Sommaire pour March 2018 de go!

Cabbage? Yum! Q ELMA JANSEN from Port Elizabeth writes: I found this unusual caterpillar in our garden. Any idea what it is? A Entomologist DUNCAN MACFADYEN says: This is the larva of the cabbage tree emperor moth (Bunaea alcinoe), a large moth with a wingspan of approximately 160 mm. As the name implies, they mainly feed on cussonias (cabbage trees), but also on croton trees, bauhinias and ekebergias. They’re generally a Bushveld species as they are sensitive to severe cold. I have seen them in Pretoria, however. What went wrong? Q EVELYN JOUBERT from Hartbeespoort Dam writes: I was driving to the dam to take photos of cormorants when I saw this dead grey heron hanging in a tree. What do you think happened? A Bird expert ULRICH OBERPRIELER says:…

The flap-necked chameleon is the most commonly encountered chameleon in South Africa. You might spot one of these large, green reptiles in the bush; they’re also regularly seen crossing roads in the northern and eastern parts of the country. Unfortunately, they’re often run over. The flap-necked chameleon is one of our bigger chameleon species and can grow to 35 cm in length (measured from head to tip of tail). It’s identified by a flap on its head, the size of which depends on where the animal lives – it tends to be smaller in the southern part of its range. Finding a chameleon is exciting enough; witnessing chameleon behaviour is even better. A while ago, I was fortunate enough to watch a female laying her eggs. Mating occurs in early…

It’s late afternoon and I’m standing on a viewing platform in Mapungubwe, waiting for the sun to set over South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe. The platform – one of four – is high on a hill, above a floodplain dotted with mopane trees, acacias and several baobabs. On the other side of the floodplain is the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo rivers – the place where South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe meet. I can see a blue flag demarcating Botswana on an island in the river. A few years ago, photojournalist Scott Ramsay was standing on this very platform when a herd of more than 200 elephants appeared below and crossed the Limpopo in a long line. His photograph of the scene is timeless – as timeless as the…

JOUBERT TULLEKEN @joubert_tulleken Canon EOS 80D Canon 18 – 135 mm lens JOUBERT WRITES: My wife and I were travelling from Kathu to Cape Town and we decided to camp on Verneukpan for a night. We were the only people there and we pitched our tent in the middle of the pan. I got up at 4.40 am to set up my tripod for a sunrise photo. There’s nothing at all on the pan so I decided to include the vehicle tracks to make it interesting. I was grateful for the clouds in the sky, which added some colour. When the sky was at its pinkest (around 5.20 am, just before sunrise) I set the self-timer and stood in the frame. My shutter speed was 1/4 second, aperture f14 and…

A podcast is an audio feature that you download or stream, usually using your smartphone. It’s like radio on demand. Every second Wednesday, we’ll upload a new episode of our very own podcast, called go! Stories. The series is compiled by François Haasbroek (pictured left with his sidekick Buckley) and features our travel writers reading some of their favourite columns from the past decade. go! Stories was launched on 14 February with four episodes – if you haven’t tuned in yet, there are some episodes already waiting for you. How do you get the podcast? Access it via our Facebook page ( facebook.com/gomagazineSA ) or via the Spreaker platform ( spreaker.com ). The easiest way is to use a podcast app. Download your favourite…

This hut overlooks the A104 tar road which leads to Tarangire National Park, about 100 km south-west of Arusha, Tanzania. The photograph was taken from Wild Palm campsite, looking west as the sun set over the African Rift Valley. Affordable campsites are scarce in this area (camping inside Tarangire is very expensive), but Wild Palm is a good option for self-drive tourists – they have big trees to pitch your tent under, decent bathrooms and friendly staff. The birdlife in camp is prolific, and you might even hear a hyena at night. Wild Palm is only a 10-minute drive from the main entrance of the park – perfect for day visits.…

If you get up early in the beginning of March, you’ll notice that the “morning planets” (Jupiter, Mars and Saturn) will move into a straight line along with the red star Antares, like soldiers forming a guard of honour. From 7 – 11 March, the moon will move down the line, pausing at each planet like an officer inspecting his troops. Antares is the brightest star in Scorpio and often called the “heart of the scorpion” because of its red colour and how it’s situated inside the “body” of the constellation. The name is derived from ancient Greek and means “like Mars”. (The star and the planet are similar in colour.) Mars is currently almost as bright as Antares. They’re close together in March, giving you a good chance to…

My Ouma and Oupa farmed an incredibly flat, incredibly stony piece of red earth in the Northern Cape, near the dusty dorp of Daniëlskuil, where the Kalahari edges into the Great Karoo. They would have been called subsistence farmers today, although for them it was just a way of life, and one they had not really chosen. It was a continuation of the only path that they, and their parents and grandparents before them, had ever known. Their surname was Van der Merwe and they had six children, born between 1934 and 1952. From time to time, they also took in children from their extended family. The Great Depression, World War II, a crippling drought, the great locust epidemic of the mid-1930s… All of these took a terrible toll on…

1 Always carry a pocketknife It’s good to be prepared. If you have a pocketknife at hand, you can join in the conversation when someone like Duncan Theart gives you a bundle of bokkems and shows you how to skin them right there in the restaurant of the Laaiplek Hotel. Sulene Archer from Taaibos Farm Restaurant on Pedroskloof Guest Farm near Kamieskroon also showed us how to cook a sheep’s head. You can use your pocketknife to scrape the head clean and to cut juicy strips of meat from the lower jaw. 2 Someone was here before you It’s a privilege to see a new destination through the eyes of the people who have lived there for generations. They know which wind brings rain, which gulley is home to the…

WHERE? ATKV Buffelspoort, Rustenburg, North West HOW MUCH? R1 050 per adult for the full weekend; R500 per child under 18. Book your spot and bring your own caravan or tent at no additional accommodation rate. Included in the rate: • Snacks and wine (Friday evening) • Saturday and Sunday breakfast • Goodie bag • Entertainment • Workshops and some activities ITINERARY FRIDAY EVENING • Wine tasting/sundowners • Listen to the go! and go! Drive & Camp teams talk about their many travels. • Snacks will be served. SATURDAY The following optional activities are on offer: • Walk in the veld with a flora and fauna expert or explore the area on your bicycle. Remember to bring a camera and binoculars. • A 4x4 workshop on the best and most challenging trails in the country. • A photography workshop SATURDAY EVENING…

TOUR DETAILS Dates: 15 – 25 March 2018; 15 – 25 July 2018 Duration: 11 days, 10 nights Departure point: Letlhakane, Botswana Cost: R14 950 per person THE RATE INCLUDES • A professional tour leader and an experienced field guide • Three meals a day • All park and camping fees, and advertised activities • Use of two-way radios ADVENTURE ITINERARY Day 1: Letlhakane to Kubu Island Day 2: Kubu Island to Maun (Boteti River) Day 3: Maun (optional flight over the Okavango Delta is available) Day 4: Maun to Tsodilo Hills (rock art) Day 5: Tsodilo Hills to Ngepi Camp (Namibia) Day 6: Ngepi Camp: Visit Mahango Game Reserve Day 7: Ngepi Camp: Relax for the day or visit Bwabwata National Park Day 8: Ngepi Camp to Kasane Day 9: Day trip to…

Pick cherries When you ask around town about fun outings, the locals always recommend cherry picking. Klondyke Cherry Farm is about 30 km north-east of Ceres, at the foot of Matroosberg. At 2 249 m, it’s the highest peak in the Hex River range and the highest point in the Boland. In winter this mountain is often covered in snow and in summer you’ll be pleased to know that Klondyke is usually a good 10° C cooler than in town. The 648 m of extra altitude makes a huge difference. A schoolboy greets us at the gate and gives us a 1 kg container. In the orchard we meet a group of workers and other visitors picking cherries. Their advice is to search in the middle of the orchard for…

HENDRIK LE ROUX FROM CLANWILLIAM WRITES: The hiking club of Stellenbosch University, known as the Berg- en Toerklub (BTK for short), will celebrate its 90th anniversary this year. The club, founded on 4 June 1928, arranges mountain-climbing outings and hiking tours for students during the holidays. A lot has changed over the years. The hikers (called BTKaners) used to travel to the mountains on a truck; we stayed in big army tents when we weren’t sleeping under the stars and we all cooked together. Every student was assigned a job for the duration of the tour – the “stokers” had to build the fires, the “blikwassers” had to wash the cooking pots and the tent committee had to make sure the tents were pitched when required. The more trips you…

Location, location, location My son lives in Bela-Bela in Limpopo and recently discovered this pair of sunbirds that had made a nest in a mop that was hanging in a washing line in his courtyard. ANDRIES NORVAL, Sandton Bird expert FAANSIE PEACOCK says: These are white-bellied sunbirds, common in several regions in South Africa. They like to build their nests in unusual places like around washing lines, in pot plants and under awnings. In this case it looks like the birds made a smart choice: Their nest is almost invisible and the two chicks seem to be thriving. It takes the female sunbird 5 – 8 days to build the nest, using dry grass, leaves and other coarse plant material, which is bound together using spiderwebs. Depending on the species,…

Walk far in Namaqualand When Elize Kruger and Ina Vosloo – both from Hondeklip Bay – hiked the Tankwa Camino in May last year, a dream was born: To create a similar trail west of the N7 in Namaqualand. “I think the seed may already have been planted when we were training for the Tankwa,” says Elize. “We just had to finalise the best route.” The result is the Namaqua Camino – a 240 km hike that starts and ends in Hondeklip Bay – which they created with partner Dudley Wessels. Hikers camp in a different location every night, in places like Naries, Bethelsklip, Varswater, Soutfontein and Boulder Bay. “It took a lot of planning to get to this point and we’re excited to share this beautiful region with other…

Dr Jack’s Third Illustrated South African Byrd Book by Dr Jack, Struik Nature Jack Swanepoel, better known as Dr Jack, is a cartoonist from the Lowveld with more than 25 years’experience working for publications like Farmer’s Weekly, Noseweek and Mail & Guardian. This is his third book of off-beat avian art and features more than 60 lovely illustrations of South African birds – worlds apart from the heavily detailed ornithological work you’ll find in Roberts and Newman’s. Indeed, this is no guide, but rather a celebration of the birds themselves, usually inspired by clever word play and puns. For example, the bat hawk is kitted out like Batman and the rock dove (see illustration) is smoking a cigarette and is perched on guitar! This highly enjoyable little book is the…

The aquamarine water over the coral reef is devoid of motion. Coconuts nap on the sugary sand under arching palm trees. Far away on the horizon, where the blues of sky and ocean merge, white clouds puff into balls of cotton wool that might, or might not, build into a thunderstorm. No wonder the Portuguese named this place – halfway between Inhassoro on the coast and the island of Bazaruto – “Paradise Island” and built a luxury hotel here in the 1950s. These days it’s called Santa Carolina Island. Bob Dylan is rumoured to have composed his hit “Mozambique” here, sitting at the grand piano in the hotel’s ballroom with a glass of rum in his hand, staring at the Indian Ocean: I like to spend some time in Mozambique…

READER STORY PHILIP VENTER Home town: Secunda Occupation: Program manager at Glencore Coal Our friends Gert and Renate Heese farm near Augrabies Falls National Park. In December 2016, one of their employees, a Malawian called Freddy Soda, drowned in the Orange River in a freak accident. It was the middle of the harvest season and they couldn’t attend Freddy’s funeral in Malawi. A few months later we agreed to join them on a trip to pay respects to Freddy’s parents and to visit his grave. If we were going to drive all the way to Malawi, we decided to also visit a few other countries along the way. We’d all travel in my Audi Q5 3.0 TDI, towing a hired off-road caravan. Our planned route was about 11 500 km…

Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, BMW, Volvo and Mazda were among the manufacturers that won awards at this year’s Cars.co.za  Consumer Awards, but it was Suzuki that popped a bottle of well-deserved sparkling wine: Not only did they walk away with the Brand of the Year award, they also won in the categories for Budget Car and Compact Family Car. The Cars.co.za  Consumer Awards, sponsored by Wesbank, was held at the Galleria conference centre in Sandton. The ceremony was hosted by radio presenter Anele Mdoda. Her fellow host for the evening was Art, short for Artificial Intelligence. Art is a cheeky computer that announced the nominations and winners in each category. The trick underscored just how innovative the motoring industry has become. During the awards ceremony, 20 manufacturers and…

TOUR DETAILS Date: 22 – 30 November 2018 How long is the tour? Nine days, eight nights Departure point: Ulundi, KwaZulu-Natal End point: Ithala Game Reserve Accommodation: Chalets and guesthouses Rates: R18 450 per adult. Single supplement additional 30%. WHAT TO BRING • Your 4x4 (fuel is for your own account) • Drinks and snacks • Camping chairs THE RATE INCLUDES • A professional tour leader and an experienced field guide • Three meals a day • Accommodation in luxury chalets and guesthouses • All park fees • Two-way radios ITINERARY HIGHLIGHTS Day 1: We meet in Ulundi and spend some time at the Ulundi Battle Site. After a picnic lunch, we head into the heart of the great Zulu empire. Our route takes us from tar to gravel before we enter iMfolozi Game Reserve. Day 2: Owing…

SODWANA BEACH KIOSK In the dappled shade of indigenous casuarina trees, overlooking Jesser Point, the Sodwana Beach Kiosk is a sheltered, rustic haven for divers, fishermen, beachgoers and locals alike. The menu is simple: Think breakfast fry-ups, healthy muesli and yoghurt bowls, toasties, slap chips and one or two daily specials. The coffee is decent and the cooldrinks are cold. You’ll also find a basic selection of first aid type products like Panado and Zam-Buk, plus a scattering of snacks like crisps, peanuts and chocolates. Nothing on the menu will break the bank and everything is cooked to order, so it comes out fresh, hot and delicious. A toastie will set you back about R40 and comes with fries that will make you consider ordering the same thing all over…