Category: this is south africa

Let’s do this again

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14 years on, and we haven’t learned a thing.

We’re supposed to be grown-ups. Adults. And yet, at 6pm this evening, we’ll head out onto the pitch for another potentially epic 5-a-side football game against some other supposed adults.

Nothing wrong with that, you might think – if you aren’t in Cape Town, that is, because if you are in Cape Town then you know very well that there’s something very wrong with it – because it’s rather warm out.

Really actually quite warm already.
Almost bordering on hot, one could argue.

And, as I alluded to above, there’s history here. And it really isn’t pretty.

It was horrible. One of the worst footballing experiences of my life. Within 2 minutes of running around, I was gasping, drenched through with sweat, and feeling dizzy and nauseous. These, even by Cape Town standards, were extreme conditions. The ball wasn’t even flying through the air properly. I felt truly awful.
Some sort of sense of self-preservation should probably have kicked in here. But it didn’t. And so, with a couple of breaks, we continued to toil for an hour. What utter, utter idiots.

We all (mostly) remember (some of) that day.
I think my therapist called it PTSD: Phenomenal Temperature, Stupid Decision.

And it’s already 6 degrees warmer today than it was back on that day in February 2012.

Common sense says that they call the games off this evening. At best, it’s going to be extremely unpleasant, at worst, it could actually be dangerous. But they probably won’t. And that being the case, common sense says that we should forfeit the game. But that’s absolutely not how we roll, and I grudgingly have to respect our determination. Even though we’re clearly being very daft here.

I really wouldn’t recommend such bravado though.
To coin Wilfred Owen:

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro manus mori.

The game is still going ahead as I write this.

See you on the other side, I guess.
And yes, you can choose any meaning of that phrase that seems fit.

MBGA

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Absolutely no need for this sort of nonsense from our local supermarket.

“American inspired”, “Texas style” burgers:  whatever. We know that the US – and Texas – are famed for their butchery*.

But I don’t think that they’re doing themselves any favours by then trying to use a divisive political slogan to help sell their patties.

Honestly, apart from the political connotations, the suggestion that my burgers weren’t already great is a little disrespectful.

I don’t need my supermarket’s assistance with that. I don’t need any pseudo-transatlantic assistance either.

And I’m certainly not buying anything with that slogan on it.

* I mean of cows, not people in the Middle East.

Kirstenbosch wander

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A couple of hours in the sun at Kirstenbosch this afternoon, before the upcoming Matthew Mole concert made things loud and busy.

A few lizards and mice around. Plenty of birds, including a rather hungry Cape Sugarbird (Promerops cafer) and some very pretty, very dainty Black Saw-wings (Psalidoprocne pristoptera)

A few kilometres and some very nice fresh air was just what I needed after an unexpectedly boozy evening out last night and a very necessary lie-in this morning.

Now it’s back to real life with some household chores and a bit of FA Cup football.

The Suiderstrand Log

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If you walk down onto the beach at Suiderstrand and take a right turn, following the coastline along and into the Agulhas National Park, you’ll come across a large log on the beach, about 1½km towards the cottages out at Piet se Punt. Just next to the rocky outcrop know locally as “The Washing Machine”.

It is a big log, so big in fact, that you can see it from space (with a bit of zooming in on Google Maps).

And it featured on my Instagram post “Dog On A Log”, featuring a dog on the log, back in August 2019:

It’s been there for as long as we’ve been going to Suiderstand, and that’s 17+ years. And now, thanks to a bit of research, I found out that it’s actually been there from about the turn of the century, after a Swiss-owned, Panamanian-registered, 24,732 dwt freighter, the MV Sanaga, sank off the south of Madagascar on October 11th 1999.

What? Give us the details, please.

With pleasure.

The MV Sanaga was built in 1979 and was carrying a cargo of logs (see where this is going?) and stainless steel from Durban to China. The logs were teak and mahogany from West Africa, each one about 10m long and each weighing around 20 tonnes.

The MV Sanaga got into trouble, began taking on water and issued a Mayday call. The crew of 26 Indian nationals abandoned ship and were picked up by a passing Japanese container vessel.

The freighter was subsequently presumed foundered. And it seems reasonable that it took the steel down with it, while the logs… well… floated.

But that posed its own problems. The Agulhas current dragged the logs southwards and westwards along the coast of South Africa, where they caused many issues. In January 2000, at Blue Horizon Bay, near PE (as was), a woman and her grandson, playing in the surf, were seriously injured when a wave brought one of the logs down on them:

Iloma Cilliers was helping her grandson, Mark-Anthony Mayhew, out of the water when a wave lifted the huge log on to them and crushed them into the sand.
Cilliers’s husband, Lowie, dug them out and they were treated for serious injuries in the intensive care unit of a Port Elizabeth hospital.

While elsewhere on the Eastern Cape coast, a 10 year old boy was knocked unconscious by a log while swimming, and sadly drowned.

Reports had been received of at least two other children who had suffered head injuries from being hit by logs in the surf at another Port Elizabeth beach.

They also posed a huge danger to shipping all around the South coast of the country.
Several logs washed up in False Bay: at Cape Point, Strandfontein, St James, Kalk Bay and Fishhoek.

And – as we now also know – further east, in Suiderstrand.

As they found out in Fishhoek, you need a large crane to be able to shift these logs. Which makes this seem a bit silly:

Johan Scheepers, a customs and excise official, said people should not remove the logs from the shore: anyone wanting to salvage material washed up on a beach has to obtain a salvage permit and pay 15 percent duty on the value of the object. The logs are believed to be worth thousands of rands each.

Not something you’re going to be able to quietly slip into your back pocket. And since The Suiderstrand Log is in a National Park, not something you’d be allowed to quietly slip into your back pocket anyway.

That weight, and hardwood being what it is (hard), despite the very best efforts of the South Atlantic Ocean, and although there has been a lot of weathering over the last 26 years, it’s clear that the Suiderstrand log isn’t going anywhere soon.

WANT MORE LOCAL HISTORY?
Other stuff that has washed up on the Cape coast from shipwrecks: Rubber Bales.

Sirens and Smoke

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That might mean something else if you were in the Middle East right now, but it’s very much the South and the West of the continent that I’m talking about here. At the moment, hidden away in our little corner of Africa – away from all the sirens and the smoke – seems to be a very good place to be.

Until later today, that is. Because we’re going to have both. But, once you’ve read this post, you’ll know that they’re really nothing to worry about and you can reassure your friends, family and colleagues.

First of all, the sirens. Koeberg Nuclear Power Station will be doing their annual full volume siren test between 10am and 12pm today. You’ll (hopefully) hear it if you’re in any one of the following areas:

Atlantis, Duynefontein, Melkbosstrand, Van Riebeeckstrand, Philadelphia, Bloubergstrand, Bloubergrandt, West Beach, Sunningdale, Parklands, Robben Island and the farms surrounding Koeberg Nuclear Power Station.

Full details here.

There will be a public address message before the sirens, informing you that it’s a test, but just in case you miss that bit, I’m telling you that it’s a test, so you don’t need to panic.

And don’t panic if you see some smoke in the South later today. Weather permitting, there will be a controlled burn in the Westlake Nature Reserve at the junction of Ou Kaapse Weg and Steenberg Road.

I’ve seen another map with lots of fire hydrants marked on it, and I’m sure that the guys in charge of this know what they’re doing. So don’t stress when you see the smoke rising over Tokai (Constantia?).
At least, not today.

More information here, but it’s mainly “keep your doors and windows closed” and “don’t put your washing out”. Sensible, if rather mundane, advice.

So there you go. Chill. Nothing to worry about today.

Unless, of course, you hear sirens in Tokai and see smoke over Koeberg Nuclear Power Station.
That wouldn’t be good. Then you can panic.

Lots.