Fall at Mountain High

Fall has come to Mountain High and our home in the sky has been shrouded in mist for most of the week. Today we are in Vryheid, our shopping town, where the skies are bright blue and the air feels like Los Angeles on a beautiful fall day with cooler temperatures and a slight breeze. The days are growing shorter. We are looking forward to a trip to the Drakensburg Mountains for Easter where jagged peaks 10,000 feet high create a 100 mile national park and World Heritage sight.

The 2000 km trip home from Cape Town was a driving odyssey across the southern end of South Africa, along the coast of the Eastern Cape through KwaZuluNatal and Durban to Richards Bay. The southern coast was wild and forested, with wide canyons and bungy jumping across the huge abysses. The garden route was somewhat disappointing as the flowers were not in bloom but the varieties of shrubs, trees and scrub were interesting. We hit rain though the Tsitikamma National Park and fog. As soon as we reached the Indian Ocean the weather cleared and the National Road N2 transversed lovely beaches and port towns. The beaches on the Indian Ocean have beautiful surf but lack the dramatic forests and canyons on the southern side of SA. At Port Alfred the road turns in, making the coast inaccessible. This is the Apartheid homeland of Transkei and the area was the poorest we have seen with few farms, water, trees or signs of electricity where the Xhosa people live. Mandela grew up in this area and has retired to a small town here. Tourist facilities were hard to come by. The coast in this area is known as the “Wild Coast” and can be hiked through a national trails system.

The trip back to Mountain High by Greyhound Bus from the coast taught us more P and F (patience and flexibility). After turning the rental car in, we rushed to the bus stop at the Mac Donalds in Richards Bay. The bus was an hour late due to a broken fan belt. When the bus pulled in the driver stated that the fan belt was broken again and he called to have Greyhound send a mechanic with another fan belt. The mechanic eventually showed up and repaired the fan belt. We cheered the mechanic and boarded the bus. After a 10 minute ride the driver stated that the air system had also failed which affected the doors and brakes. We all got off the bus and waited while the mechanics were summoned again. The crowd was fairly good natured about all of the delays, even the mothers with tiny infants and bored children. At last we pulled into Vryheid at 7pm, a four hour delay and had to stay in a b and b. The director of the hospital was not happy the next morning when it took 2 hours to fill the taxi to transport us back to the hospital but such is life with the vagaries of public transportation. The work has been piling up and new projects need attention. The women in the sewing group have been waiting for supplies and ideas to start new handcraft projects. The cold and damp have piqued their interest in making fleece hats and warm socks. It is a pleasure to be needed and have a job to do although we also enjoy touring this beautiful country.

Our flat was filled with wet clothes that took three days to dry after washday turned into a downpour. It had the appearance of a Salvation Army Thrift Shop with shirts, underwear, pants, socks, and wet towels hanging from every chair and door knob. Besides a car, a clothes dryer is missed most of all American comforts. Washday is a judgement call; the weather drives the decision. Wrong guess and one lives with his mistake with wet clothes competing for space in our small flat. As fall set in, we check the weather reports but they are always 30 or 60 % chance of rain. They are always accurate too!