Roaring Sand and the Three Hand Shake

I've spent a few days here in Kathu now, most of the time spent on site. People seem to be very friendly, ready with a smile or a wave, but they do seem to be somewhat wary until you've demonstrated some friendliness. One of the things I noticed was an extended handshake that some of the African people do... I wasn't sure what it was or how to do it until I asked one of them about it and he demonstrated what he called the Three Hand Shake, a common greeting in South Africa. Further north in Africa apparently it is hugs or three kisses, much like the Italians, but down South, the handshake. He also pointed out that some of the older Afrikaans aren't that familiar with the three hand shake, so I was not to expect it when shaking hands with them.

A couple of days ago, I drove the ute (they call them "buckies" here) back from the mine site, where it had been driven around inside the mine. We got back to the Lodge where we are staying, and just as we entered there was an almighty crash. I looked over at Michael and stopped the car, he said "It's the flag, keep going". When driving on a mine site, light vehicles like utes have to have a very high flag on them, so they can be seen above the windrows and other machines and not be run over. We hadn't taken it down from when it was driven on site, and there was an archway at the entrance to the Lodge, and the flag had hit that. I rolled on through the archway and parked, when a very irate guy in a ute pulled up in front of us and got out.

"Didn't you hear the crash? You smashed all the lights!"

Turns out there was a candelabra hung inside the archway, and the flag had bent down then flicked up and hit it, smashing two of the lights in it. Whoops! I apologised and he said "It's okay, I just had to yell and get it out of my system. I hate those damned flags!"

Looking at it later, there's several marks in the archway... we're not the first to do it, it seems.

This morning I went with Harry down to a place one of the dealer staff recommended we visit, called Witsand or Brulsand... White Sand or Roaring Sand in English. It's a region of rolling white sand dunes, in the middle of the dark red Kalahari desert. Its colour is distinct, and striated in places with the red sands of its surroundings, but the most distinctive point is the "roaring" it is said to do.

We stopped in at the reception center, paid a nominal fee for visiting the park, and borrowed a couple of bicycles and headed first down a walking track. I've never tried to ride a bicycle through sand before, and now I know why... I didn't fall, but I came off plenty of times and whenever the sand got deep, we had to walk. There was an open air museum, with a few artifacts from when farming was done in the area, and a graveyard from about 70 years ago... only one grave had a headstone, the rest are believed to be relatives of that person. Riding the bike was really hard work, and I was glad I'd spent all those hours on the exercise bike in the gym or I'd have had a much more difficult time.

We then returned, much to the amazement of the staff at the center.... "Don't tell me you rode the whole way? It's called a walking track for a reason!" and I had to agree, it was pretty tough going. We got in the car and went around to the Brulsand section. There was another carload of people there ahead of us, and we climbed up the dune, it was about 30-40 metres high and tough going. No roaring sounds though... we walked around a bit, I got some photos of the spectacular vista, then we headed back. Just as we were about to get in the car and go, we said hello to the other group, and they told us to go off the track a little and try the dune there, to hear the roaring, so we did.

I was expecting to hear the same kind of squeaking sound you get walking on dry sand. What I got was something quite different. Climbing up the dune at that spot, I started hearing a faint groan with each step (not me and not Harry, though it was hard going walking up a dune!). It got louder as I moved higher up the dune, and continued for several seconds after each footfall. It was deeper, both in tone and in location, than the squeaking you get walking on sand. While it wasn't an all-out roar for us, it was certainly a new experience, and one I'm glad to have. I took a video of it, and will need to see if it managed to capture the tone of the sound.

Standing on the top of the dune, I remarked aloud to myself, that this job is taking me to the strangest places... first I went north of the Arctic Circle, and now I'm in the Kalahari desert. Few jobs for a software guy offer that kind of adventure. It makes me keen to do as good a job as I can, so I continue to be sent.

After that, we headed back to town, and I got to work.

I'll update this with photos later.