A male leopard is seen resting in the shade in the Sabi Sands Game Reserve of Kruger National Park in South Africa. To see more images, click on photo. Photo by © Julia Pelish
I had the opportunity to visit South Africa at the end of April with my husband, Adrian Brijbassi, a travel writer and editor who was there on assignment for the Toronto Star. When we arrived, South Africa was buzzing like a vuvuzela at full pitch focused on June 11th the opening day of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. As the host country faced with little more than a month left to get ready, the anticipation was palpable.
Our trip took us to three of the cities whose stunning new stadiums are now witnessing showdown matches: Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. We explored Soweto (the Johannesburg township where Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu call home) and the Sterkfontein Caves (also called the “Cradle of Humankind”) in the Maropeng region. We traveled from the Cape Peninsula in the south to the Sabi Sands Reserve north of Nelspruit in Kruger Park. Out in the vast openness, we saw lions, leopards, elephants and rhinos roaming freely while the Southern Cross lit the evening sky. In Cape Town we saw Mandela’s prison cell on Robben Island and marveled at the scenery along Chapman’s Peak drive. In Durban we dipped our feet into the warm Indian Ocean and climbed the 550 steps to the top of Moses Mabhida Stadium.
South Africa is immensely grand, exotic, exuberant, warm, diverse, and sophisticated. Everyday life experience can span from extreme poverty to incredible wealth and often they coexist within steps of each other. Its fabric is cross-stitched with tender stories woven from the heart aching realities of one’s skin color and its historical reference. Wherever we went the impact from the apartheid years and Mandela’s legacy resonate. Eleven official languages are spoken here and most people are multi lingual with English being spoken fluently. Wherever we went, politics, soccer and national pride were discussed with us avidly.
We savored all that we could fit in knowing full well we were only experiencing a mere sliver of what South Africa offers. Now back home and settled into my Toronto routine I pour over my photos grateful I had the opportunity to experience this trip. A lovely South African saying told to us before we left lingers softly in my ears: “May the dust of South Africa settle in your heart so you may always want to come back.” Perhaps I will be so lucky again some future day.
