RAIN, RAIN. . .

Usually associated with Vancouver's tempermental rainforest climate, this wet phenomen is now playing in a city near me- Pretoria to be exact. I've never contemplated this as much as I have the past week. It's March next week which means- Southern hemispherically speaking- summer is coming to an end. February is possibly the wettest month in the Gauteng province and on the night that I returned from my wet camping trip, it started to pour. Can't get enough of that sugar rain. . .

With only a flimsy umbrella in head and two sturdy legs, I walked home from work as always. The rain fell like a garden hose switched on high that Tuesday. Ankle high puddles lasting an entire block made me laugh and I finally gave up tip-toeing frog-legged from side to side. I had no choice but to submerge my half-suede shoes in water for the fifteen-minute walk. I had never been so soaked walking from place to place in an urban surrounding before.

Not only does rain bring about fresh blossoms and green stuff, it also seduces flying termites into unsuspecting victim's homes. After the rain, these "ants" with wings flock in, flapping about. They just plant themselves on a flat surface and rub their backs enthusiastically to get rid of those spidery wings. Then they try to burrow a hole in the ground to make nests and mate.

This doesn't work so well on kitchen counters, stoves, or sink drains, but boy do they try. My friend who stayed in Namibia for a year told me that he lived in a room that was swarming with these puppies! I was sitting in my room once and heard a faint rustle at my door. Turning around, I saw two flying termites squeeze themselves into my room from under the door. I heard that they taste like peanuts, deep-fried, or freshly picked. I'd rather get protein from canned tuna. However, ant colonies seem to like the taste of them even though flying peanuts are probably 20 times their size.

Hmm. . .I'm getting hungry just talking about food- er, I mean termites. . .

Rocking in the Mountains in SA

The Rockies may crumble,
Gilbraltor may stumble,
they're only made of clay
but hard core hiking is here to stay.

No Rockies here, but there is the Drakensberg mountain range here. Lesotho, the only country in the world completely surrounded by another country (South Africa) is situated right in the middle of the range making the entire country a mountainous region. I went camping in the Central Drakensberg, outside of Lesotho in a place called Injasuti. Berg means mountain in Afrikaan, German and other related languages.

It's a real rainy area similar to Vancouver- not that I would hike around the grey concrete jungle of Downtown Vancouver with a backpack stuffed with army ration, stoves, powdered food and tuna cans. It's a not easy being green. . .especially when you are full of rivers that hikers have to ford. In wet tackies (runners), cotton socks and zip-away pants I step from one current immersed rock to the next. Next thing I know, I am thigh high deep in water. Not that it makes a difference from walking in the downpour. It just adds 5 lbs to each leg as I continue on my way.

The neat thing about this area are the rock paintings by the San people, or the bushpeople who migrated up to the Kalahari desert. They hunted Eland (biggest antelope), giraffes, turtles and ostriches. They even had signals for each animal. They used a lot of clicking in their language which the Zulu borrowed. Rock paintings the guide showed us included eland, rhinos and a battle scene with local Black farmers.

We slept in a cave the first night (actually more of an overhang) and the sound of rushing rivers lulled us to sleep. This is actually a bit disorienting especially when you get confused with the sound of rain and the sound of river.

A highlight of the area are the marble baths a winding smooth river area that you can use as water slide. However, drastic results from this activity included raw backs and torn shorts.