I've spent much of my life travelling and working for environmental organisations and, in the process, taking photos and writing (and planting trees to offset my carbon emissions). In the process I've discovered that, to some degree, we are all Idiot Travellers. Whether if is forgetting our passport, taking bad advice, going where we shouldn't or simply getting ripped off by taxi drivers. This is about some of those experiences, the places I've been and the people I've met in the process
Life is full of ups and downs which we all experience. But for some life is a misery, a dominant feature of their life….and the black dog a dominant feature of that misery and something from which they never escape.
Two women in the light (creator unknown)
DREAM OBSESSION
A dream, two women, a blurred vision
My dream a moment of indecision
One woman, smaller, walks up the hill.
She turns, looks, her face and eyes still
That look, they say, that could kill
She appears to me as a faint image
A memory of some past damage
The second woman calls a name
Awakening past memories of pain
Hidden, deep, below some shame
Moments past and tears came
Emotions, feelings, suddenly aflame
In my mind forgotten images rise
Of hope crushed among the lies
I seem them still through the mist
I follow, then, I cannot resist
Like the first time we kissed
A primal force pulls me, insists
But they’re gone, nothing exists
This was a recollection of a recurrent dream. not always identical but always featuring these same two women (whom I never recognised) and always in an unknown beach location. It has no specific meaning or significance, so far as I can tell
Woman with Golden Hair (photographer unknown)
THE GOLDEN YEARS
I see your golden hair fly
I hear your golden laugh
I touch your golden skin
You smile your golden smile
We walked the desert lands
We rode the canyons rivers
We paddled the icy seas
And strode the high plains
We laughed and fought together.
Loved and cried and danced
Shared the best, the worst of times
Watched the red and silver sunsets
Down the never ending miles
Sharing the endless road
I was careless of your love
I took your heart and emptied it
Until it was just an empty shell
Then filled it with bitter tears
And, when you were gone
I discovered what I had lost.
About this Poem:
There are few people to whom I have talked about their past relationships for whom there are not aspects of some of those relationships that they regret. Something they have said or done that they regret. Unrequited love or desire. Affairs. This is about one of those possible regrets – which is that of not recognising what it was someone offered to you.
Image: Woman with hand in front of face (credit: churchmentalheallh.org)
VENEER
I laugh and I smile
But my heart aches
My mouth forms a joke
But my heart breaks
I smile at the crowd
But feel only pain
Surrounded by friends
But absolutely alone
My successes are many
But I see only failure
With everything I want
I have nothing I need
My life is so totally full
But so completely empty
This is about the masks we all wear. The appearances we put on even when we are feeling uncertain, depressed or lonely. How we seek to appear happy when we are not. The sense of being an imposter in a room full of people who appear more successful and who we believe can see right through our own veneer of success and confidence. This is the veneer all of us will wear or have worn at one time (and which, incidentally, is a big part of toxic masculinity).
Woman behind curtains (photographer unknown)
SLIPPING AWAY (The final journey)
I see the sadness in your eyes
The final journey ahead of you lies
A final crossing of the bridge of cries
Your final days just the sound of sighs
Is it regret for a life not fulfilled?
Do you sigh for the love that was killed
For the career that marriage stilled
For all the tears that were spilled
Or perhaps you just cry for life’s joy
For the memory of holding your little boy
For the feel of your very first toy
The love that nothing could destroy
Your beloved sister now long gone
All that’s left is her plaque on the lawn
An empty space in your heart at dawn
A space that leaves you sad and forlorn
The passing of friends leave you alone
Everyone gone you’ve ever known
Your children have left now they’re grown
Every birthday an empty milestone
Of your generation now it’s only you
You wait now for the last rendezvous
Nothing more left in this life to do
Soon you will slip away in the night too
As I’ve observed my Mum, Aunt, Uncle and their friends and other relatives getting older, as I’ve observed some of them fade away and die, I have often wondered about the sadness this must create. The sadness of being the last or next to last of your generation of friends and family.
That’s not say that there isn’t also joy and pleasure in the things they have always enjoyed; the family in the next generation, nature, food, film or many other things but it has always seemed to me that there must be some ineffable sadness in losing most of those one has loved.
It’s a generation of people that doesn’t talk much about their feelings whether they be joy, grief, sadness, loneliness, love or any other emotion. Do they regret missed opportunities? Lost loves? Abandoned or forgone careers? So much remains unspoken, unexplored.
Figure on pedestal (creator unknown)
THE PEDESTAL
The pedestal
Makes them tall
Before the fall
The pedestal
Takes the humble
And makes them vain
The pedestal
Takes the onlooker
And makes them a fool
The pedestal
Takes the writer
Makes them a flack
The pedestal
Takes the gentle soul
And makes them mean
The pedestal
Takes the mythical
Gives them feet of clay
The pedestal
Such a little step
Such a terrible thing
Between 1982 and 1989 and again between 2010 and 2015 I worked, frequently, with politicians, those with ambition to be politicians and political staffers and party apparatchiks. One of the things I learned was that no matter the party, the people attracted to being candidates and politicians were narcissistic, egotistical and arrogant. There are exceptions, of course, but, in general, few of those people are really people we should be electing.
A part of the problem is that we frequently adulate these people, putting them on pedestals, hero worshipping some. We treat them with a respect that many have neither earned nor deserve. This tends to simply bring out more of the qualities, in those people, that are least desirable. Even in the best of them it can be their downfall. Power corrupts.
But it’s not just the people on the pedestals that behave badly. We all do. We ignore their worst qualities and accept behaviour that we wouldn’t normally accept. And those who should hold them to account, such as journalists, are blinded by becoming too close to them.
Woman pouts while taking selfie (photographer unknown)
NARCISSISM – #40 – In the series, “Writing from the Road; poems, prose and images from 65 years on the Road”
This is my 2021 project to use all my finished writing and some of the 35,000 images in my Flickr archive: https://tinyurl.com/3j5utzm3
It’s interesting to look at the Instagram feeds of some people these days. The number that contain nothing other than endless selfies is extraordinary. Their vision is nothing other than themselves. They may be in the most extraordinarily beautiful places but they are completely focused inwardly.
Not only are they self-absorbed but that self-absorption is accentuated by the nature of the images. Some photograph themselves in few, if any, clothes. It’s a form of soft porn and, for young teens, a form, almost, of kiddy porn. Facial expressions reflect what people see in the beauty and fashion industry, posed and pouting.
All of that is a reflection of the superficiality of our society where looks are more important than substances and where celebrities and “influencers” have millions of followers but those who should be celebrated (nurses, teachers, ambos) work long hours, for little, in relative obscurity.
Image: elderly woman with head in hands (photographer: unknown)
THE EBB OF LIFE (FADING AWAY)
I watch you there, Over by the sink Or climbing the stair A little more bent, A little less certain About what is meant Each year more frail Your steps slower Your recollections fail Living slowly somehow Your strength ebbing, Everything hard now In the grey zone Between life and death, A life now on loan My heart breaks To see you so, My soul aches As you fade more Each passing year, Your old bones sore I know you so well And at once so little At the tolling bell The missing years The untold stories The unknown fears I want to hang on so To what is left But I must let go We must all depart Before anyone’s ready Torn heart from heart
About this poem: Written in 2017 and posted on Facebook then, this now forms part of this series of poems, prose and photographs. It was written observing my Mum getting progressively frailer and less sure about life. More anxious and more uncertain.
It’s something we all endure and I’ve seen other people go through the same process of watching their parents age. It’s a process that is hard to endure for all but one which we must all bear with stoicism and with acceptance.
Image: Albatross (author; Pearson Scott Foresman)
THE OCEANS DEATH
The azure line marks our path Human lines on the lifeless ocean Empty horizons in the lifeless sky Liquid deserts to the eye’s limit
Above in the blue bowl clouds scurry Witness to the innocents slaughtered In my minds eye the teeming ocean A vision of our planet’s recent past
The last albatross has flown to its grave Just a memory of the ancient mariner The frenzy of tuna now only a picture The frigate bird sails the sky no longer
Now we count just the floating plastic Below the limitless marching waves The bleached skeleton of a dying reef The whale turns its accusing eye to us
The agony of the acid polluted seas Eats the very foundation of all life When the great seas are lifeless now And all its living creatures dead
We will look upon the great blue grave And we will know the cost of our greed As we walk our lifeless empty planet And our souls weep for all we have lost
About this poem: This was written during my voyage aboard a freighter from Antwerp to Cape Town. I was surprised that sometimes we would go for days without seeing any life, not even a bird. Speaking to the Captain, Marius, he commented that 20 years previously they would see wildlife including whales, seals, dolphin, albatross and other seabirds on a daily basis but that they had progressively diminished with each passing year until, today, the ocean often appeared lifeless.
Sunbaker (photographer: Max Dupain)
SUN
Blue blue, blue water Beneath the yellow sun Fingers of heat sear in My skin takes it deep Earth beneath burns me Body opens and breathes
About this poem: There is something primal in the addiction of many of us to the sun and I’m not sure that it’s a need that the medical profession really understands. I think it’s ingrained deeply in our attachment to natural cycles and the joy at the coming of spring and summer that stems from our ancient dependence on the natural environment. I spent most of my childhood in the tropics and still cannot resist that sense of wellbeing that comes from the hot sun striking through the skin and warming me entire being, despite the exhortations of the naysayers. Still, these days, I restrict myself to ten or twenty minutes rather than hours and only in the mornings and evenings.
Sunset over Byron (Photographer: Chris Harris)
Unbroken Heart
I tear my heart from its flimsy perch Give it to you to break asunder Hearts unbroken are lives un-lived A spirit that has never flown free Like the purity of a blue sky That never saw the gold of cloud
About this poem: I take the view that a life without risk is one only partially lived, whether it by in work, recreation, relationships or anything else. While, like most people, I have become more risk averse as I have got older, it’s still my view that we need to push our boundaries even if they are little lower than they were in our twenties and thirties. It’s one reason why I detest the “nanny state” approach of Australian Governments and believe they are counterproductive to our welfare.
Australian flag with bloodstain (creator: unknown)
THE BLOOD FLAG
Blood spilt For an idea Lines on a map Drawn in blood Blood of Indigenes Parading their hatred Hatred of others Wrapped in a cloth The flag of Empire Symbol of oppression In the corner Like a stain Australia Day Parading like goons Patriotism, loyalty Shouting their myths Clinging to the tribe Grasping at the past Like a cult The Nation The Party The Flag A twisted love Of a twisted idea My country Wrong or Right My Party Wrong or Right Simplistic rhetoric Thoughtless allegiance Red, Blue or Green I Detest you You are the seeds of war
About this poem: I detest nationalism in all its forms, be it the nation state, the flag, the national anthem or national days (eg Australian Day). Contrary to the views of many that is not the same as rejecting, or not loving ones land.
But loving the land you live in (which is a real physical entity) and the people that inhabit it is very different from liking the mythical and dangerous symbols of the nation state. In fact like religion I view these all as a form of devotion to a cult (in this case the cult of the nation state). I view all these things as part of a power system designed to maintain the rich and powerful (read the sociopaths) in power. Similarly, this is not the same as rejecting the need to belong to our “tribe” or “community” or rejecting “identity”.
We can have community and identify without these dangerous symbols to which people attach and which have a principle driver of conflict. In essence it’s a belief in “culturalism” in stead of “nationalism; noting that the latter is often a principal force in destroying cultures and languages.
Image of person shooting Aboriginal man (Photographer: unknown)
A NATION’S LAMENT
My heart lies heavy on this day Crushed by ignorant, hate and fear The blood of centuries past still celebrated Its colour reflected in the foreigners’ flag
The poisoned waters now still and deserted A land devoid of a thousand stilled tongues The shouts of the raped and killed now silent The survivors voices still mocked and scorned
I cry for the unconfessed nation’s shame And for the leaders’ ignorant blindness For the celebration of nation on such a day When all should repent the darkened past
But more still the ignorance weighs heavy Blind to theft, poison, death and pain The spitting tongues and pens of hate Against those who raise their voices in protest
About this poem: This is very simply a rejection of the inherent racism and nationalism of Australia day. One that leads to the incidents such as the Cronulla riots and to nazism. Certainly we should not be celebrating Australia Day on a day that led to wholesale murder and attempted genocide of the Aboriginal people of Australia and, in my opinion we should not be celebrating any day based on the nation state but instead should substitute it with a day that celebrates our multicultural diversity.
Cartoon of Morrison as Gollum carrying a lump of coal (author: Van 2019?)
2020 – THE EVILDOERS (ODE TO SCOTT MORRISON)
You have poisoned our land with lies Taking their money and selling our soil Our beaches swept before your rising seas The forests laid waste by your mines
The farmlands poisoned by gas wells Our rivers become ditches of brown Lifeless channels devoid of great fish The water sold to friends for a fee
You talk of freedom and of values But you give us a brave new world Places of razor wire, damaged souls Whose hearts blows away on the wind
Hope crushed like refugees on our shore Smashed in the face of lust for power Far from the guns from which they fled Dreams lie broken, scattered on the wire
Your corruption seeps like acid on skin Burning up the people we wished to be Eating the very soul of this sacred place So that the red heart has but a faint beat
Art is pillaged and culture condemned We are blackened by your casual evil The fair go lies broken on the ground Your fires char our peoples’s birthright
The ghost of the 1940s walks this land First peoples abandoned, ignored, cheated Everything you touch sickens like the plague Greed like gangrene eats our country’s flesh
You speak of the bush but steal its life A billion dead creatures your legacy Their dying screams scars our soul Innocence destroyed by your half truths
You talk of God but worship Mammon Know the cost of all but value of nothing You talk of family with serpent tongue Hypocrisy so thick God would choke
We await the day of final retribution Where powerful will meet judgement Where the deniers and climate criminals Will burn for their sins in the fires of hell
About this poem: I wrote this after the fires at the end of 2019 when we say our country scorched by the some of the largest fires ever seen (25.5 million acres). In terms of damage to forest and wildlife they were arguably the worst. These were fires that, if not caused by the Morrison Government were, at least, exacerbated by their ideological refusal to lead on climate action and their stubborn refusal to listen to the experts about the need to upgrade our fire management and control abilities. In my view the current government is undeniably evil in the sense that its actions are deliberately and consciously, via its denial of climate action, contributing to the death of millions worldwide.
Belongil Creek, Byron Bay (photographer: C. Harris)
THE ABANDONED GOD
You worship your fictional Trinity And ask that we respect your God But each day you are killing mine The real God beneath your feet
So close you cannot see it The God of forests, of oceans The God of abandoned places That feeds your body and soul
I feel the anger come quicker Seeing the destruction you wrought Killing the places of my childhood Leaving just my dusty memories
I crave the touch of the fallen trees The swell of ocean on living reef The ride of the dolphin in the waves The free and clear flowing river
The sight of the albatross on the wind The howl of the wolf at the luminous moon The dance of the Brolga on the plain The song of the frog in its swamp
Instead hot sand blows to the end of time I hear the forlorn call of the boo book owl Alone now out on its endless range Looking for the last of its dying prey
Long across the ocean the blue whale calls A haunting cry to the last of its kind In it’s cry a message to humankind Of the coming of the end of the world
Of the death of our common God The abandoned God of abandoned places.
ABOUT THIS POEM: I have always disliked conventional religions, of whatever type for two reasons. Firstly that they are one of the great causes of conflict, hatred and division and never mind the hypocrisy of institutions that preach poverty but hoard great wealth, and of their adherents whose behaviour is the absolute opposite of their claimed beliefs. But also that it seems to me that if there is anything Godlike in our existence it’s the very beauty, intricacy and diversity of the planet we walk on and that, some religions seem intend on destroying with the biblical messages of human dominion.
At Eternity’s Gate (Van Gogh)
FORGOTTEN SOUL
Was it really so long ago? 17 years now since you left Not a soul seemed bereft Your memory now a shadow
To resurface sometimes
But on your birthday I did think of you Existing like a shadow In my unconscious mind
To resurface sometimes
I wonder at your life A life so unknown Was there loneliness? Was there pain?
No one asked
Did you long for love? The love you pushed away Did you hope for touch? Touch you could not give
No one asked
I feel for you now Alone in your soul Alone for 90 years Alone with your fears
The fears no one knew
About this poem: My Dad died in 2004, 17 years ago, at the age of 90. He was a man that scarcely anyone knew in any real sense; like many of his generation he rarely spoke of his feelings, showed little emotion and was uncomfortable with any expression of emotions, either is own or others. No one asked him about his life or his feelings. He died a man unknown. No one in our family talks about him and, I suspect few think about him. He’s like a shadow that exists only in our sub conscious like, I suspect, many men (and some women) of that generation.
Baron Empain Palace, Heliopolis, near our home in Cairo, now renovated and open to the public
LAMENT FOR A LOST HOME
I crossed the dry dusty street Following behind my feet I touched down yesterday I walked the old roadway
Landing then from overseas Took the bus past old Ramses Living by a six lane highway Must be his last indignity
It’s been fifteen years this year Since we last lived and played When we all were then just children In the Pharaoh’s city of legend
Passing the old Baron’s Palace Provides some small passing solace For broken memories of home For the broken stones of Fayoum
Only the corner flat still stands Of our precious childish heartlands Where our games we fought and played The street where our family stayed
I hear the cicadas frenzy The wailing of the muezzins plea The bougainvilleas colour Smell the rich Cairean odour
I walk down the street where we ran Crossing the road past the old tram Standing by the first mango stand With juice running all down my hand
Past my favourite pastry shop In the shade where we’d always stop For a millefeuille each all round With the teeming street’s raucous sound
Every bit has all gone now Sent to oblivion somehow They’ve taken all my memories Buried the place of my stories
The distant pyramids still stand In this ancient mystical land But the place I now can recall Is just a faded print on a wall
About this poem: The five years I spent in Cairo with my family between ages five & ten (1960 to 1965) were some of the most formative for me. It was a time of indolence with endless days spent running in the streets.
Memories are of heat, sand, the life of the streets, the welcome of local people, mango juice, pastries (a legacy of the French) & history.
We lived on the ground level of a magnificent old three story, stone building, cool & characterful where we spent endless nights playing cards on the front verandahs.
We were part of an extended expatriate community that worked and socialised together but, to my great regret, not very integrated into the local community.
The imprint of Cairo was so great that, 20 years later, with no maps I could find my way around the streets to our old houses & haunts. Most those places are now gone, destroyed in the rush to development in a growing city. This is about my sense of loss in seeing those childhood places destroyed.
Leopard, Chobe National Park, Botswana (Photo: C. Harris)
LEOPARD LEOPARD
Leopard, Leopard moving light Grassland shadow ever slight Slipping away from hand and eye, Your path marked by distant cries
Your faint shadow in the distance lies We see only the fire of your eyes What a vision of beauty you inspire Even as the world around you dies
Leopard, oh Leopard a vision right Of a world renewed with light Where hopes of better times still fly And animals, for humans, do not die
About this poem: In 2020, immediately before the COVID pandemic, I took a 21 day trip through the Western Cape of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Namibia. It’s rare to see a Leopard in the wild but we had a fortunate trip, seeing a both a wide variety of animals and, in most cases, many of them. Nevertheless it’s difficult not to be conscious of the disappearance of many species or, at least, their increasing rarity, with the risk that, for future generations that they may never see, at least in the wild, many of the magnificent animals we were privileged to see
Broken Heart (creator: unknown)
BROKEN HEART
You taught me so much my love You came like an innocent in the night I saw your beauty then as others didn’t I gave you everything then I could But you followed head not heart The tears ran wet across empty miles You held my heart in your hands And crushed it with a single cruel blow
About this Poem: This is simply about the common experience many of us have, in life, of being rejected, for any number of possible reasons, by someone or something we love (in this case romantic love). Normally it is a rejection by a lover but, more broadly, the same sort of crushing emotional experience can come from being rejected by family, friends or even employers and can lead to depression and worse. We see this not just in personal relationships but in people being sacked by employers, in the end of careers (eg sports people). Generally we are very bad at recognising the damage done and providing support.
Grey haired woman (Photographer: unknown)
YOUR LOVE
Your auburn hair has turned grey I see the pain in your soft brown eyes The hurt in your damaged soul
I’m sorry, my love, for all the pain I treated you so carelessly each day Pushing you away every day
I did not understand my cruelty I did not see your bleeding wounds Arms at length are not arms at all
All you asked was a gentle embrace Some help to soothe the lifelong pain Where words are not enough
You gave me your skin, your soul Getting in return a hard heart Cutting you with only lust and logic
Two years of longing cruelly denied Two years of loving harshly replied Nothing but rejection and pain
No apology can soothe the wounds No penance can bind the damaged soul Maybe time will heal the endless hurt
I wish I could undo the bitter words If only I could unmake the careless acts So many years, so many regrets
About this poem: It took me a long time in life to realise that there was a big difference between rejection and indifference (one being, usually, a short sharp pain and the other prolonged cruelty), . It may seem obvious but there came a point when, talking to others, that I realised that it was unethical to withhold from a relationship to which your partner is committed, simply because you are not confident of its longevity. It’s quite wrong and very hurtful.
It’s a behaviour that many of us, not least myself, justify on the basis of “well, my lover will be hurt less when I leave, if I hold them at arms length, if I withhold my affection”. I realised, on the contrary, that it was quite cruel because not only will they be hurt, anyway, if the relationship does end but, in the meantime, they have been deprived of their emotional needs for the entire period of the relationship. Mostly the indifference is worse than a rejection.
Adelaide Hills Fires 2019/20
JUDGEMENT DAY WILL COME
I see the fires’s dull dangerous glow It flickers like the anger in my soul A burning rage at the failed leaders The tentacles of grief grasp our hearts For the destruction of our olive land Like the wreathes of smoke curling up Each fire the death of a thousand animals Murdered on the killing fields of climate A bloody plain of lies, greed and deceit
Thirty years of our hopes denied By the grasping men in grey suits Their souls stained with blood coal Their pockets lined by fossil bribes. The rising water and drowning islands Just small talk for men with no morals Each meaningless marketing mantra Every empty slogan, a death warrant
How good does it get for the dead? Victims of Morrison’s moral vacuum Everywhere the skeletons of houses Like some warning of apocalypse Scar the blackened smoking hills Each one a mark on someone’s soul Seared by an uncaring Government
In the graveyards the families gather To farewell the needlessly dead Murdered by the Captains of industry Condemned by Murdoch’s mendacity Abandoned by a cabinet of criminals
In the minds of the bitter people A vision of the judgement day When the guilt of the climate criminals Burdened by the souls of a million dead Drags them down to a hell of torment As the flames of a thousand fires Sears their empty blackened souls And the screams of burning victims Asking, for them, the never ending eternity Promised by their vacuous religions
ABOUT THIS POEM: Written in early 2020 just after the bushfires of that black summer. it’s simply a memorial to that summer and its millions of dead animals, people and trees, as well as call for a reckoning in which the climate criminals such as Morrison, Taylor, Canavan and multiple other politicians, along with the purveyors of shock jock and media lies (Murdoch et al), the propagandists of the IPA and the captains of industry finally face judgement for those they have killed.
Lake Timk, with reflections of Mount Anne, Tasmania. Photographer: Chris Harris
EMPTY
I lie awake under the vast silent sky The stars stare down unsleeping Like the bright eyes of yesterday’s Gods Or the dreaming millions of tomorrow’s spirits
As the false security of sleep creeps forward Your ethereal body approaches Moving close on the mists of my dream You smile, gently, secretly
I reach out my arms to caress your naked body But as I touch your misty vision You move away smiling still Always just beyond reach
I touch only empty space Where once there was something solid I wake again in the cold night Under the bright eyes of the Gods
On the wall your picture hangs As if taunting my soul I try and read your mind across the miles My mind whispers to you gently
About this poem: This was written during a trip to Lake Timk. I had a disturbed nights sleep and during the night dreamt about a recent lover.
Sand Dune, Morocco. Photographer – C. Harris
GRAIN OF SAND
Where the pain produces a pearl So it is with love, laughter, pain We hold the pain of sorrow Of bereavement, of abandonment The hurt of failed love, fallen hope Holding them like a kernel in our heart The kernel of pain brings memory Of what was and will be again Shared passion, joy, laughter, love, life With the pain comes the scarring Cut deep in each soul To help us remember the good To keep us searching for the seed For new hope, the dawn that never fades Without pain we are diminished The compassion, less strong The hope, less enduring The pleasure, love, diminished
About this poem: I was reflecting on how no experience is quite as profound unless you have experienced the opposite. Love can beget hate, pleasure is more acute if we have experienced pain. Loss makes one value what has even more. So in this sense we should welcome the uncomfortable (at least to a degree) in order to appreciate what we have.
Rapid, Jane River, Tasmania. Photographer – C. Harris
RIVER
Traveling your cold waters A journey much like life With no turning back Just one destination Journey’s end Accepting all your moods Like vagaries of life Smooth placid reaches Deep black gorges Thundering rapids All through the journey No escaping contact Swept along relentlessly Hit, dumped, damaged At your whim And when nerve fails Faced by brute force Clinging to the side Avoiding that slip To doom Waiting for better times So to glide serenely Enjoying the life force Immersed in beauty At ease Watch the myriad turns Water slides over rock Swaying Huon fronds Timeless dark pools Fearing only fear Like the life force itself The pleasures, pains Events beyond control Waiting journey’s end Later or sooner? We have so little control One immutable truth The journey like life itself Must end soon.
About this poem: I feel this is a rather cliched analogy comparing a river trip with our trip through life. It was written after a trip, accompanied by Peter Robertson, down the Jane River (a tributary of the Franklin River, in Tasmania), in 1983.
Wategos Beach, Byron Bay. Wind in the casuarinas. Photographer: C. Harris
The WIND
Moving through life like a zephyr Stirring emotions like eddying leaves Tantalising, impossible to catch What driving force moves you on Stepping close disturbs the calm Altering the balance between us And then you’ll disappear again To rise again elsewhere, more distant So I keep you at arms length Measuring the safe distance Feeling the gusts of your presence The whirling leaves of emotions I try catching them gently Movement makes them fall It’s dangerous to get too close Winds, strongest in the centre Like a cyclone, unpredictable Is there calm in your storm? Is it possible to know? The path to safety not clear All fates are unknown But one thing we known All like to walk in the wind Feeling your cool breath Not knowing where you go Only that like the wind You will change direction And pass out of each life You cannot be held And so no one will not try Not knowing the damage You may leave behind But when you smile And you turn your gaze Then the pain is worthwhile For a brief moment of warmth
About this poem: Written during a tempestuous relationship where the object of my affection was one minute keen and the next very distant – an experience fairly common to many people – something that is highly confusing and which create emotions that change like the wind.
Image: Photographer unknown
THE STEEL LINE
I travel the steel line Rhythm beneath like time lost The wastelands of the mind Littered with lost hope of youth The steel whispers to me Of all the melancholy days Of the great dying to come The bitter taste of hate Survival a matter of mere fate
About this poem: This was written on the train across the Balkans. The endless empty factories, the abandoned houses and other buildings made me reflect on the wastelands into which we threaten to turn our earth and the “dying” which will arrive in those times. A dying bought on by hate and greed.
Sea turtle from above. Photographer: unknown.
LOOKING DOWN
From a distant hill, turtles swim Landing on the bleeding beach Life still beats its wounded heart These greats beasts of hope Older than the damaged soul Harbingers of future worlds On a journey from fear to hope The battered cross is bent and rusty But the turtles pay no heed Their vision of a former world Devoid of doom and strife and fire When holy dragons bestrode the sky And the striped tiger still rode the hills
About this poem: This is an interpretation of a dream which I had repeatedly for around 20 years, up to about 5 years ago. In that dream, which I had several times a year, these giant turtles would swim past as I looked down from the cliff above. I could “hear” in the dream the turtles imagining a world long ago before mass extinctions brought on by climate change.
A display in the Jewish Museum of Berlin representing the thousands of Jewish dead. Photographer: C. Harris
BERLIN
A continent’s history Written on your streets On your buildings Like scars across the wrists The knives of dictators The swords of emperors Your arteries of concrete Your rivers of blood Bandaged, healed With a flag of blue and gold Staunched with an idea An idea of shared humanity History’s sins, six million dead Washed by a million refugees
About this poem: This was written after walking through Berlin where I had visited the Bundestag (Parliament), The Berlin Jewish Museum, the remains of the Berlin Wall. All these buildings flew the EU flag. For me it symbolised, somehow the ability of people and communities to transform. In this case from a fascist genocidal state to a leading proponent of a pan European ideal which, for all its faults, still somehow represents an idea of how diverse people can share a peaceful and prosperous future – and in the case of Germany, partially erase the sins of the Holocaust by welcoming more than a million refugees during the 21st century.
Melaleuca, Yellow Water, Kakadu. Photographer: C. Harris
A PINE WIND
Beneath the casuarina’s whispered breath Where the wind speaks of aeons past On the ancient rocks toppling edge Above the flooded river plains Ten thousand cicadas calling out Cascading their flowing sounds of life And each random flower is a world itself Here where distance silences a city’s chatter Every trouble is small besides the whisper breeze
About this poem: I spend a lot of my life away from Australia. Thoughts of home and family are aroused mostly by the sights and sounds of Australian trees; Eucalypts, melaleucas, casuarinas. For me, the sound of wind in a casuarina is one of the sounds most evocative of Australia, of nights camped by the beach.
The Grim Reaper. Photographer: unknown
DEATH COMES
I think of you gone And her Her bed empty and cold I see her face in the window And you The missing smile I think of me I stand still on the edge And I fly
About this poem: This is about all those who have gone from our lives, either through death or through the end of a relationship, friendship or when a change of circumstances separates as, such as through work or life separates two people. In reflecting on those lost from our lives, I think we often look inward and reflect on our own lives and the decisions or actions that led to those separations.
Abandoned building in Croatia. Photographer: C. Harris
ABANDONED
Like the detritus of the soul Abandoned, weeping In grey Croatian mountains.
Empty windows, lost hopes Building shells slip past Today’s reflections of tomorrow Of the coming fires of hell
The remnants of yesterday Reminders of our sins Of our inferno of greed
Our own funeral pyre A cauldron of the damned Created by our ignorance Fanned by winds of hate
About this poem: Like “The Steel Line” this was written on a train across the Balkans, in this case Croatia. Similarly it reflected the feeling of emptiness created by the wastelands of the ex-Yugoslavia and the sense that the mistakes of past generations continue to be repeated, driven by greed and ignorance.
The ubiquitous barbed wire and razor is a potent symbol of the divisions created by such as Peter Dutton. Photographer: unknown.
LAMENT FOR THE LOST (Ode to the political class/Peter Dutton)
The blood of putrefied corpses Running deep red upon our soils Your dread ambition’s deadly end. Grasping hands reach for power Tearing live fibres from our being The camps, your cruel legacy Where the persecuted lie dying Abandoned for power’s pursuit Bloodied hands grasp your razor wire Death heaped on your hard black heart The stench of your lies pervades us Your career’s million stories Each told by a dead Arab’s corpse
About this poem: This was written after spending time in the Balkans and visiting the genocide museum in Sarajevo, snipers alley in the same city and the fortress above Dubrovnik. Each held a myriad reminders of the wars and genocides that flowed back and forth across these beautiful lands – and across the Middle East – all largely driven by the ambitions of politicians and the hatreds they strive to arouse. Regardless of where we live these hatreds are stoked by individuals such as, in Australia’s case, Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton, and are aimed to divide us and so maintain the grip on power of the elite.
Turtle, Maldives. Photographer: C. Harris
The Great Empty
When the great fish no longer swim The steely blue oceans now empty The Forests dead, dying grey brown Speak of a life long ago gone I swim the white reefs, now lifeless The shadows of sharks long absent The presence of the great turtles Now just memories of the past You can walk the trails you walked Where giant eucalypts once lived Before the climate fires took them Now just the charred stumps stand Pointing lifeless to the blue sky Like accusing fingers of scorn You can stand on the eastern point But the leaping whales leap no more Since acid waters took the krill Just celluloid memories left And the bitter tears run freely
About this poem: This reflects my experience diving on some of the world’s great reefs over a period of 35 years and walking in some of the great forest lands; in which places I viewed the destruction wrought by humans.
Woman with head in hands. Photographer: unknown.
HIDDEN
Every second soul carries its secret Hidden behind the mask The smile hides the grimace Lips forming “I’m fine” As the soul’s jagged edges rips; We walk among the half-living.
About this poem: This is about our propensity to be in pain, to be sad, to be angry or bitter but to hide those emotions beneath a false smile and to reject the offers of comfort or help and, in doing so, to consign ourselves to continue to live in pain, to continue to pretend. As a result, we continue living a half life in a grey world.
All my works are gone to waste All the beauty that I placed The music of the waves on sand The setting sun across the land
You destroyed that wondrous beauty Failing in your basic duty Taking more without the need Every day you drove that deed
Scott Morrison “prays” Photographer: unknown
You say you serve me every day
But you deny me in every way
When you move your lips you lie And the famous idiot wind does fly
The fires of hell now above Burning the very things I love Forests now black and dead Everywhere this land has bled
The rivers are running dry The great fish gasp and die Killed by the Devil’s crops Taking the river’s very last drops
I see you wave your arms You talk of the placing of palms But every decision is the devil’s works And In every false prayer your evil lurks
You imprison my sons, my daughters Those who fled the deadly slaughters Who sought your compassionate decision But you gave them only endless prison
Your murder of the wild places Brought the plague of many faces You don’t even pretend to care Leaving even your own over there
Your hateful black black soul As black as the devil’s coal Part of your hateful cult Adding injury to insult
Don’t give me your devil’s eyes Your twisted Devil’s lies Your sanctimonious devil’s work Your hypocrites devilish smirk
You talk of social media sin You say the devil lurks within Its posts corrupt our very soul Just the same as does the dole
Look then in the mirror And see its very real terror You are the Devil walking the Earth You are the very Devil on my Earth
About this poem: I sometimes reflect on what it takes genuinely evil: a lack of compassion, a deliberate policy to do harm, a lack of care, greed. A desire to cheat, lie and mislead; base corruption. The Morrison Government, in Australia, has all of these in spades. It’s a corrupt kleptocracy that is evil to its bootstraps, a fact it tries to hide behind the faux Christianity of its Hillsong cult.
The group which will travel across southern Africa, together, has met up in the hostel the previous night and we now decamp, immediately after breakfast , stopping along the way on the northern beaches, just out of Cape Town, where we pose on the beach for our departure photos and for a final view of Table Mountain across the bay. From here we head north across the Western Cape to Cederberg.
View from the hostel to table mountain
Hostel gardens and surrounds
Departure photo. L to R: Mike, Kerry. Chris, Hannah, Marlou, Jeff, Rie, Nico, Ceci, Yvonne, Sonja
Table mountain
Table Mountain and beaches
Table Mountain
Cederberg is a gentle introduction to the trip. A pleasant green lawn to camp on, bar and pool. It is here that Jeff discovers his fate which is to share a tent with me for the rest of the trip. No amount of cool will save him from this fate.
We receive instruction on tent erection, which Jeff and I manage not to hear properly thus taking twice as long as anyone else to erect our tent. There are no particular disasters on this day but instead I receive a bonus of free and cheese tasting for some unknown reason related to my bookings having been changed to a different date than those I originally booked.
Wine tasting
Cederberg Campground
View from the campground
The main events are swimming and wine tasting events which, when taken together, can often have a mixture of hilarious and disastrous results. In our case, aside from being regaled with tales of naked swimming by previous visitors, which seems to have provided a degree of voyeuristic pleasure to the owners and seems to be aimed at persuading us, without success, to do the same, the evening passes uneventfully, if pleasantly, in a haze of sunshine, wine and food.
Looking to Namibia
Morning light
Evening on the Orange River
Day two brings us to the Orange River. named after the Dutch royal family (the House of Orange). It’s the longest river in South Africa and a key provider of electricity via its hydro station. On the other side is Namibia. The main activity here is swimming the river and illegally entering Namibia though, for anyone other than committed drug smugglers or poachers, it might be a long walk to the nearest town.
Orange River swimming platform
The Riverbank idyll
Swimming Orange River
Orange River evening
Darter
Darter and fish
The river and associated campsite is quite a beautiful spot especially in the soft morning and evening light and we collectively add to the several million photos that must have been take of the river since the advent of digital cameras. We are treated to an ongoing display of swimming and fishing virtuosity by a resident darter bird.
The intrepid kayakers
On the Orange River
In the morning a committed few take a kayaking trip on the flat water. There are seven of us who go, myself, Hannah, Mike and Kerry, Ceci and Nico and Sonya.
Orange views
Orange views 2
Orange views 3
Ceci models kayak wear
Kerry and Mike on the catwalk
Hannah contemplates murder
This is a good opportunity for anyone to argue over ownership of the Malvinas or how long it will take the UK to become a fifth rate country, once it leaves the EU and has to survive on its own, and confront Iceland over fishing in Icelandic waters.
Fortunately, Mike and Kerry have approximately the same levels of kayaking skills as Eddie the Eagle had ski jumping skills and were so far behind the rest of us that the second Malvinas war was avoided.
Rumour has it that they were still on the river the following morning and had to be rescued by Gift in order to ensure that we left on time. Indeed such was the stress of their paddling feats that they strained their only paddling muscle and were unable to wash up for a week.
Sonja, Ceci and Hannah model their kayaking outfits prior to complaining they looked insufficiently elegant
And the camp dog disapproves
The rest of us had a pleasant paddle, though Sonja, my paddling partner, was more interested in adding to her portrait portfolio than paddling. Hannah, according to our river guide, did not paddle at all and was fortunate to be saved, according to the guide, by his innate grace.
So far as we can tell, however, it was that guide who fortunate to survive the trip such was his level of sexist bravado. Beyond that the main complaint was from the local narcissists (Hannah, Ceci and Nico) who having posed for photos then complained that they weren’t shown at their best.
Day 3 and we were headed for the Fish River Canyon which is claimed to to be the world’s second largest canyon after the Grand Canyon, although like all these things it depends how you measure it. For example the The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, along the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet, is regarded by some as the deepest canyon in the world at 5,500 m (18,000 ft). It is slightly longer than the Grand Canyon in the United States.
First though, we have to cross the border into Namibia which, like all border crossings, is an exercise of mixed bureaucracy and futility in which we are all required to disembark for the bus to be searched and to pass through a border post in which a few border inspectors seem to inspect our passports with an overwhelming sense of disinterest.
The roads through the Western Cape and Eastern Namibia are long and dusty but the scenery is spectacular, a cross between the Dakota Badlands and the central Australian deserts around Tennant Creek.
On the road to Fish River 1
On the road to Fish River 2
On the road to Fish River 3
I stood lonely as a lonely tree (Jeff image)
I give my heart for a barren land (Jeff Image)
En route we pass Aussenkehr the main Namibian table grape growing area – which thrives for three reasons, the water of the Orange River, the climate which allows grapes to reach the European market more than six weeks earlier than those from anywhere else, and the cheap labour.
Grape workers huts 1
Table grape production
Grape workers huts 2
Grape workers huts 3
The day is hot, dusty, windy and long and the tedium encourages various tour members (mainly Rie) to spend half the day leaning out of the window in an attempt to entertain passing elephants or anything else she thinks she might encounter. Being Rie, it is entirely unclear what is on her mind. Perhaps the company has driven her to suicidal thoughts or, possibly, she is merely trying to have random protein intake by catching a local fly?
As we approach the Fish River Canyon we encounter the aftermath of the rains that preceded us and have turned the Victoria Falls, as we later discovered, from a trickle into a seething torrent. As a result the camp at which we were supposed to be staying was closed and the staff appear to have moved almost the entire contents of the accommodation out into the sun to dry.
All is not lost however, as the owners have assembled a classic collection of vintage cars which allows those of us that are 65 going on 16 to spend a few minutes reliving our driving experiences as 14 year olds. Nico is especially at home as he gears up for his starring role in Blues Brothers II.
Nico gears up for his starring role in Blues Brothers 2
64 Going on 16…?
The alternative accomodation turns out to be a more upmarket resort where, to our great pleasure, we are allocated very comfortable resort style rooms instead of the campground and have pretty much sole use of a good swimming pool. We don’t even have to carry our own luggage which is delivered to our rooms, all of 100 metres away, by donkey cart. Everyone is happy.
Room Service in Namibia
Before dinner we take a drive to see the Fish River Canyon which is, indeed, very impressive and much more so illuminated by the setting sun. The shadows of the evening sun provides 3D relief to the Canyon which at the height of the day is “flattened” when the sun is overhead.
We are warned by an adjacent sign not to hike down into the Canyon, something that precisely no one seems inclined to want to do, even if the time permitted.
No day strolls into the Canyon (photo Jeff Davis)
Apart from the statutory requirement to take 20 photos of the canyon each, a further 20 selfies, and group photos, we are mainly entertained by the resident and extremely photogenic local lizard.
The world’s most photographed lizard
Photo by Jeff
Here, we are treated to the first exhibition of drone flying by Rie, which involves repeatedly obeying Rie’s instructions to look at and wave at her drone, as we collectively pose for drone photos, and fervently hoping that the drone doesn’t crash into and kill any of us since it is, apparently, not functioning as it should.
For we are all so young and beautiful (photo Jeff)
All hail to Rie’s drone (photo Jeff)
At the canyon
Photographing the photographer, photographing the lizard
Sonya contemplates her future role as as a Siren (photo Jeff Davis)
We are travelling in the famed Rainbow bus, which is actually a truck with a bus body on a flatbed. It rattles its way across the landscape and we rattle with it. Whoever built and maintained it clearly has a sense of humour, since they fixed some seats far enough apart that you could be a giraffe and still have plenty of legroom whereas a couple of the seats are clearly designed for midgets or for Hannah/Rie who are the closest thing to midgets that we have.
The Rainbow “bus”
A truck by any other name
To compound it someone thought it would be funny to have one seat which was screwed to the floor at an angle of about 75° so that one person has twice the legroom than the person next to them.
Please, please don’t leave me. I know I was mean but….
We’re fortunate in that a bus designed for 22 (11 bench seats), has only 12 people on board, including Gift, meaning eight of us have a seat each, the two couples each share one and there is a seat spare for extra luggage.
The extra space makes it much more tolerable, with the main issue being that, for reasons known only to the safari company, they have decided to have a bus equipped with curtain hangers but no curtains. So if you are on the sunny side of the bus you can use the wires to hang your favourite sarong and give you shade but, if you leave the windows open, you risk having it sucked out never to be seen again.
While we may have “A” class guides we are definitely in the “B” class transport, as we note whenever we are passed by the air conditioned G Spot buses. On the other hand the cost on G-Spot – an 18 day trip is AUD3739 compared to our 21 day trip for AUD2000 however – is twice the cost. Beggars can, indeed, not be choosers.
We arrive in Sesriem in the early afternoon. Here we are surrounded by endless skies, endless mountains and mountainous dune systems. The light is translucent, much like Australian and South African light. There is something about the light of the southern hemisphere at around 35° south that has a different quality to almost anywhere else on earth, in my experience.
Aside from the views the principal points of interest are the swimming pool and its attendant wildebeest mother and calf. Given what we will see later in the trip, the presence of a mere two wild wildebeest generates an amazing degree of excitement, somewhat akin to someone from the desert seeing the ocean for the first time.
Consequently we have a “who can pose best with the wildebeest” competition, like a sort of wildebeest beauty competition, one won by Hannah and Rie who, if it were possible to be orgasmic over a couple of wildebeest, certainly approached that state of excitement. The ageing cynics and grinches on the other hand were largely unmoved.
Rie and Hannah commune with (apparently) the world’s last known Wildebeest
Meanwhile at the other end of the pool…ho hum.
And the Wildebeest? “Another bloody Dane”
Ceci: I shall reach Nirvana before the Wildebeest
But first I shall teach it yoga
Now it is almost impossible for most normal people to injure themselves severely on an entirely flat piece of sandy ground, absent any rocks or obstructions but I am pleased to report that yours truly, aka “The Idiot Traveller” succeeded in doing exactly that.
Proceeding in a leisurely fashion towards the washing line, in the near dark, I succeeded in tripping over the wires, cunningly placed by the campground management, and designed to trap the clumsy and unobservant, namely your humble servant.
It later turned out that numerous people, including Munya, had succeeded, historically, in tripping over those wires (revenge on the white man??) but none had succeeded in ripping off half their shin, and then nearly amputating their following foot. Yes, another first for the Idiot Traveller.
The image you all wanted to see: “Still Scarred After All These Years” (apologies to Paul Simon – Still Crazy after all these years (esp. for Rie)
This relatively minor accident had consequences, for most people on the trip, extending over most of the next week or more. Initially it was the litre or so of blood that I lost through tearing off about 15 cms of skin on my left leg that concerned me but by the morning my right foot was so swollen that it was painful to walk. Worse to come.
Dawn sees us assembled and ready to roll in the dark. We take the Rainbow Bus through the mountainous dunes. For Australians they are reminiscent of the Simpson Desert, though with less vegetation and more irregular in shape and size. As the sun rises the dunes turn from deep red to orange, in parts, and to pinks and whites and a sort of shimmery silver in others and, in shape, like giant sails of sand.
Early morning light on dunes
Photo Jeff Davis
We and then transfer onto smaller four wheel drive transport for another 20 minutes deeper into the sand country to get to the Sossusvlei, which is a salt and clay pan surrounded by high red dunes, located in the southern part of the Namib Desert, within the Namib-Naukluft National Park of Namibia.
Dawn breaks
Ascending the dunes
Changing light, changing colours
The name “Sossusvlei” is often used in an extended meaning to refer to the surrounding area, which is one of the major visitor attractions of Namibia. Specifically though, “Sossusvlei” roughly means “dead-end marsh”. Vlei is the Afrikaans word for “marsh”, while “sossus” is Nama for “no return” or “dead end”. Sossusvlei owes this name to the fact that it is an endorheicdrainage basin (i.e., a drainage basin without outflows) for the ephemeral Tsauchab River
Sossusvlei
Sossusvlei
Sossusvlei – Photo (Jeff Davis)
The Sossusvlei area belongs to a wider region of southern Namib extending over about 32.000 km²) between the rivers Koichab and Kuiseb. It’s characterized by high sand dunes of vivid pink-to-orange color, an indication of a high concentration of iron in the sand and consequent oxidation processes. The oldest dunes are those of a more intense reddish color. The dunes, in the Sossusvlei area, are among the highest in the world; many of them are above 200 metres, the highest being the one nicknamed Big Daddy, about 325 metres high. The highest dune, elsewhere in the Namib Desert, Dune 7, is about 388 metres high (source: Wikipedia).
Sossusvlei
Sossusvlei
Sossusvlei
The walk into the Sossusvlei is the first tests of my injured leg (foot in particular) and it’s not pleasant so, rather than walking around the salt pan I sit and watch which, in some ways is better since you get a birds eye view of the scale of the area in contrast with all the little figures walking around below.
Sossusvlei
Sossusvlei
Image Jeff Davis
The bigger challenge, however, is on the return where we stop to climb Dune 45 where even the idea of the view from the top is not sufficient to overcome the idea of a dragging painful foot up 145 metres of sand dune. I am joined in my idleness by Hannah.
We return to camp where, we find, our camp ground has been invaded by a group of G-Spotters. Talk turns to what degrees of sabotage we should inflict on their tents, bus in response to them spurning Yvonne, etc but we refrain from taking revenge.
Gift watches the punters and reflects on”The black man’s burden”
Rie tries to catch a passing bird for a quick feed. Hannah meanwhile: “why am I stuck with this mad Dane?”
Sonja taking Spanish lessons
Nico
Marlou
Jeff
The following day is the “longest” day. A hot bone jarring drive across the deserts to Swakopmund via Walvis Bay. The passengers are pummelled into a stupor by heat, a burning wind, the sound of the engine and the jolting of the bus. The discomfort is not assisted by the fact that I can no longer sit for long periods with my foot at ground level without intense pain and so everyone has to put up with my right foot poking over the top of their seat or resting on the arm of their chair.
Jeff attempts to keep the vegetation alive
You are a dead man
Marlou seeks meaning in the desert
Across the endless desert
We stop several times en route to take in the Mad Max type scenery and, in true tourist style, to take a picture of the sign announcing that we are crossing the Tropic of Capricorn. Hence I am able to capture the archetypal cliched shot of a group of 20 and 30 year olds, of the Instagram generation, staring longingly at a rusty battered sign in the middle of nowhere (with apologies to Ceci who is not really of the Instagram generation and who, I know, was just supervising the children).
The Insta generation proving they were in Namibia
En route to Swakopmund we also pass through Walvis Bay which had been planned as a 30 minute stop to take in the pink flamingos in the Walvis Bay lagoon and to pick up lunch. But I have been to Walvis Bay before en route to Cape Town by ship and I know that the Slowtown Coffee Roasters is the only decent cup of coffee within 1000 kilometres, leaving aside the fact that it sells a mean cheesecake.
Walvis Bay Lagoon
Flamingo central
As anyone knows one should never stand between the Idiot Traveller and a good coffee/cheesecake, so I suggest a diversion to stop for good coffee and cake. Gift is reluctant. Apparently on previous trips he has made changes to the itinerary, to meet the requests of punters, only for some other whining bastard to complain about those changes. Hence he requires an unanimous agreement to divert.
There is no hesitation from the crew and especially not from Rie who sees her opportunity to consume sufficient calories to maintain her normal muscle mass.
Walvis Bay
Walvis Cranes
Walvis shipyard
Walvis Bay nightfall
Walvis cranes
Walvis sunset
Walvis Bay is a slightly bipolar town that doesn’t really know if it wants to be an industrial/port centre or a tourist town. It’s stuck in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by the South Atlantic on one side and by deserts on all other sides with the nearest town of any size being the Namibian capital Windhoek, 400 kilometres away across the Namib desert.
Cricket..what more could any person want
The curse of the cruise ship industry
It’s the major port for a large part of southern Africa including Botswana, Congo and Zambia but is also a tourist destination with the port having a cruise ship terminal. So it’s a mixture of very ugly practical buildings but with an entire marina, and surrounds, with seafood restaurants dedicated to the tourist trade, most of which is focused on visiting the surrounding deserts.
After our brief tourist stop to see pink flamingos, coffee and cake, we press on to Swakopmund, Namibia’s principal resort town. Like most of Namibia it has a strong German influence, so Marlou and Sonja feel right at home. Except of course we are not really sure if Marlou is German since her home town never existed.
We have our second non-camping stop and are housed in the cabins of the “Adventure Village ” and adjacent adventure travel centre through which we will book our activities of which there are many options including balloon rides, skydiving, quad biking, marine cruises, skydiving and sandboarding or, if you are Hannah, you can commune with parrots.
Get your bloody talons out of my arm
No shit, Sherlock
Five of us, Rie, Ceci, Nico, Jeff and I choose to go sandboarding. This is a great choice for me since I haven’t done anything remotely similar, apart from a bit of surfing, since 1980 when I ripped my ACL in two skiing, and, as well, I have a swollen foot to squeeze into a boarding boot.
The Sandboarders – A failed attempt to jump in unison
Yours truly stylin’ down the dunes
Just before the wipe out
Rie with two boards
Jeff off the jump
All in a row
View over the dunes
Coming up
Nico
Rie
In addition one has to climb some of the world’s highest dunes in the heat of the day and no one over the age of 40-odd seems to think it’s a good idea – it’s just me and mostly 20 year olds. But I am never one to be deterred by common sense.
By the time we have climbed the dunes about 4 times I am pretty much rooted and labouring with an increasingly sore foot. I hand over my board to the Danish Amazon to carry for me.
Rie is undeterred by carrying two boards and, it seems, doesn’t realise that it involves physical effort to climb up the dunes. I whine and moan about being too old and unfit but Rie, nicely, points out that half of the big group of Swedes, who are all about 40 years younger than me, gave up long before me. Which makes me feel better even if it doesn’t improve my sand boarding skills.
We return to base. By the time we are due to go out for dinner I am hobbling like a 90 year old. Swakopmund marks, pretty much, the end of the desert section of our trip. Tomorrow we will have one more stop in the desert, at Brandburg, where we will visit the cave paintings and then it’s on to the game parks.
PART 1 – THE CREW – this is the first part of a three posts about a 21 day trip across South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
NOTE: this post is about the people on our trip…if that doesn’t interest you and you want to read about the places…wait for parts 2 and 3.
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride! (Hunter S Thompson – author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas)
We were 11 strangers if you don’t count the two couples and the Lesotho Ladyboy group ¹, (namely: Hannah, Marlou, Jeff and Rie).
On the Rainbow Bus 1
On the Rainbow Bus 2
Then there were our guide, cook and driver (the three wise men). The three of them Gift, Bheki and Munya, were tasked with the mission of getting us safely across 5000 kilometres of Africa. One should be clear who was in charge, at all times, and it definitely wasn’t the punters²
Bheki
Munya
Gift
Our first introduction is the 5 pm briefing on the day before we leave. I am 30 minutes late as my phone, for some reason known only to itself, has decided to revert to Antwerp time and is thus telling me that it is 3.30 when it is 5.30 pm. This explains why all the shops that should be open until five are closed at 3.30pm but apparently this fact didn’t alert me to the phone malfunction.
Consequently, I arrive half an hour late for the briefing, apologetic and hot. No one seems to care which is a good sign. We introduce ourselves and our status. For the purpose of the trip we are all single except for Cecelia (Ceci) and Nicolas (Nico) and Mike and Kerry. Gift does, however, try and persuade Marlou and Jeff, who are sitting next to each other, that they might be a couple. They both hastily decline the offer.
The group is diverse. The Lesotho Ladyboy Group are, themselves, diverse and are a self-selected group from our hostel, who got together to travel to Lesotho in a hire car. Under normal circumstances they wouldn’t necessarily have anything in common.
Hannah (L) and Rie
Rie
Marlou
Jeff
First Hannah, also known by me as the Evil Princess. You may understand my relationship with Hannah by reading this book.
Hannah is a twenty something year old from Bury St Edmunds in England. Being from Bury St Edmunds says a lot, of course. The website “I Live Here” describes Bury as “your idyllic, middle class, low crime rate, small minded, boring Suffolk town. Otherwise known as the ‘Bury Bubble.’ It is known as this because it is a town so protected in its middle class bubble wrap, the people that live here grow to become clones of each other, having the same aspirations, hobbies and careers.
The inhabitants are described as “pretentious indie kids who all collectively wear the same clothes from Topman and listen to the same Mumford and Sons songs and go to Latitude or Reading Festival without fail each year. We would not, of course, describe Hannah that way for fear of an early death. On the other hand, Bury has recently been voted as ‘Happiest Place to live in the East of England’ by Rightmove, whatever Rightmove happens to be.
Bury St Edmunds – an exciting place to live
Then there are Jeff and Marlou. Jeff and Marlou are sort of clones except that, relatively speaking, Jeff is at nearly pensionable age whereas Marlou is just a baby, chronologically speaking. Both Jeff and Marlou are super cool, the differences being that Jeff is from the US and Marlou is from Bielefeld in Germany and, by definition, anyone from Europe is cooler than anyone from the US.
Marlou’s disadvantage is that Bielefeld is sort of the German equivalent of Bury St Edmunds. So much so that she was forced to move to Switzerland. There is an added disadvantage that Bielefeld doesn’t apparently exist
Bielefeld would also be as exciting as Bury except it doesn’t exist.
Marlou also has the advantage that she doesn’t realise she is super cool or, if she does, she manages to carry it off with such ‘sang froid’ that no one really notices the effort.
Jeff, on the other hand, is cool but manages to be cool in a way that says to everyone “see I am cool”. He’s not pretentious about it but you can see certain signs, such as the fact that he is psychologically incapable of showing any interest in social media. He will generally only engage with anything that involves the internet (such as uploading photos) about two years after the event occurred. By which time everyone has lost interest. Which is cool.
Jeff, as the cool style-meister of the trip, invariably looks like he just stepped out of his dressing room. He is the only person I know who carries an iron with him on a camping trip in order to iron his silk pyjamas before bed. But he swears me to silence on this issue by threatening to record aBanhee wail and claim it was my snoring.
Jeff, epitome of cool
Finally there is Rie, the fourth member of the Lesotho Ladyboys. Rie is Danish. No one really knows anything about Denmark, apart from knowing that Copenhagen exists, the fact that several thousands Danes get murdered every year on the “the Bridge” and that the Vikings came from there. This latter fact explains a lot about Rie.
Rie is principally responsible for consuming most of Africa’s food resources. She is a sort of Danish Amazon, covered in tattoos on one leg, who thinks nothing of eating the amount of food consumed during “La Grande Bouffe“, by herself, in one sitting.
Rie, life imitates art
From the Lesotho Ladyboy Group we can ascend up to the higher echelons of the trip participants. We have Mike and Kerry and Nico and Ceci. This is of course always potentially dangerous since Mike and Kerry are British and Ceci and Nico are Argentinian. Combining long historical memories about the “Hand of God” (aka Maradona’s) victory in the 1986 world cup and the Malvinas war can always be potentially dangerous.
Nico
Ceci
Mike
Kerry
Fortunately Nico and Ceci live, these days, in Canada, known for its relatively peaceful approach to world affairs and Ceci and Nico don’t really know, any longer, if they are Canadian or Argentinian. Mike and Kerry, on the other hand couldn’t be more archetypally British and so there is always a risk that they believe things that are typically British and absurd. Like thinking that to leaving the EU is a good idea or thinking they can win the World Cup again (1966 having been the last and only time for those who don’t know their soccer history). Or that the best way to beat Coronavirus is by all going to Spain for the summer holidays and having group sex.
Then there are the three solo travellers, if we count the Ladyboys as a sort of group. That’s me, Yvonne and Sonja.
Yvonne
Sonja
Chris with the real (non-Jeff)epitomy of cool in the background
Yvonne is Canadian but lives with her husband in the Ukraine. Yvonne introduces herself as working in the oil industry and asks that she not be hated for that. Which is possibly not the way her PR Manager would suggest doing it. While it is true that she is going to be, almost single handedly, responsible for the end of the world we try not to hold that against her. And she is the ultimate team player – always pitching in to help out – mainly to replace me as I am forced to sit idly by (see – unable to wash up with injured foot. It’s a known medical condition).
Yvonne is not supposed to be on our trip since she booked on G Adventures (forever to be known as G Spot Adventures by our trip). She is somewhat pissed off that she attempted to join another tour but was refused on the basis of being too old. It’s not too clear whether she failed to read the literature saying that around 30 was the upper age limit or whether, like myself, she imagines herself to still be around 25. Yvonne’s disappointment was probably tempered somewhat when we found ourselves sharing a camp with the G Spot bus which was entirely populated with a group of 20 year olds. We, on the other hand, are not too old but are perfectly aged like good wine. From Marlou, the baby, aged 22, to me aged 64.
The much reviled G-Spot group tour bus
Sonja: Now Sonja has taken her life in her hands and leapt into the unknown having, allegedly, never done anything like this before and because her English is not as good as she would like it to be. Sonja is German and lives in Germany even though her Facebook profile says she lives in Alaska, Michigan. Sonja would be what we would call the “dark horse” of the trip, who comes across as a little naive and innocent but is far from it.
Of the punters, there are two ‘Johnny Come Lateleys’, who joined the tour in Windhoek. This is announced to us in Swakopmund. We receive the news with protests fearful it will disrupt the balance of the trip which has been largely sweetness and light. And that we will need to share our seats more often. As it turns out Mark and Kirsty, despite suffering the burden of being from the fallen Empire fit in well and are quickly accepted as part of our group.
Kirsty
Mark
Then there are the three Zimbabweans. At least I think they are all from Zimbabwe – at least they live there even if they are from somewhere else originally. Bheki is from EMakhandeni a suburb of Bulaweyo, while Gift is from Victoria Falls but lives in Cape Town. Then there is Munya who runs the kitchen and about whom I have little information other than he lives out bush somewhere in Zimbabwe even though originally he’s from Victoria Falls.
These are three wise men of the trip and they coming bringing all the necessary gifts, good food, good driving and good information, as well as good humour and company.
Gift runs the trip with an iron fist and everyone obeys, except possibly Bheki and Munya both of whom are their own masters. But the whitefellas obey orders, as they should, arising on time, doing their chores and, generally, being obedient. Bheki’s two roles are driving and flirting, where Munya, largely, just smiles benignly and keeps his counsel.
We leave Cape Town on a fine sunny day. Essentially the first day of a trip like this is a form of polyamorous platonic flirting where everyone is trying to work out which if they can stand all the other people or if one or more of the punters will end up in a shallow grave somewhere in the Namibian desert.
Fortunately we find that there are no whining pains in the arse on our trip. However, the Evil Princess, Hannah, will, later, only just avoid an early death, since she chooses, to torment me for my incapacities, of which more in later parts of this trip blog
