For What It's Worth

words & music – a (big sky) road trip – featuring my ‘501 (of) the best songs (since) the Y2K‘ series

The time has come to go
Pack your bags, hit the open road
Our hearts just won’t die
It’s the trip, that keeps us alive
Ooh
So many miles
So many miles
So many miles
Away

^words:

Recently I came to the conclusion that my feet desperately needed to be dipped in the ocean again and a trip to the seaside was called for. My intended destination – was the bustling Ballito, a swelling metropolis on South Africa’s famous Dolphin Coast. My eldest son Liam, now twenty, lived there, and I hadn’t seen him since late 2020. In fact, I hadn’t seen much of him at all that terrible year due to the disastrous lockdowns and all the stupidity that came with it.

At that point, he lived with his Mom in nearby Pretoria and was busy finishing off his schooling. After he finished matric – passing with an admirable final report I must add – he moved (on his own) down to Ballito to take up a trade in his Uncle Greg’s roofing business. Debbie, his Mom, also departed Pretoria, but to her own place in Southport (near Port Shepstone) on the Kwazulu-Natal South Coast.

Besides the fact I was very keen to see my boy again, I was also desperate for some ‘Vitamin Sea.’ The cold and dry Highveld winter was becoming wearing and some quality time in the mighty Indian Ocean seemed a cunning plan.

With that, I made the all necessary plans and packed what Finn and I would need for the trip into my trusty Suzuki Vitara. It was late afternoon on Thursday the 18th of August. We would be leaving as early as possible the following morning.

^{_{words + music.}}

BIG SKY was one of my favorite South African bands through the 90s and into the 00s.

1. Waiting for the Dawn

Stephen Geoffrey Louw was born on the 16th of September 1955 in Den Hague, The Netherlands. Three months later his family moved to Pinelands, Cape Town, South Africa. He is of Dutch/Scottish descent.

His career as a professional musician began in the early 1980s when he formed the band All Night Radio with fellow former Stellenbosch University students Nico Burger (guitar) and Rob Nagel (bass). The group recorded two albums – The Heart’s the Best Part (1984) with US producer John Rollo, and The Killing Floor (1986), on which Louw began a partnership with SA-born producer Kevin Shirley that still continues.

He then formed the band Big Sky and in 1990 released their debut album, Waiting for the Dawn, again produced by Shirley. The album arrived just as South Africa began moving away from apartheid rule and the group’s music helped soundtrack a decade of positive revolution. The title track is today considered an SA rock classic.

Big Sky released another four albums over the next 15 years: Horizon (1995), Going Down with Mr. Green (1997), Beyond the Blue (2002), and Trancas Canyon (2008); as well as the concert DVD Heart and Soul, filmed at Cape Town’s Little Theatre in 2008.

^words.

The drive from my spot in Glenferness to Ballito is a stiff 637,5 km via the N3. According to our good “friend” Google, it should take all of 6hrs 43 minutes – give or take a few seconds. At precisely 7h45 on Friday the 19th of August I edged my car out of the driveway and pointed it eastwards. With my little monkey safely tucked in the back plus assorted entertainment, we began our epic journey.

My mom’s final words to us had been “there’s a cold front moving through the Drakensberg from the Cape – make sure you have packed some warm clothes!” I’d basically ignored this warning as Ballito according to Liam had been hot – we’d be fine I was sure.

I do enjoy a nice long drive but as I joined a slow-moving line of cars on Witkoppen Road in Fourways the highway to Durban seemed a long way off – remaining as patient as possible (with the taxis!) as the minutes ticked by.

Not for the first time I wondered why the hell we were not flying down. The answer to that question was simple – Finn had refused. Suddenly after a number of flights, including a VERY long one to Auckland in New Zealand, he was terrified of airplanes. He went into a sobbing tailspin when I excitedly told him we were going to fly again. “Oh dear, he’s like his Mom!” I thought. But, I’ll leave that story for another day. So it was to be a road trip.

_{^{words + music.}}

2. The Trip

The Still Corners are an English-American duo that combines spacy psych experiments, glamorous ’80s synth pop, and more. They formed in 2007 consisting of songwriter/producer Greg Hughes and vocalist Tessa Murray.

Murray met Hughes by chance at a train stop in London when the train was diverted to an alternate station. Murray is originally from England and Hughes grew up in Arizona and Texas and moved to England for a number of years to pursue a life in music

United by Tessa’s delicate vocals and their love of otherworldly atmospheres, their music is otherwise in constant motion. They also take some inspiration from nouvelle cinema as well as the sounds of Ennio Morricone.

“The Trip” is a six-minute pacesetter that revels in the transit more than whatever impending arrival awaits, as its steady acoustic strums and cruise-controlled rhythm progress at a cautious speed. It’s lifted from the 2011 album Strange Pleasures – the band’s second. A sleek and streamlined affair that’s bathed in shiny synths and shines like neon reflected in rain-soaked city streets.

_{The falling sun burns a line
Tearing into the night
Watching you fall asleep
The sweetest dove in a dream
Ooh
So many miles
So many miles
So many miles
Away}

“The Trip” is featured on my ‘501 (of) the best songs (since) the Y2K‘ series

This song makes me want to go on an adventure, with friends I’ve never met, to places unexplored.

Skylar Michael

^{words + music}

3. Slow Dancing

London Road, the Linksfield turn-off, Van Buuren Avenue, and eventually Grey Avenue slipped by as the open road to Durban crept ever closer. The little guy in the back had slipped into what we like to call ‘Finn-land.’ This semi-catatonic state he drifts into is awesome (while it lasts), for a peaceful drive. Heaven knows where his little imagination goes when this happens – maybe we don’t want to know.

Of course, I’d stocked up on plenty of good music for the drive – my memory sticks crammed full of various albums I needed to catch up on. From Elvis Costello to Sigur Ros to Still Corners to, of course, Big Sky. Some of the songs I listened to on that Friday drive are now featured on this here blog of mine.

As the seriously scruffy Leondale slowly passed by on our left I knew it would be Heidelberg next. The off-ramps there forever remind me of my far-off army days. Those scorching Friday mornings when the Durban boys would be hitting that very same highway trying desperately to hitch a ride home before nightfall.

My old army base receded back onto the distant horizon. I turned and asked Finn if he was okay. “I’m okay daddy,” he replied with a slow, peaceful smile stretched across his beautiful face.

_{Like a river that keeps flowing
Bringing water to the sea
We’re always moving closer
Now we’re dancing
You’re dancing with me}

words.

My 56-year-old bladder had reached the point of no return by the time we reached the first pitstop shortly after the De Hoek Plaza. I pulled urgently into the next service station and we made for the restrooms. Glancing at the temperature gauge before I switched off the engine and it was a chilly twelve degrees celsius. Not so bad I thought until I felt the icy wind that was pummelling the almost deserted garage forecourt. It was freezing!

My mom had been right … there was a bloody cold front of note heading our way. Finn and I, both dressed lightly, for the hopefully warmer weather on the coast didn’t hang about. Dashing first to the toilets and then quickly back into the warmth of our car.

^{words + music.}

4. Train Don’t Run

It’s no secret that the South African railway network is a complete mess, or in some instances now non-existent. Sadly, yet another mighty asset of a once proud country has now been destroyed by poor governance, neglect, corruption, etc.

I haven’t driven the N3 to Durban for a while now and it came as a shock to see how many massive transport trucks now dominate the route completely. I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s probably 20 heavy goods vehicles to 1 car. Many of these are coal trucks that used to only use the good old South African Railways. Just another reason why inflation is hitting us hard now as the cost of transporting by road is far more than by rail. Sad, insane, and hurting the poor people the most – AS USUAL!!

Steve Louw’s track below has a slightly different meaning apparently but his words here are pertinent to our current South African railway predicament. This is the official video for “Train Don’t Run,” created by Jacqui van Staden. Lifted off the album Headlight Dreams, which was released 7th of May 2021. The South African music veteran has lost none of his magic that’s for sure.

_{I can help you cross
If you’ll let me
Spirits roam across
This broken land
What’s been lost
You can see
Count the cost
Can’t understand}

_{Train Don’t run
Round here no more
The train is gone for us all}

^{words + music}

5. Winter

By the time we reached Warden the “are we nearly there yet ” had started from the back of the car. I had left suggesting he play on his iPad for as long as possible but now it was time.

The temperature gauge had sat at a steady 11 – 12 degrees most of the drive. As we headed towards Harrismith the weather outside got a bit strange. In the distance, there were seemingly innocuous dark clouds. “Some rain coming maybe?” I said out loud. Finn now buried in some game ignored me.

Then the outside temperature began to steadily decrease.

9-8-7-6-5 with Harrismith about thirty kilometers away.

5-4-3-2 it plummeted in a matter of kilometers as we dived into the welcoming arms of the changing weather.

“Finn, it’s getting seriously cold outside now” I shouted over the music into the back of the car. He glanced up for a moment but remained largely unimpressed. My mom’s words now ringing in my ears about this cold front. I’d never driven in anything like this before and it felt seriously weird.

It was a single degree for a short while and then suddenly …. BOOM! … It hit freezing point – zero degrees!! I told Finn and he replied “wow.” By the way, zero degrees celsius equates to 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

Winter had indeed arrived with a bang.

_{“I should know who I am by now
I walk, and the record stands somehow
Thinking of winter
Your name is the splinter inside me while I wait“}

☝

A yearning singer/songwriter with a gentle sound steeped in the acoustic folk tradition, Joshua Radin makes dusky anthems in the vein of Elliott Smith and Paul Simon. He first gained attention after his 2004 song “Winter” was used on the television comedy Scrubs, paving the way for his 2006 Columbia Records debut, We Were Here. He has issued a handful of Top 50 Billboard 200 albums, including 2008’s Simple Times, 2012’s Underwater, and 2015’s Onward and Sideways.

_words.

6. Snow Dancing

With our next stop close, our windscreen began peppering with cold shards of sleet. I slowed down to below the speed limit. Cars zoomed past me non-plussed by the changing elements. The dark clouds I’d earlier seen in the distance were now very much upon us. “Look it’s snowing Finn!” I exclaimed breathlessly. I had his full attention at last as he dropped the electronic device into his lap. It wasn’t yet snow but that was coming soon, very soon. It grew darker still and the clouds above seemed to now almost touch the roof of my car.

We took the off-ramp into the extremely popular Free Sate rest spot called Berg View and stopped at the Engen to refuel. The sleet had turned to proper snow and small piles of it were now gathering in the garage forecourt. After filling up and exchanging pleasantries with the warmly wrapped attendant we parked the car and scuttled towards the safety of the nearby Wimpy.

I tried filming the falling snowflakes but it wasn’t quite the same on the small screen when I watched the playback inside. It was also wet and freezing and we definitely weren’t dressed to be standing around outside. The nearby mountains were covered now in thickening piles of snow. The parking area too was turning into a weird winter wonderland. Strange days indeed.

_words.

We finished our early lunch, had two quick games of snakes & ladders (the Wimpy gift), and then made a soggy and cold dash back to our car in the parking lot. Time to move on, the sea was waiting! We hit the road and carefully threaded our way out of Harrismith and towards the famous pass that would take us into Kwazulu-Natal.

7. Van Reenen’s Pass

_{Van Reenen’s Pass is a pass through the Drakensberg mountains in South Africa. The N3 freeway was constructed through the pass and is the main route from Durban to Johannesburg on the border between the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State. The village of Van Reenen sits atop the pass and the two nearest towns are Ladysmith and Harrismith.}

_{The pass is named after Frans van Reenen who owned the farm Sandspruit at foot of the pass. In 1856, he help plan a route for a road through the pass. The object of the pass was to open up trade between Natal and the Orange Free State. Van Reenen showed the engineers the route he used to move his livestock to the interior. A railroad followed in 1891. (Wikipedia)}

I’m not sure if the temperature gauge on my car does minus figures but it sure was blabbering on about the dangers of frozen roads and black ice. There was no doubt about it, the N3 on Van Reenen’s, had become treacherous to drive on. I shuddered as a few fools tore past me in their fancy SUVs. Plus, of course, the obligatory mini-van. “Fekkin‘ A-holes,” I muttered as I white-knuckled down another of the pass’s steep twisty slopes.

Not long into the pass, we paused behind two lines of rumbling trucks and a few cars. In due course, we slowly moved forward again and I breathed a sigh of relief. The reprieve was to be short-lived as a few kilometers down the road we shuddered to a more permanent stop.

On the opposite side of the road I could see a huge truck had jack-knifed across the road – effectively completely blocking the traffic behind it. “We could be here for a while,” I said to Finn who was enjoying the sight of snow for the first time in his tender (almost) seven years on planet earth. Well, when he wasn’t wrapped up in that bloody game he was playing.

We would not budge for the next half an hour. I turned my car off and we sat listening to the rumbling of the large engines surrounding us.

The snow continued to flutter out of the low-hanging, bright, white, BIG, SKY.

I hopped out and tried to make a video. It was freezing and surreal.

👇

The only other time in my life I had seen snow was way back in 1981. Fek me that’s 41 years ago now! The 10th of September if I recall correctly and over a week into Spring!! That experience is still pretty vivid in the old memory banks too. I’d been a Standard 8 (Grade 10) pupil at Alberton High when mother nature had dumped a serious amount of the white stuff on our little world.

My lasting memory had been how dark it had suddenly turned that September morning – moments before it snowed – a weird green-like dark I’ve never forgotten. SPOOKY, almost. They sent us home early and we were most pleased to have a few days off school. I do remember it being at its coldest when our Alberton snow eventually began to melt.

Van Reenen’s Snow Pics 👇

_{Snow Patrol}

Eventually, I started up my car and followed the queue of vehicles making their slow escape out of Van Reenen’s Pass. The traffic on the opposite side heading back towards Joburg was still at a standstill. I imagine their patient wait would be far longer than ours.

We crawled carefully to safety and it was with some relief the snow stopped falling. A little bit later the sun would peak its head out of the clouds and a semblance of normality had returned. We were on the open road again and lurching on into Kwazulu-Natal.

I’d love to say the rest of the road trip was plain-sailing, but it wasn’t. Road works in Pietermaritzburg and then later in Umhlanga slowed us down. The never-ending queues clogged up with these damn trucks.

Nine hours of traveling later we reached a warm but blustery Ballito and my son Liam. The snow we had encountered a few hours earlier slowly faded into a distant memory.

^{Sorry, but here are a few of those dreaded}

Holiday snaps

_{Liam and Finn 😍}

Thank you for reading my story ‘Snow Dancing‘ which I wrote on the 27th and 28th of August 2022

Thanks also to:

Still Corners, Joshua Radin

and

Steve Louw

who along with James Phillips and Robbie Robb, are my three favorite SA singer-songwriters ever

_{Dedicated to my two boys}

👋