In 100 days time we will hit the road for a 7000km journey through South Africa, Botswana and Namibia and talking of journeys how about this; We were down at Great Brak River visiting my sister Loraine and her husband, that's my Brother-in-Law, Cedric and upon arriving back home in Knysna on Saturday afternoon I get this SMS from a friend who I have not seen for 43 years, Graham Duncanson, we played rugby together for Mombasa Sports Club and Nondescripts RFC in Nairobi, Kenya. Graham is asking us to join him for dinner that night in George some 50 kms away back the way we have come and we declined the invite, but asked him what he was doing on Sunday, he replied he would be in Mossel Bay just 50 kms down the road from George and he gave the name of the hotel and suggested a late lunch which we agreed to.
On Sunday morning we get a message saying he cannot find the hotel, no problem we say, we will go into Google and phone him back with directions, we tell him that from where he is he will have to go back up the road he had just gone down, this is about 12h00 and he says; "oh no I am knackered and need to get some sleep in the afternoon once I find the hotel before we meet up with him at 15h00" Denise and I look at one another and say he has just driven 50 kms from George and his knackered, either he is very old, or he had a heavy night.
The next message is that he is at a different hotel and a late lunch is still on. Well we meet up and I see a sprightly man who has not changed a lot in the intervening 43 years. We are half way through lunch when it transpires that he has been cycling from the UK to Cape Town, now we can understand why he was knackered and why he declined to follow our directions back up the hill to his original hotel destination. He told us he had skipped a couple of countries like Egypt and the Sudan because of unrest, but still quite an achievement at 75 years old and travelling largely on his own. So our journey is not half as adventurous as Grahams.
It is really great to meet up with people that you have lost contact with and taking a trip down memory lane with them. I must add that he had met up with a couple of visitors at his George hotel and had a few drinks until two in the morning so we were right about one of the reasons he was knackered.
Talking of memories and storing them, because, guess what, memories do have a habit of failing us as we age, well some of us. However, we have in the past either using the blog material or a write up by yours truly to record the trip including photo's given them to a friend who produces a wonderful album very professionally done. It beats having photos all over the place on computers, phones, etc: We often look at these travel books and enjoy the trip all over again. Only one word of advise do a spell and grammar check before you go to print as writing up a daily blog post after driving 500+kms a day is just looking for mistakes to happen and they are with you for life so "Edit before Print"
Here in Knysna we have had a busy Eater with lots of visitors/tourists visiting Knysna and the Garden Route we have had everything from Yacht, Running, Mountain Bike and Road Bike races as well as a walking festival. In Sedgefield they had their Slow Festival which was very well supported.
Like many other places around South Africa we had marches on the 7th April attended and supported by the community urging President Zuma to stand down. As a member of the black community said to me "at least Zuma is bringing unity to large portions of the Country"
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| Some of the marchers on Main Street Knysna |
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| Some of last years LGBTQ contestants |
26th April to 1st May: LGBTQ - Pink Lourie Mardi Gras and Art Festival
30th April - Knysna Motor Show - Classic Cars and Motorbikes back to the 30's up to 2017
4th May to 7th May - Jaguar Simola Hill Climb, different categories of cars climb this twisty hill climb of 1.9kms (Last winner took just 38.6sec topping 179.99kms per hour.
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| Have a Lovely Day |
