It is a few minutes before midnight on a Thursday evening. Njabulo and I are hurtling down the N1 from Johannesburg to Durban. Our mission only allows us 5 hours to reach our destination or everything, this whole trip, would have been for nothing.
It started when I mentioned to Njabulo that I have always loved sunrises, much more than sunsets. Even though we all experience a new day every day; very few of us take the time to experience a sunrise. I am not talking about going to work in the morning while the sun is rising, I mean really experiencing a sunrise.
That’s what makes them so rare when compared to sunsets. You can experience a sunset simply by stopping what you are doing and looking out the window at the right time. You can add a little effort and find a good vantage point on your way home. But sunrises are different, they require some discipline and a little sacrifice.
That is what lead us to take an unscheduled trip from Johannesburg to Durban on a Thursday evening, so we can be at the beach to watch a sunrise by dawn. We drove through the night, swapping drivers frequently and carefully watching our time because nature cannot be postponed. We would miss that sunrise even if we were only 15 minutes late.
We finally reached the beach with 5 minutes to spare. We parked on the easternmost edge of the Marine Parade, stepped out into the cold crisp morning air, and let the world fade away for a moment.
Oh, what a sunrise it was.
The sun crowned as it put on it’s perfectly coloured performance of warm hues. With it came the promise of a new day punctuated only by; the rhythmic strides of early morning runners, the sounds of waves greeting the beach, and the sporadic distant honking of taxis ferrying workers to work.
We stood there for a moment, the world still faded, admiring the sheer beauty of it all, the sheer stupidity and irresponsibility of our drive, and the closeness of our friendship that let us convince ourselves to do this in the first place.
“The shops are opening soon,” I say eventually, breaking the spell that had befallen us. “Let’s go buy some breakfast and toothbrushes” I added, as we turned to leave.
The rest of the weekend was epic and the city of eThekwini is a great host. And I still chase sunrises from time to time when I need the world to fade away for a moment.
I give the act of chasing sunrises 5 stars.