We left Kimberely at 7:30 this morning and are still on the road at 11:21, likely to be on the road until near 5 pm or so. We are slowly making our way back to Cape Town. Tonight, we’ll stop in M
Matjiesfontein, Mikey’s fontayn. It’s described in the rough guide as “little more than two dusty streets,” but Rich has assured us that our hotel, the Lord Milner, has a bar and I am sure many of us fully plan to exploit the riches there in upon our arrival. I’m not very good at these long days on the bus, but we make frequent pit stops and that helps. I finished my fourth South African novel, Ways of Dying by Zakes Mda. He also wrote Heart of Redness, both of which I have read during our bus days. I have also read Disgrace and Thirteen. I have Nectar in the Sieve, not a South African novel, which I’ll begin today. I really liked the Mda books because they both have a magical realist style. In Ways, Mda describes how the two main characters decorate their shanty in an informal township with catalog pictures. Pictures of designer living rooms on one wall, kitchens on another, bedrooms, etc. The most moving part is that they put pictures of gardens and together they “walk through the gardens,” sitting and imagining themselves walking through beautiful gardens together. The way Mda writes is so matter of fact and simple, but somehow incredibly lovely and vivid. It is what he leaves out as well as what he puts in that makes the two novels so memorable. The last 100 pages of the book were so good that I wanted to go on reading. He has one more novel that I may pick up while I’m in Cape Town to read on the plane home. If not, I’ll order them from Amazon to have them delivered by the time I get home.
Matjiesfontein, Mikey’s fontayn. It’s described in the rough guide as “little more than two dusty streets,” but Rich has assured us that our hotel, the Lord Milner, has a bar and I am sure many of us fully plan to exploit the riches there in upon our arrival. I’m not very good at these long days on the bus, but we make frequent pit stops and that helps. I finished my fourth South African novel, Ways of Dying by Zakes Mda. He also wrote Heart of Redness, both of which I have read during our bus days. I have also read Disgrace and Thirteen. I have Nectar in the Sieve, not a South African novel, which I’ll begin today. I really liked the Mda books because they both have a magical realist style. In Ways, Mda describes how the two main characters decorate their shanty in an informal township with catalog pictures. Pictures of designer living rooms on one wall, kitchens on another, bedrooms, etc. The most moving part is that they put pictures of gardens and together they “walk through the gardens,” sitting and imagining themselves walking through beautiful gardens together. The way Mda writes is so matter of fact and simple, but somehow incredibly lovely and vivid. It is what he leaves out as well as what he puts in that makes the two novels so memorable. The last 100 pages of the book were so good that I wanted to go on reading. He has one more novel that I may pick up while I’m in Cape Town to read on the plane home. If not, I’ll order them from Amazon to have them delivered by the time I get home.
We arrived in Matijesfontain, Mikey's Fountain, around 4 pm. It's a quaint Victorian city of about two streets. I had a great night hanging out in the Tavern. The piano player did a wonderful impersonation of Nelson Mandela and showed us a little around the Milner's Hotel. It was quite nice and the dinner was lovely, partly family style with the veg and served meats.
However, this morning before we left is when the excitement really started. Jacob and I walked around near sunset to get some sunset pictures, and happened upon a bunch of weaver birds weaving their nests. I could have stayed and watched them all day.
I love those weaving birds they were all over EA...it''s amazing how they make their homes...I tried to get pictures and have a few but they were hard to shoot since the trees had a lot of overgrowth...great picture rainey!
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