Well, it has been a hectic ten days or so since I last wrote a proper post.
Since then, I’ve been to Durban where my father and I were whisked through the city to see all the places my dad used to roam when he was a kid. That part of the country is so different - lush and green and pretty much hot all year round. In the summers it's stinking sweaty, but now, at the beginning of "winter" it's perfect. We were in a B&B just a few minutes from the ocean and had just a little bit of beach time.
He left here when he was 17, under dubious circumstances that may or may not have involved an assault on a police officer (something for which he would have received extremely harsh punishment at that time). He returned to Durban for his father’s funeral but that was the last time he was there – about thirty-five or forty years ago. For a little bit of history, the area he grew up in, Cato Manor, was dismantled in 1949, following the passing of the Group Areas Act which said that Indians, Coloureds, Blacks and Whites had to live in separate and specified areas. Cato Manor had been a thriving, mixed community build by Indians who were brought into South Africa after 1860 to work in the sugar fields and factories. There were large houses there, a lush landscape, and a solid community. Now, it is an informal "Black" settlement built of corrugated steel and converted freight containers. Barely a trace of what was there before. It's an odd thing to drive through such a place, to be sure. Our guide, a cousin of my dad's pointing out from the car, "that was where the Govender house was. Oh, it was a big one." and "that was the tree the father's all used to sit underneath to talk" and "that was where your greatgrandparents were buried because there were no crematoriums. Now it's a deserted football field". Doing the trip to Durban with my dad was really the reason for my being here in many ways and I continue to think about how to make something real for myself out of everything I saw and heard there in such a short period of time.
The Talking Tree
After that whirlwind visit, I was on to Johannesburg, with enough time for a six-hour tour of the city and Soweto, one of South Africa's most famous townships.
A veiw of Johannesburg - most of the office towers you can see in this shot are almost completely empty - with only the storefronts being used, often as shops in the day time and "drugstores" at night.
Soweto is another fascinating place - full of contrasts, from the dirt-poor informal townships to the many memorial sites to the now blooming wealthier areas to rival any middle-class neighbourhood.
"Old" Soweto
New Soweto
Again, strange to be a tourist in these places, but you can't really go into townships on your own. Our guide lives in Soweto and she was very good at striking the balance between an honest description and a hopeful one - with a lean towards the hopeful that was fair, I think, from what I saw.
And then, of course, it was safari time.
For those of you who didn’t know (I didn’t), The Big Five are so-called because they are the five most dangerous animals to hunt. If you shoot one and miss, they don’t just think, ‘oh maybe I’ll get out of here before s/he tries again’. Nope. They think, ‘You little shit. You think you can kill me? Try again, sucker…” and then charge. Well, I have now sat mere feet away from all five of these reckonable creatures and have come back suitably awed.
I won’t bore you with the whole list of 32-odd creatures seen and identified, but I will show you a few of the best photos (I think) to emerge from the experience. In short, the safari was completely excellent. I still feel buzzed just thinking about it. Took lots of photos, spent time with a really great group of people, ate surprisingly yummy food, had way too little sleep for reasons of late night socializing and early morning sightings, and saw some beautiful parts of the country too.
I have now returned to Cape Town ready to buy some souveniers, see some family, and return home to bask in the lovely memory of it all.
And now, just to tease you for the next installment, here is one pretty picture from Kruger National Park. If I gave you all the big ones all at once, you'd probably wander off and never return. So here is just one with more to follow...(Actually, I'm running out of time and left my other little camera 'chip' at home, with some of the best shots on it, so the tease is entirely accidental...sorry!)...stay tuned for more...
love to you all,
surya
Since then, I’ve been to Durban where my father and I were whisked through the city to see all the places my dad used to roam when he was a kid. That part of the country is so different - lush and green and pretty much hot all year round. In the summers it's stinking sweaty, but now, at the beginning of "winter" it's perfect. We were in a B&B just a few minutes from the ocean and had just a little bit of beach time.
He left here when he was 17, under dubious circumstances that may or may not have involved an assault on a police officer (something for which he would have received extremely harsh punishment at that time). He returned to Durban for his father’s funeral but that was the last time he was there – about thirty-five or forty years ago. For a little bit of history, the area he grew up in, Cato Manor, was dismantled in 1949, following the passing of the Group Areas Act which said that Indians, Coloureds, Blacks and Whites had to live in separate and specified areas. Cato Manor had been a thriving, mixed community build by Indians who were brought into South Africa after 1860 to work in the sugar fields and factories. There were large houses there, a lush landscape, and a solid community. Now, it is an informal "Black" settlement built of corrugated steel and converted freight containers. Barely a trace of what was there before. It's an odd thing to drive through such a place, to be sure. Our guide, a cousin of my dad's pointing out from the car, "that was where the Govender house was. Oh, it was a big one." and "that was the tree the father's all used to sit underneath to talk" and "that was where your greatgrandparents were buried because there were no crematoriums. Now it's a deserted football field". Doing the trip to Durban with my dad was really the reason for my being here in many ways and I continue to think about how to make something real for myself out of everything I saw and heard there in such a short period of time.
The Talking Tree
After that whirlwind visit, I was on to Johannesburg, with enough time for a six-hour tour of the city and Soweto, one of South Africa's most famous townships.
A veiw of Johannesburg - most of the office towers you can see in this shot are almost completely empty - with only the storefronts being used, often as shops in the day time and "drugstores" at night.
Soweto is another fascinating place - full of contrasts, from the dirt-poor informal townships to the many memorial sites to the now blooming wealthier areas to rival any middle-class neighbourhood.
"Old" Soweto
New Soweto
Again, strange to be a tourist in these places, but you can't really go into townships on your own. Our guide lives in Soweto and she was very good at striking the balance between an honest description and a hopeful one - with a lean towards the hopeful that was fair, I think, from what I saw.
And then, of course, it was safari time.
For those of you who didn’t know (I didn’t), The Big Five are so-called because they are the five most dangerous animals to hunt. If you shoot one and miss, they don’t just think, ‘oh maybe I’ll get out of here before s/he tries again’. Nope. They think, ‘You little shit. You think you can kill me? Try again, sucker…” and then charge. Well, I have now sat mere feet away from all five of these reckonable creatures and have come back suitably awed.
I won’t bore you with the whole list of 32-odd creatures seen and identified, but I will show you a few of the best photos (I think) to emerge from the experience. In short, the safari was completely excellent. I still feel buzzed just thinking about it. Took lots of photos, spent time with a really great group of people, ate surprisingly yummy food, had way too little sleep for reasons of late night socializing and early morning sightings, and saw some beautiful parts of the country too.
I have now returned to Cape Town ready to buy some souveniers, see some family, and return home to bask in the lovely memory of it all.
And now, just to tease you for the next installment, here is one pretty picture from Kruger National Park. If I gave you all the big ones all at once, you'd probably wander off and never return. So here is just one with more to follow...(Actually, I'm running out of time and left my other little camera 'chip' at home, with some of the best shots on it, so the tease is entirely accidental...sorry!)...stay tuned for more...
love to you all,
surya
posted by The Finding Princess at 4:09 p.m.
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