Woolly necked stork sunning him/herself
Another move, this time to Kloof, the town where I was born and grew up. Obviously, a lot has changed but it’s easy to get around, no need for Waze, as I remember the street names and how to get where I am going!
“Old Kloof” looks much the same, the lovely old tree-lined streets, the enormous houses with tennis courts and swimming pools. But now, most are enclosed by razor-wire-topped fences and fortified gates. Windows are burglar-guarded and all doors have “trellidors” or metal expanding gates that are kept locked most of the time. But it’s not at fortified as where I was with Mick, where there are alarm beams crisscrossing entrances and doors always kept locked.
But if you (or I) can get beyond the fortifications, my little place is good. It’s in a very quiet, old area, a big plus for me. It’s pretty much a big studio with separate kitchen and bathroom. The owner’s house is one of the original farms in the area and my place used to be the stables. Both are constructed of stone, so the walls are really thick, which is a plus in the summer but lends to a chilly place in winter! The full-length verandah looks out over an old garden which is populated with troops of monkeys! And a pair of woolly-necked storks who seem very tame, coming right on to the veranda. Beautiful show offs.
Yesterday, as I was sitting at the computer, I heard a very weird noise, looked up and there was a monkey climbing through the burglar guards in to the kitchen! She was very annoyed as I shooed her out because the bananas were almost within her reach! So I either have to hide the food or keep windows closed! I think I will probably hide the food!
International? Not likely…
With international travel still off the books, and no return in sight, I expect I’ll remain in South Africa until next year. And after that? I have no idea. It’s impossible to make any plans but I’m pretty sure that remaining here, permanently, is probably not ideal. It ticks some of the boxes for me: inexpensive to live, great climate. But the instability of this government, the crime and corruption that is eating away at it is so blatant and rife that even my family, die-hard South Africans who love this country with a passion, are looking at options. With the infrastructure crumbling, businesses are battling, which was happening before adding the pandemic into the mix, the future here looks very dim.
As an example of mismanagement and crumbling infrastructures: Mick, my brother owns a property that includes a factory and a whole lot of storage units. Ten days (or so) ago, the power failed (again) rendering the security system non-operational. The power supply that serves the area also serves the hospital, which fortunately has a generator, which kicked in to keep essential services running.
So first night of outage, a break in. The next few days... yes, days and days, no power. His security system does operate on batteries for a while before they need recharging. Calls to the electricity supplier and municipality proved fruitless and no one answered the phones. Bear in mind, these are government entities. Two days into the outage, the streets were shut down by “protestors” burning tires in the roads. They wanted the power back on.
Well... the power supply substation was completely destroyed by a fire due to overloading of the circuits caused by illegal connections to the overhead power lines! Yep! 220v lines and people climbing the poles to hook up to power (a lot of crispy critters/people are lost every year!)
After a week, some sort of generator was brought in to supply the area, on a rotational basis. It may or may not be fixed now. In the meantime, extra security guards had to be brought in to protect the property and new solar panels installed securely, as if they are too accessible, they will be stolen. And no one seems to care.
This country is quickly slipping into rotten banana republic status. It’s so sad to see and experience the demise of a once well-run, progressive country that had everyone hoping and praying that Mandela’s legacy and wisdom would provide enough impetus to propel the country forward into 21st Century.
Unfortunately, that has not happened and the country is on a very slippery slope, with no soft landing in sight.
Some Relief
But aside from all this shit going on, some of the restrictions are being lifted, allowing for intra-provincial travel and some lodges and hotels may open. Which means I may be able to take some trips to the game reserves. And go to the beach! The weather is gorgeous, it’s a lot warmer here, thank goodness.
The Aloe Festival is live as of yesterday and it was quite a mission to get there. I learned a lot about making videos and also not to offer to help on a website with an absolutely awful website builder software! It looks good and getting quite a bit of attention so hope there are lots of donations to fund Lucky Hardlife, the game guard.
Being a Teetotaler Doesn’t Suit Me
Oh, and I have a “source” for gin! (Whew) I visited a local distillery last week and they gave me 4 bottles! I will post the story when done and I hope to visit the rhum distillery I visited before the shutdown. They are involved in an extensive social responsibility program that I want to cover. And if I can get up the north coast, will try to visit the rhum distillery Zoze and I went to 3 1/2 years ago.