It's the solstice, the change from a temperate season to an extreme season. In the northern hemisphere they are hoping for summer, while down here at the tip of Africa we know it's winter. And yet our winter is not extreme, as there is no further landmass between us and the Antarctic for us to live on. If you look at a map of the world you will notice that Africa, despite being the 2nd largest continent (no, it's not a country although the rest of the world seems to think so), it is packed fairly compactly into the temperate zones of the planet. Perhaps this is why desertification is so rife as we go through another cycle of global warming - after all, it has all happened before, although no one seems to have been here to record it or even perhaps survive it.
Our situation at the foot of Africa means we don't experience the terribly short, dark days of a winter in the lower-numbered latitudes such as Europe and Patagonia, but we lose out on those wonderful warm, late nights of summer in those regions, where outdoor activities carry on till 9pm or later. I just loved experiencing the long evenings in Paris last year.
Life is made up of contrasts - hot/cold, windy/still, dry/wet - and without these opposites, we wouldn't appreciate either. I wonder if those who live on the Equator ever long for a shorter night or day and a greater variation in temperature - talking about sea level here! I know that by the end of summer I am looking forward to autumn and winter always turns my thoughts to never far off spring.
I reckon the long days of summer are sent as a reward for the bleak winters of Europe, and that the British Empire was a long-term plan to get away from that soggy little island!
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