So I’ve been in Cape Town since last Saturday, and it’s rained every day. Every day it’s been so cloudy, cold and overcast that going up Table Mountain was out of the question.
So Wednesday was when my tour officially began, and it offically was to begin with Table Mountain! I woke early and threw open my room curtains and there it was: in a luminous pastel predawn blue sky without a cloud in the heavens!
Sadness comes in many forms. It lingers much longer than happiness. The new ZEITZ MOCAA museum in Cape Town displays Africa’s sadness so profoundly, I’m absolutely sure it will soon be recognized as one of the greatest art museums on earth.
Conceding that the museum is “likely to become the dominant arts institution on the continent,” the New York Times in a patently jealous critique worried that so much money ($38 million) had been spent on a single museum in an impoverished society.
What was MOMA’s budget last year? How many free tickets did MOMA give to Appalachians?
As I prepare for my next group arriving over the next few days, I suddenly realized similarities between a pivotal figure in South African history and President Trump.
At 17 years Cecil John Rhodes struck his fortune in Kimberly diamonds. A few years later he was one of the richest men on earth in the 1870s. Single-minded and ruthless, he used his fortune to rise up the political spectrum before dramatically crashing, but even today his statute stands promptly in Cape Town’s Company’s Garden park.
We wrapped up our 15-day trip to South Africa at the St. Lucia, iSimangaliso National Park. This was the first Unesco Heritage Site in the country and one of the most important wetlands in the world.
We just completed two nights at a lovely Drakensberg resort carved into a macadamia and lychee plantation that also grows and markets roses! The aromas – particularly now in spring – were fabulous!
Andre & Ilse van Heerden’s 100-acre farm rolls down from the lower hills of the Drakensberg into a small river. Their 12 raised canvas guest cabins all overlook the river. It was an extremely comfortable interlude, but the most interesting time was when Andre explained to me at dinner how Trump tariffs were destroying his macadamia business. And he exports most of his nuts to China!
Monday we spent touring what many South Africans consider the most beautiful part of their country, the “Panoramic Route.”
The route covers a part of the northern Drakensberg Mountain Range in the eastern part of the country. These are very small mountains by North American standards. The highest point, Thabana Ntlenyana, is just under 11,500′ on the border with Lesotho.
Rather than go directly from one private reserve to another, the standard MO of most upmarket safaris in South Africa, I took my group Sunday into Kruger National Park.
You mean many Americans on safari don’t visit Kruger National Park? One of the best managed wildernesses on earth and the oldest? That’s right. Here’s why.
I remember when I was a young guide in Kenya, in particular about forty years ago when showing Purdue alums the Maasai Mara. After the first game drive I took the driver aside and yelled at him because he hadn’t found us a rhino.
We’d seen two prides of lions, one with cubs, about 100 ele, maybe thousands of various kinds of antelope, and a cheetah… all in about 4 hours. But no rhino. I remember those days shamefully now, but as I once was myself, so are the majority of first-timers on safari today.
For the last two days and nights we’ve been traveling on South Africa’s luxury 1920’s thematic train, Rovos Rail. It’s a pleasant way to get from The Cape northwards, in our case as we prepare for a week of game viewing in the east of the country.
The water crisis in Cape Town is over … at least for now. Dam reservoir levels are at 62%, twice what they have been at this time for the last two years, and well above the average for the last decade.
Even so water use restriction remains in force and it’s both irksome (because of the current positive conditions) and understandable (because of climate change). It’s ironic that while being nearly rained out of several of our planned attractions, our hotel continues to forbid the use of the bathtub.
As I continue my journey through Cape’s paradise of Springtime, it becomes increasingly difficult to write instead of just show you pictures!
And I’m no photographer. Nothing but my old Android phone that’s now my “African phone.” Poorly focused, no sensitivity to settings, I just click away, endlessly.
The beauty is exceptional. This is The Cape’s Spring Flower Show, probably the greatest on earth, even better than western Australia. I’m in Piketberg, about 150 miles north of Cape Town near Citrusdal and the Cederberg Mountains. Very poor internet. Will do my best. Stay tuned!
The picture above is from the lead article of the very popular Daily Maverick. South Africans of every political stripe remain furious with Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump’s patent lying about them yesterday.
Parts of this lead story now follow, written by one of South Africa’s most colorful authors and filmmakers, Richard Poplak.
(“Oomie” and “Suidlander” are explained in full after the article below.)
Let’s say you’re the chief astronaut on the Mission to Mars. Let’s say you’re 4 months into your 7-month journey. Would you take an 8th grader’s advice on where to make the next turn?
The very complex and explosive issue of land redistribution in South Africa was horribly confused and totally exaggerated yesterday by a Tucker Carlson Fox News lie which Donald Trump picked up and tweeted. The Rand fell. South Africa is now more furious with America than ever. What’s going on America? Don’t you have enough to lie about?
“State Capture.” No, that’s not a Russian transliteration or a jeopardy clue for the boardgame, Risk. It’s a South African English phrase describing the nefarious control that mobsters, international arms dealers and flagitious politicians held over the South African Republic for 9 years.
The great State Capture public hearings began yesterday. The Zondo Commission (similis Mueller Commission) wants to prove that the former president, Jacob Zuma and his family, sold out their country for personal gain. Sound familiar, Yanks?