We dash in and out of Petermaritzburg, the former capital of the short-lived Boer republic of Natalia, later incorporated into the South African Union in 1910 under the name of KwaZulu -Natal. It’s there that Gandhi, having been thrown off a train because of his race, made the momentous decision of staying on in South Africa to fight racial discrimination through non violent resistance. We drive on to Dalton, a small farming community, and all of a sudden forestry operations and citrus groves give way to vast sugar cane plantations. The sea is less than a hundred km away and it shows, but the local farmers’ warm welcome, when we. meet them for an excellent braai offered by the McCormick dealer, is the same we have experienced all over the country. We love this country.