The line is far from immaterial…

CHRIS BENNETT celebrates the arrival of spring, and possibly the trains.

I READ with interest an article in this newspaper a couple of weeks ago which dealt with a proposed railway service between Port Shepstone and Germiston.

There were two reasons for my interest; the liking I have always had for rail travel and the linking of the underrated and under utilised sometime harbour of Port Shepstone with Gauteng.

It has always seemed to me such a pity that rail travel in our country has, by and large, been abandoned. I accept that many aspects of the railway service for which the Indian sub-continent, the Americas and Europe are world famous leave a lot to be desired; but the fact remains that the governments of those noble lands have maintained that service in the interests of their people, interests which are not very visible in the workings of the South African government.

I am not sure which is the more desirable of the two termini; Germiston and Port Shepstone share a somewhat bald and unappealing aspect, but the service could be very useful.

The new, and largely unused, King Shaka Airport, which, when I travelled to it on the excellent bus service from Margate a few months ago, seems to be somewhere near the Mozambican border, is not a great help to the South Coast. Nor, come to that, is the Margate airport, a far more pleasant little facility, rumoured to be flying again ere long.

So let us await with anticipation the return of the railway to this part of the world.

Something else arriving shortly will be spring. It is possibly most people’s favourite season, possibly because it means the end of the cold(ish) weather and the arrival of flowers, bees and nestlings.

Spring is such a sensible word; it seems to convey much that we associate with the awakening of the seasons. In most cultures spring is considered the first season of the year.

The season is quite short lived in this fair land. Those lucky enough to live there, or lucky enough to get to the northern areas of the Cape can see the near-miracle of the blooming desert; those in the Highveld watch for the wonderful change from the dusty, parched brown of the wiry tree-dotted hills and mountains around Pretoria to the verdant splendour of imminent summer.

My local hostelry, the High Rock, will be celebrating the first day of spring - on the second day of spring – with an event we enjoy every year. The spring braai will be tomorrow, Friday evening, September 2 at about 6pm.

The landlord, Paul, and his delightful partner Belinda (one of those very pretty names of which we hear far too little these days) will be in charge of things and all the various necessities for a successful braai will be available.

I gather they are also arranging a fine spring evening.

CB

28/8/11