Wandering thru Southern Africa, 1986-87

Gaborone, Botswana, January 1987 I was awakened by my travel alarm clock at 2:45 AM.   Agh man – a grim way to welcome in the New Year.   With my three bags in tow, I staggered out into the cool night air of Kimberley.   Would I have to spend the next four hours on a cold bench on the station platform?   NO!   A station employee pointed to the coaches which were all assembled for the day train to Mafikeng.   Sure, it was okay to find a compartment and get some sleep before the train departed in a few hours.   Second class was practically deserted and stayed that way, so I had a quiet little room all to myself.   Around 8:30 that morning in Warrenton, 1½ hours north of Kimberley, we left the electrified main line.  The electric locomotive was disconnected at the station and a big ol’ black Class 25NC 4-8-4 steamer took over.  The day turned out to be a busy one for me.  It was a slow trip with lots of stops in African villages as...

Gaborone, Botswana, January 1987. The last three days of my December trip to Cape Town and the Cape Province were relatively lonely, dull, and uneventful.   I was more than ready to get back to Botswana when I boarded the Trans-Karoo Express once again on the morning of the 31 st .   Not many people were riding the train on New Year’s Eve, but I had a compartment mate, a 70ish Afrikaner fellow from Prieska in the heart of the Karoo.   The old guy didn’t speak much English, and I exchanged a few of the usual pleasantries with him in Afrikaans which he appreciated.   He had been in Cape Town to visit a daughter for the holidays and would be riding as far as De Aar where someone was meeting him at the station. When it came time for lunch, both of us had brought our own food wishing to avoid the high prices and poor quality of the dining car offerings.   He offered me some sausage and fruit which I gratefully accepted.   I tried to give him some of my stuff...

8:15 PM, Lenox Hotel, Cape Town My Cape Town vacation is winding to a close.   Fortunately, there have been a few good days to go along with the lonely ones.   Yesterday wasn’t bad at all.   My friends, Helize and Barend, had both invited me to go with them to a party which was to be attended by a number of people involved in the arts.   In the morning, I took a train to the community where Helize is staying with her parents while home for the holidays. I got to the station about 25 minutes early and got to talking with a 50ish, stocky Afrikaner train crewman.  He started out with the usual, “What do you think of South Africa?”  I replied with my usual smile and, “It’s a very fascinating and complex place.”  The Afrikaners usually seem to like that response.  He then asked if I’d had any trouble with their Kaffirs (the South African equivalent of “niggers”).  I think conservative, uneducated Afrikaners use the word to see where I stand an...

9:00 PM, Helmsley Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa Greetings from a city “where little cable cars, climb halfway to the stars” although unlike San Francisco in Tony Bennett’s song, these cars are suspended from cables and climb to the top of a 3000-foot mountain overlooking one of the world’s most beautiful cities – Cape Town.   Earlier this evening, after a tasty vegetarian dinner, I walked all the way to the top of Molteno Road where the residential areas end just below the lower cableway station.  I passed an area of burned forest and grassland, the remnants of recent fires on Table Mountain which nearly reached some mountainside residences.  The fires were unfortunate, but what really made me sad as I looked over the lights of this splendid city, the harbor, Table Bay, and the Bloubergstrand (the beach on the other side of Table Bay) was the wasted potential of this beautiful place because of tragic, misguided politics.  I was fantasizing that my good friend Da...

December 26, 9:00 PM, Helmsley Hotel, Cape Town After the service last Sunday at St. George’s Anglican Cathedral in Cape Town, Jan and Eunice van Eck invited me to their home in suburban Claremont.   It was certainly an offer I couldn’t refuse.   Jan is a member of the liberal Progressive Federal Party (PFP) and was recently elected to the South African Parliament.  He and Eunice treated me to a typical South African braai (barbeque) with steaks and boerewors (Boer sausage).  We drank copious amounts of beer and wine and had much to talk about.  For starters, I was pleased to learn that Jan is a fellow geographer.  He received his honors degree from Stellenbosch and taught Geography of the United States in secondary school before getting involved in politics.  In 1983, Jan and Eunice spent several weeks travelling extensively in the States as guests of the U.S. State Department and even visited Denver and Colorado Springs.    Jan is technical...

Carlton Heights Hotel, Cape Town, 2:30 PM Thought I’d do a bit of writing before I leave for a 4:00 PM church service down the street.  No, I haven’t suddenly become religious – the service is being held in support of detainees who have violated the current state of emergency or other similar nonsense.  Actually, I’m not sure the service will even happen as it sounds like a quasi-legal gathering, but if no banned organizations are sponsoring the service, it may be okay.  It seems rather difficult these days for the average Johan to know what or who is legal in South Africa or not.  For example, yesterday’s Weekend Argus ran a front-page story which indicated that an individual citizen can publicly “support or promote a call for the unbanning of the ANC.”  But, he or she cannot participate in “certain activities of 12 organisations” which are “intended or likely to have the effect of encouraging or inciting members of the public” to do so.  Regarding this...