The land is green, lush and prospering, which I can report having just driven through green, freshly rained on land all the way north to the prospering town of Nelspruit, spent a week in a Sabi Sands game reserve and driven all the way back via Pretoria and the Berg.
Last year the reserve, which adjoins Kruger, was a dry dustbowl with hordes of lion gorging themselves on weakened game.
This year we arrived just after the spring rains and the earth responded gratefully with green grass and bush, fat and lively game and acres of fresh wild flowers.
Last year the Wild Earth camera crews who have been broadcasting from the Sands for American audiences for several years, were on the verge of packing it in for lack of funds when they scored a double bonus with a contract with Dstv (Channel 183) plus lockdown, which has meant that many thousands of locals discovered the pleasure of watching animals in the wild.
The week before we arrived, they had recorded the gruesome sight of a hyena snatching up a leopard cub that had wandered out of its hiding place.
The day we arrived, we discovered the mother on a kill and, after she had eaten, followed her through the bush to her den hidden in the roots of a large tree.
Everyone was mightily relieved to hear her greeting a second cub, still only a few weeks old, that had escaped the crunching jaws of the hyena.
A few days later 3 hyenas did provide us with some entertainment when they jumped into a waterhole to escape the searing heat.
The highlight of the week was spending several hours watching a female cheetah teaching her two 18-month-old sons how to hunt.
They scragged a scrub hare right in front of us and ate it under their mother’s approving eye.
The 2 500 km car journey gave us plenty of radio listening time, and we were in turns fascinated, amused and outraged by the testimony SAA board member Dudu Myeni before the Zondo Commission.
How can anybody seriously entrust such an individual with the spending of millions upon millions of taxpayers’ money?
As for her blurting out the name of a whistle-blower who Zondo had ordered not be named, and sanctimoniously answering each question with ‘I refuse to answer on the grounds that I may incriminate myself’ – well, I can only hope that she is being fitted for an orange overall. It will not be a surprise if she’s paved the way for similar responses from ex-president Zuma, if ever he gets in front of the commission.
Talking of bad presidents, wasn’t the American election gripping?
There was a time when I liked Trump, because he seemed to call a spade a spade and actually achieved growth in the US economy, but as time went on I was turned off by his torrent of lies and megalomaniacal behaviour.
He sounded more like mad, bad old Idi Amin than the Leader of the Free World.
Biden didn’t so much win the election than Trump tossed it away through own goals.
The markets seem to like Biden, but it’s early days yet.
And so, the holiday is over and back to reality.
Just seven weeks to Christmas and there are signs that it may be a good one for this holiday town.
Our countrymen are holidaying local this year, so here’s hoping for full beaches and shops.
Heaven only knows, we deserve it after such a dreadful year.
We will be asking the municipality what plans they have for controlling the rowdies over the holidays and I am looking forward to the answer as much as you are.
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