Ma Balancing Act
RUNNING the World
CDP: Some recent highlights include watching the sunrise from the top of Kilimanjaro in 2014, and then going to the 20th commemoration of the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2015, where I made friends with some young locals who had lost relatives in the war, and they told me amazing stories of religious tolerance and forgiveness. Last year I travelled to Kazakhstan and visited an old Soviet nuclear test site, where I met a guy who worked as a Soviet nuclear physicist, but he“ isn’ t talking about it.”
In 2000 I travelled to Russia and stopped off at the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea. Getting around the island was above my budget, so I decided to run the 10km or so to see a staircase that Alexandr Solzhenitsyn wrote about in his book The Gulag
Archipelago, where people were apparently thrown down to be killed, but with my nonexistent Russian
I had missed the sign that said we should only drink boiled water. I made many, many pitstops in the bushes that day!
Freelance news and political journalist Carien Du Plessis has not only travelled the world while covering some of the most diverse stories, but she also finds time to stay fit and run ultra-marathons. We pinned her down for a chat while she was home for a few days in Johannesburg. – BY RACHEL PIENAAR
MA: Tell me a bit about your background. CDP: I was born in Potchefstroom in 1974, but we moved to Stellenbosch when I was 13. I eventually went on to study a BA degree at Stellenbosch University, where I also completed my Masters in Linguistics. After university, I moved to London where I did everything from secretarial jobs to copywriting and freelance journalism, and a bit of travelling. At the age of 28 I decided it was time to start saving for a pension, so I moved back to SA, where I worked as a full-time journalist for various papers as a political reporter, most recently for City Press. However, I always said by age 40 I would take a gap / travel year and I have been travelling and freelancing since May 2015. My dream has always been to become a travelling writer of international fame, and I feel I’ m finally getting a bit closer to that!
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MA: You are known as an outspoken political journalist. Where did the passion for politics come from?
CDP: I grew up in a politically turbulent time in the country and am lucky to have parents who are highly politically aware and raised me with the idea that all humans are equal. Back then such beliefs were quite‘ subversive.’ My dad was one of the academics who went to speak to the ANC in exile in 1987, and we moved to Stellenbosch soon after – back then Stellenbosch had a strong activist community and I started attending political meetings and marches.
MA: Tell us some of the highlights of your travels.
MA: When did the running bug bite you?
CDP: I’ ve been running races since I was five, and a few years later I started training with my dad, running 2 to 3km in the mornings – I’ m an early riser, but had strict orders not to wake him up while it was still dark, so I’ d read the morning paper until it was time to wake him. He did one marathon and decided it wasn’ t for him, but our cross country coach was a regular Comrades runner, and I always assumed I’ d do it too, one day. In 1999 I read The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux and decided my life was boring, so I started training for my first marathon in Paris( 2000). Then in 2009 I attended a party in Durban on the same day as the Comrades, and decided it would be me the next year, so I started training the moment I recovered from the hangover, and went on to do five Comrades in a row without really meaning to.
MA: Do you often go running when travelling in order to explore?
CDP: Yes, when I pack my bags for a trip I always pack my running kit first, which means once or twice I’ ve completely forgotten to pack clothes to sleep in … Running is the best way to explore and get to know both the soul of a place and the locals, like joining the scores of people training at the central square of Addis
Images: Courtesy Carien Du Plessis