Lessons learned from driving some Cape mountains and passes

Sally and I recently travelled to the Garden Route for a short while in order for us to enjoy some of the wonders that are available there. In the process of traveling about 3100km from Cape Town to Jeffreys Bay and Cape St. Francis and then back to Cape Town, we traveled on about 60 mountain passes (detailed below if you want to read them all), and saw many impressive mountain ranges.

21 August: Original Du Toits Kloof Pass, [Goreeshoogte, Malherbeshoogte], Remhoogte Pass, Bakoondshoogte Pass, Leeuriviershoogte Pass to get onto the N2 at Swellendam to reach Vleesbaai and then Riversdale.

23: Goukou Pass (N2), Soetmelksrivier Pass (N2), Gouritz River Pass (N2), [we did not go on the Mossel Bay Pass this trip although we have often travelled on it], Southern Cross Pass (N2), Hoogte Pass (N2), Maalgate River Pass (N2) to get to George Airport.

24: Gwaing River Pass (N2), Kaaimans River Pass (N2), Heights Road, Silver River Pass (7 Passes Road), Kaaimansgat Pass (7 Passes Road), Swartrivier Pass (7 Passes Road) back to George Airport.

25: Victoria Bay Pass, Gwaing River Pass (N2) again, Groot Brak Hoogte (R102)

26: Outeniqua Pass, Beveraas Kloof Pass, Perdeskoen Draai Pass to get to Oudtshoorn.

27: Brakpoort Pass, Attakwaskloofpas, Robinson Pass, Brandwaghoogte, Groot Brak Hoogte to go Oudtshoorn to Mossel Bay and George and Montagu Pass (gravel), Paardepoort (P1646 (gravel)) back to Oudtshoorn.

28: Schoemanspoort Pass, Swartberg Pass (gravel), Witkranspoort (R407) to reach Prince Albert.

29: Kredouw Pass, Meiringspoort, Rooikranspoort (R341) Uniondale Heights, Uniondale Poort, Prince Alfred Pass (gravel) to Knysna.

30: Brenton Pass in Knysna vicinity.

31: Keyters Nek, Phantom Pass (7 Passes Road) in Knysna vicinity.

1 September: Plettenberg Bay (missed Plettenberg Bay pass), Sedgefield Mountain Road.

2: Keurboomsrivier Hoogte, Stormsriver Pass to Jeffreys Bay.

3: Cape St. Francis.

4: Stormsriver Pass, Grootrivier Pass (R102), Keurboomsrivier Hoogte (N2), Keytersnek Pass (N2), Goukamma Pass (N2), Swartvleihoogte (N2), Kaaimans River Pass (N2), Gwaing River Pass (N2) , Maalgate River Pass (N2), Hoogte Pass (N2), Southern Cross Pass (N2), to Mossel Bay

5: Gouritz River Pass (N2), Soetmelksrivier Pass (N2), Goukou Pass (N2), Houw Hoek Pass (N2), Coles Pass (N2), Sir Lowry’s Pass (N2) to home

What might be of interest to you as parents, teachers, or friends is the slow process of making mountains... To take the Swartberg Mountains as an example, they are sandstone made up chiefly of sand-sized particles with some smaller cementing particles that sedimented below water some thousands of years ago, then after time, and chemical interacting processes doing their work, this extensive series of rocks of hundreds of kilometers long and tens of kilometers wide, and about 8 km thick was lifted from the floor of a rift valley to being above the surrounding landscape and massive portions of the rock were folded (hence the name Cape Fold Mountains) forming an impressive barrier to travellers wanting to get from one valley to another. 

A panoramic view at the high point of the Swartbergpas.

Just as the rocks were formed by individual grains of sand or other sediment, then took some time to settle, then experiencing serious upheaval, so our life experiences are established one small experience, one converting incident, one trial, one insight, one peaceful moment, one difficulty, one challenge, one any individual process at a time. Eventually we stand firm so that others might be impressed to sing as my mind did 'Firm as the mountains around us' as we drove through these stalwart and brave mountains to reach the Karoo town of Prince Albert.

It is amazing to see the folds in Table Mountain Sandstone.

It is fascinating to see the track that is made on the slope of the mountain, with many hairpin bends and supports built to make it possible to travel over the mountains.

We need to help those that we teach or influence to have these small experiences that will build their testimonies and enable them to cope with the challenges, upheavals, folds, choices, temptations that will work at crumbling them. But, with the support of the Holy Ghost they can stand firm, strong, bold and choose the good when presented with a choice between good and evil. Daily studying and pondering and praying about what they are learning, and upheavals to 'lift them above the waters' is important in becoming that solid rock that will form their testimony.

Another important lesson is that someone came along and saw those terrible barriers and they charted a course, and established a mountain pass that would enable themselves and thousands of other travelers to pass over the barriers. We, as the seed of Abraham, have a challenge to be those innovators, those engineers that see opportunities and not just challenges. Our challenge as the seed of Abraham, and as the seed of Isaac, is to be a blessing to the nations - bringing temporal blessings as we overcome temporal challenges and pave the way for thousands to follow us over those barriers.

But there is more - the wonderful biodiversity, the beauty that we saw with thousands of species of flowers, birds, insects, reptiles, mammals, fungi, lichens, amphibians and other kinds of organisms as they work together to form a wondrous web of life. I made the following observation in my scripture study notes about a year ago as I pondered verses 13 and 14 in 2 Nephi 30:

2 Nephi 30 2 Nephi 30

'Plants are able to produce food through the process of photosynthesis. Animals depend on what the plants did, being consumers. In the web of life each producer and consumer will become decomposed and will provide food for some other consumer, but only plants are able to produce something from 'nothing'. With light, carbon dioxide, and water, they produce oxygen and carbohydrates, fats and proteins, all of which we need.

Naturally, the Lion depends on animals as their food, requiring many more hectares per Lion than the hectares required per secondary consumer buck or prey.

We are now dependent on death to balance birth so that populations do not increase. If there is no death, aging, decay, then what input would we require in terms of food or sustenance? Would we require oxygen, water, protein, fats, carbohydrate, etc?

I love the details of the web of life, so wonderfully laid out by our loving creator.'

May the Lord bless you as you help others to build a strong mountainous testimony, 'Firm as the mountains around us'.

Remember what you know before just believing what others tell you ...

I was given a lot to think about when my brother Tim posted something on Facebook on 12 Nov 2018.

 

I see the image may not display because it contained text. It was the great pyramid with its geographical coordinates. I am trying again, this time with a cropped picture as well...

It gives:
Speed of light: 299 792 458 m/2
Coordinates of the Great Pyramid of Giza 29.9792458°N
COINCIDENCE?
His comment was 'Not in billions of years is this by chance........'

I posted the comment:

That depends... The pyramid spans about 29.97817°N to 29.98019°N, One of about 20200 points with 7 decimal place, each about 7 mm apart, along the approximately 150 m stretch from the northern to southern edges of the pyramid is indeed 29.9792458°N. That point is about 10758 out of about 20200, so reasonably close to the middle of the pyramid. It is TRULY REMARKABLE, but you have to have real faith in the precision of the surveyors of about 4578 years ago to think that they calculated the speed of light and plonked the pyramid on the ground at precisely that point to match that great number :-). This requires just about the same amount of faith as those have who believe that the millions of species in the world are the result of natural selection and the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life rather than the work of an intelligent God :-). But thanks for giving me something to think about :-)

I thought a lot about that.

The pyramid was built around 2580 to 2560 BC.

The speed of light was first considered about 1676 AD, and postulated by Albert Einstein in 1905 AD.

One has to ask why it was decided that a circle can be divided into 360 degrees, and that the Earth must span from 90°S to 90°N rather than any other number of degrees.

Then - the second is based on 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day - instead of some other numbers for seconds, minutes and hours.

The length of a metre is defined based on the length of a path traveled by light in a vacuum - instead of some other number like foot or yard or mile or something else.

These decisions and postulations put the pyramid close to 29.97817°N.

When I teach the process of georeferencing, or assigning geographical coordinates to record where museum or herbarium specimens were collected, I teach that one should not use more than 5 decimal places, nor less, because 5 decimal places puts one appropriately within 1 metre of the determined place, and using more decimal places adds false precision. So, I would have georeferenced a specimen of a bird or lizard with 'the Great Pyramid of Giza' as its location at about 31.13425°N, 29.97925°E, with a confidence of about 150 m representing the radius of a circle surrounding and including all four corners of the pyramid. If it had been a plant, then I would have given it within about 300 m or even 1000 m from the centre of the pyramid. Something like a bird or lizard can be 1000 m from the pyramid and can feasibly move onto the centre of the pyramid, whereas a plant is pretty much stuck in one place from the time of germination to its death, and is not likely to have been growing on the pyramid itself, and looking at aerial photography or satellite imagery shows the nearest visible vegetation at about 300 m from the pyramid.

My GPS is good to about 5 m - and I have benefited from that precision by locating a small plant ten days after recording its locality with my simple GPS, so I know. To get less than 1 cm precision in 2018 requires using a Differential GPS, costing many thousands of Rands or hundreds of Dollars.

What prompted the pyramid consulting engineers to place their pyramid precisely there? Perhaps an all-wise, loving, gracious and merciful God prompted them about 4600 years ago so that this picture would be posted on Facebook in November 2018 so that I would think about the question and saying to me 'It's OK, Les. I am here' :-).

Hopefully my comments will prompt you to search your thoughts and remember what you know.

So - think.... remember.... ponder.... dare I say pray?....

The Hundred - Thirteen test

I have been at a low spiritual ebb all too often. That may surprise some, but it's true. 

I find the Hundred – Thirteen test helps me.

The Hundred part is inspired by something my older brother Tim shared with me years ago when he heard I was considering being an airline pilot. He came to me while I was doing my homework one evening and discussed implications of what I was considering (the fact that I wore spectacles, my lack of knowledge of geography, being away from home a whole lot, etc.). He suggested that I list the pros and cons of each alternative in the choice. My adaptation is to take a piece of note paper and prepare three columns: one for a scripture reference; one for the question like 'Become an airline pilot', 'Pack up and move to Nelspruit', 'Move to Cape Town to marry Sally', or 'The church is true as it claims' and one for the alternative 'Not become an airline pilot', 'Stay in Cape Town and look for work here', 'Stay in my parents' home and not go to marry Sally', or 'The church is a hoax'. Then randomly and prayerfully read 100 scriptures and after each one, write the scripture reference, and put a mark or cross under the appropriate column. I have to be honest in letting the Spirit guide me in the process. Should you take this test, you can decide if 'a scripture' is one verse; one chapter; 10 minutes; reading sequentially from the beginning of the book, e.g. Genesis 1:1 or Matthew 1:1, or whatever you feel appropriate. The important thing is to read the scriptures so that Heavenly Father can communicate with you through His Word. In research, one has to do sufficient testing to be confident in drawing a conclusion – a small sample size is not defensible. One hundred is a pretty reasonable sample size in some studies. Tens of thousands can be an appropriate sample size in very large populations. With more than 31000 verses in the Bible, even 100 is a small sample size, but it is a good start.

Another analysis that may help with some tough choices is the SWAT analysis (examining Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). The object of either exercise is ‘studying it out in my mind’ (See D&C 9:8).

The Thirteen part is to write down my own personal thirteen Articles of Faith. I read each that Joseph Smith wrote, and then write down my own. This is based on my mother's conversion story and the role that a challenge issued by an Anglican minister played. You can read her story in my blog http://personaltouchworks.blogspot.co.za/

When I’ve done this, I enter my Garden of Gethsemane and pray to my Heavenly Father and listen, hopefully being prepared to submit my will to His.

I believe it was one of my fellow missionaries Mike McLean who, in Port Elizabeth in 1973, shared a comparison with mathematics and receiving answers to prayer. A teacher will teach a mathematical principle and then give homework to be solved. The student then goes and applies the method to the problem in question. He returns to the teacher with the homework and the teacher either approves of the answer, or sends the student away to try again. If the student is still unable to solve the problem, the teacher might show the working out to get the solution, and then give the student a similar problem to go and solve. This continues until the student masters the principle in question. We similarly need to apply principles to solve problems in our lives, and go to our loving Heavenly Father and ask if we have reached the correct solution? We read that He will tell us in our minds and in our hearts when we have come to the correct conclusion. He will cause that 'your bosom shall burn within you' or, as I feel it, an incredible peace and feeling of completeness and clarity with no confusion as opposed to a stupor of thought or confusion when I need to go and give more thought to the problem.

It is not a quick fix – anything worthwhile is not a quick fix – but it is wonderful to receive personal revelation through the word already revealed to prophets. Talks in General Conference and other words of latter-day prophets and apostles also provide valuable insight as I ponder them. I do a great deal of pondering! I can recall one of my first experiences of pondering when I was probably about 16 years old. I received what Andre Naude would describe as 'a light bulb switching on in his brain'. I realized ‘Of course I must have a mother in Heaven because I cannot get to the Celestial Kindgdom without being sealed to a wife, so Heavenly Father must be sealed to a wife’. Yep, I was about 16 years old at the time! I know I must have been pondering because otherwise I would surely not have received such a prompting ‘out of the blue’. I don’t for one moment think I am on a par with Saul of Tarsus who was such a ‘chosen vessel’ that an angel would be sent to me to stop me on my road to mischief and cause me to have a few days of being without sight as I became cleansed and ready for someone like Ananias to come and restore my sight. I am just an ordinary person, but I have nonetheless had the Spirit speak to me through the scriptures, especially as I have pondered them. I have often said that some of my best scripture study time has been without a book in my hands, but while I am mowing the lawn, weeding the garden, or something like that and I am pondering the scriptures as I work

Perhaps another thing to contemplate is how I reflect each year at this season how interesting it is that when the temperature is 18°C (64.4°F) I am comfortably dressed in the kind of clothing that I would be wearing only at 27°C (81°F) three months previously. But at 18°C (64.4°F) three months ago I would be wearing polar neck sweater and jacket and still feeling chilly. I reckon the difference is not so much in the temperature as it is in my body becoming tolerant of the temperature. This reminds me of the story of a frog being placed inboiling water or being slowly brought to the boil, I become tolerant of lower temperatures, and if I do not check myself, I will be all too comfortable in the lower spiritual temperatures so that I don’t keep myself spiritually warmed. It is up to me to keep myself spiritually fed and nourished so that I can be more likely to be in tune with the Spirit and notice that the ambient temperature has dropped and I am becoming accustomed to it. I love the way Dieter F.Uchtdorf said it ‘first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith’

I have often questioned my faith, sometimes doubted, but I have taken to heart the advice to write what I do believe, and to know that although I do not know everything, I do know enough to declare confidently that God does live, He is my Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ is my Messiah, and I have enough experience with the Holy Ghost to confidently promise you that you, too, can know the truth of all things by the power of the Holy Ghost if you read, ponder and pray with a sincere heart, with real intent, and having faith in Christ (see Moroni 10:3-5).

Tab top curtains - and how I made them slide more easily

After two years of battling with the tabs not moving easily on the curtain rails, I thought I would try to line them with bamboo strips. But I could not find any...

One morning I saw a box from some Jolly Jammer biscuits, and it occurred to me that each side of the box was about the same width as the tabs, that the cardboard has a varnish finish, and they might just help the tabs to slide. There was only enough for four tabs in that biscuit box, so my mind started to think laterally.

I looked at an empty cereal box. Yep, I thought that could do.

Then, after exhausting that material, I looked at an empty milk carton and I thought that might do.

Then I looked a a plastic milk bottle and thought that might do.

After trying all of these, I am inclined to think that the plastic milk bottle is probably the best option. One nice thing about it is that it is ribbed, and so the contact between it and the curtain rail is reduced more than the cardboard.

All options work, but my vote is on the plastic milk bottle.

I first simply stapled the material inside the tabs, but when I am resolved about what is the best option I'll replace the staples that are a bit reflective, but otherwise not really visible, with thread. But I am happy with the experiment! I thought I;d share it with others as they might also have the same problem that I had with the tabs not moving easily on the curtain rails.

Milk carton, inner surface inwards and outer surface inwards.

Cereal box

My vote is on the last picture - the plastic milk bottle or milk jug.