Traditionally the first week of May sees Myrtle and I at the Afrika Burn Festival in the Tankwa Karoo, close to the middle of nowhere. This year we changed our plans. We’ve watched the Cape Town GCM go from strength to strength and we thought it a good idea to visit the Mother City to support the event. It’s a year since we were in Cape Town for our 2013 road trip which was hard to believe and in that time we’ve forged a lot of Cape relationships at individual and company level.  There’s a lot of plant users in Cape Town for sure. As our visit progressed we put faces to all the online names we know. The Green Network has germinated and there are runners sprouting everywhere as more and more like-minded people hook up with each other.

The organisers were delighted to welcome Dr Mario Ambrosini MP who spoke to the crowd gathered prior to the march. It is gratifying to know we have a sympathetic voice in the halls of Parliament. The crowd responded warmly to Dr Ambrosini’s call for medical cannabis research in South Africa, spearheaded by his ‘Cancer Treatment Campaign’ initiative.The red gold and green was prevalent as the march headed into the CBD. It was quite a sight and really turned people’s heads as it progressed. Echos of ‘THC ‘THC’ reverberated down the three story buildings of Long St.

What a great way to see Cape Town. There was welcome shade in Company Gardens and the pace slowed. It gave us time to catch up with supporters who’d made themselves known. So much positivity and a constructive thought on the subject of prohibition and legalisation. Saw some old friends in the crowd too, Rastafari from the Eastern Cape who had travelled with their families to be there. The chilled atmosphere of any Cannabis gathering is a reassuring place to be. It restores our faith in human nature that people who are widely condemned as a group can show the world how vibrant and cosmopolitan we are, Irie is another way of putting it. Thank you to the SA National Cannabis working Group for all your hard work in getting the relevant permissions for so many enemies of the state to gather together. We know the bureaucracy intimately, the red tape and hoop jumping that goes into planning such a large public gathering. Estimates of 4000+ have been mentioned. It’s probably not far off the mark. Either way, the popularity of the event has more than doubled from last year. Excellent news. It’s not exactly Buenos Aires with 150,000 stoners on the streets quite yet, but more and more South Africans are finding their voices in support of their favourite herb and their Human Right to ingest it. Cape Town will need a longer street next year….

See the slideshow below: