…. I end up living in the coldest spot. I’m not kidding. See the blue spot that indicates temps between -10 and 0 degrees Celsius in the map below? Yeah, that’s where I live. The only dot on the entire CONTINENT of Africa where there are subzero temperatures, morning frost on the ground, and no central heating.
The cold temperatures are definitely amplified by the lack of insulation in houses, central heating, and good firewood. I lit the first fire in my fireplace last night and while I was proud to have eventually gotten a good blaze going, the wood here just doesn’t burn very well. It kind of instantly turns into smoldering embers rather than flame up nicely.
I saw the snow up close and personal too — a couple of weeks ago, I took the scariest flight of my life on a small prop plane out to the mountainous region of Qacha’s Nek. Or, rather, I attempted to take a plane there. We stopped halfway to drop people off at the Semonkong region and decided it was too windy to attempt the second half of the flight. Our very able pilot from Mission Aviation Fellowship did his best to give us a smooth flight but the high winds battered our little plane up in the air – I’ve never had so many non-rollercoaster-related stomach-dropping moments. At one point, we had to get above the clouds and the pilot banked HARD to the right and then shot straight up through a break in the clouds. omg omg omg. It was exhilarating but entirely terrifying. But the views! I couldn’t resist snapping a few shots while holding on for dear life … the snow-covered mountains were dazzlingly gorgeous!
The Mountain Kingdom
That's the airstrip we landed on
The beautiful Semonkong waterfall, which I've only seen from the sky
More pics here. Despite the beauty of the snow, I find myself yearning for the sunny and warm beaches of Mozambique, just a hop, skip and 8-hour drive away … hmmm …
July 11, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Great pictures. If it helps, it’s cold as all heck in SF too, and ostensibly summer.