My Trip to South Africa -3 South Africa has miles and miles of open space. Just feel the expanse around you as the Garden Route takes you from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town. Let your eyes soak in the different shades of green, punctuated by squares of mustard - brilliant yellow. The sea, a constant companion on your left. Stop off-road as you ascend a mountain and see a whale flip its tail in the tranquil blue Indian Ocean down below. Dolphins...One there..... did you see? Clouds reach half way up the jagged mountains that stretch all around. The road is a gentle roller coaster as the powerful Mercedes glides over it - 40 kms. above the allowed speed limit of 120. The speed-trap cameras are watching. One catches us – that’s a fine of 1200 Rand. My host who is driving, takes the loss in his stride. In fact there’s a hint of pride in his voice as he tells me he’s never travelled this 750 kms stretch without paying a fine for speeding. In case some of you get the wrong idea, he’s not drinking. Doesn’t touch the stuff when he’s driving. Not being bound by any such restrictions, I continue to sip the A as the countryside rolls past. Red cows and white sheep graze inside fenced meadows. Lonely farm houses and rows of shiny silos dot the landscape. At George, take a right turn off the freeway and course over a high mountain towards an ostrich farm where a rather charming young lady enlightens us on the life and times of an African ostrich. They are farmed like cattle and every bit of the bird is useful, says the girl. She’s about 25 and in the full bloom of youth. Her sparkling teeth give her a sleek look. I avert my eyes and go back to thinking about ostriches. It seems they are greedy, aggressive, and constantly horny. So What’s new? asks my hazy brain as more A enters my B (body!). Life turns rosy but the clouds ahead have darkened as we close in on our next destination, the Congo Caves which our friend insists we must see. A guide escorts our group inside the maze of the caves etched out by the ocean which then retreated millions of years ago and left these amazing formations of rock. We enter a hall big enough to accommodate a 1000. Sound becomes surreal as it bounces off the grotesque shapes of rock that surround us. Huge faces look down on us with malevolent expressions. Never a fan of enclosed spaces, I am glad when we are out in the open sunlight. A tuna sandwich later, we are speeding to rejoin the N2 going westwards to Cape Town with the setting sun in our eyes. (to be continued)
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 03:26:02 +0000
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