And so it was that 9 individuals …
- one born in Empangeni, Zululand (now part of KZN);
- one born in the Lady Chancellor Nursing Home, Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia;
- one born in Mossel Bay;
- one born in London, UK (before relocating 1 week later to Bergen, Norway);
- one born in Waterval-Boven, now in Mpumalanga;
- one born on Boghall Farm, Midlothian, Scotland (just south of Edinburgh);
- one born in La Tronche (the maternity hospital of Grenoble), France;
- one born between Vlakpoort and Amersfoort, in a Wolseley; and
- one born in Cape Town
… met one fine August morning at Newlands Forest, for a hike.
They walked to King’s Blockhouse, scrambled up Mowbray Ridge, traversed Knife Edge to the top of Minor Peak, dropped down to the col between Minor Peak and Devil’s Peak, worked their way up the northern flank of Devil’s Peak to below the rock band, traversed a ledge round the eastern face of Devil’s Peak, scrambled to the top, dropped down to The Saddle and Pulpit Rock, and descended via Newlands Ravine.
Along the way, they admired the Devil’s Heath (Erica abietina diabolis, a critically endangered subspecies named after Devil’s Peak and to be found only on Devil’s Peak and the northern slopes of Table Mountain), consumed a substantial amount of snacks and other refreshments, and talked a lot.
They looked back at 9,9 km and a cumulative ascent of 1045 m and unanimously felt that it was a most sensible thing to have done on such a fine August morning.
If you joined them, you could have picked up snippets of conversation on the following topics:
- Stuff. Hoarded stuff. Storing stuff, decanting stuff, sorting stuff, getting rid of stuff. Getting those whom you value to value the stuff that you have valued all your life. (Good luck with that.)
- Life without sugar. Life without cheese.
- The highest age at which you can still hope to change your core accent.
- Place and the role it plays in life stories.
Picture credits: Elsa Hadley, Margaret Möller, Pat Rebelo, Robin Sherry, Christo Steyn.
