We had an interesting start to the year, first there was the French couple and then there was some more rain (after December’s heavy rains). In fact, we had some flash floods.
Last week, just before we wanted to leave for the U2 concert (we drove to Cape Town on the Thursday before the show), it started raining. Within a matter of an hour, we had what looked like a river streaming down the road before our coffee shop.

Just the day before, local residents were spotted in different parts of town, taking photos of pools of waters in and around Sutherland. The golf course with its famous oils instead of greens had become a dam and a river flew through Jurg’s famous Sterland (on the side luckily). Thursday’s rain was even more threatening though. A few guests in our coffee shop stood and watched helplessly with us as the waters came streaming down from all sides. A green dustbin had made its appearance and hitched a ride on the stream, disappearing around the corner.

Later we learned that a few houses flooded in the Church Grounds on the one side of town. I also found out that my husband and his brother, along with a few other local residents had to swim into some of the houses and retrieve elderly residents who could not get out by themselves. Within two hours it was all over, but the water had left its mark. Many people lost possessions, but gratefully no lives were lost.

We started the road to Cape Town for our eventful weekend, and I noticed the green veld in the Roggeveld. With a stormy start to the year, we have to look at the positive side of things – the end of a drought, waters washing our town clean and despite terrible loss of homes and possessions, perhaps the water has brought new life with flowers popping up everywhere in town, green grass where there used to be only patches of yellow. Let’s hope this is a fresh start for this beautiful town.

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