Saturday, March 29, 2008

Easter in Clarens

Car in full working order, we arrived in Clarens mid afternoon. What a lovely spot! A small village, complete with village green, set in the middle of the mountains. It was also a very safe place and we were able to leave the car at the guest house and walk everywhere which was a pleasant surprise. Clarens is named for the town in Switzerland where former President Paul Kruger spent his final days in exile and there was indeed a Swiss feel to the place. It was quite cold, especially at night and in the early morning because of the altitude but the days were warm and sunny. On Sunday we ventured into the neighbouring Kingdom of Lesotho which was a different experience. Most of the Lesothans are cattle farmers with a cattle herder looking after six or so cattle. There are no fences in Lesotho so I guess they need the herders to keep track of “whose coos is whose”, as it were. They seemed to have almost a uniform, comprising woolly hat, white gum boots, big stick and red blanket wrapped round like a toga. Unlike the neighbouring Zulus we visited last week, the Sotho live in square mud huts, thatched and with walls decorated with traditional designs. Again, it seemed a bit rude to stop and take pictures but we found out at dinner that it would have been welcomed, especially for a few rand. They have their own currency, the Maloti, interchangeable with the rand in Lesotho but worthless elsewhere. I kept a few as a souvenir and we got a couple of new passport stamps! We met up with a very nice couple from Pretoria and had dinner with them one night, exchanging phone numbers with a promise to meet up before we go back to Scotland. We left Clarens early on Monday morning to come back for lunch with my friend from the gym and her husband, which was lovely.
I have been invited to a storytelling workshop with a traditional African storyteller and hope to get some ideas for my volunteer work at the library, as well as to bring home to Scotland. Mind you, I think I will draw the line at the traditional costume!
I think our next trip will be to the coast, we are flying to Durban at the end of April so between now and then I will once more be regaling you with tales of the mundane matters to be attended to here in Benoni!

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