It's Winter in Cape Town

(Cape Town, but not today)

Well, they warned me about it. And it's true. Cape Town is cold when it wants to be. It's been pouring rain here since yesterday. It will no doubt clear again and be beautiful, but just at the moment I feel particularly at one with those of you in Vancouver. Granted there's more theft and pie shops here, but still... Last night was thundershowers and lightening. Today has been an unbelievable wind along with the rain. But actually it's been kinda nice to wear long pants and not have to fight the crowds when you walk the street.

People here are on very different schedules than my usual one. It is very difficult to just sit when there’s so much I want to see and do (yeah, I know, I need to slow down, but there's slow and then there's slow!). It’s so strange, but people here don’t spend very much time outside. They go from their locked houses to their locked cars and drive long distances to locked offices or fenced parks and manicured tourist sites. They don’t sit outside in the sun. They don’t go for walks. I think they’re so used to protecting themselves and their property, they don’t notice that they’re the ones locked out.

I just realized I sound like I'm complaining, which I don't mean to do. I have had much more freedom to explore than I feared I would have and am definitely getting a sense of the country - or at least the Cape region. Oh, and I have booked my safari!!! I will be going to Kruger National Park (in the Northeast of the South Africa) for a four day tour - and visiting Johannesburg and Durban on the way. The tour promises "The Big Five": lions, elephants, rhino, cheeta and giraffe - plus lots of littler critters too (snakes, birds, hyenas, that sort of thing).

I spend a lot of my time with family taking mental notes - so many gaps in what I know about 'where I come from' are being filled in, and lots of other questions making themselves known too, of course. There's a novel, or at least a fringe play, in there somewhere...

Anyway, those are my soggy thoughts for the day. Hope you’re enjoying this little journal…

Love ya all,

S.