Since Cricket, Quiche and luggage I started my day early in the morning having slept a lot better. My cold seems to have dissipated substantially. This allowed me to sit outside my tent in the morning sunshine and write about the previous days’ experience. I used my Thinkpad to write with.
Terry came over to wish us all well as it was his last day before going home. Having met my parents here at the resort, and through conversations, it was determined that he, in fact, lives very close to my parents back in South Port. We had been experiencing increased “load shedding” in the prior days having been upgraded from stage 3 to stage 4 which meant that there were increased periods of blackouts due to no electricity.
My father says that the electricity provider, Eskom cannot provide the same level of electricity to all areas of the country all the time. This is partly due to the inability to adequately fuel the power generators. This is further explained by the recent discovery within the government of large scale corruption and diversion of funds(stealing basically) from industries like electricity, which has resulted in a crippled infrastructure. One interesting and the unfortunately dire situation is that the criminals involved, bought mines as investments, and in collusion with the corrupt president signed deals enforcing that the electricity provider was to receive all their fuel from these mines. The mines provided sub-par quality fuel and as a result(along with other effects within the industry and government at large) the electricity provider’s service has degraded to such an extent that load shedding is a reality that all residents of the country must live with.
All throughout Africa, the inability to deal with power and responsibility has resulted in the sub-par quality of service, enablement of corruption and theft of money. Unfortunately, the problems are widespread and it seems that only a minority that feels that it is outrageously immoral while the rest seems to consider it to be the way it is. And perhaps this lowering of expectations will result in the average quality of all services to reflect throughout Africa once and for all. Terry brought the newspaper. Along with it, he amusingly reflected that the reasons given by the government as to why load shedding had progressed to stage 4 as recently as highlighted in the newspaper, was because it had rained in Mozambique – something to do with how this affected the Hydro-electric power generator (South Africa purchase electricity from them). We all found this ridiculous and laughable, which I think is the situation many South Africans find themselves doing to cope with the problems encountered by inept management, that being the government.
After that quick discussion and a cup of tea with us, Terry wished us all well before leaving for home. He’d been in the park for a month.
My dad and I decided it would be good to go for a walk and so we casually made our way towards the wilderness on the edge of the park. We took an alternative route to that which I took with my mother the previous day and on our travels, we came across a group on horses being guided through the park. It was a sedate affair and very obviously a service to cater for novice riders from abroad.
It’s a place of incredible South African beauty and merely being present is an act of liberating the soul. The mountains are so close and tower up majestically before us. My dad says around the Mountains and the sea is when he is the happiest. I can understand why. In many respects, these wilder, more remote places are escapes from the mediocrity and problems throughout the majority of built-up South Africa. Unfortunately, the issues that affect the constant supply of electricity, a tenant of civilization, affects everyone.
As our walk back, I decided to take my dad for breakfast and we sat along with other guests outside. We admired the overlooking water and water animals including the Egyptian geese, which we noticed had about 5 little ducklings. My father noted that they could not be older than about 4 weeks old as they were very small. They huddled between mother and father goose as they drifted across the lake. There are self-catering accommodations that overlook other dams on the resort and I notice how they could cast a line from their balconies to fish if they wanted to. Quite luxurious.
After perusing the menu, my father ordered a breakfast wrap, which included bacon and eggs and a side salad along with a teapot of rooibos tea. I ordered an Omelette with mushrooms, Spinach, Peppers and onions – along with a decaf cappuccino. I figured while on holiday I should perhaps be a little unconventional.
I found myself later asleep on a lounger under the tree, between our tents – my tent and my parents tend are a short distance from each other. It seems the midday meal my mother prepared for me(also an omelette) along with the day’s activities seemed to have caught up with me. I woke to find an Ibis (affectionally called ‘Pegleg’ by Terry) hobbling nearby. Unfortunately, the careless fisherman had left a fishing line around and it had wrapped around the bird’s leg. It has not tightened and is causing damage. This is why he/she hobbles. It’s a sad and unfortunate situation.
I tried, along with some help from my parents, to catch it but as a wild bird, it had quick reactions to any sudden movements. The idea is that we could cut it free of its restraint.
As the day wound up, I suggested that my mom and I go down to the dam and that she might keep me company while I ordered dinner. We sat near the dam’s edge, and I ordered food. The view was breath-taking because all around us in a semi-circular fashion rose the imminent mountains, almost like spectators looking in on us. The clouds and sun caressing the mountain edges at the top, while the water and water birds made up the rest of the configuration in front of us. We talked at length about many philosophical ideas and concepts and took the time to help each other explore them. The scenery seems to be a fitting platform for this conversation.
During our long and detailed discussions down at the dam’s edge, and having left my dad up at the tent, we made our way back. I had ‘buffalo wings’ and a Stir-fry vegetable dish with strips of chicken. We sat outside the tent and as they cover of darkness fell we discussed all manner of things generally. My dad and I decided to head to the showers and started to prepare for bed.
As an aside, my mother has determined that the surrounding cooing pigeons (turtle doves and/or ring-necked doves) sound like they are saying "let's party, lets party, lets party" or depending on their call, "Want popcorn, want popcorn" and "Hey Guys, let's watch TV, Hey guys lets watch TV..."