SOUTH AFRICA 1.

Well, here I am again in the computer room.  All the photos we took in South Africa have been loaded onto the computer, I have called up the blog programme, have entered the title and am all ready to go.  I love ‘blogging’!  Once I have schlepped all my hardware up to this room, plugged it all in,  got myself seated comfortably, got help in transferring my photos,( I always need help in transferring photos!), entered the title, and finally am ready – I leave this place, am with you all, and start talking.

South Africa – where to begin?  It is another HUGE PLACE, geographically, culturally, socially, emotionally.  It has been another place where all of us have wished we had more time.  So I suppose, once more I will just go through it one step at a time, and tell you, in sequence, what we did.

TABLE MOUNTAIN.  I think most of you know that I was here way back in 1942 for just one day.  We were coming back from Shanghai where we had been prisoners of war for six months.  The residents of Cape Town knowing that these British families were going to be here for just one day all brought their cars to the docks.  Each car adopted one family and drove us around for the day. It was a wonderful day, BUT: Table Mountain was shrouded in cloud, so we were unable to go to the top.  So as you can imagine, getting to the top was priority number one for me.  So on the same day that we arrived, our first task was to take  our pictures of THE MOUNTAIN from the ship.

Aa soon as we were ‘cleared’ to disembark, Audrey and I and a couple of friends got ourselves to where we could catch the City Sightseeing bus, which took us to the point where we could catch the cable car to take us up the mountain.  Imagine our horror, when we saw the queue to get the tickets was about a mile long, (well it disappeared out of sight!) and someone told us it would take about 2hours!!.  It was very hot, the queue was in the sun, and we just looked at each other in horror.  But then, as if in answer to my anguished prayers a MIRACLE happened.  Yes, A REAL MIRACLE.  I happened to be carrying my walking stick; I find it useful if the ground becomes rough or uneven – remember I got one for the cobbled streets of Slough,  Marion.  One of the officials came up to me and said ‘this way madam,’ and taking my arm began to lead me towards to the front of the line.  ‘Oh but I haven’t queued up’  I said, ‘Oh no need’  he said.  ‘What about my friends?’ I said.  ”Oh, of course they can come too he said.  And so, without more ado we went and bought our tickets, were then taken to  a special elevator to avoid the stairs, and before we really had time to believe what was happening, were in the enclosure  waiting for the car. Pictures were taken!

 

It was a wonderful ride up.  I was escorted to a special seat, but still had a good view out of the windows  and finally we at the top.

ON TOP OF TABLE MOUNTAIN!!  It was a wait of 68 years but it was worth it!  The views were spectacular, the meal we had up there was great, and the postcards I bought felt special.

 

 

But above all I felt a huge sense of completion.  As I have already told you Marion, all I really lacked was for you to have been with me for real, but you were truly there in my heart.  The little girl of eight that you were, truly stood beside my eleven old self and Mummy and Daddy weren’t far away!

SO that was my day of miracles.  For a moment I started to feel guilty, as I am not really all that physically impaired. But then I thought – No, 68 is a goodly time to wait, and I accepted that there is something up there that was on my side that very special day

I am going to send this now and tell you all about the rest of our time in South Africa another day.

Lots and lots of love to you all.

Liz, Mum, Granny.