Tag: South Africa
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South Africa, Cape Town
This vibrant, colourful, friendly, welcoming city, far away from Europe and the cities I spend time in in the northern hemisphere, cradles my soul and my being. It heals. It cares. It shares its colours, sounds and smells. It shares its wide open spaces for discovery and reflection. Beauty is everywhere. From the wildlife to the plant life, from the wild ocean to the mountains, from the city streets to the veld, from its market stalls to its designer malls, it’s residents and visitors, but most of all Cape Town allows you to just be. No superficiality and frills. Everything and everyone is genuine and true.
Dates: I was in Cape Town in January 2026.
Table Mountain 
Port of Cape Town 
Flora at Kalk Bay 
False Bay 
Swimmers at Kalk Bay 
Kalk Bay 
The view approaching Kalk Bay 
Kalk Bay 
Kalk Bay 
The view out across False Bay -
South Africa, Returning to Cape Town
I arrived in Cape Town for the beginning of my three-month sabbatical, on the last day of 2025. The Mother City, as it’s also fondly called. Every time I come, I am reminded of the warmth, kindness and genuineness that South Africans share with everyone around them. There is positivity and colour everywhere you turn.
On this, the last day of the year, I drove to False Bay and Simon’s Town for a cup of tea and looked out across the bay, imagining Scally and my Mom, Dad and Manuel sailing by all those years ago. A few days later, I set about to find where Scally was moored just before departure from South Africa. The Royal Yacht Club.
The port of Cape Town is enormous, with lots of nooks and cranny’s for all sorts of vessels from small boats, fishing boats, passenger liners, cargo ships and oil tankers with all manner of flags and ports of origin, yachts and other types of pleasure boats. It dominates the city and can be seen from everywhere, so finding it was not hard. Finding the entrance to the yacht club on the other hand, took more than a few tries. I had to go through at least three barriers and show my ID and driving licence, open the boot, open my bags, explain why I was there and who I was visiting. I finally made it but had to fill out a lot of personal details at the entrance to the RYC before finally being let in, with a stern warning not to go onto any of the pontoons.
I possess a very old photo from the day of our departure in 1982, and so knew more or less where Scally would have been moored. I walked along the wharf a little and saw the pontoon where she had been, although the pontoons in those days were significantly more rudimentary. You couldn’t imagine a more idyllic and dramatic setting for a yacht marina than this one; the backdrop of the magnificent and imposing Table Mountain on one side and the wide open Atlantic on the other. I ordered an iced coffee and sat in the sunshine overlooking the RYC and its yachts and boats, and imagined all of us getting ready to depart all those years ago.
Dates: I was in Cape Town in January 2026.
The port road at the Cape Town Docks 
The entrance to the RYC 
View of Table Mountain from RYC 
The jetty at RYC in Cape Town where Scally was moored 
The Royal Yacht Club Cape Town -
South Africa, Returning to Durban
Durban is located on the east coast of Africa, on the Indian Ocean. This is where I was born, went to school, lived happily and contentedly with my mom and dad, brothers, our maid Lizzie, grandparents, dogs and cats, and friends. We lived in a beautiful house in a very hilly and verdant village called Kloof about 25 kms inland from Durban. Durban is located in the province of KwaZulu Natal, where the Zulus, South Africa’s largest tribal nation, are from.
We all left permanently in 1982, when I was fifteen. I have been back twice as an adult, the most recent time in October 2025, to celebrate my thirtieth wedding anniversary. We stayed at Umhlanga Rocks, just north of the city of Durban and fell asleep every night to the sounds of the Indian Ocean pounding the shore. It is the most stunning and beautiful place.
Thanks to my mother, we connected with her cousin Joy, my second cousin, who also grew up in South Africa and her lovely son Myles and daughter in law Ali, whom we met on the day her first baby was due. We had tea and sandwiches together on the veranda of the hotel overlooking the ocean. “What are your plans for your sabbatical?,” asked Joy, curiously.
It’s a question I’ve been asked multiple times over the last half a year, but, apart from very few people, not really answered in any depth, till now. “I’m planning to revisit all of our ports of call from our trip on Scally forty three years ago,” I replied, with my carefully rehearsed answer. “And, write the tale of the journey.”
Dates: I was in Durban in October 2025.
the beach at Umhlanga, looking south 
The beach in Durban 
North Beach in Durban 
A rickshaw on the esplanade in Durban 
North Beach in Durban 
The esaplande in Durban 
The esplanade at Durban