South Africa

I have been inspired to write online by a friend . His blog is arcane, well written and by turns informative and whimsical. I recommend the Northern Scrivener .

All beginnings are arbitrary so  I start with a recent disastrous trip to South Africa.  A long friendship from university led to a shared dream to see Namibia. The dream had  crystallised with a plane ticket to Cape Town and a hired truck to drive to Swakopmund.The friend was a former lawyer turned world traveller and photographer ( a fine one). The writer was an Irish lawyer living in London and working at a satanic mill.

The reunion in South Africa did not go well. The shared interests and affinity from the past could not disguise we had taken different paths . The trip was impossible and I was left with two weeks to fill in a strange city . I missed my wife back in London and knew little of Cape Town. I spent  a week holed up in a B & B with a novel and  a  hospitable owner called Dirke. Dirke had been recently bereaved and memories of the loss of his wife left him tearful .  I think he liked the company and insisted on shared evening meals . I doubt I was good company but he didn't notice.

 When  a friendship ends it marks time but something takes its place . I spent two weeks as a tourist and visited  usual suspects like the  Cape of Good Hope, Robben Island and Table Mountain . South Africa has its own problems but South African people are wonderful .

I end the post with a correction. The trip was not a disaster. I had money, time on my hands  and a car to drive around in. I visited a fishing village called Hout Bay a few times. On the pier local people trained seals for  tourists. The woman in the photo is called Tsoutas . She told me she has five children and she trains seals for a living. I don't know if she brings  her children up on her own. I do know I gave her the ten rand note she holds in the photo.That is modern tourism.