South Africa #25

The main industry in this area is forestry and game. They trees they harvest are eucalyptus and pine, an odd combination for sure. It’s weird to see a big old bull pine beside a eucalyptus tree. 

The weather is overcast today, and a few raindrops. We’ve been lucky so far, the rainy season is about to begin in a couple of weeks, so fingers are crossed for good weather. By 8:30 it’s all burned off and the sky is blue.

Tonight is a camping night, and the guide cooks for us, so our first stop was a mall in Jeffries Bay so that Wellington (the guide) and Allan (the driver) could pick up the groceries for dinner and the next mornings breakfast. I know that I seem  fixated on food, and that’s because I am fixated on food. What we eat, how we eat, where we eat and with whom we eat is an integral part of what makes us who we are and makes the world go around. 

Food is pretty cheap here. A good lunch, including coffee or a glass of wine is maybe R80 which at today’s rates is about $10 Cdn. Grocery stores are even cheaper. Yesterday I bought a banana, a bottle of orange juice, a little container of yogurt, a giant cinnamon bun, a Kit-Kat bar (it was lemon and mango flavour...how could I not?) a tiny bag of shortbread cookies, a fresh bun and 2 of those instant coffee cappuccino things for in the room tonight. It came to less than $6 Cdn. I like it when we get to buy our own lunch fixings at a store and eat outside. Almost all the breakfasts are included and quite a few dinners, but no lunches. 

Anyhow, the groceries were procured and we are on our way to Addo Elephant Reserve.

Alan, the driver, is pushing the cart, he is from Limpopo. Wellington is in the camo, he is our guide and is from Zimbabwe.

Every mall has a McDonald’s in the parking area, as well as a KFC. As I said before, we could be in Anytown, North America. The stores are similar as well, instead of dollar stores, they have The Crazy Store. They do have Woolworth’s, but they are much higher end than ours, they’re similar to a Hudson’s Bay. 

Also lots of wind farms. It’s a windy country...sometimes I think I could be in Lethbridge, Alberta. My once lovely and sleek hair is now a colourful Brillo pad. ☺️

There are a lot of gated communities in this area, huge and populated by whites only. I still am surprised at the division between white, black and coloured people. We’ve been told that even though apartheid is in the past, it will take generations upon generations to actually accept that fact.

We see a lot of hitchhikers, and a white man will pick a black hitchhiker up, if he is driving a pick-up. The black man won’t be allowed to ride in the front, he will be in the box of the truck. And if the driver has dogs in the back, they’ll move into the cab of the truck and the hitchhiker will ride in the box. There is such a line between the races, and it’s not a fine line.