Travelling and not knowing it

Travelling and not knowing it

t was November 2011. It was hot at Cape Town international. At the age of 24, I boarded my first flight. I was on my way to Limpopo, Louis Trichardt. The trip was for business and an interview. By the way, the first flight was fine because I had whiskey on tap. The SSA express was another story.

By the time you reach altitude between JHB and Pietersburg, you are rewarded a cool drink and chips before decent. Upon my arrival at Polokwane International, it was much hotter. I took my luggage and at this stage it did not amount to much. I was financially very boring. I was picked up by the Boss, ex GM of General Electric, Africa, Europe and East Asia.

We left in a big white Mercedes to LTT. What a great way of travel in a new area I have heard about & learnt about. I was in a relaxed excited mode, taking in the humidity of the Tropic of Capricorn and listening to the historian in the driving seat.

The interview went well, although I made three more trips until it was finalised. Having to go back to Stellenbosch to re-write a Dean’s exam, which I nailed, was one of them.

After visiting many areas and working in the vast forestry landscape, actually the smallest afforested area in South-Africa, I soon came to realize what a magnificent place Limpopo is and will be. It hit me that I never really travelled except in the surrounds of the Western Cape, a bit of Northern Cape, Free State, Eastern Cape and I once went to Malelane. That was it. That’s my Summary.

If you have friends working in overlanding then they will probably pass by wherever you are and they can tell you that they have seen it all, yet they return, to see it all again. Interestingly enough, and this will appear in a further down the line Blog, a Shangaan friend which I met in Limpopo, got me a job three years later, when I was in Ghana. So travel opens opportunities.

So before moving to Limpopo, a friend told me he had a girlfriend in Limpopo and he was visiting there regularly. I soon came to realize that I knew nothing about Limpopo. My time in Limpopo was mostly spent in the Zoutpansberg Misbelt forest and on a boat in the Albasini Dam with friends. It opened up opportunities to travel to Botswana, which I did. Also to other places, which I never did because I spent too much time at local lodges, soaking up the “local is lekker” atmosphere. The latter which I did not regret. The reason being visiting a place as a tourist for a few weeks hits different that visiting for a year or extended time.

Anyways, I was very much work focused and did not realize I was actually travelling. By that, I do not mean to farms around the city, a local café, the next town or to a friends house.

One soon realizes that you have to travel or that you at least get excited by the idea. I now have a love for Limpopo, a certain kind of attachment maybe even a longing. I only stayed there a year, but I have made friends and I have made return trips. Every time I see a Spotted Genet, Honey Badger, Black Crested Eagle, Mopani tree, Woodlands and the list goes on; my heart travels back to Limpopo because that is where the paradigm of travel took place.

So, out with old, get off the internet and go to a place, which you do not understand and watch out for Small Town Homo sapiens, they can be very territorial around nearby females.