In line with this thought, I have done a couple of wonderful things in the past three weeks, too much to mention in detail one post. So I’ll have to stick to a brief description and make sure I have a lot of pictures to acquiesce in your longings.
First of all, I’ve had quite a few friends from work visiting me from overseas (a nice expression essentially meaning “everything outside Africa”). I had my share of touring Cape Town and surroundings and eating out. Because with so many lovely places to dine, and at such prices, that is what you do.
I have become quite adept at giving tours in and around Cape Town. Soon the wine lands and Cape Peninsula will have no more surprises for me.
Although all these visitors had very different backgrounds and interests, they were all stunned by the beauty of the landscapes. And none of them were raped, mugged, cheated on, threatened or anything. So if you still had doubts of coming here, start planning and let me know when you’ll be coming.
Next to all of those visits, I went camping again. This time I was invited by a frolleague (friend + colleague) to join him on a trip. It must have been the first time I went away for the weekend without Shafeeka. She wasn’t angry with me, so I take it she didn’t mind. We went to the Cederbergen area, to a remote little place called “Suikerbossie”. We had a braai (not a barbecue because that runs on charcoal or brickets in stead of wood) and beer, and tried some fishing. I even bought a fishing rod and hooks and bait and all that, to do the proper fishing thing. I had tried fishing before in my life, but without the proper gear and no success (not sure if it’s correlated), so I went all out this time. The prey was yellow fish, and I am still not sure whether that refers to its behaviour or its colour. In a fishing manual it said that this type of fish usually bites between midnight and 6 am. And sure enough, almost at the exact stroke of midnight, we finally had movement on our lines. Two fish at the same time bit the bait on our two rods. Unfortunately our coordination was left to be desired at that time, on the account of us having to wait so long and having had a drink or two. I’ll rephrase: we were too drunk to reel in the fish. We broke one line, and on the other a fish the size of my under arm slipped out of our hands. But off hand, the best fishing experience I ever had.
Next to that, we went to a gorgeous little gorge not so far from where we camped. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
An other big event worth spending some ink on is my visit to Maputo. One of the projects I have been working on evolves around contract negotiations with the terminal in the capital of Mozambique. It wasn’t a long trip, and not far either, but it was an interesting experience. We only spend one night there, and were of course focused on the meeting at hand so it was not like I was able to explore the city. Still it was very clear that Maputo is in a whole different category than Cape Town. Buildings and roads seem to be crumbling down. Quite a few roads were tarred before, but are turning into sand roads again. Here and there are potholes, some so big you could lose a 4x4 vehicle in it. Service in bars and restaurants is even slower than in South Africa.
As most countries in Africa, Mozambique is struggling with widespread corruption, lack of education, failing government apparatus and virtually no public infrastructure (roads, trains, waterways,…). I saw the clichés of lack of planning and low sense of urgency confirmed. All of this is very present in the terminal as well. I’ll illustrate with some anecdotes next to the pictures.
The terminal does not have good paving, in general. Causing basic problems as you can see in the picture.
These gentlemen work for Damco (a sister company) and were at the terminal to sort out an issue with a bulk delivery of coal. The bags were broken. To illustrate the lack of planning: there was no dedicated area for bulk goods, they just dropped the bags where there was space and it was convenient.
Below you can see how the wheels of a tractor are slipping. The tractor had to push a couple of train wagons forward, because they did not seem to have a proper engine train. The big buldozer did not have problems pushing the lot forward.
A bulk delivery of sulfur ( a toxic if I'm not mistaken) was piled up somewhere in the terminal. The wind blew it around freely.
The two cranes are quite old and need some work. The terminal has very big plans to change the infrastructure and the way they work. Soon the improvements will be visible.
If you want to see more pictures on both events, please go to this album and the other
Take care!
W.
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