Rim of Africa: Day 2

Day 2: Pakhuis to Brugkraal

Photo: Adele Labuscagne

We are descending the pass with Heuningvlei in the valley below. It is warm. I can feel the salt on my skin from the uphill behind us. I have been thinking about time, out here on the trail, and about the feeling of moving into the wide open space around us. The track curves and runs south of some towering rocks that throw welcome shade across it. The little stream, that was dry in January, rushes below. I pause here and the group slowly gathers as each one arrives, stops, takes off their backpack, settles in, and stares outwards. The stream and the birds are part of the silence. All else is as still as the ancient cedars in the rocky koppies above us. My poem is ready:

Be friendly out here,

if you meet time and if you meet space. Smile.

Even invite them in, sit with them,

hear them out.

Perhaps you have encountered them before

in another place

and they have both appeared a little brash for your liking,

full of themselves,

unyielding, small-minded even.

But like all of us

they have their bad days

and their good. Give

them another chance, here

where they are more at ease,

here where you may glimpse another side of them.

On those days when the sun rises silently,

you may find them nicer, more approachable,

and as the sun climbs, still silent,

you may warm to them.

On the very best of days, they dance,

and when they move together, time and space,

across the floor of these wide landscapes,

they dance all of this into being.

You will want to be there on such days,
intimate enough,
to join them in their dance.