Commotion

As I was discussing work plans and budgets on a call I was drowned out by a helicopter overhead, moving hither and thither.

It was much more enthralling when I walked to the beach where the helicopter was collecting water from the bay, and ferrying it to an area of town where a fire had broken out closer to the dunes. I asked a bloke whether fires were normal in April in Cape Town and he confirmed they can happen at any time of year and this was most likely ‘some idiot with a cigarette butt in the dunes’.

I had been surprised as the rest of southern Africa is entering the cooler and drier winter period now after a hotter and wetter summer period of several months. After reading up I now understand that Cape Town has almost the opposite rainfall pattern, with stormy wet winter weather the norm. We can thank those roiling Atlantic waters around the Cape for this.