Today I rode 530Km to spit on a rock and put it on a pile for future bike riders in the Weenen area.
Well that is stretching the truth a little, but effectively how the day turned out. In truth I just felt like riding.
This morning I woke far too early and set out for no more than a breakfast burn up to Balito and back. All the places in Balito were still closed when my ride addiction kicked in, so I turned the front wheel inland through the cane fields and headed for the Wartburger Hof instead.
At the hotel I picked up a tourist map of the vicinity and was eyeballing it over breakfast when I realized that I was not all that far from Muden and Weenen, and somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered reading that there were a few Isivivane up that way and, on the spur of the moment decided to see if I could find one.
"What the hell is a Isivivane?", I hear you ask. I must explain.
My late father grew up in Zululand, was a fluent siZulu speaker, and was extremely knowledgeable about Zulu ways and customs. In the past in Zululand you would often find a pile of rocks, called isivivane, next to an intersection between two footpaths. Custom required that you find a rock, spit on it, hold it to your forehead and request the ancestors to please take care of future travelers passing along the way, before adding it to the pile. As a child growing up I remember my father stopping our old 190D merc at isivivane - even though he did not have a religious or superstitious bone in his body.
After a few blank faces from locals who had no idea what I was talking about, I finally met an older man in Muden who said that there was one marked with a plaque on the Weenen road, and kindly explained to me where it was.
This one is big, and it gave me a weird feeling to realize how many travelers must have stopped there over the last few hundred years to make it the size it is, one stone at a time.
It’s at S28 52.051 E30 09.244
On the way I found a nice view to watch for a while – Where ? I can’t remember.
The Isivivane
I think this is only half the story.
Placing my rock.
And another just to make certain future riders in the area are safe !
Well that is stretching the truth a little, but effectively how the day turned out. In truth I just felt like riding.
This morning I woke far too early and set out for no more than a breakfast burn up to Balito and back. All the places in Balito were still closed when my ride addiction kicked in, so I turned the front wheel inland through the cane fields and headed for the Wartburger Hof instead.
At the hotel I picked up a tourist map of the vicinity and was eyeballing it over breakfast when I realized that I was not all that far from Muden and Weenen, and somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered reading that there were a few Isivivane up that way and, on the spur of the moment decided to see if I could find one.
"What the hell is a Isivivane?", I hear you ask. I must explain.
My late father grew up in Zululand, was a fluent siZulu speaker, and was extremely knowledgeable about Zulu ways and customs. In the past in Zululand you would often find a pile of rocks, called isivivane, next to an intersection between two footpaths. Custom required that you find a rock, spit on it, hold it to your forehead and request the ancestors to please take care of future travelers passing along the way, before adding it to the pile. As a child growing up I remember my father stopping our old 190D merc at isivivane - even though he did not have a religious or superstitious bone in his body.
After a few blank faces from locals who had no idea what I was talking about, I finally met an older man in Muden who said that there was one marked with a plaque on the Weenen road, and kindly explained to me where it was.
This one is big, and it gave me a weird feeling to realize how many travelers must have stopped there over the last few hundred years to make it the size it is, one stone at a time.
It’s at S28 52.051 E30 09.244
On the way I found a nice view to watch for a while – Where ? I can’t remember.
The Isivivane
I think this is only half the story.
Placing my rock.
And another just to make certain future riders in the area are safe !
