Hike

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An interesting hike up to the Constantiaberg Mast yesterday morning with friends. 8.8km in distance and 510m of ascent. Sometimes hot and sunny, sometimes cold and windy. Such is the chaotic nature of the weather in the Table Mountain National Park. But on the backside of the mountain on the way up, we were mainly surviving a “bracing” gale force southwesterly, straight off the Atlantic.

Not much animal life around, but a fair selection of birds and plenty (or more) of South Africa’s National Flower, the King Protea (Protea cynaroides):

Interestingly, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of reproducible information about the actual mast that we walked up to. Sitting on a mountain of 902m, it’s either 146m or 154m high, which I guess won’t really bother anyone who’s not flying nearby between 1048m and 1056m amsl. But it does really seem like something that really should be a known value.

It’s about half the height of the Eiffel Tower, which looks BIG whenever you see it. But even when you’re right underneath this structure, it really doesn’t seem that tall. Maybe that’s because there’s nothing around to compare it to. The guy wires holding it up in the mighty Cape wind – the two of which make an eerie and almost ominous sound as they meet – are seriously hefty though, as are their attachment points to the mountain. It doesn’t seem to wobble much.
And although there’s still radio and TV being broadcast from here, the majority of the infrastructure now seems to be microwave-based – I counted over 70 transceivers. And one big satellite dish.

One thing that is a little lax is the security. A waist-high, rusting barbed wire fence (and some healthy self-preservation and vertigo) was all that was stopping us from being able to access and climb the tower. (B)eagle-eyed readers will be able to see the wide open gate to the right of the road: that’ll certainly assist in keeping people from getting very, very close to this strategically important bit of national infrastructure.

We just sat there and had a coffee and some hot cross buns though, before a much less hectic descent back to the car.

A good morning out.

Anthropocene

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Busy day today, after what could have been a boozy evening yesterday. I say that, because I’m writing this post in advance for exactly those reasons. So tomorrow hasn’t happened yet, and neither has yesterday evening (which is also tonight for me), but the braai is lit and we’re ready to go.

Sorry: that mixture of tenses hurt me too.

So I’d better squeeze this in quickly. We’re off to see OMD in Cape Town next month – their third SA visit (1994, 2012 and April 2024), and I have made a bit of a Spotify playlist (see below) of the setlist that I expect. Of course, they’ll be wheeling out all their big hits, but this tour is actually about the “new” album Bauhaus Staircase, and I thought I’d better get up to speed with it.

It’s actually rather good.

It seems from the tour so far that they’ll be coming out to the very Muse-y Evolution of Species before launching into this: Anthropocene, as their first “proper” tune of the evening.

Deliciously bouncy and happy and beepy and yet yes, also absolutely forewarning us all of the Earth’s imminent demise at the hands of humans. (Very Muse-y again – remember Unsustainable?)

Lovely. What a cheery way to start an evening.

Anyway, if you want to come along, tickets here.
And if you’re not coming along (or maybe even if you are), that playlist here.

Meridian Coffee Error

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Spotted online recently, this:

…which really made my geographical OCD senses tingle.

What? A mildly blurred image of a disposable takeaway coffee cup?

Well, yes. But one which has come from the Greenwich Coffee Company in Greenwich Turkey, and one upon which the 0o Prime Meridian very definitely doesn’t go through Greenwich.

Or Turkey.

In fact, their 0o Prime Meridian is actually very much 18o.

Oops.

And, if you choose to ignore Stockholm (but then again, why would you?), then the only other major city on this line is right here: Cape Town. Quite why a business choosing to name itself after the accepted home of the Prime Meridian (since 1884, at least) has chosen to put the Prime Meridian going nowhere near… well… the Prime Meridian, is a little baffling.

And it gets even more confusing when you look at the decor in one of their outlets:

What now?!? Another Prime Meridian, this time again ostensibly at 0o, but actually sitting somewhere about 6o east of the actual Greenwich Meridian*, despite the big orange lettering suggesting otherwise.

But maybe there are other clues on that wall. Ireland being joined to Wales and Scotland. New Zealand only having one island. Hudson Bay being Hudson Lake. The easterly migration of Rwanda and Tanzania. And the misspelling of Guatemala.

Perhaps it’s just that they’re not actually very bothered about geographical accuracy. And I guess that’s fine, as long as they are putting a bit more effort into their products and their service. And they do get 5 stars on their one review on Tripadvisor, and that despite the coffee being rubbish:

So the only coffee they bought was crap, but they gave it 5 stars and titled their review: “Coffee [yummy, licking lips emoji]”. This place really is confusing.

For me though, it’s just a bit disappointing that I’m not going to be able to stick a straight bit of metal on my patio and then charge tourists a hefty fee to take photos of themselves standing astride it.

Perhaps I should be considering a campaign – potentially fronted by the Greenwich Coffee guys – to move the Greenwich Meridian to Cape Town. For a while, at least.
Just while they use up the last stock of that bulk order of geographically incorrect takeaway cups, and I get to make some decent money from the temporary rehoming of the big North-South line, thus paying for the therapy I will need from having had to see it come through here anyway.

* and thus missing every single city in the world apart from Saarbrücken.