Madagascar: chapter 1
The Chinese Great wall chapter has been closed and I have now brought closure to the South African coastal run with the release of my 2nd book, Hope in Thyme. But in a weird way the closure of one gives a crack of an opening to that of another. As I sit here days before the start my new Madagascar Challenge, not in SA but in London, reminiscing about many things. Thinking about my grandfather who set sail all those years ago from the UK shores. His goal was to find a dry climate for health reasons, but ultimately to farm in Australia. On docking in Cape Town he decided he need go no further.
My latest book is a story about the love, hope and belief in my country of birth, South Africa. Through this trip to London I feel that I have now finally come another full circle in Life. My book launch by some weird coincidence was in London. Not planned at all, but by chance, I don’t know all the circumstances surrounding it, but here I am – sitting in a Chinese noodle bar in London reminiscing.
A haze of memories flooding through my mind, looking over my table at a Chinese family opposite me, deep in conversation, smiling and their chatter droning throughout the restaurant, every now and then there is a lull and I pick up on the conversation, but a stark realisation destroys the hazy dream world. The Chinese family are conversing not in Chinese, but a London accent, and so strong that at times I struggle to eavesdrop as I am unable to understand what they are talking about, what a global village we have become.
There are so many twists and coincidences in life. On top of all of this I find myself reading a news article about the Chinese Government who have just released a story about the discovery of a new section of the great wall ,some 2000 km in length, what does this mean, am I being lured back to China – Maybe, this could be the best excuse that I now have, as I have been yearning to return to the country that as an individual will never forget and in some way still draws me.
William Lindsey said to me on the day of my departure from China. “ The wall will have a hold on you for life, a magnetic attraction that you will never be able to explain, you will just have to return.”
But it’s Madagascar first.