Daniel Eliasson

Sorry for the slow updates lately, but I’ve been in Johannesburg, and don’t have access to the internet from my own computer. Tomorrow we leave for a trip through Botswana, all the way up to the Caprivi strip, the small piece of Namibia that stretches out over northern Botswana, and from there also an excursion to the Victoria Falls, on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe (we’ll approach via Zambia).

Shortly put: hell yeah!

Here’s a map, link to larger version below:

View Winter 2009 trip: Johannesburg, Kruger, Botswana in a larger map

There was quite a stir here in Stellenbosch yesterday, when a lion came to town. The few remaining cape lions live in the Overberg region, past Franschhoek. The lions feed on bontebok and occasionally on wildebeest, mostly on young and wounded animals. In the winter, when there are no young boks, food can become scarce, and apparently this is what happened now, causing the pride to reject a young male lion. The lion then wandered in the mountainous regions until it eventually came to the outskirts of Stellenbosch. Since the cape lions are very endangered, the police couldn’t shoot the animal, but had to wait until staff from Cape Town’s Tygerberg Zoo could arrive and tranquilize it.

Warnings were sounded through the radio and via patrol cars to stay indoors, but when one of Reane’s classmates called from the Engineering building to tell us that you could see the lion from the department, we couldn’t help but go over to take a look. Lions don’t usually attack humans, and keep well away from cars, so we drove over to the department, and managed to snap a few shots of it before the cops came to chase us off:

The poor thing got scared by the commotion and sirens, and started roaring. They have quite powerful voices indeed; sounded like a chainsaw.

I never imagined I’d experience quite so African a moment as this in a town like Stellenbosch!

One Sunday, just over three weeks ago, we had a lovely summery day. We also had a couple of free entrance passes to the Kirstenbosch botanical garden in Cape Town, from when the twins ran the Two Oceans half-marathon.

Kirstenbosch is located near the UCT campus, on the eastern slope of Table Mountain, and is a marvellous botanical garden. Different vegetation areas include fragrant plants, edible plants, medicinal plants and, of course, Cape fynbos. A number of footpaths make their way up the mountainside, with big lawns suitable for picnics in between, and a very nice view over the southern suburbs of Cape Town.
View Kirstenbosch in a larger map

The sign says "African crops". Indeed.

We had packed a little picnic of sandwiches which we ate in the shade, and then explored the further areas of the garden. It turns out that Kirstenbosch ends into the Table Mountain reserve, with a little gravel road and a sign pointing towards the evocatively named Skeleton Gorge. We decided to follow this path, which made its way ever upwards through a thicket of fynbos that soon turned into forest proper.As the road twisted and turned, it also became somewhat less plakkie-friendly, and somewhere on the way we ran into a mother and her son, who were coming down from Skeleton Gorge. They warned us that the path ahead wasn’t really suitable without good shoes, and it was already becoming a bit late in the afternoon, so we just took the path that circled back down towards the gardens. It was still lucky that we went up on the hill, though, because we got some nice views from up there. As always, pictures can’t make it justice:

The southern suburbs of Cape Town.

Maybe this spring we’ll get some nice weather, and can go brave Skeleton Gorge, and from there make our way to the top of Table Mountain. Then we can take the cable car down, and have a drink. I’m looking forward to it already.

A picture of my girlfriend lying to me.

I came across this piece by one of News24’s readers: Emo kids deserve a klap. The missing sixties rears its head again. South African men who were beaten during initiation ceremonies take it out on the next batch of kids, and apparently can’t even live with the knowledge of someone not getting the same treatment several years later. Ag shame, man, the kids aren’t suffering enough?

The guy even seems to think the reason people are polite is because they got beat up. He also seems to think getting up when a woman enters the room is polite.

Anytime you feel like joining the 21st century, okay, Africa?

Money quote:

For thousands of years there has been some sort of initiation at schools, clubs, fraternities and the like. It’s just one of those things. Sure, it shouldn’t get completely out of hand but, hear this sympathy seekers, many great leaders of our time (most, in fact) went through rites of passage and turned out okay. It’s just one of those things and certainly not something you run to mom about.

Well argued.