Dear William Ernest Henley,
Thank you a million times over for inspiring Nelson Mandela to such greatness with your poem Invictus.
"....
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."
Last verse of Invictus by WE Henley
What would South Africa be today without Mandela's wisdom and vision?
I read the book, "Playing the Enemy", and couldn't imagine the film would do justice to John Carlin's account of how Mandela gathered his apartheid enemies into his fold. And Morgan Freeman was brilliant as Mandela - he looked like him, spoke like him, walked like him, he could have been him!
Invictus brought back such strong memories for me of the 1995 Rugby World Cup. I was at the first match with my son, Gareth, then age 15. (I still wear the shirt!) South Africa, host nation, played Australia, prior World Cup champions. No one thought South Africa stood a chance of winning that first game, let alone the cup, having been out of world class rugby for years and years.
So if you've seen Invictus you will know exactly where we are staying in Cape Town. The rugby stadium is minutes from us. The helicopter in which Mandela arrives to give the captain his handwritten poem, Invictus, flies right over our suburb and also shows the mountain we love to walk in. We're in Newlands, the centre of rugby and cricket. When Tim rides his bike to work he cycles past the stadium to avoid the main roads.
The other highlight of the week was the wine tasting we organized for the students on Thursday. Our young friend and sommelier at the Vineyard Hotel, Chris, did us proud. We gave him money, he brought wines and words and we had a lot of fun. I forgot to take my camera, but here is one that Mililani Trask-Batti took of Tim and me at the very beginning - thanks Mililani!
Saturday morning Tim and set off on our normal weekend walk, up to the contour path in Newlands Forest. Something came over us at the point where we should have turned down to go back home for breakfast. We decided to go up, up and further up, right up Newlands Ravine, to the saddle between Devil's Peak and Table Mountain. It was hard work but the view of the city of Cape Town that awaited us when we got to the top was worth the effort.
Here's a photo of the route we took to the top of the saddle. Devil's Peak is on the right. Photo by Daniel McCrea
Once at the top we had a big decision to make. How to get down again? Tim's knees didn't fancy descending the ascent. Going down the other side would leave us carless in the city; the only other option was walking the circumference of Devil's Peak, along the upper contour path, and finally back to Newlands Forest.
We got home for breakfast at 2pm! It was a very short day.
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