Sabie, South Africa

As Fish River Canyon is now closed to hiking, I have
left Namibia for Sabie, South Africa. Sabie is a
small mountain town about three or four hours east of
Johannesburg. There is a lot to do here, including
mountain biking, fly fishing, and hiking, and the town
lies just to the south of Blyde River Canyon.

I am planning a trip up to the canyon for some more
hiking, but first must wait on a credit card to be
shipped in from home: mine melted in the sun yesterday
while I was out on a mountain bike ride.

I have struggled to form some sort of a thesis on
Namibia and South Africa - countries with prominent
colonial and racial struggles and histories. This is
especially true after reading about such events in the
United States like hurricane Katrina and the racial
component to its destruction.

In order to think more on the issue I am going back to
my introduction to South Africa, the book Cry, the
Beloved Country by Alan Paton. It gives a lot to
think about, and although it is 50 years old there is
still a lot of truth in it, especially what he writes
about fear. In Johannesburg you can see the fear
where houses are covered in barbed wire and electric
fences.

That's why I love the mountains, the canyons, the
countryside. Fear doesn't live here like it does in
the cities, and as such I can really live here. I do
not limit what I want to see or do or who I want to
talk to. My only fears are falling off the bike on a
steep descent or the fear that I'll actually catch a
fish when I'm fly fishing. I don't know what I would
do then.

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