Table of contents for April 2018 in go!

Bull or ewe? Q HANS LINDE from Wellington writes: I saw this nyala at the Crooks’ Corner viewpoint in the far north of the Kruger Park. It had the horns of a bull but the colouration of a ewe. Which one is it? A Wildlife expert LD VAN ESSEN says: There have been several recorded sightings of nyalas with horns and female colouration, in places like the Kruger Park, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi, Magudu, Mkuzi, Tembe, Londolozi and some other private game farms. The long answer is quite complicated and involves genetics and the development of the embryo. In short, this is an intersex animal. The term intersex describes an organism that possesses typical characteristics of both sexes. This is usually caused by an extra chromosome or a hormonal defect during the development…

South Africa, for all its wealth of mammal species, is quite poorly endowed with primates. Five of the primates that occur here are bushbabies and two – vervet monkeys and baboons – are often viewed as pests. The rarest and most attractive monkey found in our evergreen indigenous forests is the samango monkey, known further up in Africa as the Sykes or blue monkey. In South Africa, samangos are confined to the north-eastern part of the country, although their range does extend as far south as the forests of the Eastern Cape. Their diet consists mostly of plant material like fruit, leaves and flowers, and they form close-knit social groups of between 10 and 35 individuals. Each group is led by a dominant male. Where I live, on the forested…

Where does your love of the outdoors come from? I grew up in Edinburgh in Scotland, spending holidays – and lots of weekends – working at the pony trekking stables that my mother and stepfather owned until I was 13 years old. I loved heading out into the hills on horseback or on foot. My stepfather was a great sailor, fisherman, hill walker and outdoorsman. I loved stomping the Scottish hills with him. Apparently I also take after my father. He was a real adventurer who travelled the world. He was killed in Iceland when he was swept over a waterfall on horseback while trying to cross a flooded river. There was a bridge a mile downstream, but he was impulsive… I was only three weeks old at the time…

When you look at a satellite image of the Southern Cape, the slope of the Outeniqua Mountains down to the Indian Ocean is dark green and scored with treacherous ravines. A few kilometres north-east, long valleys are stretched out like dogs on a stoep. In these sun-baked valleys – of the Langkloof and the Baviaanskloof – you’ll find rocks, aloes and more rocks. I’ll be travelling with Mpafa on a six-day tour from Buffalo Bay near Knysna, through the Knysna Forest and over the Outeniqua, Kammanassie, Baviaans and Grootwinterhoek mountains. We’ll drive through a landscape dressed in green, brown and sea blue, picking up the trails of lost stories along the way… KNYSNA FOREST There are elephants here.The rangers at Diepwalle in the Garden Route National Park, 20 km north-east…

ANTON KRUGER @antongkruger Canon EOS 7D Mark II Canon 500 mm lens ANTON WRITES: In March 2016, a friend and I spent a few days at Chobe Safari Lodge in Botswana, with the aim to take photos of birds during the green season. We explored the Chobe River in a small boat with a guide and we both got lots of great photos. A boat allows you to get close to the birds without disturbing them. This African pygmy goose played along – it’s not every day this species gives you a chance to take a shot like this! TOAST SAYS: African pygmy geese are always in a rush. It’s rare to get a clear photo of one. A fish-eagle is much easier to photograph on the Chobe! Look at…

SPECIAL READER OFFER FROM WHERE DOES THE TOUR DEPART? Letlhakane, just south of Makgadikgadi Pans in Botswana. WHAT DO I NEED TO BRING? • Your own vehicle and fuel • A stretcher or mattress, bedding and a camping chair (tents, tables, cutlery and crockery are provided) • Drinks and snacks • Medical insurance and evacuation insurance cover • Border-crossing fees and road taxes WHERE WILL I SLEEP? You sleep in tents, which Bhejane’s logistics team will pitch and dismantle daily. AND THE FOOD? Bhejane’s experienced bush chefs will prepare three tasty meals a day. HOW MUCH? R13 950 per adult; half-price for children under 10. THE RATE INCLUDES: • All camp and park fees • Three meals per day • The use of two-way radios • The services of a professional tour leader and guide HOW LONG IS THE…

A song by Anton Goosen plays on repeat in my head as I walk the streets of Uniondale: “Blommetjie gedenk aan my, en sy lig haar duim na bo. Blommetjie gedenk aan my sing die spook van die Klein-Karoo.” A hitch-hiking ghost put this small town on the map, but I haven’t seen anything spooky so far. The streets are lined with pine trees, historical houses, leiwater channels and fences groaning under wisteria. Livestock graze in backyards and a donkey scratches its back against a pole. A man walks towards a flock of lambs with bottles full of milk. His name is Apools van Wyk, and he makes sure things run smoothly on Chris and Dalene Bresler’s smallholding. I meet the Breslers as well. There’s an SSK logo on Chris’s…

Where does the baobab grow? Baines’ Baobabs British explorer Thomas Baines stopped here in 1862 on his way to Victoria Falls. His painting of these baobabs in the Nxai Pan National Park in northern Botswana is well known. Sagole Baobab The SAGOLE tree is 20,5 m tall and has a crown spread of 40 m, making it the biggest baobab in Africa. It's about 7 km north-west of Tshipise. Northern Kruger Baobabs grow in low-lying, arid regions like the Bushveld and the Lowveld. Keep your eyes open when you’re in the northern parts of the Kruger Park – baobabs are abundant there! Sunland Baobab The SUNLANDbaobab has a diameter of about 47 m and it’s one of the widest trees in South Africa. The hollow trunk was turned into a…

What’s your connection to Namibia? I took my first breath somewhere in Windhoek in 1991. My family later moved to Melkbosstrand, where I went to school and learnt to smoke, and I studied in Cape Town. Four years ago I returned to Namibia to test the waters here. How do you keep busy? I wrote a book of short stories in Afrikaans called Per Ongeluk (Tafelberg, 2017) and I’m busy with a second book. I’ll also soon go on tour with my one-man show called “Ons is almal só”. During the week I’m the arts and entertainment editor at the newspaper Republikein, and on weekends I drink too much water and not enough wine. What makes Windhoek special? It’s not as cosmopolitan as Cape Town, for example, but it also…

This is the so-called “Cauldron” near Arniston – a place where waves spill off a rock shelf and boil in a gulley. It’s a fun place to photograph, but you have to be extremely careful as the shelf is at the foot of some cliffs and difficult to access. The waves and tides can also be unpredictable. After having captured this dreamy dawn landscape, photographer Marcus Jooste was ambushed by a rogue set of waves and swept into the ocean. He dragged himself out of the chilly winter sea, but his gear was done for – everything except his memory card. “Camera, toast. Lens, toast. iPhone, toast,” says Marcus. “It was a very expensive shot!”…

For most of 2017, Venus was the “morning star”in the east. While we celebrated New Year, it went around the sun and is now making an appearance as the evening star on the western horizon. As Venus makes its orbit, it will move higher above the horizon over the next few months and reach its maximum height (and maximum brightness) by August. From September, it will start to descend again quite quickly as the planet moves between the earth and the sun. By late October it will disappear in the glow of the sun. Set a reminder on your phone to look at the western horizon about half an hour after sunset on 17 and 18 April (see the times below). On 17 April, one day after the new moon,…

Pinotage & Biltong Festival, Paarl Celebrate two of South Africa’s finest products at this festival at Perdeberg Winery. Eighteen local wine farms will offer different pinotage and biltong products to taste and buy. There will also be food stalls, an oyster and bubbly bar, beer, a playground for the kids and music by Guy Feldman and his band. Dates: 14 & 15 April Times: 11 am to 5 pm. Where? Perdeberg Winery, Vryguns Road. Visit cvomarketing.co.za  for directions. Cost: R200 per person if you buy your ticket beforehand from plankton.mobi or computicket.com ; R230 per person at the door. Entrance fee includes a crystal wine glass and 18 pinotage and biltong tasting combinations. More info: cvomarketing.co.za Autumn Garden Show, Johannesburg Autumn is the…

When I was 16, I went to Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar. I was on a school trip and I revelled in the crisp mornings and big game of the Serengeti, and later in the heat and sweat of the coast. However, on the plane back home, the heat and sweat of the coast grew stronger. I developed a fever. I coughed up a bit of blood and passed out. I woke up 10 days later, in ICU, with a machine doing my breathing for me. To add insult to injury, I had missed Easter. I had pneumonia. It had been bad. It got better. I went back to school and got a lot of belated chocolate bunnies. Years later, when I was 23, I went to live in the Himalayas.…

What do we have here? Sony is really proud of the new A9. It’s more than one step up from the A7 series and costs about three times more. Your kid will have to take a year off university so you can afford this camera. Like the A7, the A9 is a mirrorless camera even though it looks like a traditional D-SLR, and it has all the functionality of a top Canon or Nikon D-SLR. To switch from a D-SLR to mirrorless is a bit like going from rugby league to rugby union. You’re still playing with a rugby ball, but it’s a different game. You’ll grow used to it and likely never look back. Why buy it? This camera is aimed at professional photographers – people who use their…

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…

What does the tour entail? You’ll explore the Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve on a series of 11 ziplines, some of which are longer than 300 m. Each zipline ends at a platform overlooking the mountains and fynbos of the Riviersonderend Kloof. One of the highlights is a suspension bridge over a waterfall in a narrow sandstone gorge. The tour is a fully guided nature experience that takes about 4 – 5 hours. Where? Hottentots Holland is a CapeNature reserve near Elgin and Villiersdorp, about 90 km from Cape Town. Is there an age limit? Anyone between 5 and 75 can join in the fun. How much? The tour costs R895, but go! readers get a special discount. When you make your booking, use the code WEG18743. Using this code, the…

ROSEATE TERN TRAIL, PORT ELIZABETH With its lovely beaches, iconic lighthouse, tidal pools and bird hide, the Cape Recife Nature Reserve – just south of Port Elizabeth – has much to offer visitors. And if you go in on foot, you don’t even pay an entrance fee! The best way to explore Cape Recife is to follow the circular, 9 km Roseate Tern Trail, named after the regionally endangered bird of the same name, which breeds in the Algoa Bay area. From the entrance gate, follow arrows down to the beach, kick off your shoes and enjoy the wind in your hair. After about 600 m, the trail turns inland to a bird hide. Stop and rest here for a while. The pond that the hide overlooks – part of…

The multi-day hike from the Sentinel to Cathedral Peak in the northern Drakensberg offers probably the most dramatic scenery in South Africa. The hike can be challenging and dangerous, with extreme weather conditions, leg-burning climbs and possible encounters with dagga smugglers. But it’s just so astoundingly beautiful that everyone should experience these hallowed mountains at least once in their life. In my opinion, the best – and safest – way to do this hike is to hire the services of experienced mountain guide Caiphus Mthabela (pictured), who knows the “Barrier of Spears” better than most. He’ll lead you along the edge of the escarpment and even brew you the odd life-affirming cup of tea. While you sip your tea, he’ll tell you stories about how these mountains changed his life…

Why the recent increase in snakebites? Cobras like to come out in warm, rainy weather. More than 80 % of bites are recorded between January and April/May. Bites usually occur in the early evening, or if a person accidently steps on a snake. Will a spitting cobra attack me? In general, snakes don’t attack humans. If you keep a distance of 5 m or more you’ll be perfectly safe. Most snakes won’t approach you. The Mozambique spitting cobra, however, is an exception. It often enters houses – usually through an open door or through a gap of 1 cm or more under a door – in search of food. If someone is asleep in bed, the snake might bite the person mistaking an exposed piece of flesh for food. (It’s…

Q My dual-battery isn’t charging. I had a solenoid system installed in my 4x4 just over a year ago. The setup seemed to work fine the first time, but now there’s very little power in my auxiliary battery when I get to camp. On my most recent trip, I spent three to four hours driving between camps, but by the following morning the battery was flat and my fridge wasn’t running. I’ve heard reports that a solenoid-based dual-battery system doesn’t work with some vehicles, and that I should switch to a DC-DC system. But before I fork out thousands of rands on a second system, can you offer some advice? A We hear these complaints daily, and the answer is surprisingly simple: You need a 220V maintenance charger. Some time…

It always starts out tentatively. But a Swainson’s spurfowl never stays tentative for long. Once you’ve opened your eyes in your tent, it will unleash its full cackle. And isn’t it just the best sort of cackle to hear? This easy-to-follow route aims to take you to that happy moment. Botswana is one of our most accessible neighbours. The tar roads are decent (though a few need serious work), the people are friendly and the prices are still reasonable. In go! #104 we presented a Classic Road Trip through the northern parts of Botswana, including the Zambezi Region (former Caprivi Strip) in Namibia and Vic Falls in Zim, which we called the Great Northern Loop. (The Great Northern Loop also features in our 2017 go! Botswana guide.) In this article…

READER STORY ANNAMARÉ WOLMARANS Occupation: IM Manager Home town: Lephalale My family loves Cahora Bassa. We’d already been to the dam three times before, staying at a different place on the bank each time. Last year we decided to stay on the water in a houseboat. We also followed the advice of fishing experts and timed our visit to coincide with the tiger season in October. It took us about two days to drive the roughly 1 300 km from Lephalale to the village of Nhacapiriri in Mozambique. Near Nhacapiriri we turned onto a poor gravel road and drove to the property of houseboat owner Emildo Sada on the southern side of the dam. From there, we travelled about 2km to Casa da Pesca Lodge by boat. The houseboat was…

The Nature’s Best Photography Africa competition celebrates wildlife photography from all over the continent. In 2017, the third instalment of the competition attracted a record 17 000 entries: 92 % more than the previous year! South Africans Brendon Cremer and Geo Cloete grabbed the top prizes. Brendon won African Wildlife Photographer of the Year for his portfolio, which featured the magnificent shot of southern carmine bee-eaters at sunset on p 72. Geo Cloete’s image of box jellyfish spiralling towards the ocean surface on p 75 won Photograph of the Year. The competition is run in conjunction with Iziko Museums and the winners were exhibited at the South African Museum in Cape Town from November 2017 until March 2018. “The aim of the competition is to foster a love for –…

TOUR INFO 2018 Dates: 19 – 29 April; 28 June – 8 July; 6 – 16 August; 15 – 25 September How long is the tour? 11 days,10 nights Departure point: Nata, Botswana End point: Kasane, Botswana Accommodation: Formal Rates: R24 189 per adult; single supplement additional 30 %. THE RATE INCLUDES • A professional tour leader and an experienced field guide • Three meals a day • All park fees • All accommodation • Bedding and towels • Two-way radios WHAT TO BRING • A vehicle – a 4x2 with high ground clearance will do (fuel and border fees are for your own account) • Drinks and snacks • Camping chairs • Your passport • Personal things THE TOUR IN A NUTSHELL Day 1: We meet at Nata Lodge and enjoy sunset at the famous Makgadikgadi Pans.…

TELL ME MORE! A lot of people are interested in the Camino, but the travel arrangements can be intimidating. To simplify things, we’ve teamed up with Maties Travel to bring you an awesome tour: We’ll hike the Finisterre Way – part of the Camino – which starts at the famous Santiago de Compostela cathedral and ends at Cabo Finisterre, a dramatic peninsula that juts into the Atlantic Ocean near the town of Fisterra. The tour will take 11 days: six walking days, plus travel days on either side. Groups will be kept small – maximum 15 people. DATES  The first two tours have sold out already! The next tour will be from 8 to 18 October 2018. HOW MUCH? About R18 900 per person (departing from Cape Town/Joburg). This is…

CRAZY CRAYFISH DINER, KLEINZEE Kleinzee is not the kind of town you visit by accident on your way to somewhere else. It’s at the end of the R355 from Springbok, and you only drive that road if you want to go to Kleinzee. Need a reason to visit? Go eat at the Crazy Crayfish Diner. The diner has heaps of character and charm. The corrugated iron building has a coastal theme with whale vertebrae, fishing nets and paddles decorating the outside. When you pull up and your feet hit the shell grit, the people inside look up because a new friend has just arrived. The West Coast is laid-back and welcoming, whether you’re an incomer who has just moved there, or if you’re only visiting for the afternoon. You won’t…

KRUGER NATIONAL PARK, 1956 KOOS MOL from Pretoria writes: The article “Kruger National Park, 55 years ago” (go! #132) made me think of my own childhood experiences in the park in the 1950s. All the roads were gravel, there was no power and the tents had steel beds with coir mattresses. We lived in Benoni and visited the park at least once a year. On the first night of the December school holidays, vehicles would queue at the Numbi gate, hoping to be first in line when the gate opened the next morning. Us kids played in the road while people braaied and picnicked on the verge. In those years, the northern parts of the park weren’t open to the public during the summer months. For that reason, we normally…