The Old Diver

During the long weekends spent camping on the South Coast of Natal, I found it a good habit to take long morning walks on the seashore where the cold sea water washes on the sand and wets your feet with its white foam. One Sunday morning while I was taking my daily stroll my attention […]

An Ordinary School Day

One of my biggest problems I had to face when I attended school was the lack of time to do everything I wished and needed to do. I never seemed to find time to do my homework no matter all my good intentions. During the day I was very busy because until 3 o’clock I […]

All That Shines is Not Gold

When we moved to Pietermaritzburg my father thought that the college was a good school for me. I was seven years old when I went to a private college in that city, in which it was possible to attend all your school life. That means from class one to standard 10 (grade 1 to grade […]

Is This Sailing?

One day Bugs invited me to go with him to Midmar Dam to try out his new sailing boat he had bought a few days before. This boat was white and bright blue, made of fiberglass material and therefore unsinkable. It was very small, there was space for three people only. Early one Sunday morning, […]

Go-Kart

When as young boys we used to spend whole afternoons playing it sometimes happened that after having read all the comic books we could lay our hands on, or having raced with our electric cars and playing flick-board, we didn’t know what else to do to spend our time. One day after having done all […]

The Terror of Snakes

During the second year that we were in South Africa we finally found and moved to a house in Merrivale, a place not far from Howick, where there were green maize fields all around. Before this we had been living in a hotel. The dwelling wasn’t just an ordinary house but it was a “Rondavel”. […]

The Rabbits’ Revenge

A long time ago, in the center of Pietermaritzburg, not far away from my house, there was a big general market where besides fresh fruit and vegetables, they also sold small animals like pigeons and rabbits. One early morning my dad and I decided to go and have a look at this market without the […]

Shooting Animals

Once a school friend invited me to spend the Christmas vacation with him and his family, because they were going to visit one of the most beautiful game reserve parks which is on the border with Mozambique, the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. I looked forward with great pleasure to this new event, not only because […]

The Iron Boat

When I lived in SA there was one of my dad’s friends, who was also my godfather, who worked in a quarry. His job was to maintain the machines used to crush big rocks into small gravel needed for making roads. He must have had lots of spare time because often you could find him […]

Mud

In South Africa, especially in the province of Natal, thunderstorms are frequent and sudden. Out of the blue come heavy gray clouds that in very short time become compact and ready for rain. Lightning rapidly flashes through the sky and with the electricity and thunderbolts seem to break the clouds. A little later water comes […]