It is relatively unusual for there to be rain in winter in Durban. Weeks have passed with a succession of sunny days. Walking, except at dawn, means wearing a hat. It was quite a surprise when, this week, the first cloudy day in ages ended with a short but heavy rain shower in the evening. I could hear it coming across the city and, at first, was unsure what it was, it had been so long.

Just how heavy the shower had been was evidenced by the way the leaves had collected next to the gutters. My idea of heaven, on my walks, would be to clear the gutters with a stick and watch the released water rush down. These simple pleasures began in childhood, when as children we built, and broke, dams across the streams in the valley below our house in Mbabane.

We are in mid-winter in Durban, and that means that foraging has become more onerous for the local monkey troops. I generally see them on my walks, and watch with my heart in my mouth, as they dash across the busy roads. I am slowly learning to make sure my flat is monkey proof; I don’t want to be a regular stop on the foraging circuit. A few days ago, I was standing in the kitchen and heard some odd noises. These registered but I did nothing about them. When I came through, I discovered the little buggers having a picnic on the balcony. They had raided the fruit bowl in the hall only a few paces from where I was standing. That was bold.

When there is a battle of wits, I have to admit they win most of the time. It may be a question of focus and immediacy, they are not trying to remember the source of a quote. My neighbour had flowers on her balcony which were eaten during the last raid. One suggested deterrent was to hide a chilli in a banana and leave it outside. This is tempting. I wonder what the reaction would be. My fear is loose bowels on the balcony! I think I will have to learn to coexist. At least they have left my wallet alone, so far!

My walking continues. I mentioned last month I am undertaking a challenge for Waterford Kamhlaba United World College, my alma mater in Mbabane. My challenge was to walk 250 kilometres in a month and raise R67,000. The amount was determined by my age when I took on the challenge, it should go up to R68,000 now. It has been really good for me; my goal was to walk at least 70 kilometres in a week. This meant if I wanted to take a day off, I had to ‘bank’ some kilometres. Although I have reached the target distance I will keep walking.

The walking is relatively easy and enjoyable, although I start with a hill. In the morning. I walk to The Glenwood Bakery. The shortest route is three kilometres, but I generally take in a few more hills on the way and, ideally, cover five kilometres. In recent days the shorter afternoon walk has been to The Coffee Tree which is nearby and does not involve many hills. So, after these two visits I spend the day wide awake and shaking! No, that is not true. My tolerance for caffeine has increased.

I do enjoy the walks and seeing people at the cafes. The morning group includes artist Andries Botha and his colleagues. These folks have quickly become friends. At the bakery I have black coffee. In the afternoon I am often the only customer at Coffee Tree. When this happens, I simply sit and chat to the staff and drink an excellent cappuccino. In order to push the fundraising, I went out to get some photographs (see below). My neighbour agreed to act as the photographer. The setting was the steepest hill I know in Durban. The city and harbour are in the background. I must admit I don’t walk up this, I do the one over, which is not quite so steep. I am also aware that my shirt is untucked, and I look rather dishevelled. If only the photographer had pointed this out it would have been dealt with.

The raising money part is harder than the walking. My friend, and former classmate David Crush is managing the Waterford Challenge and has done an excellent job with the website and administration. At the end of the day, it is up to the people who propose the challenge to network and raise the money. I have been focusing on this for the past few weeks. The amount pledged and paid has slowly risen. May I please ask the readers of this blog to look at the site and consider making a pledge. If you do contribute you could justify it as a ‘thank you’ for my Covid pandemic blogs, which were designed as a sort of public service.

The route takes me home through Bulwer Park, a small and well organised open area in Glenwood. A few days ago, I discovered a bird sculpture in the centre of the park. It really is quite intriguing and there is nothing to indicate who the artist was.

Alan walking up Clarke Road

Modern Birdlife in Bulwer Park

The bird theme continues. In one corner of the park there is a colony of weaver birds nesting in a fever tree. I had to take my copy of Roberts’s Birds of Southern Africa¹ to identify exactly which subspecies of weavers they are (masked weavers). The male has a black mask, a yellow green body, and the wings are stippled with yellow and brown streaks. Females are drabber. They are gregarious and their nests in a colony. The male does the construction and the female the decoration (lining). The nests are hard to describe, see below. These are ones that are rejected as substandard and torn off the branches. The ones that will be occupied hang from the branches with entrances facing down. I really do enjoy watching this activity. When the birds cling to the nests, displaying, fluttering their wings and calling loudly, there is a palpable sense of excitement.

Substandard discarded nests?

The view from the top

The International AIDS Conference was held at the end of July in Munich. There was a time when I expected to be at these meetings. While I miss it, this is in my past. I attended as a delegate, presenter, and an elected member of the International AIDS Society Governing Council. It was deeply fascinating, especially since I was a non-medic in a world dominated by doctors and specialised scientists.

I followed the meeting online and was also reminded of what I did not miss. There was, and is, conflict with activists, especially South Africa’s well organised Treatment Action Campaign. While not denying the strength of feeling, protest and confrontations became performative. The TAC set out their case in an open letter published in a South African paper. It is depressing that this debate continues, but equally eye watering are the profits made by some pharmaceutical companies.

On the political front the new alignments of political parties have had a chance to shake down in South Africa. It is a source of huge relief that the process has gone as smoothly as it has. Indeed, there is really not much more I want to say about the situation here at the moment.

My last blog was published just ahead of the General Election in the UK. Wow, the outcome of that was amazing. There are 651 constituencies of which 650 are contested; the Speaker effectively gets in on a nod. The Conservatives went into the election with 344 seats, Labour with 205 and the Liberal Democrats with 15. The Greens held just one and in Scotland the Scottish National Party held the most seats in their history with 43.

When all the votes were tallied the picture was transformed. The Tories had just 121, which was effectively a wipeout; Labour doubled their numbers with 411; the Lib Dems won 72; the SNP only nine. Unfortunately Reform UK, the right-wing party, won five, but the Greens won all four they targeted, which was fantastic. Of particular satisfaction was the Lib Dem win in North Norfolk and the Green win in Waveney Valley to the south of Norwich, where Ailsa worked really hard for the party. Our Norwich constituency was won by Labour. Now we watch events in the USA.

1. This book was first published in 1940. My 1985 edition is published by the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund (Cape Town) and was edited by Gordon Lindsay MacLean