There’s nothing (much) happening in the Northern Cape. And this article is about the Northern Cape. There are no bright lights and swag. Your tea will not be brought at the same time as your cake, so please stop asking! And you will find mosquitoes in Carnarveron. Many. Like tiny drones hiding to ambush you upon the closing of the weary eye,
Category: Travel
An analysis of Wonder.
For about two weeks after my return, one of the only answers I could give about my trip was that it was hot. It’s the truth, and if you were to look at a map you would notice that Malaysiais approximately two degrees north of the Equator. Humid too: which seemed to stunt. My. Thoughts…and promote a general sense of laziness, especially when required to walk anywhere. It’s surprising how a physical feeling or sensation will be the one that your memory records as having the most significance. Now though, sitting in an air-conditioned office, Malaysia is no longer hot. A more apt definition would be ‘tropically wonderful’.
One Day in Mauritius
Lying in a hammock, you listen to leaves move in the tree above you, as you thank for a cocktail that’s brought by an obliging waiter. The resort is everything you dreamed of and paid for; pristine and untouched…yet what of life beyond the boundaries of your quiet haven?
The Snow Witch and the Drum
Growing up, Switzerland was the countryside and landscape to which everything unique and quaint was compared. ‘Look at that mountain, we ‘maze well be in the Alps’. Swiss beauty thus formed idealistically in my girlhood imagination, and finally the opportunity presented herself like a flower in spring.
Kenya: a Colonial Aftermath
As I write this opening paragraph, I am sitting on my bed, overlooking the Mara River. There are hippo snorting water out their nostrils, and bugs (I’m guessing crickets) calling to one another. A cool breeze passes through my tented room, and the feeling is that of the18th century colonial, having conquered Africa, writing to those back home in an endeavour to paint the picture of a landscape, people and tongue they could never have imagined. Just over the horizon, clouds amass in a bulky fluff, white at the top yet heavy and dark towards the bottom…the condensation of a pending raincloud. Above my head, the tent groans and moves slightly with the wind; as do the leaves, responding to the movement of an African afternoon.
Camps Bay Retreat
Hidden between two natural ravines, there is an estate on which a Manor ‘to be envied’ was built. Quote: Cape Argus December 1929. And that reporter did not lie.Not just envied though, I would say ‘to be coveted’.
Darling: you are Beautiful.
So arriving at the coastline we hopped off our bikes and strolled towards the water’s edge: a beach deserted, touched only by a few rays of the setting sun- expansive. And all the way along, we found evidence of the San having etched out a living in the area: a chipped and chiselled stone (which most likely would have been used as a knife to cut food with). On this stretch of Biosphere coastline, history breathed a story.
Natal, oh to be Loved.
If Natal were personified, I don’t think she would know her own beauty. Her wild charm would cry out to the unsuspecting passer-by: love me if you dare, but I don’t care if you do or not. She would run, and not turn around to see who was chasing, or pursuing. To her, it would be the same thing. She would call your name and if you didn’t respond: she would look to the sky, and know inherently her own inner strength and will of character. That would be Natal. Sun-bathed, content but above all…free.
Www.Feel-Argentina.co.ar
Argentina: moving, divinely acute and desperately real. People are so different here, and while you can photograph landscapes and architecture of grandeur; it’s the Argentinians that draw you in. Seeming to have positioned themselves in relation to the ‘elixir of life’, there is an acute awareness of the simplicity thereof as well as its’ importance; pure enjoyment.