About Germany

Every time I need to cross the North-South railway line to the East of our place, I curse the apartheid spatial planning system. Back then, the railway acted as a physical (but also a strong metaphorical) boundary between the more affluent suburbs and the less well off.
And yes, everything else that went with that divide.
The crossing points are few and far between, I’m guessing to make it actually quite difficult to traverse from one side to the other, and that’s still the case today. Even more so, in fact, given that there are far more cars on the road and thus the crossings become pinch points for jams and frustration.

It’s just one of the many ways that SA’s past is still visible each and every day, and although we’re getting somewhere, it will take years of continued hard work before anything close to parity and equality is achieved.

But that’s for another post.

And it won’t be written by me.

South Africa isn’t the only previously divided country though. Remember Germany? The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, but even though we’re now a whole generation and a bit on from there, and even though there are no restrictions on who goes where anymore, the divide between East and West clearly still exists. I came across this amazing collection of maps on this tweet, and I’ve popped the gif here as a video for your ease of viewing (it’s easier to pause):

It’s really interesting to look at each of the individual maps and try to work out what’s happening and why it’s happening, but it’s also fascinating to just let it play through and watch the border – which isn’t actually there, of course – perpetuated through all of those different habits, experiences, demographics and customs.

35 years is clearly nowhere near long enough to overcome decades of – in this case – communism (or, I suppose, if you want to look at it another way: capitalism. Although, back in the day, no-one was trying to flee to the East for a better life, now were they?)

Back once again

A much nicer flight home yesterday, passing over the Blyde River Canyon, OR Tambo International Airport, Ellis Park, the FNB Stadium, Fraserburg, Inverdoorn (and its nearby wind farm) and the Matroosberg Nature Reserve.

(There was a lot less snow yesterday.)
We probably went over a lot of other stuff as well, but I either wasn’t looking at it or didn’t recognise it.
As we swooped in for a northward landing, I did notice that there was Congestion Before Victoria.

Obviously.

A good trip in general, I think. I hope I got everything that they wanted. Many kilometres were covered. A few challenges, but there are always going to be a few challenges.
The cutest little airport. One dodgy hotel. One amazing hotel (thankfully in that order).
HEAT! Wildlife. Birds.

Potholes. Scenery. Friendly people. Interesting stories. HEAT! Much fruit. Some cracking biltong.

And now, back to it. A good night’s sleep last night, some catch-up at gym this morning – hard work after a week off – and while I did well over 10,000 steps each day, the opportunity and environment were wholly unsuitable for a run.

And today? Some decent coffee, maybe a beer or two, and the intention to watch a lot of football this afternoon.

How did we get here?

With all the analysts, experts and common sense telling us that SA is about to go to even more pot after the upcoming elections; with the UK in danger – allegedly – of becoming a failed state; with wars in the Middle East and the ex-Soviet Union (and everywhere else that we don’t get to hear about); with Trump looking like even a possibility for re-election in the US, you might be forgiven for wondering how on earth we ended up in this situation.

Alasdair Beckett-King (you may remember him from such posts as Day 417 – King Lear redux) is also rightfully incredulous:

The thing is, even though it’s quite clear what has actually brought us to this (Alasdair inadvertently touches upon it above, in case you were still wondering), realistically, it’s not like our collective idiocy is going to change anytime soon.

“Surely it can’t get any worse, though, right?” he asked for the 8,114th time in the last 5 years.

Over South Africa

You join me traversing South Africa. Bottom left to top right. I’m on a teeny tiny plane, and there’s “lots of weather all over South Africa”, according to the captain.

That’s not good, because we’re also very much all over South Africa.

It has been unpleasantly bouncy so far.

The inflight magazine contains the usual plethora of advertorials: guest houses and safari lodges dominate, but there was a beautiful juxtaposition of an industrial rock crushing equipment supplier across the page from a laser tooth whitening service.

To avoid disappointment (and possibly a lot of pain), please make sure you ring the correct number.

In the same magazine, there’s the usual puff piece about the airline you’re on, and how they’re better than the other airlines. They advertise some of those differences as being “more smiles”, which I’m fairly sure aren’t objectively quantifiable SI units, and the opportunity to “say goodbye to rigid itineraries”.

Really?

Is it just me that quite likes the idea of a rigid itinerary when booking travel tickets? I can’t imagine that it is. It’s literally one of the most important things that I’m after.

For example, I’m hopeful that my accommodation for this evening is fairly rigidly booked. It really wouldn’t be helpful for them to be flexible enough to be “just a day out”.

Could you maybe pop back tomorrow please, Sir?

We seem to have finally hit some clean air, over what I’m guessing is the southern Free State. This means that I can stop thinking about flight safety statistics and engineering tolerances as mind-over-matter means of combatting the mentally challenging effects of the turbulence.

Aaand it’s back already. That didn’t last long. Quite bad. Tumble drier on a rollercoaster stuff, if you remember that post about the Christchurch earthquake that I can’t link to right now because I’m 37,000 feet up in the air. (Updated once safely on the ground.)

Really bad now. Not nice. Gasps and exclamations from passengers. I’m being stoic. Who would be listening anyway?

We’re turning. The pilots have had enough. Not back to Cape Town, but presumably looking for a bit of a clearer way around the bumpy stuff. Thank you.

Ok. About an hour to go. Agricultural landscape giving way to mining and industry beneath me.

Time to relax with some chilled electronica (it’s M83 in case you were wondering), stop thinking about that other stuff. and plan those first few shots again.

Looks like if you’re reading this, we made it.

Or at least my phone did.