Update – South Africa

In my last blog post I did say there would be a delay, before posting again.  You see, we have been to South Africa and I have longed for the time when I can simply sit down and write a little about it.  Already I suspect memories are fading quickly but in this post I seek to simply give a flavour of what unfolded.

Our holiday in numbers

How long? Just under 3 weeks

Flights – just 2.  We were fortunate in having direct flights from London to Johannesburg.  I think the flight was about 10 or 11 hours each way and we flew through the night (which worked well).  We flew in economy seats, not too bad.

There were 11 of us – a family trip

Hire cars – 3

Punctures – 1 and involved quite a long detour to get it fixed

Places we stayed in – 6 (ranging from simple bed & breakfast, simple chalets to a fabulous house)

Kilometers driven – 3,400

Photos taken – about 300

How hot – cooler than the UK.  Daytime temperatures ranged from 20 to 32C depending on where we were.  The coast was noticeably cooler and fresher.  At night the temperatures would drop very quickly, always down into single figures.  Our last evening was in Pretoria and that remained nice and warm.

A few highlights

The night sky, out in the bush, was simply breath taking and my pitiful attempt to photograph it simply does not convey the wonder.  It was quite amazing and far beyond anything I have seen at home in the UK.

While we were in Kruger, my daughter Becky and I walked just a few yards away from our collection of chalets to make some photographs of the night sky.  We took a chair with us, to be a base for resting the camera on and we had our mobile phones to use the little torches for sorting the camera settings and timer as our essential accessories.

If you’re technically minded, we experimented and found any exposure of 30+ seconds would lead to stars being little streaks, on account of the earth’s rotation.  However, an exposure of 2 minutes provided the above photo and captured far more stars and included the Milky Way itself.  We varied the sensor’s sensitivity but generally found ISO 100 or more was needed.  Certainly an awe-inspiring look at God’s creation.

We drove about 3,400km on roads which ranged from “motorway” styled N roads to dirt tracks.  Somewhere in between were miles and miles of quiet tarmac roads where we would find ourselves slowing down for other road users.

The other “road users” were mostly giraffe, elephants and once some loveable monkeys.  I always think of giraffe as being very graceful animals as they waft along.  Understandably they are a little nervous of us and I remember them keeping their distance from me on my bicycle, back in 1984 when I cycled around East Africa.  I kept telling myself “it’s not every day you drive along and find a family of elephants casually wandering across the road….”

For the last week we stayed at Sodwana Bay, on the east coast.  Hannah and I went down to “our beach” at dusk and you can see it involved a little run in the beautiful dusty, orange light which the camera has picked up nicely here.  Magical.

It is quite something to find a beach which stretches as far as the eye can see, and yet it is devoid of footprints.  I loved the sound of the ocean relentlessly crashing in.  We could hear it in our chalet which was amongst the sand dunes and the trees which keep them in one place.

Our holiday seemed to have a bit of everything included, so each one of us would have felt they had something special to experience.  There were plenty of animals to see as we spent about a week in the Kruger National Park, staying in two locations where we felt as if we were the ones in the zoo!  You see, the sites had electric fences and strict gate policies to keep us apart from the animals in the reserve.

I especially enjoyed the “sight seeing” such as visiting the Three Rondavels which are amazing rock formations, just visible in this post’s photo right at the top.  Although we arrived at midday, we embarked on a lengthy hike around the Blyde Canyon which was terrific and we got back to the cars at night fall.

The so-called golden hour of nice light at dawn or dusk, is probably much less in South Africa as the sunrise and sunset seems to happen more quickly, so I needed to work quickly to capture the panoramic photo.  Interestingly I took this with my iPhone, reminding me once again that a fancy camera is merely an option; much more important is getting out there, with any kind of camera.

When visiting other countries, I always value learning something about those places, ideally from casual conversations with local people, museums, exhibitions etc.  I didn’t get many of those opportunities this time, although I learned quite a bit from the white perspective and also from a handful of black people who I encounter – a guide, a security guard, a barista etc.

I think I will aim, over a couple of other posts, to record one or two aspects of the holiday, rather than trying to capture every little detail.  So, for now I’m thinking these might include our adventures in driving in South Africa, our meal times and some of my conversations.

I loved going to South Africa – never been there before – although interestingly I have spent far more time in Africa over the years than I have in Scotland (something to put right).  It was worth every penny, every mile and yet I am so, so pleased to be back.  I appreciate being at home so much and I want to stay here, at home, and get settled into my usual routines, village life and to see autumn arrive.

Overall, I am so thankful.  I feel very privileged, blessed, thankful and humbled through what I have seen and experienced.