ONTHERUN by Gey Graham ‘From mid-July to mid-September of this year travelled around scuithern Afviea on business. Tas part ofa five-person team, and it was avery hectic trip, to there was not much time for running, unfortunately, Nevertheloss, I managed to slip inthe odd run hore and there, fe was winter in that part of the worl, ‘which meant that the un would go down very quickly ‘round 6 p.m. Thus if wanted to run in broad: daylight I usually had todo it before breakfast. Tt was ‘worth the effort, apeciallyainco this was pretty well the only part of the day Thad to myself Although this was my sixth trip to Aftiea, Ihad never before visited any af these countries. All T really new was that Angola and ‘had bath come Uhrough lengthy evil ware, Namibia had gained its independence in 199), South Afriea was eoming cut sfite apartheid era, and Tamzania, well, ll really Jenew about Tanzania was that it had suffered under years of benign neglect under the reign of Julius [Nyerere, Namibia and Mozambique both turned out to be plossant rurprises; Namibia turned out tobe 30 nice that [would lke to return thereon vacation some day ‘with ay wife Harriet "Namibia, the home of Freddie Fredericks, was in fact the first logon our tou, The country i truly gorgeous, ‘with mountains for hiking rivers for kayaking. plenty ‘of wildlife, plus the Namib desert and the Skeleton Const. The nly thing missing in my photo album are pletures of trees! Conditions are grea for running, in ‘winter atleast. Windhoek, the capital, has a Hash House Harriers group, and Iran with them one zany svening at dusk: something todo with searching for ‘mounds of flour by the ide of the road. Walvis Bey long the Atlantic coat was alse a pleasant surprise, ‘witha great boardwalk for running, snd thousands of amingos in the early morning. South Africa, home ofthe 1996 Olympic Men's ‘Marathon champion, is also «country of runners and mz) cd y yy ® JANIFEB, 1996 sports enthusiasts. Cape Town, with its landmark ‘Table Mountain providing the hills, ts nies place to run, Apparently tends to rain alt there, mainly beeause of the confluence of the warm Indian Ocean air withthe cooler Atlantic Ocean variety. But on aelear Gay the views are spectacular in any direction, and the itrneaphere in very breesy and coumopolitan, Nearby there are also some lovely beaches to an along. ‘And then there was Angola. I arrived in Luanda torenty years to late. Apparently it was onee 8 Demutifil ety, but after two decades of el war and corruption, this seaside capital is trly a dump! Even a ‘un along the boardwalk could not erase the smell of {garbage in tho strect, polluted seawater, and vehicle oh latter ineident, which sent me to the floor for half an hhour, I stopped running. Infact, fom that point on the ‘whale team eck together like ghie, and we travelled ‘everywhere in a minibus, ‘From Angola on the edge ofthe south Atlantic Ocean, ‘we crossed over to Mozambique onthe Indian Ocean Both Angola and Mozambique are ex Portuguese. ‘alonies, and both have come through horrific cil ‘ware in recent times, but T found the atmosphere in the Mozambican capital, Maputo to be much better than in [Lusanda, The pace ir much slower in Maputo: you know {you are in the tropico, the people are friendlier, andthe “Sty infrastructure is basically intact. had some very nice rane along the boardwalk near the beatiful Polana Hote, with palm trees everywhere and s lovely strip ofconstline. The redness ofthe earth, the {greenness ofthe sea and the texture ofthe Hight all Feminded me of Australia, where Harriet and I had ‘Been earlier in the year. ‘The last stop on my African odyssey was Tanzania, ‘which of eouree i really a par of Bast Afiea rather ‘than southern fies This in the home of the great oy e @ CC aON THE RUN, ‘marathoner Juma Tkangoa, Dar os Salaam, oF “Haven ‘of Peace’ is the capital. The downtown area is very un down, and while Iwas there humid and oppressive. On the other hand, itis also very small and the countryside is just a stones threw ffom the downtown fore. Thue, ajog ofa minute oF two binge you onto these beautiful, empty roads which are lined by enormous shade-treet There's also a golf course, some hice open feds, and a pleasant beach to run by. The Spice island of danziber is just an hour and a bal away by hydrofoil, and there you ean run along the many’ beaches strung out along the coust. Zanzibar itself ensely populated, so that running alang the probably abit tacky. JANIFEB, 1996 ‘After two months of working in these far off places, it ‘was nice to come back to the security, familiarity and ‘beauty of the Canal. There ie something very ‘reassuring in seeing the same old runners out there ‘very day, each with his or her own style, pace and atte. Ofcourse it is great to see ome nev fac, to! ‘We are truly blessed here in the National Capital Ragion, We have peace, we have freedom, and we are ‘surrounded by beauty I try to deseribe it to people 1 ‘meet on my travels, but am not sure | ever ticeaed in capturing the mood, Maybe ane ofthese days Iwill ‘write an atile about it, and bring it along on my ext Toreign escapade,