Generosity and selfishness

Sunday 11th September

Kosmos, Hartbeespoort Dam, North West Province

There's something about staying on a campsite that makes you feel much closer to those around you.  There's a physical closeness in proximity, a common purpose, a shared space, a communal lack of privacy, a common noise, a willingness to lend, share and offer a hand.  I suppose it's a bit like living in a kraal of old.

It has the potential to bring out the best - the stranger offering to help pitch the tent as the light fades - and the worst - badly tuned guitars and campfire singing in the early hours - in people.

And so it is with game driving: there's both a generosity and a selfishness that go hand-in-hand.  Today, as we made our final way through Pilanesberg, we were again alerted to a pride of lions.  There lies the generosity - people really want you to see and experience what they have.

On arriving at the lions - 3 females this time - there was an almighty fight between cars over space on the road from which to see them, including a very abrupt altercation with a car full of Italian men who forced their way in, ticked lion off their list, then forced their way our leaving a trail of chaos in their midst.  Generosity and selfishness side by side.

Giraffe fight, Pilanesberg

A far more interesting altercation came between two giraffe.  They stood side-by-side, hips leaning against one another and used hard, fast blows with their necks to strike each other.  Rather like a boxing match, they threw "dummy" swings and carefully tried to dodge their opponent's offensive.  A solitary female giraffe looked on unimpressed at this war between her suitors.

We watched this transfixed for aa while, moved on, then passed again later to find them still at it.

Leaving Pilanesberg, we returned once more to Hartbeespoort Dam - the only place we have visited on every trip to South Africa.  We indulged in the ritual of queueing up to drive across the dam then queueing up to drive back again.  The hawkers selling their wares to the waiting cars again tried every technique to get your attention - jumping out into the road, pretending to warn you of a flat tyre, dancing, singing, shouting... you name it.  The generosity of the passing tourists is abused by the selfishness of the "charity" collectors, as the charities concerned are completely fictional.

At the market on Hartbeespoort Road, I managed to pick up a second-hand book about Eilta de Klerk - the second wife of FW.  Now, there truly is a story about the tension between generosity and selfishness.

We are spending the next two days at a Balinese inspired lodge in the hill overlooking the dam.  The hill is impossibly steep - the car really struggled to make it up - but the view is spectacular.