Sunday 9 January 2022, Day 101 of Level 1 😷

Corona Lockdown Gratitude 🙏

#grateful for a much cooler day at 24C, the rain still not having arrived, and fewer picnickers and hence less litter; for the City of Cape Town trying to catch up on litter cleaning today which they didn’t do overnight as they have done before, even running out of garbage bags, I discovered when I did a ‘litter inspection’ in Camps Bay and Bakoven, getting me close to my goal steps by lunchtime already; for good ideas of how to beat the litter problem in Camps Bay from a Community What’s App Group, after receiving reports about how much Litter was in the ocean and on the beach 😱 🙏; for a peaceful rest of the day at home, trying to sleep but the lift kept going up and down 😱😱😱; for writing two blogposts for this coming week; for continuing my fast on Day 3; and for being happy, healthy and free 🙏💙

I spoke to the Camps Bay /Hout Bay Law Enforcement Head Craig Corwell at the Tidal Pool, telling me that he has not seen such a crazy beach day in his 32 years of working for the City of Cape Town. It was manic all over Cape Town, about 5000 persons queuing at the Sea Point Pool from early, only 1200 allowed in, so people jumped over the walls to get inside. He says there were a number of drownings across the Peninsula. Last night people were swimming in our Tidal Pool till late, in the dark, with torches 😱🥲.

Three cars of Law Enforcement officers were at Camps Bay, sitting in the vehicles and on their phones! I asked one why they don’t fine litterers, and I was told that ‘they’ were cleaning up, so why should they, the ‘they’ being Council staff! 😡

I was shocked to hear that the Head of the City’s Camps Bay Morning Cleaning Shift is on leave, until 24 January. Not a surprise that there was such Bin Clearing and Beach Cleaning chaos yesterday going into today. 😱😱😱😱😱

There was a stage today that I had enough of the L-word and seeing it everywhere, soiled nappies the absolute worst, just thrown over the fence, feeling nauseous all over 😡. I cleared up the pavement from my home up to Pick n Pay, litter left by persons who parked there yesterday.

One local messaged me to share that there was litter floating in Barley Bay. I had to hold back on messaging her that I would despatch my Aquatic Cleaning Team 😱.

I feel overwhelmed by the Tsunami of Litter in Camps Bay, feeling beyond my capacity 🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲

SA Corona Status: 3,526,054 cases 92252 deaths 28,329,788 vaccinations

FitBit 8000 steps 6 km 👣

LovemylifeandloveGaryslife 💙❤️

The Corona Virus Lockdown (Level 5), announced by our President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier to commence on 27 March 2020 and to continue until 16 April, subsequently extended to 30 April, lowered to Level 4 from 1 May, lowered to Level 3 from 1 June, lowered to Level 2 from 18 August, lowered to Level 1 from 21 September, and moved back to Adjusted Level 3 from 29 December,  extended to 15 February on 11 January 2021, extended but relaxed on 1 February, and relaxed back to Level 1 on 1 March 2021, moved back to Adjusted Level 2 on 31 May, moved back to level 3 on 16 June, and moved back to Adjusted Level 4 on 28 June, extended by two weeks on 11 July,  returned to Level 3 on 26 July, returned to Level 2 on 13 September, returned to Level 1 on 1 October,  and the Curfew Curfew lifted on 30 December 2021 is an unprecedented event in my lifetime. I am posting my daily Facebook post to journal this Corona Lockdown Journey, perhaps to serve as material for a future Book.

Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.whaletalesblog.com www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein, My Cape Town Guide/Mein Kapstadt Guide Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein @MyCapeTownGuide