Sparks and Sunsets!
Ah so here I find myself in Sunny Cape Town. The first night turned out to be what my most gracious host, Brian, called Tsunami weather! He said he had never – in 50 odd years – seen such wind. While I didn’t get much sleep that first night I did go to bed giggling at his serious face and Tsunami warning comments!
Eager to get the worst out of the way the Cape now presents us with very pleasant warm autumn weather. Oh wait… I’m not here on holiday! So these are some of my amusing first impression of the “Mother City”.
As a person hailing from Gauteng, driving a rented car registered in Durban, and pottering about in Cape Town, I think I have now all 3 major cities covered!
Let me first discuss the Chevy Spark I hired! It is rather a strange little cheap car. It is rather nippy and I find it hard to believe it may only be an 800cc. This is the rumour! I keep meaning to poke around in the car’s documentation to check. It certainly goes fairly well for a small engine.
It dents at first glance and handles the slightest corners with the slow grace of a large, upright ,elderly piano missing a caster wheel. This is quite possibly because it really has the shape of an upright piano, similar aero dynamics, and the wheels are equally as large. I think my Mini Station Wagon has larger wheels!
So for a tin can it really is not bad car unless you are driving through a Tsunami! Not advisable for those afflicted with sea sickness.
My next impression is how fast everyone drives. Perhaps these are all the drivers that have moved from Gauteng and have still not lost the bad habits? It seems no one pays any attention to the speeding cameras or little children. All are just left to fend for themselves and scuttle out of the way.
The weather has been magnificent and it is hard to believe that in the next few weeks start the dreaded winter months filled with spiteful wind, driving rain, and wetness under foot. I shall be moving in what is apparently the worst month. Ah isn’t my life just always exciting as a gripping mini series… or perhaps a horror story?
The best part of this segment of the expedition that is my life is that it is essentially a one way trip through life. With leaving the big city life behind, I am also finding out who are the people I can really trust to be among my friends. Who extends the arms of welcome or the embrace of departure and who is too busy to do “lunch”.
So as I bid farewell to Johannesburg I give a warm hello and hug to those in Cape Town that are making this move so much more pleasant and easier than it might have been!
Who could not live in such beauty?
