New Year 2014 - Johannesburg, South Africa
Johannesburg, South Africa
Africa 1-1-2014
A new year.
After a lovely stay at Bushwillows farm in the Waterberg (Limpopo) I drove to Johannesburg via Brits airfield in order to meet Nigel Hopkins and Mark "Bugs" Hensman, two aerobatic pilots here.
I celebrated the year amongst the Singh family in Bedfordview, Johannesburg.
Far away from home, yet feeling home.
In the kitchen we exchanged cooking knowledge. I love Indian food even when it sometimes is a tiny bit too spicy. (According to Singh standardJ)
I made some Spanish Tapas. Esther (Zimbabwe) assisted me, “Ma Singh” cut the onion for my sauce and Rashita and Kombo (from Zimbabwe) tasted my Tapas.
In the afternoon Kombo has been “operating” on me with all kind of sharp tools and spanners in order to remove the left overs of some insect which had attacked my arm pit. Veneta almost fainted while watching. We laughed.
Jay, the going to be husband of Rashita was taking care of to major important things.
Music and firecrackers. We were the food team.
We danced, the locals say the Mzungu is not a bad dancer J to the rhythm of 70s and 80s music.
The first day of the new year started like it should be, a cloudless sky and lovely temperature. I had one goal for this day; finish the book I borrowed from Brenda Howett. The elephant whisperer from Lawrence Anthony. It has been 13 years ago I had a close encounter with an African Elephant myself and the impression that encounter had on me was immense. A few tons of wild animal accepting my presence in his space was unforgettable. Not often I have been feeling more safe than standing cloze to this elephant while he was sniffing me with his trunk.
One whipe would be enough to make me history.
The picture of this moment has a prominent place in my house. Good, very good memory. The reading of the elephant whisperer brings back so many memories of the dozens of safaris and game drives I did. The most fantastic imaginable lifestyle of a wildlife conservation couple, and their dogs.
I am in Africa now for a month. Started in Ruanda where I saw that dictatorship also has advantages, flying to Burundi where I learned a lot from Rob about this very poor country and where I played pool with my new friend Evrard, and meeting the Gorillas and Chimps in green Uganda.
Now in South Africa where I noticed that the people here suffer from more stress than they actually realize themselves.
Some moments are over in a flash, but leave a long lasting impression. One of the moments was the totally unexpected sighting of a big male Leopard in the middle of the day crossing our path in Uganda. The moment was so short and we were so stunned that I did not have the time to take a picture. (It will always stay in my mind).
Another moment was being in the middle of a Gorilla family. Another tick of my bucket list.
For the third time this trip I will meet Pieter who is, as I am writing now at level 370 buzzing the B-777 with 345 pax on board from SPL to JNB. The cold Windhoek is waiting for him.
Dev Howett invited us tomorrow to visit him at Springs airfield. I have flown quite a bit from this nice field when Dev borrowed me his Zlin 142 or made me fly the Sukhoi 31
We just picked up Pieter from JNB, one hr delay so it was quite late. His cold Windhoekkie was waiting. Funny enough, without knowing he had some Dutch gliderpilots on board.
Its Thursday now, I am on my first cappuccino at Nino's (Free internet) :-))))))))))))))
Another lovely day, clear blue skies and 29 degrees. (Celcius)