly illustrates the untamed nature of the course, two lions, a crocodile, and a pack of hyenas took turns feasting on the kill just metres from the clubhouse.
And the video, although portrait and a bit blurry, is incredible:
The “You must have signed the indemnity form to pass this point” sign in the foreground is particularly amusing, given the range of dangerous carnivores tearing apart the unfortunate impala.
These magnificent beasts are supposedly apex predators, but they are no match for a Toyota Land Cruiser. This incident occurred in Kruger National Park, which you can drive through in your own vehicle (I recently found out that this is bewildering to foreigners). And you can get really, really close to the really wild animals. But when there is a good sighting, word spreads fast and it can get a bit busy.
Patience is key. Don’t be like this guy. Don’t get this close.
No damage done here apart from to the driver’s bank balance once the Rangers got a look at this video.
KNP spokesperson, Ike Phaahla, confirmed that the driver was fined.
“We dealt with him by tracing the number plate.”
Good plan. I would have started by looking for traces of lion fur on the front corner of every white Toyota in South Africa. But your way is probably better. I guess that’s why they pay you the big bucks.
“All we know is that he was trying to make a way at the sighting when he bumped the animal,” Phaahla explained. He added that while he was unsure of the amount the driver was fined, the maximum fine is R1,500.
A slap on the wrist for a bump up the arse.
We naturally crow about our amazing wildlife in SA, but I have no clue why there has been a sudden plethora of lion stories in the local press.
Still, it’s good that we take pride in sharing the stories about these big cats when we encounter them.