Table of contents for September 2019 in go!

3, 2, 1 bungeeee! This must be a first for your magazine? I worked as a guide for a Canadian tour company called G-Adventures for a while, and we toured between Cape Town and Livingstone, Zambia, for weeks on end. In 2010, my brother Mouton joined me for a few weeks. At Vic Falls, we taped a Weg magazine to his back before we did the 111 m bungee jump off the bridge. RUDOLF BADENHORST, Lilongwe Thanks, Rudolf. This is definitely a first! – Ed. A good start to the day We stayed at T’Niqua Stable Inn ( tniqua.co.za) in Plettenberg Bay. These rainbows appeared at about 8 am. It had rained throughout the night and the morning was fresh and beautiful. You forget all about the hustle and bustle…

SPICY SPRING AT BABYLONSTOREN As you step into the domed conservatory that houses Babylonstoren’s new spice garden, the first thing you’ll notice is the humidity; spices naturally grow in the tropics. Once you’ve adjusted to the indoor jungle of black pepper vines, nutmeg and broad-leafed cacao trees, the second thing you’ll notice is the smell… The scent of cinnamon, cloves, ginger and turmeric wafts through the air, telling tales of Africa’s spice trade with Asia: the inspiration for this lush space. The garden’s humidity is generated by a warm-water pond (filled with exotic fish) and the sun’s heat is retained through the use of polycarbonate glazing on the structure itself. A wooden deck covers the pond and supports an immense stone table. This is where you and 13 to 24…

Pine Pienaar, PT teacher at Point High School, had a habit of shouting instructions out of the corner of his mouth. “Okay!” he barked. “You’re gonna do two laps around the field!” Mr Pienaar was short – he used to play scrum half for South-Western Districts – but he made up for a lack of stature with attitude and authority. We were a group of about 80 kids in Grade 10, barefoot, dressed in navy vests with light-blue stripes on the shoulders. We stood on the field in front of our school in Mossel Bay in the late-morning sun. It was time for our annual fitness test. A few guys swung their arms in circles; one or two reached for their toes to stretch their hamstrings. I turned to my…

Dirk Louw stands on his stoep in Wolseley, looking at the slopes of the Witzenberg where scars from falling rocks are still visible. “My whole world view was shaken that night,” he says. “In the Bible, the earth is a firm foundation. Suddenly that foundation wasn’t firm any more and I had to flee the place I always felt safest – my home. Tree branches rattled like porcupine quills. The earthquake rolled in like a wave, but much faster. Imagine what happens when a wave moves through a building…” Aftershocks rippled under roads for months after the earthquake. The mountains caught fire and formed a ring of flames around the town. The destruction and confusion are hard to imagine. No wonder most people thought that the Day of Judgement had…

STEVE TRIMBY IG: @trimbysteve Canon EOS 6D Canon 24 – 105 mm lens STEVE WRITES: This particular spot is a short distance from Arniston in the Western Cape. A 4x4 is helpful to get really close with all your camera gear, but you can also walk there from the village. As with most outdoor photography, early morning or late evening provides the best light. I was in situ well before sunrise and enjoyed a spectacular sky for some other photos. I took this photo about an hour after sunrise. I used a LEE Big Stopper filter, which enabled me to use a long exposure (20 seconds, in this case). Static elements like the rocks remain sharp; moving elements like the water become silky. I seldom photograph the sea without this…

WOLFGAT, PATERNOSTER Paternoster might be well known locally, but chef Kobus van der Merwe has put the West Coast village on the international map with his unique restaurant. Wolfgat – named after a nearby cave – was awarded the title of Restaurant of the Year in Paris this year ( restaurantawards.world). It only seats 20 people, in a simple white house, with an unparalleled view of the ocean from the veranda. An outing to Wolfgat is pricey, but how often do you get to eat at a world-class restaurant? The tasting menu has seven courses and each dish features coastal succulents and herbs from the area, collected by Kobus and his team. The ingredients depend on the season and whatever was harvested from the sea that morning. I’d never eaten…

The hot water brings relief if you have arthritis, it improves your circulation, it’s good for your skin and it makes you sleep better. These are all good, scientifically proven reasons you can use to convince your partner that you should visit the geothermal springs in Bela-Bela. Bela-Bela means “boiling, boiling” in Tswana; another name for this town at the base of the Waterberg is the “pot that boils”. It’s about 100 km from Pretoria along the N1 towards Polokwane and a convenient place for a break if you live in Gauteng. You can pitch your tent in a number of excellent campsites, or book into a luxury five-star spa in the Bushveld. Here are a few activities to keep the whole family busy: 1. See the Big 5 Mabalingwe…

As important as it is, I despise sunblock. Within an hour, fiery SPF particles, or whatever chemical gunk is in the stuff, find their way into my eyes. Particularly when I’m birding in a humid, tropical place. And you can’t get more humid and tropical than Thailand’s lowland forests. I was staring into the canopy, my frustration rising faster than the ambient temperature, and I could hear the most bizarre call: a series of growling whistles increasing in pace to a frantic crescendo. But the caller remained invisible, as beautiful forest birds tend to do. Being unfamiliar with bird calls when birding on foreign soil is simultaneously exciting and maddening. I ended up sitting down on a log and working through all the Thai bird calls on my phone until…

Something blue Q JOAN SHINN from Port Elizabeth writes: I photographed these lizards on Marine Drive in PE. Can you help me identify them? A Reptile expert JOHAN MARAIS says: These are ground agamas, common in rocky terrain and often seen on rocks along the beach. Like the tree agama, the head of the male turns bright blue during breeding season. They mostly eat ants and termites, as well as other insects. Legless what? Q ETIENNE DU TOIT from Centurion writes: My friend found this snake on the grounds of Mariepskop Primary School. What is it? A Reptile expert JOHAN MARAIS says: This is not a snake – it’s a giant legless skink, which is harmless. Snakes and skinks differ greatly, especially when it comes to the bones in their…

Who are the Black Mambas? We’re 16 mothers, sisters, aunties and future grannies who all come from the rural villages of Mpumalanga and Limpopo. We are women who want to speak and fight for the wild animals of our country; helping to conserve them for the benefit of all South Africans, now and in the future. What is the significance of a female anti-poaching unit? In 2012 and 2013 we lost many rhinos to poaching in Balule. As there were only men guiding in the field at the time, Craig Spencer – project manager for the Balule Conservation Project – decided that he wanted to try something different. By putting women in the field, he gave us a voice to raise awareness in the communities surrounding the reserve. Not so…

How do you explain the Karoo to someone who doesn’t know it? Maybe with the geographical facts: It’s vast; starting near the sea and eventually fading into the red dunes of the Kalahari and the grassland of the Free State, almost all the way to the Drakensberg. Will the person you’re speaking to believe you when you say that there are scenic back roads and mountains, and rivers when it rains? That you can almost hear the earth, the animals, even the stars? None of the six motorcyclists who have gathered in Carnarvon for a five-day tour know the Karoo well. Alwyn van den Heever is from Nigel, Arie Lubbe is from Kathu, William Turner is from Bellville, Pieter Steinmann is from Centurion, and Jacques Jacobs and Nic Grobler are…

My friends and I have a hiking group called the Solesisters and we love slackpacking trails. The extra weight of a loaded backpack isn’t the problem, it’s about not having to survive on tuna, Smash and Old Brown Sherry when you arrive at a hut after a long day. On a slackpacking trail, you can eat like a king: deboned leg of lamb, a fresh salad and malva pudding, washed down with a glass or two of shiraz. The Magoebaskloof Trail can be tailored to your needs – you can hike from two to five days, and you can make arrangements to have your food and drinks dropped off at the overnight huts. We chose the five-day option and covered a total distance of about 42km. You can start at…

Some of Peter Chadwick’s earliest childhood memories are of sitting on his father’s shoulders in the Zimbabwean bush, patiently watching animals, understanding and interpreting behaviour, and slowly moving closer until his father could get a good photograph. “Those outings taught me some of the greatest lessons about conservation,” he says. “Also about perseverance, honesty and hard work.” Peter has gone on to become an internationally recognised photographer in his own right, having won awards at the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, and others. As a senior fellow and board member of the International League of Conservation Photographers, his main focus is the South African coastline. Climate change, exploitation of resources, and the continual dumping of waste are destroying the ability of the ocean to function properly. Time is…

Day 1 4 pm Come introduce yourself and have a cup of coffee or hot chocolate at the Sutherland Planetarium ( 076 909 8635; sutherlandplanetarium.co.za). Entrance fee R80 per adult; R50 per child. 7 pm Do some stargazing with Lucas Ferreira, an amateur astronomer, in the amphitheatre at the Sutherland Planetarium. Send him a WhatsApp message to make a booking ( 076 909 8635). R130 per adult; R60 per child to use the telescope. 9 pm Check into one of Blesfontein Guest Farm’s nine self-catering units ( blesfontein.co.za). Rates: R380 per adult; R160 per child. Breakfast R120 per adult; R60 per child. Day 2 8 am Experience farm life. Bottle-feed a lamb, milk Bertha the cow, or collect fresh eggs. 10 am Explore the game reserve on the farm on…

Every town has a secret little coffee shop, or an activity that only the residents know about. In Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown), Provost Café in the old prison is one such coffee shop, and the Oldenburgia Day Trail is one such activity. The entire trail is 17 km, but there are two shorter loops. The Oldenburgia Hiking Club spruced up the trail network about four years ago and every route is clearly marked. The trailhead is on a dirt road called Mountain Drive. You start off walking east along the road through fields of fynbos to a toposcope, from where you have a panoramic view of the surrounding landscape. Inland, you can see the three Hog peaks of Hogsback; towards the coast are pineapple fields and game farms between Bathurst and…

Leopards before breakfast. That’s what Johan Theunissen and Jacques Barlow promised me. Johan and Jacques, both from Pretoria, have a long history with the Pilanesberg Game Reserve; Johan is field guide and Jacques is a keen wildlife photographer. We meet at the Manyane gate. Johan sits in the passenger seat beside me and Jacques sits in the back with his photography gear. Johan spent most of his childhood years in Pretoria but he also lived in Mogwase for a while – a town next to Pilanesberg. I have the soil in my veins and my heart always longs for the bush,” he says. He has visited the reserve as often as possible for three decades and recently he started offering his services as a guide to tourists. His passion has…

CHAMELEON VS SNAKE, KRUGER NATIONAL PARK In January 2019, I travelled to South Africa from the UK and spent 25 days in the country, mainly in and around the Kruger Park. One morning, I was driving along the H3 from the Malelane gate side, when I came across a stationary safari vehicle in the road. There was a chameleon in the road, clearly in trouble. I spoke to the driver of the game-viewing vehicle and he told me that the chameleon had been bitten by a snake. His arrival on the scene had disturbed the snake, which had disappeared into the long grass at the side of the road. The chameleon was apparently in its death throes. The safari vehicle departed and I pulled over and switched off the engine,…

Colombian photographer Edwar Herreño nearly missed the shot of his life… For years, he’d wanted to take a photo of the golden rays that congregate in large numbers off the coast of Costa Rica. “When they swam above me, I was so shocked that I forgot I had a camera in my hands,” he says. “It took me a few seconds to start shooting.” This photo was Highly Commended in the 2019 Underwater Photographer of the Year awards ( underwaterphotographeroftheyear. com). See the Portfolio in go! #155 for other spectacular shots from the competition.…

FNB JOBURG 10K CITY RUN Get active this Heritage Day by putting on your takkies and going for a run (or a brisk walk) through the City of Gold. The route will feature plenty of iconic landmarks, including the Nelson Mandela Bridge, Constitution Hill, Mary Fitzgerald Square and Wits University. This will be the second leg of the FNB Run Your City Series. The first run was in Cape Town earlier this year and the next will be hosted in Durban on 13 October. When? 24 September Enter at: runyourcityseries.com…

Have you been somewhere you think other go! readers would enjoy? Write about the experience and we might publish your story. Please keep it short (1 500 words maximum) and send us some sample photos. If we do decide to publish, we’ll need the original, high-resolution photos so make sure your camera is on the right setting. E-mail your story to editor@ gomag.co.za. We reserve the right to edit and shorten your text, and use your photos elsewhere in the magazine, on our digital platforms and in our marketing material.…

DU’VILLA B&B, JACOBSDAL One afternoon in October last year, I arrived in the village of Jacobsdal, just across the border into the Free State south of Kimberley, with Toast Coetzer and the camera crew from Weg Agterpaaie. We were tired after a long day on dirt roads. Compared to the landscape of the rest of the Free State, which was faded and dry before the first rains of summer, the green lawn and big trees at Du’Villa were extra welcoming. We steered the vehicles through the gate with relief. At first glance, the name of the guesthouse looks like a play on “Die Villa”, meaning “the house”. Strange to find an Italian name in the heart of the platteland, I thought. But then owner Rika Oberholzer told me about its…

Van Reenen’s Pass was once a migratory route for farmers who moved their livestock down the escarpment during winter, from the dry Free State to the plentiful grazing in present-day KZN, and back up again in summer. Later, Frans van Reenen – the pass’s namesake, who farmed at its base – used the route to lay out a path for wagons tacking up the rock-strewn slopes to carry supplies to the gold mines of the Highveld. In 1891, the trails gouged by wagon wheels were replaced by railway tracks. This engineering feat birthed the village of Van Reenen, and its hotel, in 1892. Half a century later, in 1948, the hotel was named The Green Lantern, after a green light that glowed in the fog to show travellers they’d reached…

SAM J BASCH from Pretoria writes: Inspired by Errol Blair’s photo of Shingwedzi (above) in 1964, published in go! #152, I decided to take my own photo of the rest camp when I was there earlier this year (facing page). If you compare the two, it seems as if Shingwedzi has barely been touched by time. The bungalows are arranged in two circles, labelled A and B. Some bungalows in the B circle had to be replaced after a flood in 2013, but many seem to still have their original roof tiles, screen doors and even rubbish bins (now baboon-proofed). In the A circle, there are original bungalows that were built in the 1930s; their thatched roofs still supported by the old rough-hewn beams made from ironwood tree trunks. My…

We had heard rumours that the border between Egypt and Sudan would be closed due to protests in Khartoum, but we set off anyway from Abu Simbel in Egypt, hoping things would work out. In Abu Simbel, we arranged a fixer to help us through the customs clearing process. We crossed from Egypt to Sudan using the two-hour ferry across the Aswan Dam. It was pleasant to be on the water, looking back at the desert. We disembarked on the other side and drove our Toyota Hilux double-cab for another 35 km into the desert, to the border post, which is basically in the middle of nowhere. All went smoothly. The customs officials looked for alcohol – Sudan has a zero-tolerance policy, being a Muslim state – but we had…

A stone’s throw south of Springbok, you’ll find the Namakwaland oval track – a sacred place for car enthusiasts in the area. The track, and the associated club, had humble beginnings in 1989, but its popularity grew as other tracks in the Northern Cape closed down over the years. On fair-weather weekends (now a common occurrence year-round) engines roar as racing drivers come together from as far as Port Nolloth, Upington and Kimberley. The annual highlight is the Daisy Race; this year it will take place on the weekend of 2 November. Drivers are expected to attend from all over – Tygerberg, Worcester, George, Port Elizabeth, even Walvis Bay in Namibia – and they’ll compete in several different categories. This photo wasn’t taken during such an event. It would be…