I got the Pondofever and I ain't happy about it.

Posted on 20 March 2009

Does everyone hate the city this much when they return from a trip in the outback? I don’t know if we have an “outback” in South Africa. I’ve always wondered about that. Perhaps we just have “the bush” or “the country”. Whatever you want to call it, I just got back from it and I’ve got city fever to the power of a hundred.

Imagine: you’re on the road for seven days, travelling through the Eastern Cape and Kwa Zulu Natal, from one beach to the next, one forest to the next. The forest is your bed, the ocean your bath, the mountain your gym, the locals your family and supermarket (depending on your people skills). It’s heaven. You wake with the sun, laze around campfires, the smell of your braai better than the neighbour’s, roll down golden sand dunes with golden men, day after day.

Then you get back. Home. Your plane lands. People are rushing, pushing trolleys over your bare feet to get to their luggage. Your friends call, ‘let’s get drunk in a bar?’ Pass. Office in the morning. Desk. Chair. Walls. Screens. AAAAh! City Fever has struck. So I’m running off now to hike for a few days in the Table Mountain National Park. At least Cape Town’s not too far from the outback.

P.S. Pondofever, I believe, correct me if I’m wrong, is when you go to the Eastern Cape intending to stay for one or two days but leave only a month or so later ’cause the thought of leaving such paradise is gut-wrenching. Well I got it, bad, but sometimes you can’t stay…






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