The drive through Pretoria threw up a surprise in the form of the Union Building. Also designed by Sir Herbert Baker, architect of the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, the similarities between the two powerhouses of political force were unmistakable.
During my two weeks in Cape Town, even though food and wine were top priority, I gave myself a good look-see around and beyond city limits. There was that excursion to Cape of Good Hope. For long, merely a geographical location you marked on maps for school-work. Standing at the very end of the inhabited world one fine day is something else altogether!
Not much further from this point lies a sheltered beach commonly known as Boulders Bay.
This is one of two mainland locations that are home to African penguins, who usually inhabit islands. Friendly enough, they permit humans to within a couple of feet of themselves but their loud, ass-like braying keeps most creatures at bay.
Spotted this lonely ostrich enjoying the sunset as we returned through the Cape Of Good Hope Nature Reserve. The nature park is home to some of the most beautiful species of the protea flower growing wild. The national weed, as some locals will indulgently call it.
Another water creature to inhabit the southern coast of Africa is the seal. A short touristy boat ride from Hout Bay brings you to a tiny isle called Duiker Island, completely over-run by thousands of Cape Fur Seals. Playful and noisy, they amazed us by mimicking our movements as we rushed around the boat snapping their colony.
Yet another time, it was land-based whale watching at Hermanus, a narrow coastal town also described as the Riviera of the South. Southern Right Whales begin arriving in May to mate and calve and can be seen cruising in the shallow coves. Their arrival peaks in October, tailing off in December, which is when yours truly found herself there. Believe it or not, I did glimpse a couple cavorting in the waters, but they were too swift for my photographic skills.
Somewhere in the blue of the water, in the image on the left, is a tiny black speck. I wouldn’t bother squinting needlessly though as I share one last, albeit endearing, image from inside Africa. A whale.
Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu, travel enthusiast and the author of Adrift: A junket junkie in Europe is the youngest of four siblings born into an aristocratic family of Punjab. Dogged in her resistance to conform, and with parental pressure easing sufficiently over the years, she had plenty of freedom of choice. And she chose travel.
She was born in Shimla, and spent her formative years at their home, Windsor Terrace, in Kasumpti while schooling at Convent of Jesus & Mary, Chelsea. The irrepressible wanderlust in her found her changing vocations midstream and she joined Singapore International Airlines to give wing to her passion. She has travelled extensively in Asia, North America, Australia, Europe, South Africa and SE Asia; simultaneously exploring the charms within India.
When she is not travelling, she is writing about it. Over the past decade or so, she has created an impressive writing repertoire for herself: as a columnist with Hindustan Times, as a book reviewer for The Tribune and as a contributor to travel magazines in India and overseas. Her work-in-progress, the documenting of colonial heritage along the Old Hindustan-Tibet Road, is an outcome of her long-standing romance with the Himalayas.
