Drakensberg mountains, July 1962 |
 July 1962 was the last time I climbed in the Drakensberg for a period of 57 years. When I next climbed in South Africa, the country had changed. The apartheid regime had collapsed, and the country’s first all-race elections were held in 1994. What is more, South Africa has a new flag, so – unusually – I decided not only to start this web-album but also to end it with a photograph of a flag. It’s notable that three of the six colours on the new South African flag – namely, black, green, and yellow – are present on the flag of the African National Congress, while the other three colours – i.e., red, white, and blue – are the colours of the flags of both the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, which were the two most significant European sources in South African history. (This is the last picture in this album.) |