Port st. Johns

Right now I am escaping bad weather in a backpackers' lodge in Port st. Johns, I have covered about 4200km at this point.

This is just a quick entry, I am on the Internet line at the lodge which is very reasonably priced, but I'm trying to keep spending down.

Just south of St. Lucia, two guys came at me with a knife and a machete. There is little doubt in my mind that if I didn't have my pepper spray with me... Well. In the end they made off with my money, phone, iPod, and headlamp. Naturally I lost all my numbers, so please forgive my lack of phone contact.

The incident didn't trouble me at first but slowly I began to see the same attitude that led those two towards their incompassionate actions in most people that I meet. I have trouble discerning between people to try to kill or harm with machetes and people who try to kill or harm in courtrooms in suits and university degrees. People who cause unspeakable cruelty to animals through their purchases of certain products. I find it very hard to feel compassion for many people nowadays because their are very, very few compassionate people on this planet. At least, one might say as a climber, we have the hills to retreat to, but I just read about a terrible incident on Wellington's Dome (a spectacular and popular climbing area in Limpopo Province) that has, along with accounts of incidences in the Magaliesberg, the Drakensberg, and my incident in the St. Lucia Wetlands, all but destroyed the comfort I find in the South African wilderness. I find it intolerable that people complain about corruption after fueling it by bribing cops. I find it intolerable when people complain about animal cruelty while eating a KFC chicken burger. In truth, I find most people intolerable at the moment, yet when there are no people around, I cannot help but feel as vulnerable as I was in the St. Lucia Wetlands where I had to walk about 25 km before I found someone who could help me.

I used to get very bad eczema on my fingers and feet that prohibited me from climbing, playing guitar, walking barefoot, and when it got really bad even walking with shoes was painful. It was narrowed down to a wheat allergy and as soon as I stopped eating wheat I was able to climb properly! Lately though, without any consumption of wheat, the eczema on my feet has flared up to a degree that any worse will seriously hinder my walking. Though I was reluctant to make the conclusion, I think it has been brought on by stress. People tell me that I should stop judging my actions and the actions of others so harshly, but is precisely that attitude of, "just take it easy man!" that has led society to many of its shortcomings. And so, I lose health in concern.

That being said, I am still enjoying the walk. I will right a proper update sometime soon but right now I think I'm too angry to right properly and find it very hard to express myself, particularly hard to not offend people close to me as they are often guilty of the detached incompassion I find so unacceptable lately. I smile when I talk to people but I find myself annoyed at myself afterwards for not screaming at them that their bourgeois reactionary lifestyles are the root of many of the world's solvable problems. Mostly, though, I am having a good time, it the bad that plagues my mind though. I find myself tossing and turning trying to figure out how to instigate some sort of change.

But, setting that aside for now...

There is less than a month to go for the Supertramp Application deadline this year, and their are no applicants!!! If you are an MCSA Member and between the ages of 18 and 25, check out the MCSA sight for details.