I never tire of looking down at my beautiful country, South Africa, when I fly. This is especially true when I do the Johannesburg to Cape Town route. I know all the small towns, lakes, dams and rivers.
Many areas are experiencing drought conditions, so the changing scenery is dramatic. Taking off from Johannesburg’s airport, the OR Tambo International, the fields are green, the scenery lush. This area is a summer rainfall area and we’ve received an abundance of water. Our dams are full.
Flying over the central interior of the country, the lushness continues with the patchwork of the crop fields reminding me to be thankful for the rain because the farmers in the region are benefiting.
As we fly over the Karoo and Northern Cape it is naturally dry and brown – this is to be expected. Further on, where the vineyards and fertile fruit growing valleys of the Western Cape are supposed to be green and lush, they are instead dry and brown. The dams and lakes have receded to concerning levels because this area is experiencing a severe drought. This is a winter rainfall area but last winter not enough rain fell, so the picturesque shire-like valleys look barren and dry.
I took the photo above whilst flying from the Northern to the Western Cape regions. You can see the brown barrenness. I wish I had taken a photo of the lush Gauteng and Free State regions for you to see the difference.
This region is entering its rainfall season, and I hope that they get an abundant amount of water too.
Atop.
Indeed Regina staying in the Cape Town area I certainly hope it will
I feel that as a country we need a more sustainable solution to our water scarcity. We are a water scarce region and waiting for rain to fill our dams to ensure we have water is not enough. De-salination is also not sustainable, due to its cost to set up and maintain, and it has environmental impact, as a friend who is a water treatment engineer says. I wish I knew more.
Reminds me of the California central coast even one year ago. But the rains did come! Not sure the state took enough provisions to capture it, however.
Some friends living in Folsom were worried as they saw Folsom Lake receding by the day. I was there just before the dry spell.