Thursday, 22 December 2011

Summer solstice in Lonehill


Only a few in South Africa would know that today was the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere because majority of us are on holiday or about to go so summer solstices are the furthest from our minds. Kids, holidays, final summer break, buying pressies (presents), New Years Eve parties, the beach and many more distractions. But they would have enjoyed the longest day.

I had to go meet a friend for breakfast which was postponed to a lunch at Mugg and Bean in Lonehill and while parking my car at Lonehill Shopping Centre, I felt myself drawn to the rocky koppie (hill) overlooking the centre. The koppie which is made up of large boulders stands all by itself therefore the suburb's obvious name Lonehill. Being the summer solstice a few hours earlier I thought about that bunch of rocks down in Waterval Boven called the Adam's Calendar. There lot of debate and theories out there if these rocks are Africa's Stonehenge, a monolithic stone calendar. But if Adam's Calender is not some trick of nature then this intact monolithic structure pre-dates Stonehenge itself although not as grand as the British calendar. And today being the summer solstice wouldn't it be awesome to be there at Adam's Calendar to see the sun rays casting shadows across the formation of monoliths instead of standing in a parking lot 4 hours drive away looking at a pile of boulders stack on top of each other.

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