I am back in Durban, and it is already rather warm here. The forecast for an El Nino event seems to be unfolding as we were warned. It could be really serious for much of the world, but the whole of Southern Africa might experience extreme drought again.
It has been over a week since I left Norwich. I caught the 6 AM flight to Amsterdam and then connected on the KLM flight to Cape Town. I was fortunate that there were two empty seats (the middle section) between myself and my neighbour, so we had room to spread out. After the 11-hour flight I was picked up by a prebooked shuttle service, and taken to my accommodation, the Mouille Point Apartments. Once there I checked in and fell into bed. I wish there was a direct flight to Durban, I normally change planes in Johannesburg which is a real pain, and I must spend a night at a hotel.
The following day there was a howling gale blowing that I found quite unsettling. I took an Uber to Simonstown to meet Sandra Dodson for lunch and a general catch up. She has been helping me with my memoir, which has been mentioned a few times in this blog. She is an excellent editor and proofreader and essentially made recommendations to restructure the entire thing. On Saturday I went to the Waterfront Shopping Centre to get a few essentials. It is quite eye-opening to see the consumerism and wealth in the city, with so many international tourists on the streets.
The main reason for making Cape Town the first stop was that three friends from Durban were celebrating their 70th birthdays. Rob Morrell grew up in Swaziland just a couple of houses away from us, his parents sent him and his siblings to boarding school in South Africa so I mainly knew him from primary school. He and I reconnected when he moved to Durban to teach at the University of Durban Westville. He was one of the ardent touch rugby players who met once a week on Hammond field. Geoff Schreiner worked in labour relations and played rugby with us. I did not know the third person, Paul Weinberg, in Durban, as he was neither a rugby player nor at the University.
The Touch Rugby Team at 70+, 19th September 2026
The party was a short distance from the apartment, at the Oceana Power Boat Club. This is a great, but hidden, location. I suspect its patrons are mainly local people who know about it and have done so for decades. Power boats and ski boats are popular amongst a certain segment of the white South African population; I don’t think it is a class thing but rather to do with enjoying the outdoors. It is not just mad dogs and English men who sit out in the midday sun. I briefly sat at a table with a Russian woman, her South African husband and their child. They were not there for the party but for supper. The husband is involved in cryptocurrency, so I do not fully understand what he does.
There must have been close to 150 people, and I knew perhaps half of them. It was good to have the opportunity to catch up with old friends and acquaintances and talk about how we, the country, and the world have changed. I suspect it will be the last gathering of this type, but we may just squeeze in 75th birthdays. Interestingly guests had started leaving by 10 o’clock and when I left at 11 there were just a few diehards at the bar.
On Sunday my brother, Derek, collected me and I spent two days with him and his wife Lynn in Hout Bay. On Sunday we had enough time to visit a vineyard near Stellenbosch. It has been owned for over 30 years by a French woman, now in her 90s but who still takes a great interest in the operation. Derek and Lynn very kindly took me for a day trip on Monday. We drove as far as Hermanus, a picturesque little town on the coast known for whale watching. There were no whales in sight.
The view from the restaurant in Hermanus, September 2026
While I was staying with them, I read a book Lynn recommended: ‘Crab Soup and other Stories’ by Dirkie Joubert. This is the autobiography of an Afrikaans woman (and it was translated from Afrikaans), who was born in Montagu in the Cape in 1864. It is the story of the family’s six month plus trek by ox-wagon to Klerksdorp in the Transvaal in the 1880s. It is a fascinating tale of a difficult journey, as seen by a young white girl. The family meet and make friends on the way, and she, matter-of-factly, records the hardships, including deaths of people and stock. The journey is jeopardized when some of the oxen that pulled the wagon die. I enjoyed the book. It was published by the Montagu Museum and is, I suspect, hard to get.
Two things stood out. Firstly, although there were African and mixed-race servants on the journey, the race issue is barely mentioned. Secondly, the family managed to meet up with friends and family on the way. Quite how this happened in the vast Karoo I do not understand. We often underestimate the skills and communications of past generations.
On the long trip they passed near Kimberley, where diamonds were discovered in 1867, and ended close to the Witwatersrand where gold was found in 1886. There is a sense that the adults had a plan but Dirkie was not aware of it.
On Tuesday Tim Quinlan, who worked for me at the Health Economics and HIV and AIDS Research Division in Durban, came to Cape Town from Riversondereind. I carried a bottle of whisky for him from the UK on behalf of his sister, so he had an incentive. We made a good call about where to go, and he took me to the airport. There are some decent places to eat so we were able to have a leisurely lunch and a long chat. Unfortunately, he was not able to make it to the birthday party, so it was good to have a chance for a long catch up.
I have been back in Durban for just a few days and there are clear signs of spring. In the last 48 hours nearly all the flowers have fallen from the Jacaranda tree outside my window and in a couple of weeks it will be in leaf. Sadly, though, we have lost a number of old trees in the neighbourhood since it has been incredibly windy. The trees were huge, but I am informed that the city is growing saplings to replace them over time in a managed manner. Most South African cities have excellent tree cover so that is something to be pleased about. Of course, our trees also provide a highway for the monkeys that come past every week or so, but that’s a small price to pay for the greenery.
I am looking forward to walking in Glenwood. For the past six weeks I have been suffering from stained Achilles tendons. We went to see the film The Odyssey a while ago, though Achillies does not make an appearance in this I made a tangential connection. It has been painful and disabling.
I finally saw a convincing health professional in Norwich. Charles Allen is an ‘Intrinsic Biomechanics Specialist’. His practice, Walk to Run,
‘bridges the gap between medical care and fitness performance… a preventative approach to… live well and stay mobile for longer. … intrinsic biomechanics assessing, soft tissue (sports massage) therapy, coaching and rehabilitation’
He spent over an hour with me and produced an extensive written report and prescribed a series of exercises. This works, and I will be able to start my walking regimen and gym visits again soon, I hope.
