Newsletters 2020
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Latest News - December 2020
Apologies for the lateness of this newsletter – it has been a crazy week! But belated greetings to you again from sunny South Africa, where things are slowly returning to a form of normality after most of the restrictions relating to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted at the beginning of November. Included amongst these was a removal of the international flight ban – excellent news from a Close Encounters point of view, as it means that all of the tours ... Continue reading |
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Latest News - November 2020
Greetings from South Africa, on what is supposed to be a warm spring day. But the weather gods have been fickle, and much of the country is shivering through some unseasonal cold and rainy weather, with snow falling once again on the high peaks of the Drakensberg Mountains and Lesotho. And this just after a heat wave last week! Oh well, we mustn’t complain – there isn’t much we can do about it, after all. There is less than two days to go before American citizens go out and make their mark in what could turn out to be the most important election in decades. Looking at it from the outside, it would appear that the presidential race is not so much a choice between two individuals, but rather a case of deciding to be either for Donald J. Trump or against him. No matter what your ... Continue reading |
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Latest News - October 2020
Greetings from South Africa! Although it is officially springtime in the southern hemisphere, the country is still being hammered by a number of cold fronts coming in from the Atlantic, and once again snow has covered many of the mountains along the southern and eastern seaboard. The good news is that these fronts have also produced a lot of rain, and the dams and reservoirs in the Western Cape are overflowing for the first time in four years, bringing to an end the drought and the water restrictions that have plagued the mother city (Cape Town) for so long. The USA is not without its own weather problems at the moment. Wildfires continue to ravage the states along the west coast, with California, Oregon and Washington all experiencing record-breaking burned areas (about 4 million acres in total). Nearly a million people have been displaced, thousands of houses ... Continue reading |
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Latest News - September 2020
Spring has sprung! Although the season only begins officially on the 23rd of September, September 1 has always been traditionally celebrated in South Africa as "Spring Day". But the weatherman was obviously not paying attention - snow has once again blanketed many of the mountains along the southern and eastern escarpment, and bitterly cold weather has invaded most of the country. There has even been some early rainfalls, much to the relief of our farmers that have been experiencing a drought for some time. August was a sad month for three of the members of Close Encounters (siblings Michael, Alan and Janice Leicester), due to the sudden and unexpected passing of their mother, Helena. Her death was not coronavirus related - she had a stroke ... Continue reading |
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Latest News - August 2020
Wow! We are now almost two thirds through 2020, a year which, so far, has been both strange and surreal. When we were celebrating the start of the new year in January, there were not many people that could have foreseen the disaster that was about to befall us. The world has changed, is still changing, and it is unlikely that it will ever go back to being the way it was before. Most of us have had to adapt to a new lifestyle and new methods of doing business; but people are positive and resilient, and all of us are finding ways to make it work. Continue reading |
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Latest News - July 2020
July is always the coldest month of the year in this stretch of the world, and winter has arrived with a vengeance in Johannesburg. The nights are cold, with temperatures often dropping to below freezing, but the daylight hours are still fairly barmy, with no wind and plenty of sunshine. This part of the country really does have a fantastic climate! In stark contrast, the weather in the Cape Town area can be most unpleasant at this time of the year, and residents are forced to live with cold, wet and windy conditions. The Cape has received an above average rainfall so far this season, and the good news is ... Continue reading |
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Latest News - June 2020
Greetings from South Africa! It’s summer time in the USA, but icy weather has again gripped us here on this side of the world, and recent snowfalls have once more blanketed large parts of the country. We’re not complaining, mind you, but it does take a bit of extra effort to get out of bed in the morning! The Coronavirus continues to wreak havoc across the globe, and new hotspots like Brazil and Russia are currently being devastated. South Africa, just coming out of a long and very arduous ... Continue reading |
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Latest News - May 2020
Welcome to the merry month of May! Well, maybe not so merry this year. We cannot write an editorial without mentioning the coronavirus epidemic, but because we are all being bombarded with news every minute of the day (much of it confusing and contradictory), there is no point in rehashing it again here. Most of the world has been in a lockdown (some places more stringent than others) for the last month, but at least now there is some light at the end of the tunnel. In South Africa, April and May are fantastic months of the year, from a weather point of view. Right in the middle of fall (we refer to this season as “autumn”), the air temperature ranges from cool to fairly warm, there is seldom any rain, and the trees and grasses are busy metamorphosizing through a kaleidoscope of colours from green to rusty reds and browns. It is probably the best ... Continue reading |
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Latest News - April 2020
In just 31 days during the month of March, the world has been turned upside down and inside out. Who would have believed that, in such a short period, we could have gone from relative normality to a reality in which most of the worlds population has been confined to their homes under threat of arrest if they venture out, all sporting events have been cancelled, social events ... Continue reading |
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Latest News - March 2020
Greetings from South Africa! We hope that you will enjoy this 5th edition of our newsletter, which is published at the beginning of each month. If you do, please tell your friends about it, and encourage them to subscribe as well. The more the merrier! World headlines are currently being dominated by the Coronavirus epidemic (now officially designated as COVID-19). As at the time of writing, more than 86,000 people have been infected, and ... Continue reading |
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Latest News - February 2020
Greetings from South Africa! The summer break is over, and most people have reluctantly returned to their daily grind. For some, this is a hardship, and for others a joy. How does the old saying go? If you love what you do, you never have to work a day in your life. Something that applies in particular to tour guides in South Africa, methinks… February is usually the hottest month of the year, and this year is not likely to be an exception. Some of the highest temperatures ... Continue reading |
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Latest News - January 2020
Happy New Year! Close Encounters would like to wish you and your families 12 months of success, 52 weeks of laughter, 366 days of fun, 8,784 hours of joy, 527,040 minutes of good luck and 31,622,400 seconds of happiness! South Africa is right now slap-bang in the middle of the peak summer vacation period, and many South Africans are currently enjoying a well-earned beach break somewhere along the coast. Others escape to the mountains to avoid the heat and humidity ... Continue reading |