It was now the latter part of November, and it was snow time was on the Palouse Hills. Vortex opening would be on hold until February, when the weather would become milder again. Georg Ritschl, who has done so much for Africa, had several years earlier invited me to visit his family in Johannesburg. It came to me that it was about time to take up his offer.
          So in mid-February I set out for South Africa. I had to change planes in Amsterdam, and the Amsterdam-Johannesburg flight passed over France and the Mediterranean.
          I observed that that the European sheng canopy , which had been in the shape of a three petaled flower a half year earlier, now extended as far as Nice on the coast.
          Over North Africa the high qi of the sky was more negative than it had been in Europe before advent of the sheng canopy , but less negative than that of Japan had been.

          Georg picked me up at the Joburg airport, and we began work the next day. For about five days, he drove me about the greater Johannesburg-Pretoria area and suburbs, opening latent vortices, and near the end of that period a sheng canopy appeared over the region.

          Now we began to travel a bit further away from town, and it was at this time that we visited the most interesting vortex of the trip. Georg knew the owner of a rock and gem store northwest of the city, and he stopped to see what the man had on hand.
          The owner told us a story about some Peruvian shamans, who had a school in Capetown. They brought their students from time to time up to the vortex in the area, because of the strong qi there. They had told him that it was even stronger than anything they had seen back in Peru. They had described to him where the vortex was located, and he drew a map for us.

          We found what we thought was the place: a natural amphitheater on a mountain in the Magaliesberg range. There was already a swirl of qi around the amphitheater (clockwise looking down at it), but beneath the ground there was a feeling that was not entirely good. While we sat resting from our climb, a sheng being appeared and directed me to place TBs in appropriate places on the site. Georg remarked on the immediate increase of "energy" directly afterwards.
          There was, however, still quite a bunch of sha beings about. A second sheng being came to assist with their removal.
          Typically, when a latent vortex is stimulated with TBs , a swirl of sheng qi rises into the air spiraling up. With this vortex, sheng qi poured from the sky above directly into the ground near the center of the amphitheater--not spiraling. The shape of the space in which the sheng qi was pouring down, was conical, but the sides were considerably steeper than those of the cone of the up-spiraling sha qi of a normal open vortex.
          Eventually it was time to leave, but we intended to return again, sometime before I left Africa.

          The extent of the sheng canopy was now such that we had to plan for a trip farther away from home. Three years before, Georg had been up to Zimbabwe, and his stories of the area had excited my imagination. We decided to take a circle route: west to the southern boundary of Botswana, north through Botswana into Zimbabwe, east across Zimbabwe, and south again past Pretoria and back to Johannesburg. It would take ten days or so, and we bought provisions for the trip, including corn meal for trade and gifts, and fuel cans for carrying extra diesel. Georg’s pickup truck used this type of fuel, and he knew that in these days, diesel was likely to be unavailable in Zimbabwe. The latent vortices visited on this trip were too numerous to describe here, and I will only mention the more interesting ones.

          Not too far west from Joburg, we found a latent vortex situated on a high hill in the bush, on private property. Georg stopped the truck just off the road. I had just climbed over a locked gate, when the owner of the farm and his wife drove up. Fortunately the farmer and his wife were gracious, unlocked the gate so Georg could drive Tata II (Georg’s pickup) onto the property, and closer to the hill. He left the key to the gate with us, requesting that we lock the gate when we left later. We parked in some woods near a kraal, and after opening the latent vortex, ate lunch there. This was somehow characteristic of the trip to come, in the kind treatment we were to receive throughout (with exception of our crossing into Zimbabwe).

          On this first leg of the trip, the vortices generally required more effort to reach, since the country was hilly, and vortices tend to be on hills, when such are present in the landscape. Georg however, perhaps from his many missions gifting towers, has a gift for getting his vehicle where he wants it to go, and that saved us considerable time. One of the high points, from my point of view, was meeting with a Kudu in the bush, on our hike in to one vortex. We crossed the South Africa/Boswana border near Lobatse about dark, and passed the first night in a motel on the Botswana side.

          The people in Botswana were friendly, and seemed to be on the way up, economically. The capital Gaborone was busy and growing. Somewhat north of that city we found a latent vortex on a hill not far from the road, but the place was gated and fenced. We drove in and found workers preparing to go out to work in the fields. It was a Government farm, and strictly speaking, visitors were not allowed there; but Georg spoke with several of the workers about the vortex mission, and a couple of those who seemed to have more responsibility than the others, told him that we could climb up the hill. It turned out that the latent vortex was not far up the hill, and upon return, a number of those still at the farm’s living quarters, came out, curious to see the two white visitors. Georg explained about what the TBs do, gave one of the men a TB , and soon most of them wanted them. We had not enough for everyone, but he gave out quite a few.

          In general we made good time through Botswana. The terrain was somewhat more level than it had been in South Africa, and it was often possible to find vortices not too far from the highway. And when we had to leave the main road, there was frequently a farm road with an unlocked gate.

          The last vortex we gifted one evening was out in the bush, but there was a nice open flat space, and we decided to exploit the good weather, and camp out. It had been raining off and on since my arrival, and only that day had the weather been really fine. Georg cooked us a good dinner over his cook stove, and set up the tent. I tried to start a fire, but the wood was too wet, so Georg poured on a little diesel, and we enjoyed a campfire into the evening. Just before bedtime, the wind came up a bit, and a thunder and lightning storm blew up off to the south, where the opened vortices were strung out. After enjoying the spectacle for an hour or so, we jumped into our sleeping bags. I, at least, fell asleep immediately. Sometime later I was awakened by the tent flapping, and the sound of heavy rain drops. Gradually it turned into a downpour, and by morning, water was under and in the tent, and in the sleeping bags.
          The dirt road outside was a mess, we high-centered and got stuck on the way out, and Georg had to walk to the highway for help. Fortunately, he found a couple in a 4x4 truck who came to try to pull us out. But the 4x4 almost got stuck as well. After an amount of digging (with only a trowel), and various other unsuccessful muddy expedients, more people showed up with a regular shovel. About five huskies (including Georg) lifted the left rear quarter of the pickup off the ground so that tree branches could be thrown under the wheel. Eventually we got out and back to the road. The rest of the day it rained, but we managed to get several latent vortices opened (though in one cornfield I had to wade in up to my knees). The conclusion of the day was a three hour border crossing into Zimbabwe. The Botswana side was no problem, but the Zimbabwe side was bad. One of the problems was the currency. Inflation had been so severe that Georg had to pay 482,000 Zimbabwe dollars just to purchase obligatory highway insurance. And the exchange did not even issue actual currency -- just checks for the currency, checks which had already expired formally at the end of 2005. This inflation was to increase in later years, and by spring of 2008 (when I am updating this chapter), the number of Zim dollars for this insurance would have been about 5,000,000.
          Not far from the border we found a motel where we could stay the night, and try to dry a few clothes.

          In the morning we drove into the city of Bulawayo, to make a few purchases, and then we headed into the Matopos Hills, which Cecil Rhodes had liked so much that he had had his remains buried there. It was drizzling as Georg drove into the hills. The first lengthy stop was the huge rock formation which contains the graves of Rhodes and his henchman Leander Starr Jameson.
          Several years before, Georg had made friends with a noted Matebele rainmaker in the area, and we had with us in the pickup a CB which was intended as a gift for him. Luckily, one of the attendants at the grave-rock knew the man. He told us that he had died sometime back, but agreed to take us to where his widow lived, later in the afternoon when he got off work.
          The rain and wind had turned stormy, and the guide-gatekeepers were more than willing to let Georg and myself climb up to the graves unattended, and indeed we had the place to ourselves. Georg had gifted the place when he had visited before with TBs , but this time, with no observers, we were able to secrete an HHg quite close to the grave.
          I noticed that there were two lines of qi in the ground, crossing over the rock. One, a sheng line , passed close by Jameson’s grave. The other, a sha line , came from a sort of valley in the distance, but crossed the first some twenty meters or so from Rhodes’ grave.
          I also observed that there was a latent vortex not too far away in the hills.

          After descending the grave rock, we found an inconspicuous place on the sha line where there was sufficient soil to bury a ring to 6 TBs and so change the character of the line to positive .

          After getting permission from the caretakers to roam about the hills, we headed off in the direction of the latent vortex. We found it on the top of a hill some distance away. The top of the hill was ringed by a circle of rocks, which made it look like a fortification, or a ceremonial place. And indeed after opening the vortex, we were visited by a high-level sheng being, who assisted in doing some cleaning of the place.

          Afterwards we slogged back to the pickup through the high wet vegetation. Georg decided he should go see about getting us a room for the night at the nearby Motopos Hills Lodge, since there was no other reasonable place available for many miles. I decided not to go with him, but to go back up to the grave site to see if our ministrations had effected any change. Sure enough, the sha line was now a sheng line .
          When I arrived back at the caretakers’ shelter, I found it unoccupied. While waiting for Georg to return, I noticed that there was a collection of photographs showing Cecil Rhodes at various times in his life, and photographs of Jameson, and of Alfred Beit. I walked over and inspected them with considerable attention. The photos of Rhodes as a child, and even as a young man, show a hard, determined person, who feels some inner pain. In the photos of the mature and older man, the determination has changed to ferocity, and the pain had intensified.

          In the late afternoon, after Georg and our guide had returned, we drove off into the countryside, to the abode of the rainmaker’s widow. The road ran over the a dam and, because of the recent unusually heavy rains, the reservoir behind the dam was overfull -- several inches of water were flowing over the road and down the dam face. I was glad it was Georg at the wheel instead of myself (especially later, on the return trip in the dark).
          The woman was pleased to see us, but did not speak English, and the guide had to interpret. She invited us into her house, a 6-sided 1-room building of mud and poles, with a thatched roof. In the center was a circle of stones for the fire. She took out some reddish powder and burned some of it, invoking several non-material beings into the building above us. She spoke aloud to them, but I did not understand what she was saying. There seemed to be no hole in the roof for the smoke to escape, and so the air became thick and hard to breathe -- I understand this keeps the mosquitoes out however.
          Later we took the CB out to the edge of the cornfield where the rainmaker’s corpse was interred, and set it up. A number of the neighbors joined us, and the CB was ceremonially dedicated to the deceased. There were non-material beings also present during this time.
          When we left, Georg gave the lady the greater part of the corn meal we had brought with us. She was very thankful. She said that she had had nothing to eat but field corn for about a month, and that with the corn meal they could have a real dinner that night. We found this to be characteristic of Zimbabwe at the time. People could not afford to buy food, and many of the males with which we spoke asked us if we knew where they could find jobs in South Africa.
          It was nearly dark by then, and so we drove back to spend the night in the bungalow Georg had rented. There was water leaking in from outside onto the floors, and there was no cold running water, since the pipes leading from the dam had broken. But the electricity was working and so our wet clothes could be at least partly dried by a small electric heater in the place. Next day was the one day spent sightseeing on the trip, visiting cave paintings, a museum, and places of etheric interest. After another night without running water, we packed up and headed east.

          Several years earlier Georg had given a CB to a man in rural Zimbabwe, and he was interested in driving to the man’s home to visit him and inspect the CB . Due to the muddy road, we could not drive all the way, but had to walk the last half mile or so. When we got to the place, the man was not there, and the residence seemed abandoned. But the CB was still set up, even protected by a small fence, and was working quite well.

          With all the rain, the rivers through that part of Zimbabwe had water, and Georg made sure they (as well as whatever towers had not been gifted before) got TBs .

          One of the latent vortices which we opened on our way east, was on small mountain not far from the road. Here there was no way to drive off the road, and quite a few pedestrians were using it. Since we could not afford to have anyone walk off with our cans of diesel, Georg remained in the truck while I took off into the bush toward the mountain. After a short distance, there appeared out of the bush a couple of ragged looking individuals, who approached me and asked me what I was doing. I told them I wanted to climb the mountain. One of them told me he would take me to a trail up the mountain, which he proceeded to do. When we came to it, he continued with me on up. He asked me if I were carrying a gun, to which I replied in the negative. Then he asked me why I was climbing the mountain. It took a little time, but I explained to him about opening vortices, and the sheng canopy and so forth. I don’t know how much he really understood, but by the time we reached the summit, he was convinced I was sincere, and not a threat. At this point the second man, who had been following us out of sight the entire way, appeared out of the bush. The two explained to me that they were gold miners, that gold mining was illegal, and that they had been afraid I was a government inspector. They then asked me if I knew anything about mining, and showed me some of their nuggets. I opened the vortex, and we walked back down the mountain together, and to the pickup. I gave them a TB to place in their hut, and we parted friends.

          For the rest of the day, progress was rapid and successful, and we reached the town of Masvingo by nightfall. In the morning we drove to the Great Ruins, and engaged a guide who told us about the history and former uses of these ruins. Their name "Zimbabwe" had been adopted by the Shona as the new name for their country, after they took over political control of Rhodesia. "Zi" means "great", "mbab" means "house", and "hwe" means "stone".

          There was a great stone house on top of a steep hill, the stones being granite blocks, partly hewn, and partly broken by heating and cracking. The ascent was interesting, designed so that any unwanted visitors could quite easily be disposed of, by enemies above dropping rocks, or shooting arrows. On the hill was a cave with singular acoustics, such that words spoken there could be heard down on the the plain below the hill. In that cave were two non-material beings , one quite happy and the other quite sad--the guide explained that the place had probably been used for ceremonial purposes.
          From there we climbed up to the higher part of the hill, where public dances and ceremonies had been performed in front of the kings, in times past. As I recall, the place had been used for such purposes from the 12th to the the early 16th century. There was a high concave rock, near to the king’s seat, where a strong sheng being still lingered. It reminded me of the being in the old monastery ruins on Heiligenberg in Heidelberg which Cesco and I had seen the previous summer. In both cases the sheng being appeared and inspired me to do some work. I suspect that the presence here of the the sheng being was the reason that that particular hill had been chosen for the location of the Great Zimbabwe.

          Later we came to another part of the ruins down on the plain, surrounded by a great circular wall. Georg had told me that there was something special about the place, and indeed there was a latent vortex there. By that time, the guide had developed sufficient confidence in us, that he permitted us to open it. Georg told me that he would have been surprised if there had not been a vortex there.

          It was afternoon by the time we left the ruins, and we just managed to reach the South African border by nightfall. Again there was trouble "jumping through the hoops" on the Zimbabwe side, but it was not so bad as it had been when entering the country.

          In Botswana and Zimbabwe, gates into rangeland had been mostly unlocked, and fences had been low enough to climb easily. This was not the case in South Africa. Especially difficult were the high game fences, often ten feet tall, with barbed wire and hogwire on one side, and sometimes electrified on the other. When confronted with these latter, I either looked for vortices elsewhere, or asked permission to enter. On one occasion when permission was requested, it was refused on the grounds that there was a tiger inside. We were fortunate in being given permission sufficiently often, and finding enough non-game fences, so that vortices could be opened with the necessary frequency to successfully complete the circuit.

          Riding south, I observed that the sheng canopy had already spread along our previous route north through Botswana some three hundred kilometers to the west. Turning my attention to the far south, I became aware of a large swirl of sheng qi far to the southwest. I could feel that sheng qi was dropping downward into the swirl, but rather than depleting the sheng qi above, the sheng qi seemed to be stronger there than elsewhere. Georg had a GPS device, by the aid of which, it was determined that direction of this positive swirl was quite close to that of the Magaliesberg vortex mentioned above. The closer we approached to Pretoria, the more we became convinced that it was indeed that vortex. I was able to confirm this about a week later.

          Somewhere between 150 to 200 kilometers from the Pretoria/Johannisburg area, we drove under the edge of the sheng canopy . I found it unusual that the canopy had spread so far north from the vortices originally opened, which were the source of that part of the canopy. I speculated that the special Magaliesberg vortex, visible from so far away, may have been some part of the reason.

          After entering under the canopy, it was no longer necessary to gift vortices with such frequency as before, and we reached Georg’s home not long after dark.

          Georg had fallen ill when we returned, and he felt worse the next day. He in fact was suffering throughout the remainder of my stay, and when I returned to my home, I came down apparently with the same thing. At first I suspected malaria, but later it seemed more likely it had been tick fever, for I did get quite a few tick bites ranging about through the bush. At any event, due to his illness, and the many duties which had piled up for him during our trip north, Georg decided to stay home for a few days.

          For my final trip in South Africa, I borrowed Georg’s TATA II pickup, and set off to the south, intending to extend the positive canopy parallelogram further. It now covers an area approximately 300 km by 1250 km. The corners of the parallelogram are roughly Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) in the NW, Masvingo (Zimbabwe) in the NE, Bloemfontein (South Africa) in the SE, and Kimberly (South Africa) in the SW. I say "roughly" because the canopy actually extends a bit further. Here is a map, provided by Georg, with the vortices we opened indicated by stars:

          The only time I was interrupted by authority during the trip, was by a couple of private patrolmen near the Harmony Gold Mine (owned by the Oppenheimers I believe), not far from the town of Welcom. Just before they showed up, I had opened a latent vortex_The soil there was toxic and pretty bad. I had to scrub my trowel hard the next day to clean it. When they learned I was on his way out, they lost interest and drove on.

          About a hundred kilometers south of Kuruman, I found another unusual vortex. It was almost as if a number of vortices were together, for, instead of there being several critical points in a small area, there was an extensive area throughout which the qi felt much as what the qi in a critical point usually feels. After I gifted just one place, the resultant expansion of the canopy was about 80 kilometers, occurring within the period of only one night. Later I was to find more such latent vortices: in Poland, in Ireland, in Argentina, and elsewhere.

          On the way back to Johannesburg I drove through the town of Magaliesburg, not far from where we had opened that special vortex several weeks before. It was still the case that sha qi was pouring down straight into the vortex, but rather than all of the sheng qi being sucked out of the area, paradoxically, the sky here was much more positive than normal. It had actually spread south to the town of Kuruman, before I had come upon it driving north.

          Coming back to Georg’s house after my circuit, I drove through a district of Johannesburg in which a minor riot was taking place. Strangely, many of the participants, as well as the police, seemed to be having a good time.

          It was now nearly time to return home. I looked at the tree tops to see if sheng qi had begun to enter them yet from above. In Germany in August of the preceding year, the process had begun in less than two weeks; in Japan in September/October of that year, it had begun in a similar period of time; and in Taiwan in November, it had actually begun more rapidly. But here in South Africa, after nearly three weeks, it had begun only slightly, or not at all. I have wondered if the sheng qi pouring into the Magaliesberg vortex may have had something to do with this.

          I owe Georg and his family many thanks, for providing the TBs and all they did for me during the trip.

          On the return journey, due to a missed connection, I flew directly from Amsterdam to Seattle, and passed over northeastern Canada. About the middle of Hudson’s Bay, to my surprise, I observed the edge of a sheng canopy . As the route of the plane turned southerly over the Provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the canopy receded from view. I only observed it again when entering southern British Columbia.