For those of you based overseas, it's the middle of winter in Southern Africa, Snow , Rain and cold weather everywhere, except in Oranjemund it's east wind, Hot, Like Africa Hot, I see 2morrow's gonna be 30 degrees, Tonite on the way home from work all you could smell was Braai fires..... man ... I Love the east wind!
;D
Yo... Try living in Luderitz. Here we have the East AND the WIND... Especially the wind...
Wind blows the smells of braai fires way out to sea...
Close doors, pull down the blinds, close curtains and chill inside. I remember how cool the interior of the houses were while the East wind blew dust and sand and heat outside. ;D
Monday Morning 04h00 and I woke up with the sound of the ocean racing past my bedroom window, it was in fact the east wind returning, heck! It sounds loud that time of the morning, can taste the sand everywhere......
>:(
Wanna trade places for the duration? ;D ;)
As you can see Mike heard the wind at 04h00 but didn't get to see the sunrise between 06h00 and 06h30 - the sky was covered in pink-tinged clouds, it was really gorgeous. I would just like it if the wind could blow on a Friday before the gardener comes on a Saturday, the poor guy spends ages raking up the oak leaves and then come Monday and the eastwind and the garden is covered again!
You wouldn't be wanting to tempt me with a gardening gig in OM would you? Just to experience the East Wind one more time? ::)
Combing your hair was always a problem and the sand stinging the backs of your legs or blasting your face as you cycled to school (hopefully the wind was always behind you!). You always knew when you woke in the morning that the East Wind had arrived - there was a special aroma in the air and static everwhere. Happy memories :)
Being sandblasted by the East Wind was not as bad as the ankle sandblasting you got while on the beach! Hey that sure stung like crazy.
On some of the Newsletters I'm busy scanning for uploading this week, mostly 76, 78, 79, ( thanks to Susan), I was reading about the big East wind of 78 or 79... there was a sat photo, where you can see this massive sandplume extending out over the atlantic for 100's of Km's, that day more than 70 tree's were blown over...... and I remember those 3 days, as school was cancelled , you could see nothing on the street outside, and 2 very large tree's at E7-1st (our house went over)... it was like a war zone afterwards.....
:o
That hectic eastwind .. 78 or 79 ? I remember that one very well .. I had gone to work on my motorbike ( just to get the ankles sandblasted ) actually to save my car from being stripped of a coating of paint ... I had to leave work that day to go to alex airport to collect my Mom who had come back from an overseas holiday ... Got sandblasted on bike again .. Got Home .. proceeded to cover my windscreen and headlights in sellotape leaving a small window to look through in an effort to minimise damage . After a hectic ride to airport I had to turn around and follow my Mom in another car , she graciously thought that I could not make it so cadged a lift .. anyhow I heard about the adventure of the descent and a hairy landing compliments of the wind and the thick sand and dust limiting visibility ... some of the folk on disembarking gave the pilot a piece of their mind for risking their lives ... the upside of east wind was when you did not have the wind and dust storms that came with it ... then one had an indian summer in mid winter .. I remember those evenings .. balmy breeze ... sea calmer ... sometimes even taking on a nice blue/green tinge .. everyone going down to the beach to walk or just enjoy it ... do the braai thing .. whatever , .. that did not happen often but was enjoyable when it did ..
Hi Robert
Sorry, but I wouldn't want give up my gardener without a fight - he is also one of our employees at Spar so I think he would give up a fight as well!
We've just had over a week of east weather - pretty mild without too much wind and sand, just nice and warm! It was lovely to sit outside last Thursday evening at our neighbours house whilst they made a seafood potjie and enjoy the warm evening, not a breath of wind - am I making you jealous now?
On the downside all the kids are sick with flu because of the constant temperature fluctuations!
No, no, no...
Try selling a couple hundred heaters (wrong order) during East weather? Just as the heaters arrived - on a cold day - we had a good giggle and then didn't worry, because it was cold! Low and behold... the very next day was EAST WEATHER!!
And today is 11 days after this post started and the east wind is still blowing. Oranjemunders it's gonna be a lekker evening for a braai tonite, 29 degrees this afternoon...... lotsa beer and vleis..... Slurp!
;D
yes the weather on saturday ... your east wind and for us a break from winter blues weather ... and not even a breath of wind in woodstock which is notoriously windy ..I did a small braai as well .. must be the caveman thing in us eveolved beings cos nothing lifts and comforts the soul more than gathering around a fire ...
Well. it's sunday and the east wind is still here today, gathering around the fire is lekker, but last nite too much beer was consumed and the braai moved to another old Oranjemunder's house, Andre Fourie.
Children don't mix your beers..... I can vouch for that today..... Ouch! :-\
I have the best job in town, I get to see those great sunrises everyday but with the east wind we get a lot of broken HT poles and that is not a job I enjoy doing
Hey Alf, tell them about it. Just glad we weren't in the department back in seventy-what when the 70 odd trees blew over. Imagine all the lines you would have to rebuild then...
Quote from: Sandy on July 15, 2007, 11:01:55 AM
.. must be the caveman thing in us eveolved
Hey bru,
Speak for your own clan!! We Bruces evolved more rapidly than most and somehow found that while we sat around the fire at the entrance to our cave (with webspinning spiders in situ too!), we found we were clutching TV remotes in one hand and a chilled bottle of Windhoek in the other!
Now that is what I call rapid progress?! ;D ;D
Hi Cheryl,
Do you happen to know Di and Gordon Keyter? Do they still live in Luderitz? If not, would you knwo where I could reach Di please?
And for those of you not living here, here we go again, the East wind has returned..... I just hope it stays for the weekend, lekker evenings... ;D
East wind for you .. and for us here in CT a day or two respite from winter weather which will come back in the next day or two ... .. driving home from work yesterday afternoon made the decision .. light a fire and do some braai .. pity it still gets dark so early ....
Mike reckons 30% chance of rain for tonight - what happened to the east weather?
Damp towels at the bottom of the doors to keep the dust out. 8)
I remember a huge dust and sand storm East Wind, must have been early 80's. We lived on the east sied of town, so we got the brunt of it. The houses that was right on the edge of town got the worst of it though. We went looking at whole cars burried by the sand in front of the garage, and the garage, facing east, had sand built up all the way to the top. We could climb up the slope onto the roof, easy.
I envy all you braai doers.... In Scotland it rains all the time, well mostly except on the day the kids go back to school, go figure. and I have never had a braai once and I have been here seven years, that is sad. The only place for a good braai is O'mund, here in the UK they don't know what a braai is.......let alone how to handle one, they braai beef burgers on a gas fire, come on now.....
I remember the east Wind - Hot, dry and sand.
Now I live on West coast of Ireland, and here we have a west wind, cold, wet and rain. :(
Garimac
(lived in Oranjemund while in primary school - left in 1982)
Hi Gari
If you are ever looking some Biltong or Boerewors - There is a small butchers in Bangor - Just outside Belfast that does it.
Not quite the same as we remember it - but worth the journey....... yum yum
If you google SA shops in UK you will find suppliers that will do 24 hour deliveries of all things south african including fresh braai meat.
Man! September is finished and we only had one day of East weather, whats going on with the weather? We usually have East wing in April and then September again.......Today I got up took the girls to the beach with the dog, it was lekker, planned to wash Micheles car for her and swim with the girls in the portapool...then lo and behold,,,,, this miserable cold wind came up and now the afternoon has to be spent indoors...
The Hockey Club are hosting a Rock Festival this afternoon,with 4 or 5 locals playing live music for the masses, I wonder how it will fare in this weather though..
just another Saturday!
:(
It really is tough in Africa Michael. Just had my tickets for the upcoming Jethro Tull concert delivered to my door. Front row seats - don't even ask how much. :o
I can now make sure that Ian Anderson really uses only one leg whilst playing the flute. Although, I've seen Pete using one leg many a time whilst playing his flute within the Gents. He claims it keeps his Levi's cleaner as he switches legs for each pee. (Where do you think his nickname comes from?)
now then kenny,jethro tull,i last saw them at a concert in newcastle,did you know that ian anderson bought himself a title of laird,lives in scottland and is a salmon farmer,still love the music,another thing you mite know about is that it was soo windy in hartlepool last week,the chickens all laid the same eggs twice,take care,bobby
abouttime Well, the East wind is back........ Think I will go home a wee bit earlier today and light the fire..... Sticky pork belly all round........
This is the real east wind, not that fake one that blows form the east......without the heat.... this is the who left the oven door open east wind.....
you hot
I remember when I stayed there - early morning at sunrise, if the sky is pink to the east, you know the eastwind is coming and bringing the dry desert heat with it. That was real sinus & migraine weather for me...
You could smell the heat... oh, and that was w-a-a-a-y before AC's!
But then there was always many ways to cool down - the pool, the river, the pink pan, the beach, or simply the sprinkler on the lawn or the big sprinklers in the "parkies".
Have a cold one, Mike!
36_1_72 BierSuip
Now if I had a scanner that worked I could have scanned in the pictures of the sand storms that occured on during 1979 .
In May 1979 there were five solid days of east wind during which time more than one hundred trees were blown down in Oranjemund (thats whats reported in the MAY/June 1979 News letter)
then on the 13th June 1979 the worst hit and trees that had been standing for 30 years or more were hit by winds estimated to be in excess of 125km/hr in this storm it was estimated that 165 trees were blown down this time. Pictures show cars almost burried by drift sand.
"Of all winds that blow
I know
I like the East
The Least"
Clive I remember that very well. I was pregnant with Glen . He was born 21st June at that time.Being 3 weeks overdue and eating sand I could have bitten the heads of 50 cobra's during that sandstorm. The sand piled up as high as my fence.We were in 16th Ave so on the edge of town.
Do try and post the pictures sometime when you get a scanner up and running.
My Mom came back from her holiday in Scotland during that diabolical east wind storm ... Th pilot managed to land the plane but it was a rough experience ... some fok gave him hell ... he said they had choices .. Windhoek was too far for fuel range and luderitz was iminently a more dangerous airport to land at in this weather ..
I was 9 years old then and I remember it also..... school was closed and two large pine tree's at the back of our house blew over.....
there is a sat photo somewhere showing the sand cloud stretching out over the Atlantic ocean....
Mik, Ive got a pile of News letters here, what resolution should I scan them in at (when I get to purchasing a new Scanner - the PC shop says it would be cheaper to buy a new one rather than have the old ( 3 years old) one fixed,
todays technology ,,, best to buy new ... scan in at reasonable resolution ... to get best definition ... save to a file if you want to keep for posterity .. any you want to post move to another file then before sending open in MS picture manager ,,, there you can resize to convenient + - max 700 x 700 pix ... for posting ...
There's resolutions??
I just put the pic in and press the button. idontknow
Diana ... you remain blonde ... image201