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My PICPMB Blog
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I now have less than three weeks to get myself ready to ride the Tour Durban and continue to cruise up and down the hills in the North Western suburbs of Pietermaritzburg. This time I will not be recording the route, I will simply take some photographs with my Nokia Pureview 808 phone during the ride. I will of course provide some commentary regarding what I see along the route, and with respect to aspects relating to the photographs I will have taken.
The ride up Non Such Road, and then through Queen Elizabeth Park affords as always, a chance to get away from suburbia for a while. It is unfortunate that the Non Such Road section remains so heavily overgrown by rampant alien flora. I do not think I will ever not notice it. As I approached the highest point of my ride along Link Road, I noticed that the recently (less than two weeks ago) installed overhead Telkom telephone cable, has been stolen for the second time in the past two weeks. As I mulled over this hugely unfortunate 'State of the Nation', I also noticed that I had ridden past a Telkom vehicle parked on the side of the road. I immediately doubled back to chat to the Telkom officials. It would seem that Telkom will not be replacing the overhead cable, a situation that I would think has now been repeated in South Africa hundreds, if not thousands of times.
After that it was along Old Howick Road and downhill (for me that is, not South Africa). When I reached the Dorp Spruit, I turned around to start the cycle back up to Link Road. It is of course not all doom and gloom. As I cycled (slowly) up Old Howick Road, I passed several light poles that were being repaired. The work on the new replacement transformer that had been installed in that vicinity, had also been completed.
From Link Road I proceeded along Peter Brown to Montgomery, and then up Town Bush Road to Park View. These days Town Bush Road has become a major thoroughfare as a result of the development at the top of Town Bush Road, the revamp of the Cascades Shopping Center, the establishment of a Virgin Active Gymnasium, and the continued increase in office space as a result of new developments. Perhaps it is defeatist to say that there is much that will depress anyone who drives along Town Bush Road. If one is travelling on a bicycle, one can hardly miss it. If you are walking, there are also life threatening situations that are far more present dangers, than those faced by cyclists and motorists.
The first issue I would like to raise in this regard, would be that of the large and incomplete advertising tower on the corner of Montgomery Drive and Town Bush Road. It remains incomplete, presumably because of objections to its erection made by residents from the area. It of course does not help that there are in fact two of them, with the other situated close to the T-junction formed by Town Bush Road and Mc Carthy Drive. However, is it now perhaps not unfair to not allow the work to be completed, and for advertising to be placed there. I say this because these structures are hardly less sightly than the sequences of large advertising posters that have recently been placed of street light poles along Town Bush Road and other roads. The same is tur for the myriad minor advertising boards that are placed anywhere and everywhere, some of which seriously interfere with pedestrian access to the pavements, where pavements do exist along Town Bush Road.
It is of course not all doom and gloom, work is been done to tidy up Town Bush Road, more work than has been done for YEARS. This may well be related to the PMB Renewal Project to prepare PMB for the 175th year celebrations. Some of this work is also been done rather well. Sand removed from the gutters is being thrown beyond the sidewalk, rather than on the sidewalk. It would also help if the black plastic bags containing the rubbish being collected, is not placed in the middle of the sidewalk. As I have already mentioned, the life of a pedestrian in PMB is not an easy one, If you are not dodging falle trees and bags of rubbish, then you are falling into uncovered drains.
Finally I reached the T-junction of Mc Carthy Drive and Town Bush Road. There I was nearly knocked off my bicycle, but not by a motorist, rather by what I saw. There was a truck supporting a Cherry Picker bucket which contained someone who was cutting branches off the very large trees that had grown over the road. There I also spotted to two Traffic Officers directing the traffic such that motorists were not endangered by the falling branches. This was indeed wonderful. Unfortunately it was spoiled for me when I rode past the spot again in the afternoon and saw that the branches had been dumped on the sidewalk, dumped there so badly that some even extended into the road! Ag Shame! Eish! Hau.
 01lightpole *
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 02lightpole
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 03bigsignboard *
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 04wellposted *
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 05metaltheft *
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 06hopespringseternal *
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 07neatjob *
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 08statevet *
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 09bagandsign
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 10posted
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 11bigsign
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 12eish *
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 13donebutnotdusted
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 14taxitrumped *
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