Spring? You coulda fooled me!!

We have had an interesting couple of days, so the rest of the trip to Capetown is still on hold.

A massive cold front swept through the southern part of the country, causing havok along the coast. As you might know by now, I ADORE foul weather, so I have been running around since Sunday like a kid in a candy store, snapping away and trying to capture images that convey the conditions. In the process I discovered a fascinating place and met one of life's unique people.

On Sunday Mr Farty and I bundled up warmly (not warmly enough if his hunched shoulders were anything to go by!!!)

..... and went out in the howling gale to see what the sea was up to. As the storm coincided with very high spring tides, warnings had been issued about rough seas and freak waves. Even as we were leaving home in Richmond Hill, we could see that the breakwater was taking a pounding.

Usually a pretty good gauge of the waves is the New Brighton Pier. On normal days you will see fishermen all along its length, and the pier is high above water level, but on Sunday the waves were engulfing it as they rolled by.

On Monday it was WAY worse, see our Spring Day post on Port Elizabeth Daily Photo for some spectacular shots taken from the freeway.

Because there was an offshore wind, the breakers were being whipped back and the spray was catching the lowering sun, and making lovely rainbow colours.

We went along to Kings Beach. Beach? What beach? The water was all the way up to the access road!

.... and the sand was blasting off the top of the dunes. The lifeguards tower was wallowing forlornly in the water.

Further along Restaurante de Mauro was taking a hammering too, and the spray being whipped off the waves was really beautiful.

Returning home, we spotted a huge flock of terns circling above Kings Beach.

The following day dawned cold and clear, and Max phoned to say the news was mentioning that there was snow in the Eastern Cape. On an impulse, I phoned K and asked if she and wee E would like to go off looking for it. On the way it struck me how different our sense of distance is in Africa, because we are so used to huge open spaces between towns. To us it is quite a normal practice to hop into the car and drive somewhere 300km away for the day. I realise most people who live in Europe will think it is totally insane to drive the equivalent of London to Scotland for a day's outing, but that's Africa for you!

We decided to head for Hogsback, and stopped on the way for breakfast in Grahamstown. Then we started towards Fort Beaufort, winding our way up the passes as we climbed inland.

We rounded a bend and squealed with delight as we spotted snow on a distant mountain.

So off we headed enthusiastically towards it. We passed through Fort Beaufort, and Alice. But as we left Alice, heading towards Hogsback, I could see that there was no snow on these mountains, the one we had seen was much further to the North East. So I phoned Mr Farty to send me the number of the delightful Granny Mouse house in Hogsback, where we have had some really nice stays. (And by the way, as I was hunting for a link, I realised that I promised in MAY that I would show you this magic place, and somehow time and events overtook me, so that is another journey we must do soon!) The ever friendly Ingrid laughed when I told her we had driven all that way to see snow, apparently it had snowed there the previous day, but had already melted by the time we got there, RATS! So we turned around and headed back to Alice, where we filled up with petrol. At the garage there was a guy in a really well maintained old Porsche, rather an unlikely car to see in this remote country area! I asked him about the snow, and he said it was FAAAAAAR away on the Winterberg Mountains. He lives there, 8km from the snow, and said even in a really powerful 4x4 it would take 2 and a half hours to travel that 8km because the terrain is so rugged. So that was the end of that! But as we headed back through Fort Beaufort, we decided to make the best of it, and as we passed the museum, we decided to pop in for a quick look around.

Boy did we underestimate that place! It was absolutely fascinating, and a well laid out balanced display showing the history and lifestyles from the point of view of the original tribes who lived there, as well as the British soldiers and Settlers who were tasked with establishing it as a frontier for the Colonial Government. Room after room of well labelled and well kept artefacts greeted us. Just as we were leaving, having taken in a fraction of what is there, because it would really take several days to see and absorb it all, a rather shabby looking man shuffled up to us. He asked what our interestrs were, and we said just general history. So he said that the museum was about to undergo a reshuffle, and would we like to see something else.

Now don't forget that we are city girls, who live practically under seige to criminals back home, and had a 4 year old with us. So every defense mechanism was bristling.... was it safe to go with this man who, although he looked like a hobo, seemed to be in posession of the keys to the museum? My natural liking for eccentrics took over, I didn't want to offend him, so we followed him into a little courtyard, with a lovely view across a river to the mountains beyond.

It was full of all sorts of bric-a-brac, which is going to find its way into the new displays.

He unlocked a door and ushered us into a large room, which turned out to be the old blacksmith's workshop. I still had ash in the fireplace and an ENORMOUS set of bellows, and a fascinating assortment of tools. He also showed us his magnificent collection of vintage clothes and uniforms.

I asked his name, and at this point he disappeared, leaving K and I looking at each other with slack jaws.He returned wearing a cap with a moose on it, told us his name was Moose van Rensberg, and proceeded to tell a long and involved story about how he had decided in his youth to become a professional bum, and earned the name on his travels. He eventually settled down in Fort Beaufort, married, and has now been the curator of the museum for the past 20 years.

He said we must go for a walk with him as he had something more to show us. Again the defences sprung up, and I tried to excuse us by saying we needed to find Ethan some lunch. He said "well you are wasting time then, come on" and Ethan said "granny, you are wasting time!" So we had no choice but to follow!

We walked along the street, enjoying the lovely old historic buildings,

....and came to one with the original old curved veranda, which turned out to be Moose's home, which he calls the Mooseum.

The dining room has no curtains, just a stunning collection of old bottles covering the window.

Moose led us through the kitchen and into a back garden that was like entering wonderland.

It was a menagerie of animals and birds in interleading aviaries, with bunnies, guinea pigs, hamsters, chickens, pigeons, budgies a tortoise, dogs, cats and many other types of birds co-habiting happily together. Ethan was delighted.

There was an outdoor pub in one corner, called the "Horny bar"! .....

and a door covered with old Apartheid era signs......

By this time we had long since had the feeling that we had entered a time warp, and moved back in time a couple of centuries......but t his feeling was completely confirmed when we left his house, and there across the street was a man taking photographs....

with an old bellows camera and a red cloth draped over his head! We returned to the car in a daze of sensory overload, and tucked into some 'padkos', (literally food for the road)

and the little guy was gone for the trip home!

What a magic day of dropping off the planet. We returned to a bit of harsh reality, in the form of a monster traffic jam caused by the freeway being awash with monster waves. You can read all about that on the Port Elizabeth Daily Photo blog if you follow the link near the top of this post.

All creatures great and small

We interrupt this journey to Cape Town ..... to bring you another short trip!

It was Mr Farty's birthday yesterday and we decided to treat him to a picnic at one of his favourite places, the Addo Elephant Park.

the birthday boy

It is only 70 km from here, so perfect for a day trip, or even, as in our case, a half day, because we had to wait for our son-in-law J to get home from work. K and I (supervised by young Ethan, who did the quality control) made chicken and avo tortilla wraps, and sweetcorn fritters. Due to many ... well let's just call them "baking malfunctions" that I have suffered over the years, we have a sort of unwritten agreement that K will handle any baking that is required for special occasions. She has become so good at substituting ingredients that she can now produce a gluten free, dairy free, cholesteral free carrot cake that still feels and tastes as good as the real macoy! Mr Farty went off and bought the fruit juices and spring waters, and when J got home, we were ready to roll. We all piled into Thandi, who was bought for just such occasions, and headed for the Park.

One thing we found to be a delicate balance was explaining to Ethan how dangerous the big game can be, while at the same time wanting him to enjoy them and not be scared of them. Just after we drove through the gate, we encountered a large lone buffalo bull. As you can see he is clearly having a bad hair day, and looks lonely, comical and docile. To Ethan, he looked like any number of friendly cows he has already met. So he wanted to yell out the window, and was surprised when we were all shushing him! The reality is that the docile looking animal right next to the car is one of the meanest tempered and most unpredictable of the African big game. (In fact, when we went camping at Mana Pools in Zimbabwe a few years ago, a woman had been killed by a buffalo there the previous week. And Ann, who ran the Kariba Breezes Hotel on the shores of Lake Kariba, and from whom we used to rent boats to go across to Sanyati, was also killed by a buffalo.) But we didn't want to freak him out, so we explained how wild animals don't like noise etc. Later this week, K will explain to him all about how wild they are, even if they don't look it!

The great thing about a place like Addo, for us, is that it is not just about the big 5 (elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard) although all are found in the park. We can derive as much joy from watching the antics of the birds and dung beetles as we can from the big guys. Yesterday really was a sort of "all creatures great and small" day.

We started off at the picnic site overlooking a large waterhole, which was unusually dry, and did not have the usual large crowd of animals hanging around it. As we unwrapped the lunch, the trees were suddenly all aflutter with a variety of birds, who are clearly used to being fed and were remarkably tame. If they hadn't all been so cute and colourful, it might have felt a bit like something out of the Hitchcock/Du Maurier movie!!!

Cape Weavers, Spotted back weavers, Cape Glossy starling and fork tailed drongo

Despite the very large quantity of enormous elephant droppings on the road ( a fact that delighted Ethan, who is at that age where toilet humour can double him up!) we did not see a single dung beetle. This was very disappointing, as they are fascinating creatures and I was dying to see Ethan's reaction to a creature who eats poo and rolls it into balls!

But we did see the old lone Buffalo, and a large Jackal, who was off on a mission of his own and didn't wait around to pose for Max! We also came across Red Hartebees, warthogs and a distant group of Eland.

We also saw numerous kudu of all ages (in fact they are getting really common in the park, it gets to the point where you hardly blink as you come across another group.)

But of course, Addo is all about the big boys, and at first we were surprised how few we were seeing. Just the odd lone bull lurking behind a bush,

and one drinking from the outlet pipe of the spring that feeds the Domkrag Dam.

(Domkrag literally means "dumb strength" and was named after a famous HUGE leopard tortoise who lived in the park many years ago. The word also means 'jack' in Afrikkans, and this tortoise had a peculiar habit of walking in behind cars and lifting them up with enormous strength. Domkrag came to a sad end when he fell into an aardvark hole and couldn't get himself out. His shell is still on display in the reception foyer.)

But then a huge group approached the waterhole as we were leaving, and things got pretty exciting.

Again, it is hard to see them when docile like this, and realise that they can be very dangerous. Fortunately Addo elephants are much less aggressive than their Zimbabwean counterparts, especially the ones in the Zambezi Valley. Anyone who grew up in Zim either knows someone who has been charged or has been charged themselves, (as have both Max and I) and has the greatest respect for these giants of the bush. The most lethal are the mommies with small babies, you do NOT want to mess with these ladies!

We found ourselves hemmed in by cars in front of and behind us, bush to the left, and a large group of mommies and babies walking along the road next to us. We literally held our breath as one momma looked right at us with a beady eye and flapping ears, as her baby came up behind her. My window was wide open, and I couldn't close it because the noise and movement might have made her feel threatened, so we just sat and hoped that Ethan wouldn't choose that moment to tell us again that elephants are "velly plitty" .... little guy still has a hard time getting his tongue around 'r's! Luckily he didn't, and they strolled gently past.... whew.

Next week we will resume our Capetown trip, and see a different kind of African beauty.

the next thrilling instalment of our soapie…

Shopping South African style…



This was Woolworths yesterday, the tills and one or two lights running on emergency generators. Arriving and leaving were another story, it is an interesting exercise driving through a city without traffic lights at peak time!

If you live here, or follow South African blogs with any regularity, you will know that we have regular power cuts, which are euphemistically referred to as “load shedding” by ESCOM. (Which is a State run entity with a supply monopoly by the way, naturally if there was some healthy competition in the private sector this would never be happening).

Port St Francis last weekend... the light you see in the one window is candles!

Which brings us to the next thrilling instalment of our soapie…

Here in soapie land, we leave our police commissioner and his lawyers to wrangle about court dates, and get back to the National Prosecuting Authority, and particularly the Public Prosecutors Office. Having won round 2 against Zuma and round 3 against Selebi, they are turning their spotlight onto our national electricity supplier, ESCOM.


The plot so far:
It all seems to have started back in about February 2006, when The Nuclear Reactor at Koeberg got screwed …. No really, I mean it literally; someone dropped a screw into the main reactor!

This coincided with the other reactor being shut down for refuelling, so initially Cape Town and eventually most of the country was plunged into chaotic and expensive darkness. I heard an estimate on the radio this week that, according to the Cape Town Chamber of Commerce, the 3 day shutdown alone cost Cape Town 5 billion Rand.

I happened to be there for a design seminar during the crisis. Try and imagine what it was like attempting to get through rush hour traffic in a major city with not a single traffic light working!!!! And huge high rise buildings which rely on air conditioning for ventilation plunged into darkness, computers crashed, elevators jammed, shopping malls closed, security systems were disabled. They were prepared for short outages, but 3 solid days was more than most back-up systems could deal with. I had trouble trying to leave because Cape Town, and all the small coastal towns up to Knysna were without power, and so petrol stations were unable to pump fuel. Even those with generators battled, because their computers had crashed and the modern pumps could not operate without them. I eventually made it to a small country garage which had a small generator. It was like something out of Hollywood!

In the Echelons of Power, questions were asked. There was much scrambling about and covering of excessively paid butts, until it was finally admitted that the power provider already had less capacity to produce power than the existing infrastructure needed, even when no breakdowns were occurring, and had nothing in the pipeline to meet growing demand. We have been warned of ongoing blackouts around the country for years to come, at least until 2012!!

Apparently the ‘powers-that-be’ had not realised a few basics about running the country’s power grid.

• Things wear out and plans need to be made well in advance to maintain/repair and eventually replace them.
• Demand for power in a growing economy increases, and infrastructure needs to be planned for, budgeted for and put in place to supply extra power to meet the growing demand.
• Supplying power to neighbouring dictatorships that have not paid their bills for years, while cutting power to paying consumers at home, and simultaneously ruining the economy of the country, is a bad idea.
• Increasing charges to local consumers by extortionate rates in order to pay for one's blunders and charity to the northern neighbours only causes chaos at home, as consumers rebel and the economy suffers further.

So while they learn these lessons and try to do some damage control, the shutdowns have become a regular way of life across South Africa. It seems that, we will continue to get POWER ALERT screens popping up on TV every night, red or brown to say 'we are about to have a major shutdown unless people immediately save power, switch off all appliances, lights etc.', followed by either an orange one to say 'thanks, it is stabilizing', or darkness!

What makes it worse is that ESCOM seems unable to grasp the concept of forward planning, so instead of letting industry, hospitals, retailers etc. know when to expect outages, so that they can plan around them, they appear to just spring it on whichever area takes their fancy at the time. They have schedules on their website, but the reality and the schedules do not coincide.

Yesterday at Johannesburg General Hospital, a major surgery was underway when the power to the Hospital was cut, and it took 10 minutes for the Emergency generators to kick in with enough juice to run the life support unit. Luckily the doctors managed to keep the patient alive, but it was touch and go.

So now these are the latest developments in soapie-land:

To make up for their blunder, ESCOM are now fast-tracking the building of nuclear pebble-bed reactors around the country.... riding roughshod over strong public opposition to them. It is a frightening prospect to leave so much nuclear capacity in the hands of an entity which has so far displayed such a shocking lack of management ability. I just hope they have at least trained their technicians to stop dropping screws into the reactors!

In the meantime, flushed with success at having laid charges against both the President Elect, and the Head of the Police, our intrepid Public Prosecutors have asked ESCOM to answer some searching questions about the management of the country’s vital power supplies, and if the answers fail to satisfy them, this might just end up being the NPA’s hat trick of major prosecutions this year!

It won’t stop the power failures, but maybe while they are busy in court, someone competent can run things and make a plan? Anyone got Bruce Willis' phone number for us?