We’re at Day 52 of the South African Lockdown, one of the most draconian in the world! We’ve had a tiny bit of relief, with the ability to go out for a walk between 6-9 am. And more stores are open and the “designated allowable clothing” list has expanded.

But so many of the rules and regulations are completely illogical - why can I buy boots but no shoelaces? A new cell phone but no sim card? And still no booze and I had my last gin two nights ago, a very sad state of affairs!

We are supposedly going to Level 3 by the end of the month, or that’s a maybe as this area is considered a hotspot so we may or may not be able to move on. We still don’t even know what restrictions are going to be removed. Just hoping the exercise times will be extended as it is dark at 6am and now winter is just about here, it’s freezing in the morning. And as I had originally planned to be back in the States about now, did not plan for winter clothes, which means I will have to go shopping, which is now allowed, if I can navigate around the roadblocks. Which are manned by not just police, but army as well.

If and when we get to Level 3, apparently there may be some internal flights running. Under the present rules of lockdown, we can’t cross city/metro/municipality/provincial lines which has limited any ideas of getting repatriation flight back to the US, as those flights go from Jo’burg or Cape Town. So I am hoping that at some stage, if any more flights are announced, I can possibly get on one. But not holding my breath.

I’ve been out most mornings walking at the Ashburton Training Center, about 2 minutes down the road from here. It’s a beautiful spot and most mornings the race horses are on the tracks being worked. At the most, I have seen 4 other people out walking and because it is quite remote, I went into town and bought pepper spray that I carry in my pocket. This morning it was so misty that I didn’t walk the whole trail as I didn’t feel too safe out there by myself in the mist, in the bush!

A couple of mornings ago, I saw the dazzle of zebra (love that term) that live in the area. They sort of watched me for a few minutes, but then decided it was time to leave. What a treat that was! The area also has a huge variety of birds, which of course, I can’t name!

Betsy, Mardelle and I have a fun, long-distance project going on. We are writing a “book” or “novel” or whatever you want to call it. Mardelle started the first chapter, sent it to me and I wrote a chapter and then I sent it to Betsy, who did the same and sent it on to Mardelle. Of course, it’s hilarious and there’s no way to plan your next piece as you have no idea what the others have written until it ends up in your inbox a few days later. We each have it for 48 hours, which keeps the momentum going. It’s really fun and I look forward to my “turn.”

Who knows? Maybe it should be a serial, published online? Or maybe, if we ever come to end, we’ll publish it. But in the meantime, it really is something to look forward to in this very trying time.