THE final five days of our Australian holiday, in Brisbane with our family, seemed to go so quickly. We enjoyed a lovely weekend with our son, daughter-in-law and darling two-year-old grandson then spent the last three days packing and doing a final bit of Brisbane exploration. A visit to Mount Coottha Botanical gardens, a look around Wellington Point and a ferry ride on the Brisbane River were all great fun but we were constantly aware the time to say goodbye to our Australian family was fast approaching. With all the sad farewells it entails, global grandparenting can be tough at times.
All the same we’d had a wonderful time in Australia and when our plane took off from Brisbane Airport we took with us many precious memories. We had a short stopover in Cairns, a city we’d love to visit some day. The little we saw of this tropical northern region from the airport made us even more determined to do a road trip from Brisbane to Cairns the next time we visited Australia. Indeed, besides wanting to see more of our Australian family, there were many reasons why we would like to revisit the land Down Under. During the long flight home via Hong Kong, there was ample time to reflect on Australia’s many attributes. After two visits we were starting to understand a bit more about what made Australia and its people tick. What we’d seen of the vast country, we had generally liked.
Could we ever settle there for good? There would be many sound reasons for choosing to live in Australia if we could, we realised. From what we’d seen of this country, Australians seemed to enjoy an exceptionally high standard of living. The outdoor lifestyle, the physical beauty of the place, the opportunities, the political stability, the country’s amazing spirit of independence and, yes, the relative lack of violent crime all made Australia an appealing option. If Bill and I ever had to leave Africa and find a new home, Australia would probably be our first choice. And who knows, family considerations might yet see us deciding to head there anyhow.
Any decisions about relocating, though, were far into the future. Now we were skimming across the Indian Ocean, back to Africa, – and after all our travels we were happy to be winging our way homeward. According to the moving onboard map, we made landfall around Beira in Mozambique, then suddenly we found ourselves flying over our great Kruger National Park. Our fellow passengers were starting to wake up, opening their aircraft’s window shutters and letting in a golden African dawn. Africa does sunrises so well, now doesn’t she. Most of the passengers were silent, gazing at the misty, gilded land below our wings. The woman next to me had tears in her eyes. A former South African now living in New Zealand, this was her first visit to her former home after a gap of 14 years.
Far below us, as our flying ship cruised the heavens, the bushveld and all its winged and four-footed residents were preparing to greet the new day. Soon, though, the bushveld would give way to golden highveld grasslands and then we would land in Johannesburg, the centre of a huge metropolis, the densely populated power house of Southern Africa. From there a smaller plane would take us over the magnificent Drakensberg mountains to our home in South Africa’s lush, subtropical coastal area. All this amazing geographical diversity and that was just the eastern slice of our great country. We hadn’t even been anywhere near our magnificently empty Karoo, our red Kalahari, our gorgeous Cape Peninsular and all those wonderful western places in between.
Stepping back from our sometimes troubled country and considering South Africa from afar had made me realise what I would miss about this beloved country of ours if I ever moved away. More than anything else it would be hard to live without the amazing variety that southern Africa has to offer. There are few places in the world that could provide the social and cultural diversity, the geographical and topographical diversity and, most of all. the truly amazing biodiversity that my country has to offer. Who knows what the future would hold but for the time being it was very good to be going home.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
For news straight to your phone, add us on BBM 58F3D7A7 or WhatsApp 082 421 6033
