Time and alcohol some of the many ways to measure distance in SA

When I was a laaitie, my father, like many of his generation, always measured distances in the time it took to travel. For him, Margate was eight hours away. I very much doubt whether he knew the exact distance in kilometres, even after dozens of trips.

I must say, he loved travelling at night. He always insisted that it was because the traffic was a lot lighter. That my sister and I would be sleeping most of the way, had absolutely nothing to do with it. Warmbaths, as Bela-Bela was called back then, was two hours away, while Cape Town was a two-day trip – making it just of out reach with small children in the Ford Falcon.

He visited Cape Town only once in his life as a young man – and for the rest of his days repeated the best thing about Cape Town is the N1 back to Joburg. He used the two-day travel time as an excuse never to go back.

Like my father, I mostly measure distance in time too. But the difference is that for me, Cape Town is only two hours away from Lanseria Airport. Durban is a mere 50 minutes, or something in that region. I do believe that in the Northern Cape, there were folks who measured distance in the number of “refreshments” required for the trip.

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Britstown to Prieska is perhaps just a two-beer trip, but Noenieput is at least a bottle of brandy away from Williston. Apparently, this unit of measure is still used by older folk when giving directions to strangers. There are also people who measure distance in hard currency.

The other day I inquired from an employee how far Brits is from our home town. I was very surprised when he immediately responded “R80”. “But that’s to the town centre. From there it’s another R18 to my mother’s house in the township.”

It turns out that Harare is R700 away from Johannesburg, depending on the time it takes to get through the border. I’m sure there are many other ways to measure distance. But the one constant, is that we all somehow find our way home again.