A Long Way Down

A trip down to the seaside was organised, our car packed, and off we go, a long way down to the beach. Winter is here, weather predictions looked good, what better way to spend a week on the Lower South Coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal.

We decided to take the long route down along the Oliviershoek Pass instead of straight there on the highway. And as expected the scenery was spectacular, especially at the Sterkfontein Dam just above the mountain pass down to Natal. At the dam, we saw this large Cape Vulture low down drifting in the air currents.

Just before reaching the coast we received news that there was a large veldt fire outside our home. Why did this had to happen while we away? Are our fur family safe? Was the house alright? Do we turn around and head back? These were the questions screaming through our thoughts. Thankfully our neighbours and the Roodekrans Neighbourhood Watch jumped into action. Our home is still standing and all our cats and dogs have been accounted for.

With the stress of the fire and that we took much longer driving down took its toll now let our holiday begin.

Dry is the land

Our dam is now dry with rain still a ways off. Thank goodness we still have borehole water and a Jukskei River below in the valley although the Jukskei is one of the most polluted rivers in South Africa.

Maxy seems much more spritely on his course of medicines while I, that is another story. My humour has along with the weather just about dried up.

Full Dams Poor Roads

There has been lots of rain during the past week, not just gentle rain but sudden downpours, so much water that our earthen dams are full to the brim much to the delight of the water birds. We are ever so grateful for the rain but our poor dirt roads, well just let say that they have taken a beating.

Okay that was the good part, now for the worse. Yes with all the rain comes long grass which means someone needs to cut it and it seems that our landlord has forgotten about our side of the property. So Matthew and I had to make a start on beating down the jungle which was not an easy job I must say.

Back at Erling

Wow, the temperature sure drops at night time here in Johannesburg and I had to get an early start to catch the dog walk at Erling Road. A friend loaned me a crate for Jade while she was recovering and now that the long road of recovery is almost over. And now I had to return it, so we arranged to meet at this dog walk.

It has being a long time since I walked in the veld along the Klein Jukskei River with my dogs and they behaved as if they were never away. There are even more signs as development creeps ever forward which is sad in a way as soon all this will be gone and locked up in some private residential park for only a few to appreciate.

Freedom Day Reflections

Where were you on this day 21 years ago? Can you remember? Most South Africans can as this is Freedom Day where there were long queues of people waiting to cast their first democratic votes. I remember exactly where I was, in Durban.

Reflecting back on the 21 years, what has changed? Oh there goes the power yet again. For 21 years Eskom has been struggling with aging power stations and have nothing to show for the 21 years. They even had to take out two moth balled power stations dating back to the 1960s just to try keep up with their bad planning and little maintenance. Oh well the money had to go to pay the corporate bonuses.

On this Freedom Day, I come across the coal fired Pretoria West Power station sitting idle doing nothing, it was a perfect photograph for my Freedom Day. Reflecting on the 21 years we have come since the first democratic elections, I am excited and yet why am I so sad at the same time? We have done many things right along this journey but at the same time things have fallen apart due to corruption and greed of a few. The poor grow poorer and the rich richer in this new South Africa of ours.

Okay I am getting off the topic of today, doing some research, I found that there are talks to get this over 50 year old power station back up and running again especially for the peak periods when load shedding has become a norm. So as it may look tranquil now, this old lady may come to our rescue and rescue we need indeed.