Good, clean water… and abundant blessings
The last few years in South Africa have been dry – bitterly dry. Add to this the past year spent in varying degrees of lockdown which brought about its own extraordinary challenges and the situation is more than dry. It is dire. With the inevitable change brought about by 2020, and struggles that followed, things tend to look hopeless and people stop dreaming. A national lockdown leads to adventurers like us feeling frustrated, our emotions in turmoil… We long to get out, to explore!
I may not complain, I know. Despite the pandemic, our family are still blessed, healthy and happy. And I am grateful – very much so. But my adventurer's heart is left longing, thirsty for revitalisation that only being out there, exploring the unknown, can bring. My heart yearns for the things that bring me true joy: to be able to write for a magazine, to tell my story through photographs, to head out on the open road – pure, unadulterated wanderlust.
The new year starts with a promise: during January, the floodgates open and rainfall in all regions reach new heights. This water reprieve is also evident in the dry and struggling Northern Cape. Before long, social media is flooded with videos and photos featuring the mighty Orange River and Augrabies Falls in full flood for the first time in a decade. My adventurer's heart starts pleading deep from within, and I know: I simply need to witness this water wonder. My reason for being – my seven-year-old little girl, Sabria – needs to witness this miracle before school officially starts again on 15 February. It was now or never – when will we ever get to see this magic again?
The story of finding water
Nothing ventured, nothing gained, the saying goes. So, I decide to take a chance and pitch a story to new print title on the market, Adventure Afrika. With my heart in my throat and stomach in knots, I phone Mary Willemse, the managing director of M&A Media who publishes the magazine. With little to no cohesion, pumped with the adrenaline of expectation, I pitch my idea about visiting the Northern Cape in search of the province's elusive water sources. Inevitably, this
