It is a mite cold, but the sun is still shining - luckily! As I blogged before, I hate (is that a strong enough word for the loathing that I feel?) the cold. I way prefer to have the long, hot (very hot) days of summer than to have the sun set at 5:30 pm, and whatever temperature accumulates during the day, vanishes along with it!
Amazingly enough my Landy has an airconditioner - that is used in summer - but I doubt if the heater has ever been used. I know that it was sold new to a farmer out at Heatonville. This is just outside of eMpangeni on the road out to the Nkwaleni vlley, on the road to Melmoth. I know it fairly well, as I used to do the run from Nkwaleni in to Empangeni. There is very little there - like most tiny little towns in South Africa - a road through,a police station (maybe) and a farmers hall - nothing much else!
Ulundi is quite a lot larger - they have government buildings there and a Holiday Inn hotel. I have often been there to attend stock counts! The Holiday Inns were clients of our Durban Office!
I have been to Hlobane, auditing a coal mine there on behalf of the Pietermaritzburg office! I dont think there is even a town there! The only things of note there are a coal mine, and just nearby there are hot springs.
Other than that Hlobane has 2 claims to fame:-
In the Anglo/Zulu war of 1879, it was the site of a huge battle AND
members from our branch of the Church farm there!
All around the countryside are dotted these tiny little "dorpies" (Dorp os the Afrikaans for a settlement - usually not big enough to even be classed as a village! Adding the "ie" on the end indicates that it is really tiny - usually just a police station and a wholesaler - selling to the nearby stores! A big dorp usually has a fuel station and a railway station!
On a size classification, going down the scale, you get:-
Cities
Towns
Villages
Serrlements (usually with a few houses)
Dorps THEN
Dorpies!
I live in a village, but attend Church in a large town, officially classified as a City, but it is no where near as large as Durban, Cape Town or even East London!
In SA, the cities are no where near as large as the cities in England or in the USA.
Driving down the coast to Durban, you can see a pall of dark air where the atmosphere is polluted. Flying in to Johannesburg, the air for a long way around is really dark. They say that it is pollution from cars, but I think it is rather from factories! They are not concerned about Global Warming - only in the "creation of wealth" It seems that money talks - long and loud! Before "they" start complaining that I drive a V8 Auto, "they" need to clean up the act of the big businesses!
I truly dont believe that Heavenly Father would have created an animal that was capable of destroying the environment to such an extent that he kills himself! Flying to Cape Town, there are huge tracts of land where there is no farming, settlement, roadsor anything! Man wants land - to own, but not necessarily do anything with - but not THAT land!
I understand that the resettlement program, where the government bought farms and cut them up and dished the plots out to the natives, has a dark downside! A farmer had his farm expropriated. He used the cash he was paid out, to go and offer the "new" owners a price for their land! He bought the farm back for a fraction of what its worth, so the resettlement activity has made him rich, but still owns the land - legally!
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