Leaving South Africa

This was a picture (which I have since cropped) of the new South Africa flag of the post-apartheid era. I actually took this one at the apartheid museum, as this was the final display, if you will, of the museum, the symbol of the emergence of a "new South Africa."

Well, my trip to South Africa of 2024 is now over. I left the country on Wednesday evening, on an overnight flight from Johannesburg to London. The vacation was not fully over, as I still had a long layover of almost 11 scheduled hours in London. As it turns out, the stay proved to be longer because of delays with my flight, although I of course did not know that. This gave me a chance to visit parts of London.

However, the South African part of the trip was over, unfortunately.

Really, it was an enjoyable stay.    

As with other trips of the past, I left feeling a mixture of sadness and gratitude upon leaving. I was unhappy to be leaving, feeling that it was a great place, and that there was so much more left to be explored. However, I also am glad to have at least finally made it to this country, which I have long wanted to visit, dating back to the 1980's, when I first began to follow the country in the news (it was in the news quite frequently back then).

When you come to the country, it is strikingly beautiful. You can understand why everyone wanted to stay here. It is a land blessed with both beauty as well as an abundance of natural resources. In fact, I read recently (I cannot quite remember the source) that South Africa was blessed with natural resources in a similar way to how Saudi Arabia was blessed with an abundance of oil. That may be an imperfect comparison, but it at least gives you an idea of just how blessed with natural resources this country has been. 

Of course, you go to visit a country usually because it is worth paying a visit. Something about it should be unique and special. This certainly was the case with South Africa. Dating back to the early days of my interests in the country, everyone seemed to agree about that, regardless of their stance on political realities in the country. Everybody suggested that it was breathtakingly beautiful, and that it had some kind of a particularly magnetic draw. I felt that then, because the country fascinated me. Now, decades later and after finally having paid it a visit, this draw feels more real and substantive than ever. As soon as I left, my thoughts went systematically to when I might get back to South Africa. 

This is particularly true of Cape Town which, I feel, actually put many other cities to dust. It reminded me of San Francisco, yet I feel that, in fact, it is likely preferable to "the City by the Bay" in several ways. The mountains are right there, at the heart of the city. It made the Waterfront both more charming and dramatic. Also, the most beautiful and stunning botanical gardens which I have ever seen was at Kirstenbosch. Then, you have the incredible coastline and beaches, as well as dramatic mountains literally in every direction but the ocean, and Cape Town just felt very special.

So did the surroundings of Cape Town. The peninsula to the south of it, at the tip of which is the Cape of Good Hope, and the penguins nearby at Boulder Beach. There was also the strikingly beautiful contrast of picturesque, orderly farms surrounded by an incredible, rugged mountain landscape viewed along the way to my first safari, which I took a week ago today (I am writing and publishing this on Sunday, October 6th, by the way). There were also the animals, and not all of them were on the game preserve where I experienced my first safari. There, I saw lions, elephants (albeit from far off), water buffalo (also from far off), wildebeests, a springbok, rhinos, giraffes, ostriches, and zebras. But outside of the the safari, I also saw seals, whales (two of them, to be exact), a wild ostrich, and a number of birds which, admittedly, I cannot quite identify or label here. 

In short, it was an amazing trip.

Already, I am missing it. Having returned to my routine, it was strange, because the trip felt longer than it actually was. Yet paradoxically, once I was back at work, especially on the weekend job (the first shift that I returned to yesterday morning), it also almost felt like I never left. While I feel blessed to be gainfully employed, I long to go back to South Africa. To see some of those things which I did not quite get around to seeing this time around (the Cape Castle, the Constantia vineyards, and Cape Agulhas are the three most obvious examples), as well as to see possibly more of the country which I knew I would not be able to see this time around (Kruger National Park, the Drakensberg mountains, Durban and the rugged foothills of KwaZulu Natal, and the interior (the Veld) of the country. 

Hey, I can dream, can't I? 

Here is the original picture from which I obtained, and subsequently altered, the image of the modern South African flag used above.