I take great delight in wacky and quirky road signs and murals. Roadside semiotics is one of the great joys of travel. Like when I’m deep in rural Limpopo, for example, and encounter the sign for a tombstone business that advertises Free Erections. Or when I am on a remote island in Lake Malawi and I see the Honolulu Bottle Store. It’s not just about the signs themselves, it’s about the time and the place too. Here are some of my recent favourites:
Swazi
gold I'm cruising down the King's Highway from Mbabane to Ezulwini in Swaziland, destination the delicious Afro-Gaudi-esque House on Fire. I stop for a tequila in a dodgy bar - as one does - and I am rewarded shortly afterwards by this gem outside the official Swazi parliamentary buildings. www.house-on-fire.com
Complete Somebody I feel a strange sadness when I pass this sign near
the University of Limpopo on the R71 between Polokwane and Tzaneen in Limpopo
province. The name apparently comes from the days of Forced Removals under
apartheid when the victims who were re-settled here called their barren new wasteland
Nobody. Does anyone know more about the story of this name, I wonder?
Which way?
“Do you think
all roads out here lead to Vhutuwangadzebu?” I ask my traveling friend. “Or is
it a circular drive?" “When you
see a fork in the road,” he says, “take it”. So being from the
Robert Frost School of Roads Less Traveled By (read his famous poem The Road
Not Taken) I turn right to Vhutuwangazebu, and as Frost himself would have
said, that has made all the difference. Can you spot the difference? www.golimpopo.com
A clear message There’s no real subtlety to this mural on the road near Makhado in
northern Limpopo but there’s no mistaking the clarity of the message. I love
the fact that it’s on someone’s house. I
have to stop and shoot it, but being a fair-weather vegetarian I don’t knock on
the door to find out more. Poor Piggy and Chicken.
The search for happiness ends here How can one not feel instant joy at the sight of
the Happy Cigarettes Shop & Hair Cut Salon? For some reason we are in
Mpumalanga’s grasslands and wetlands region and we stop for whisky and gwaai in Ermelo. Later there’s a big,
wild storm and we are happy to be indoors with our happy cigarettes and happy
whisky too.
Dreamy lion I have an inordinate fondness for hand painted murals and I fall
instantly in love with Dreamy Lion. We are at a bar called Boa Vista which is on the edge of Manica, an edgy, restless market town in western Mozambique. We drink cold
Dosh-Em, the local beer, and gaze happily down on the Incomati River snaking its
way through the flatlands beyond. www.mozambiquetourism.co.za
What’s in a name I leave Tzaneen, in Mopani district, for Elim in Vhembe district. I take
the R36, then the R81 to Giyani, and then on a whim I decide to go via Lemondokop which will lead me to the R578 which is were I want to be led. I am somewhere
in between Sephukhubje and Ximausa and am thrilled to find the Dotcom Hair
Salon. It’s washing day here, and it’s also down the road from the Jealous Supermarket.
Shoot me I just love
this mural for a photographic studio in rural southern Mocambique. To be honest
I’m not really sure where we are – just barreling along some lonesome dust road
between Bilene and the next cold beer... www.mozambiquetourism.co.za
Terra da boa gente The Mozambicans have their own wonderful style of
murals, with a seventies feel and interesting colour. I really like this guy and his wine bottles. We are at a little restaurant in the shade in Maracuene for the annual Gweza Muthini festival, it’s only 9 in the
morning and already 42 degrees.
