Somewhere around 2009 while I was recovering from a back operation I received a gift from my daughter Cheryl, who was by then living in Perth, Western Australia.

The gift was a copy of a book written by Harold Strachan, and entitled, Way up Way out. It was the tale of his early live, and a wonderful canvas depicting the life of a boy growing up in Pietermaritzburg during the 1930's. After I had thoroughly enjoyed reading the book, I reurned to work and lent that copy to several (male) friends, some of whom also lent it to their friends. I never saw it again, and so I bought a second copy. It suffered the same fate.

Subsequently on several occasions I have tried to acquire a third copy, but without much luck. So now when I once more wanted to get hold of a copy, I searched and found a scanned PDF copy. If you page through it, you will notice that it was once on a shelf in the Rhodes University (Grahamstown, South Africa) library. I downloaded it from, "zlibcdn". Where/what is that? Angazi / I don't know!

I now find myself in Howick, cycling the hills with some guys (and ladies), who I thought may may enjoy reading the book. It is basically a boys book written for older boys. It is also an informal account of what life for a young boy living in Pietermaritzburg during the 1930's may have been like. It also mentions what is believed to be the first flight undertaken somewhere in the hills one cycles over. when one cycles out of the Karkloof Valley vie the Khyber Pass, somewhere along that ride you will pass a monument commemorating that flight. See the link below for a Sunday Tribune article covering the unveiling of the monument.

Harold Strachan wrote another book entitled, "Make a Skyf, Man!". It is also a good read that deals with Harold's involvement in the struggle to overthrow South Africa's Apartheid Government.