On waking this morning the day looked perfect, so much so that I invited a friend to accompany me to Durban to take a bike ride along the promenade. Sadly, this was not to be. He had work organised. So the plans of mice and men…
Unfortunately pre planning such an outing is normally safer to do on the day in question, as when the wind picks up, and it does so quickly during August, cycling can become very unpleasant. But spontaneity does not agree with everyone.
One day each month we have the windows in our flats washed by Petros. Today was my day. I don’t think I have mentioned the fact that our little road, which is normally scarcely used by traffic, has turned into a second main road since the devastating floods we had?
The N2, the National road between the entire South Coast and Durban was badly damaged about 200 m past the Adams Road Turnoff. The emergency lane disappeared into a huge wash away and Ballards have been installed around it, taking away the entire slow lane as well.
Instead of getting it fixed in a hurry, there was a mix up with the tender and then for some reason, the person who got the tender was not a B-BBEE compliant business ‘ Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment’ for overseas readers, and the tender was rescinded.
This was in April, and still there is no resolution to the problem.
Anyone who works in Durban or South of Amanzimtoti and needs to be at work by 8, has to be on the road by 6:30. The constriction of this road causes traffic congestion to many of the feeder roads as well.
This has resulted in our quiet little road being inundated with early morning traffic as workers try to cut through the back roads to miss this section of highway.
Why, you might ask, am I mentioning this problem at the same time as writing about my windows today?
Well, this heavy traffic is sending dust and debris up into our flats. The windows facing the other side of the building remain relatively clean, but within two weeks of those on the roadside having been washed, they are back to being so dusty that they desperately are in need of a further wash.
The Amanzimtoti lagoon is situated very close to the car wash area and so that is the route I took. In the ‘good old days’ the log cabin restaurant which is situated on the edge of the river was such a super place to visit. The lagoon was always clean and inviting and there were a number of birds to be seen while sitting on the upstairs verandah.
There were paddle boats below where families could enjoy taking the kids for rides. One was able to travel fairly far up the river and I believe that there used to be a lovely old hotel higher up stream which was very popular.
When I arrived here the town was already experiencing problems with sewerage run off into the lagoon and I remember how Marge Kimble told me that they were loath to paddle in it for health related reasons.
That was 17 years ago and it has become so bad over the ensuing years, that no one uses the facility at all any more. Hyacinth takes over the entire river as well during certain times of the year, making it further impossible to paddle in.
The good thing is that there are a group of community conscious people who tackle this latter problem when things get too bad. It is something I would love to help with, but my feet will not permit it.
They send out a notice that they will be cleaning the river on a certain weekend, and the volunteers arrive. Kudus to you all. It must be dirty, hard work!
My photos tonight are of the lagoon, still pretty to look at but not so nice to smell!
I was sent a sample of what my new blog is going to look like today and I am so excited. I will be needing a few lessons on how to work on it, and look forward to the challenge.
