The Heaviest Boogie Ever Laid Down
Right, dedicating this post to the actual driving experience, and everything it encompassed.
As i was looking over maps and other such stuffs, the magnitude of the task at hand began to dawn on me. South Africa is quite a large country, and the distances between these cities i had to visit are not slight, therefore the most careful and precise planning would have to go into it. So naturally we spent most of the time before the trip arguing with Rachel (my travel companion) over which cd's we would take for the drive. In the end we decided we could only take full albums, no mixes or best-ofs, and once an album was in, we had to listen to it all the way through. Some which got the heaviest rotations were:
-London Calling, The Clash
-Doolittle, Pixies
-Muj Wydafca, Kult
-Kind of Blue, Miles Davis
-Electric Warrior, T. Rex
-White Chalk, PJ Harvey
-Closing Time, Tom Waits
-Speaking in Tongues, Talking Heads
Now, driving 5000km in the course of 12 days is no mean feat, and it might seem arduous or unpleasant, yet this country is so beautiful that it was a pure joy. The highways were almost empty, the car was small and nifty, and it felt as if we were suspending in a magical vacuum, with just the crisp blue sky above us and the broad Karoo extending as far as the eye can see in every direction. (The Karoo is a geographical region of large significance to the culture and history of South Africa. You can read more about it here: Karoo.)
The Karoo is also incredibly beautiful. There is no other way to describe it. It is astounding, this gigantic, rough, dusty expanse of reddish earth, broken occasionally by oddly shaped hills, small shrubbery and the semi-wild sheep which have somehow found a way to graze upon the sparse and tough vegetation. But then suddenly you round a curve and before you there are flowers, flowers! the vibrant and luminous orange and yellow and violet striking your eyes like a funky meteorite. In one episode, as we stopped for lunch by the side of the N1 highway, i was overcome, yes indeed, overcome, with such postivity and joy to be alive, i took of my shirt because i couldn't afford not to. The earth, the silence, the sun falling on my bare skin, i was at peace with myself and the world around me.
The Karoo was by far the most pleasant to drive to, but the drive from Polokwane to Nelspruit was eye-opening as well, though for different reasons. That area makes you feel like you are in the "real Africa", the Africa as it has been shaped in the western mentality; the villages with shacks made from sheet metal and cardboard, the poverty and the hunger. I don't want to postulate too much on these complex topics in a blog such as this, but coming face to face with these realities makes you seriously question and examine your own.
I will leave you with a photograph of the Karoo, courtesy of the flickr account of South African Tourism.
cheers,
oskar
Right, dedicating this post to the actual driving experience, and everything it encompassed.
As i was looking over maps and other such stuffs, the magnitude of the task at hand began to dawn on me. South Africa is quite a large country, and the distances between these cities i had to visit are not slight, therefore the most careful and precise planning would have to go into it. So naturally we spent most of the time before the trip arguing with Rachel (my travel companion) over which cd's we would take for the drive. In the end we decided we could only take full albums, no mixes or best-ofs, and once an album was in, we had to listen to it all the way through. Some which got the heaviest rotations were:
-London Calling, The Clash
-Doolittle, Pixies
-Muj Wydafca, Kult
-Kind of Blue, Miles Davis
-Electric Warrior, T. Rex
-White Chalk, PJ Harvey
-Closing Time, Tom Waits
-Speaking in Tongues, Talking Heads
Now, driving 5000km in the course of 12 days is no mean feat, and it might seem arduous or unpleasant, yet this country is so beautiful that it was a pure joy. The highways were almost empty, the car was small and nifty, and it felt as if we were suspending in a magical vacuum, with just the crisp blue sky above us and the broad Karoo extending as far as the eye can see in every direction. (The Karoo is a geographical region of large significance to the culture and history of South Africa. You can read more about it here: Karoo.)
The Karoo is also incredibly beautiful. There is no other way to describe it. It is astounding, this gigantic, rough, dusty expanse of reddish earth, broken occasionally by oddly shaped hills, small shrubbery and the semi-wild sheep which have somehow found a way to graze upon the sparse and tough vegetation. But then suddenly you round a curve and before you there are flowers, flowers! the vibrant and luminous orange and yellow and violet striking your eyes like a funky meteorite. In one episode, as we stopped for lunch by the side of the N1 highway, i was overcome, yes indeed, overcome, with such postivity and joy to be alive, i took of my shirt because i couldn't afford not to. The earth, the silence, the sun falling on my bare skin, i was at peace with myself and the world around me.
The Karoo was by far the most pleasant to drive to, but the drive from Polokwane to Nelspruit was eye-opening as well, though for different reasons. That area makes you feel like you are in the "real Africa", the Africa as it has been shaped in the western mentality; the villages with shacks made from sheet metal and cardboard, the poverty and the hunger. I don't want to postulate too much on these complex topics in a blog such as this, but coming face to face with these realities makes you seriously question and examine your own.
I will leave you with a photograph of the Karoo, courtesy of the flickr account of South African Tourism.
cheers,
oskar
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