Thursday doors – Tour of the Jozini community (old Zululand)

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Welcome to Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).

During our visit to Ghost Mountain we went on a tour of the local community. The guide was a conservationist and explained the issues the community is facing due to the dry conditions resulting in water shortages, lack of maintenance of chemical toilets in the schools, and issues with alien plants that are spreading like wildfire and which poison the cattle if consumed.

Picture of various houses and their doors in the community. Many of the residents are involved with the communal cattle raising projects or work in the leisure and tourism industry. Over this Covid-19 period, the community has been hard hit with job losses.
View from the road going up the mountain. You can see Ghost Mountain in the distance.
Giant caterpillar – the hairs are poisonous
Sunset over the Pongolapoort Dam
Sunset – a bit more advanced – over the Pongolapoort Dam
Burning the sugarcane plantation to get rid of foliage, snakes and cane rats.

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Published by robertawrites235681907

I am a writer of young adult fiction and poetry

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50 thoughts on “Thursday doors – Tour of the Jozini community (old Zululand)”

  1. Plants that poison cattle, poisonous caterpillars, snakes and cane rats…I am very happy to be reading this post and looking at your lovely pictures. I’m not sure I want to get much closer 😉

    Thanks for joining us at Thursday doors. It is sad to read yet another way this pandemic is hurting people around the world. Reading this makes m angry with the people who complain about having to wear a mask or socially distance in a grocery store.

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    1. Hi Dan, those cane rats are huge and are more like porcupines than rats. I would not want to run into a pack of them either. The government has been giving benefits to people who have been impacted by Covid-19, but it isn’t a lot of money. There was already a lot of poverty in SA so the pandemic has certainly exacerbated it.

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      1. In this country, those in poverty before the pandemic suffered the most during the pandemic. We’ve taken steps to help, but we helped people who didn’t need help, and didn’t help those people enough.

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  4. I must say before I saw the text informing me that was a caterpillar, I thought it might be a mammal of some sort. My dear, Robbie, you find the wildest of places which are so intriguing, One can only imagine what the United States must have looked like in its wild days! 🙂

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  9. WOW!!! Robbie – thank you so much for sharing your amazing country. I feel like I was there with you looking into the distance to Ghost Mountain. Sending hugs and have a great weekend.

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  13. Nice travel photos, Robbie. What will the giant caterpillar transform into? I only know of butterflies, but that caterpillar looks like a cat to me!!
    We’re leaving for Portland tomorrow to spend a week with my grandkids. Happy Mother’s Day to you, Robbie!

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    1. My pleasure, I find exploring these communities very interesting. The people are very cheerful and nice, on the whole. Sometimes I think a simple life isn’t so bad, but they do need water and proper sanitation in the schools without a doubt.

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    1. HI Jules, these are controlled fires [if there is any such thing], and the farmers have been doing this for over a century. In the Transvaal, the native African people sometimes set fire to the veld as this is an old custom of theirs to make the grass grow back green. It is illegal of course, but some traditions die hard.

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      1. Yes, controlled fires are done here too. I was watching a cooking show (the gal lives on a working cattle ranch) where they do control burns to take out scrub weeds. But they have many hands, and a water truck on hand to keep things under control.

        Perhaps controlled fires are better than all the chemicals that could be used?

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  19. It’s a week further, but this is the only Thurs. Doors post I can find ….or is it your book “Open a new door?” About this post : beautiful hills and landscape. Jesh

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