When we moved to Knysna just over a year ago, we found a lot of differences between Jo’burg and our new home town.

The weather is very different to that in Johannesburg (which is amongst the best in the world). It can be very cold in summer and 29 degrees in the middle of winter.

Then there’s the fantastic scenery from the Outeniqua mountains inland to the rugged and beautiful coastline.

Because of the weather, there are always flowers in bloom, summer and winter.

There are so many hiking trails that I doubt we’ll get anywhere near trying them all.

But the one big plus that we did not expect was the air quality. There’s an app called AirVisual that gives you the current level of polution anywhere in the world. It’s on a scale of 0 (zero pollution) to 500 (you’ll all be dead).

Knysna runs from zero to about 15. Jo’burg typically runs from 50 to 150. On some days, it is the most polluted city in the world.

Here are both of them on a good day.

You want to see Jo’burg on a bad day?

Ouch!

Oddly enough, Helen still suffers from sinusitis, which we always thought was due to the pollution. Now we know that’s not the case.