People have always loved travelling. Missionaries travelled to Africa, and South America. The Dutch and the French Huguenots travelled to South Africa.
The British travelled everywhere. Convicts travelled to Australia and rugby players to New Zealand.
Americans travelled to the moon – with the Russians hot on their heels although they were more interested in travelling down to South Africa to grab the gold – while half of Pakistan and Eastern Europe are travelling to Birmingham.
Boat people from Vietnam are travelling to Australia. Some people however actually pay to travel. Going ‘overseas’ – as we say – is easy for some. Monday Portugal, Tuesday Spain, Wednesday Belgium. Thursday New York etc.
A bit like the Amazing Race without battlements or catching a taxi from Ghana to the Arctic Circle.
It is all about money really. Travelling is pricey when all you have to wave around is a few dirty Rand notes.
Some travel abroad – yes, that’s the other word for overseas – as easily as us mere mortals make our way to far flung Hattingspruit and/or Wasbank.
Travelling is in our blood. We get itchy feet and need a change of view to refresh ourselves. The wish of many is to pack up and go – buy a caravan home and ‘just travel’.
Get out of the drudgery of everyday stuff – driving kids to school, brushing your teeth or watching other people race around in the Amazing Race.
It is tempting, is it not? Then you go and read the recently promulgated Municipal by-laws and realise that if you have a business you and not the Municipality are responsible for the upkeep of the grass verge and pavement outside your premises.
So people can litter with abandon outside your business premises – which in some cases may be a B and B in the residential areas – and you then have to go and pick it up. But, remember you have to use a recognised, Municipal-approved receptacle.
Which now begs the question – why are we paying rates? To pick up litter and cut grass outside our premises if we run businesses?
Which brings us to the question – what do they do with our money? OK the grass outside the Kremlin should be red but green will do.
Most of the street signs are bent and battered, there is trash in every park, the railway lines look like SAB dumping sites – it is really sad.
But I guess the new T-shirts look great. Time to travel?