Capital Ring 6 Wimbledon Park to Richmond

I met Robert and Helen at Wimbledon Park station, on a lovely day for doing the next 7 miles. We-like started along streets with houses, then across a park with a Capability Brown vista. The main part of the walk was across Richmond Park, with a huge sense of space and openness, the city of 7 million people does not feel close. 

We saw deer, 15 antlered males sitting underneath a tree and later on a female herd of 25 and the juvenile males had tiny first year antlers.  We saw a kestrel and woodpecker. The trees were magnificent huge oaks, beeches and weeping birches. At Richmond there was a huge plane tree the largest in London.

We ended our park crossing at Pembroke lodge, a fine 18 century house with nice gardens, sadly only open that day for wedding guests. We walked down into Petersfield, pausing at the 13 c church with ancient gravestones, including one for captain Vancouver who died aged 40. Since Robert is from Vancouver this was a nice link to his origins. We walked past fields with black and white cows and ended the walk with views of the elegant grey stone bridge at Richmond.  An abnormally high tide at Richmond had just washed away the Sunday riverside drinkers. We drank in a riverside pub and walked through Richmond to the station passing a lovely square with old houses around it. There is a fine 19 c theatre and the modern Orange Tree theatre. Richmond station has lovely wrought iron features. We took the modern north London line Overground to Highbury and Islington. I walked home feeling tired and virtuous.

7.0 miles

Aug 21 2016

South African Overview – still an unequal society

I planned a two week walking and safari holiday in South Africa to celebrate finishing 21 years of working on the UCLH Infectious diseases service in February 2017. My holiday plans included visiting The Kruger national park, the coast at St Lucia and then walking in the Drakensberg. I had barely started my holiday when I had to return to the UK because my mother was very ill.  I had one day walking above the Bylde river, I saw the old gold towns and had one night in the hotter low veldt in the Kruger park.

During 3 days in Joburg I enjoyed seeing the Apartheid museum and biking round Soweto. I was touched to read about the struggle against apartheid because I lved through that. I enjoyed seeing the skill that mandela used to enable South Africa to have democratic elections. Joburg is developing rapidly as a black African city. I experienced the racist attitudes of people who moved there during apartheid.   South Africa is palpably unequal and feels very divided. (gini co-efficient is 0.65). The poorest 20% of the South African population consume less than 3% of total expenditure, while the wealthiest 20% consume 65%.  I was surprised how strong the influence of the Dutch Calvinists is in the rural areas.

Political discourse is limited the because of the dominance of the ANC. Whilst this was necessary initially as a counterweight to the years of white domination. Now greater political pluralism is needed. I enjoyed using the Gautrain and seeing the emerging black middle class in Joburg.

It was surprising to see my old student friend, Nkoasana Dlamini in a senior government position and having political problems as minister for social affairs. She later lost the presidential elections in Dec 2017 within the ANC.

I read Andre Brinks book a “Dry White Season” which took me back to the apartheid era with a strong description of the Afrikaner society then. He explores the importance of taking stands against injustice even if there is a large personal cost.  I read Zak Mda’s book about his life and struggle to develop his theatrical career under apartheid. That was an interesting apartheid and post apartheid era history. I became very aware of the deep legacy of violence in South Africa and the consequences this has especially for young women.

I came away feeling uneasy and will probably not visit SA again as a tourist.

Dry White season, Andre Brink  1980

Sometimes there is a Void. Zakes Mda.  Faber, Strauss and Giroux, New York 2011

South Africa –walking and San Art

I walked in South Africa, stayed in the Kruger national Park, then returned to Joburg where I enjoyed learning about the San people.

The air round joburg is dark with dust from the coal mining. The large power stations on the veld dominate the scene.  Our lunch stop was in Dullsroom (a small town named after a German), a mountain town and centre of the trout fishing industry. The houses looked Dutch with pancake cafes and geraniums in flower but felt Alpine. The museum depicted the simple past life there.  We descended to a waterfall viewed from the side of a canyon. We had beautiful views of the area from a high gun emplacement.  We stayed in a small town called Graskop. The next morning we walking above the Blayde river. The terrain was challenging with heavy undergrowth and many streams to ford.  It felt wet rather than tropical.  We spent time in an old mining village, Pilgirms Rest. This town sprang up during the gold rush days and has now become tourist town.  One can still pan for gold there, we were given a demonstration of gold panning by a grizzled old champion panner. He brought the town’s history to life during a harsh period. Many things were imported from London during the gold boom.

We drove up to God's Window, a viewpoint high above the landscape and one looked out on forest. The view point itself was very damp and overgrown, like walking through the tropical house at Kew Gardens. 

We stopped at the Blyde river canyon. Here two rivers met, a sad one and a happy one. The rivers have worn down a huge canyon with deep crevices and potholes we walked over the deep chasms on bridges. There were many tourists, all white.  

We drove to a vantage point, looking across at the so-called, drie rondavels that look like three African huts. The mountain layers were visible and there was a huge escarpment with a river snaking the bottom of the valley.  It was a beautiful landscape. 

In Kruger Park, we stayed in semi permanent tents and had to be accompanied walking there and back. We saw giraffes and zebra and bushbuck on a late afternoon game drive. We lingered at a vantage point and saw two groups of elephants converging on the river, quite oblivious to each other. A hippo wallowed in the river below them.

I did a gentle early morning walk, looking at different types of shit, elephant and zebra.I examined spiders webs, termite heaps and saw a scorpion with its tail curled up. I enjoyed the fine detail of the walk. I travelled back to Joburg in a minibus with 7 others, a couple of black girls, an English couple and the three white S Africans. I enjoyed seeing the huge mountain escarpments. Our driver was a grizzly South African in his early 70's who had previuosly  driven the Cape to Nairobi route for 16 yrs.

Back In Joburg I visited “The origins museum” with a beautiful exploration of the art of the San people who are nomads living in SA. They were persecuted initially but now their rock art is appreciated. Their lifestyles were well explored. Elands are important and give them supernatural strength for performing trance dances to communicate with spirits. Anthropologists at Witwatersrand University had helped with this work.  Modern San life was depicted with descriptions of genocide, settlement, death and disease. I felt that the museum was there to atone for the way the San people had been treated. I had an excellent lunch in an open air cafe. I then walked down to the Wits Art Museum and spent an hour there looking at an innovative exhibition about black pots created using works from the museums’ collection.  

I then flew back to London because my mother was very unwell in her care home in Wales and they had called me.  She died a few weeks later. So it was the right decision.

I enjoyed seeing the beautiful landscape but I was surprised at how Dutch the rural areas were. I felt the Dutch Calvinist politics were still present in the rural areas.