Table of contents for October 2019 in go!

Insect or spider? Q CHRISTA RABIE from Modimolle writes: I photographed this insect in the Loskop Dam area (top picture). I’d never seen anything like it… It was spider-like in appearance, but it only had six legs. A Entomologist DUNCAN MCFADYEN says: This is the early instar nymph of the mottled avocado bug – a squat leafhopper with a broad, blunt head. The forewings of an adult are usually mottled green and brown, providing excellent camouflage against tree bark (bottom left). The nymphs are indeed bizarre in appearance. They have remarkable extensions at the end of the abdomen, apparently to mimic antennae, and eyespots too. They even walk backwards, completing the false head mimicry. Presumably predators attack the false head, allowing the bug to escape by leaping away. The nymphs…

Saturn is visible for most of the year. During the first half of 2019, you could see the ringed planet in the early morning sky. Since passing around the sun, it’s now visible in the evenings. The orbits of the moon and Saturn have crossed often in 2019, resulting in four occultations visible from South Africa. An occultation occurs when one celestial body moves in front of another and eclipses the other’s light, such as a solar eclipse when the moon moves in front of the sun. In the event of Saturn’s occultation, the planet disappears behind the moon for a while. The timing of this will differ depending on where you are in South Africa (see the chart below), and the path Saturn takes behind the moon will vary.…

Where did you discover your passion for illustration? I worked in a bookshop as a youngster and often paged through a US publication called Illustrators Annual, which showcased many different styles of commercial illustration. I began drawing and painting birds as realistically as possible, but eventually grew tired of feather detail and moved on to a looser, sketchy style. Each of my poster designs features a characteristic bird from the locality, which reflects my passion for winged creatures. One way or another, birds have always been the focus of my life. You were born in England to Scottish parents. How did you come to live in South Africa? My father was a pipeline engineer. In 1970, when I was 12, he decided he’d had enough of Britain. I learnt later…

Imagine shouldering your backpack and walking out of the gate at Lower Sabie. Walking, not driving. That’s exactly what I did earlier, with my husband Tobie, freelance field guide Pete Wilson from Barberton, and SANParks Honorary Ranger Louis Lemmer from Pretoria. We headed into the veld behind Sunset Dam just west of the rest camp, next to the H4-1. Over the course of the next six days, we’ll hike nearly 100 km, zigzagging through the veld to Malelane rest camp (about 58 km away as the crow flies), carrying everything we’ll need on our backs. This is the final section of the Kruger Trail, a new route that traverses the park from north to south. There are six sections in total, which you hike over three years (see sidebar on…

An eerie sound wakes me from deep sleep in my tent at the edge of the jungle. Scratch, rasp, scratch, swoosh… The sound rises above the symphony of crashing waves and the chorus of insects. What is that? Scratch, rasp, scratch, swoosh… There it is again. I climb out of my tent into the moonless night, heart hammering. I switch on my headlamp, searching the darkness for the source. It gets louder and then suddenly there’s movement down on the beach: Something dark is digging among the rocks… That’s when I realise: The sound is sand – being flicked onto dry leaves. My heart beats faster and I take a few steps closer. The female Atlantic green turtle is almost as big as a double bed, and she’s working meticulously…

ANNEMARIE DU PLESSIS IG: @annemarie_du_plessis Canon EOS 1DX Mark II Canon EF 500 mm lens ANNEMARIE WRITES: I waited at the Cubitje Quab waterhole in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park for a long time to get this photo. It was April 2019 and very dry. I hoped that a bateleur would come to drink… Indeed, four bateleurs began circling the waterhole a couple of hours later: two adults and two  juveniles. They came in one by one and landed at the waterhole. This adult sat in the perfect position with the late afternoon sun illuminating it from the front. It drank undisturbed, occasionally lifting its head to look at the dragonflies at the water’s edge. My settings: shutter speed 1/2 500 second; aperture f7.1; ISO 500. TOAST SAYS: When you get…

BREAD BASICS Learn the essentials of sourdough, yeast, bread baking, and why Eureka Mills’s stone-ground flourisahealthier option. Course participants will be baking a low-hydration sourdough farm bread and a high-hydration ciabatta with yeast. MACHADODORP | Saturday, 5 October 2019 at Millys of Machado farm stall and restaurant, on the N4 PAARL | Saturday, 19 October 2019 at Mynhardt Joubert’s Station Street Kitchen HARTBEESPOORT | Saturday, 9 November 2019 at Meerhof Lodge FERMENTED FOODS AND SALT BLENDS Discover why it’s important to supplement the probiotics in your digestive system and learn more about how fermented foods like kefir and kombucha can help. Course participants will be making a sauerkraut salad and apple vinegar, and will receive a flask with a scoby to complete the process at home. Annelien will host a…

The Namib is the world’s oldest desert and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Experience this unique landscape for yourself on one of two 4x4 tours. The Namib is an everchanging dune landscape – unspoilt, vast and mesmerizing. It might seem like an inhospitable place, but look carefully you’ll find animals and plants completely adapted to the environment. You’ll also discover remnants of the desert’s rich diamond mining history, as well as haunting shipwrecks. Out there, it’s you and your 4x4 surrounded by a sea of sand. It’s easy to imagine you’re the only person on this planet. Since this is a concession area only a limited number of tours are offered every year. Make sure you are one of the fortunate few who get to experience this ultimate journey. Faces…

JUST FOR TWO COTTAGE, BAVIAANSKLOOF Absolute silence is a rare find and one of the first things you’ll notice at this cottage deep in a kloof. The shhhh gets so loud that you’ll wonder whether there’s something wrong with your ears. It’s almost a relief when a hadeda call bounces off the cliffs and echoes down the valley for a few seconds. Cellphone reception, power… Forget about it! Paraffin lamps supply light and ambience, and a gas geyser heats the water. The kitchen has a gas fridge, a two-plate gas stove and a wood-burning stove. The bathroom doesn’t have a roof so you can look at the clouds and stars. The flush toilet is in a separate building a few metres away, with a great view of the sunset –…

Why EG? I grew up in the suburbs of Rondebosch East, so perhaps it was a product of my upbringing. I would daydream about travelling to remote and unchartered places and I spent a lot of time poring over maps. Starting out as a young photographer, I was always looking for locations that few people had visited, like Nigeria and Somalia. How accessible is it to travellers? EG is reasonably accessible these days, but in the early 2000s South Africans weren’t allowed to go there due to a series of coup attempts involving South African mercenaries. You need a visa and a police clearance certificate. Did you ever feel unsafe? At one point, while walking around the capital city of Malabo, I was detained for about an hour and my…

De Hoop Nature Reserve and its marine protected area, near the southern tip of Africa, rivals the Kruger Park in terms of ecological diversity. The rocky shoreline extends for more than 70 km and includes natural tidal pools full of marine life. The snorkelling and swimming are superb. The best way to experience De Hoop is to hike the five-night Whale Trail, managed by CapeNature. dehoopcollection.co.za; capenature.co.za An aurora is a spectacular light show caused by collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth’s atmosphere. Here it sparkles above Kvaløya (whale island) just outside the city of Tromsø, which lies above the Artcic Circle in Norway. Roddy Fox – a photographer from Makhanda – captured the spectacle during the full moon in mid-October, a month before the…

Bosparadys Farm Stall, near Syferbult, is a great place to pull over if you’re heading west out of Gauteng on the R509. It’s tiny and easy to miss (see directions below) – get the kids to look out for the statue of a Friesian cow on the roof. The farm stall is part of Bosparadys Dairy (hence the cow on the roof ). Three brothers – Anthony, Pieter and Joe Khourie, and their wives Nina, Anel and Rita – are the collective driving force behind the business. Up to 800 cows are milked per day and various dairy products are distributed to shops and outlets in the surrounding area. Bosparadys also has 20 000 chickens – a busy farm! Leah Friedeman is behind the till when I visit; she explains…

It’s the middle of the school holidays, in the middle of the Garden Route, and there’s not a soul in sight. Okay, it’s winter, but you should have seen Knysna! When I drove in to buy groceries, the place was packed. It was the annual Oyster Festival weekend and there was carnage in the aisles at Woolworths. People in trail-running tights bashed shopping trolleys as they decimated the shelves like locusts in a wheat field. Even Buffels Bay, usually half asleep, was chock-a-block with holidaymakers. There was no firewood to be found in the Knysna Mall, so I went hunting in Buffels. To my mounting dismay, each house seemed to have a chimney puffing smoke. I finally managed to find a bag at the beachfront shop. It was the only…

1 Restrict the cabin to essentials My wife, daughter and I have been to several neighbouring countries and all over South Africa in our 2011 Suzuki Jimny. It’s a small car, so we prefer to keep fewer things inside the cabin to leave as much elbow room as possible. Nothing spoils a road trip quite like cabin fever. In the rear footwell, behind the driver’s seat, we keep a camera bag, a first aid kit, a small cool bag for padkos and a daypack with books and games to keep everyone occupied. 2 Find containers to fit your luggage space “The boot of the Jimny is filled with four plastic crates that contain heavy items like food (tinned and dehydrated), cookware (the type that hikers use), compact camping gear and…

This tour is aimed at keen wildlife and landscape photographers, but birdwatchers and fans of polar history will also love it. The expedition is scheduled for 8 October to 27 October 2020. Your flight lands in Punta Arenas, Chile on 8 October. The next day we depart on board the RCGS Resolute, heading for the Falkland Islands where we’ll step ashore on outlying islands to photograph penguins and albatrosses. We’ll also visit the historic capital, Stanley. Our next destination is South Georgia, final resting place of Ernest Shackleton. The rusted remnants of whaling stations at Grytviken will also make for good photographic opportunities, and we’ll approach king penguins, fur seals and elephant seals on foot for a closer look. The modern, comfortable 122-metre-long RCGS Resolute is our base for the…

THE OLD MILL, PORT ALFRED Every town has its landmarks. In Port Alfred, “the big square block on the side of the river on your way to the beach”, also known as the Old Mill, is precisely that. Perched on the western bank of the Kowie River, the mill was built by William Cock in 1849. Originally a printer from Cornwall, Cock was 27 years old when he led a party of 91 British settlers aboard the HM Weymouth to Algoa Bay in May 1820. From there, his business exploits led him to Cape Town and to Grahamstown (now Makhanda). He built a home for his family in Port Frances, which was renamed Port Alfred in 1860. (Funny story: The town’s name was changed to honour Queen Victoria’s second son,…

JACKAL VS MARABOU STORK, PILANESBERG In 2018, my husband Ben and I went on an outing with our photography club to Pilanesberg Game Reserve. Every member of the club was assigned a task, and we could win prizes for things like seeing the most animal species in one day. We stayed in Manyane Camp. One morning we decided to drive to Lengau Dam. Lengau is a good place to take dawn photos because the light comes in from a suitable angle. When we arrived, we saw three black-backed jackals lying near the dam, seemingly in strategic positions. I realised later they were in formation to catch prey – each jackal could attack from a different side. In this case, the prey was an injured marabou stork. The bird struggled to…

One bike, lots of adventures I loved the article “Dust horizon” in go! #159. Sixty years ago, my friend Dennis Buys and I also toured the Karoo on a motorbike. It was 1956. I was a part-time accounting student at Howard College in Durban (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal) and Dennis was an apprentice mechanic. (Dennis and I have been friends since Sub B.) We decided to ride two-up to Cape Town, via Bloemfontein where my aunt Anna van Tonder lived. Our tour started on a dramatic note. It was drizzling in Durban and we fell at the Berea exit. The bike wasn’t damaged and we could carry on. I sent my father a telegram: “Fell, got hurt, got back up, drove on”. He wasn’t impressed. Getting over Van Reenen’s…

According to the Henley Passport Index*, South African passport holders can visit more countries visa-free than ever before: 99 in total. Travelling on the green mamba often feels like an exercise in advance planning, but you need nothing more than a plane ticket to explore the countries listed below. The South African passport is currently ranked 54th in the world in terms of “passport power and global mobility”. Japan and Singapore jointly occupy the number one spot for most travel-friendly passport. Citizens from those countries can visit 189 countries visa-free. Afghanistan is on the bottom rung: an Afghan passport only grants you access to 25 countries visa-free. ASIA Cambodia · Hong Kong (SAR China) · Indonesia · Kyrgyzstan · Laos · Macao (SAR China) · Malaysia · Maldives · Nepal · Philippines · Singapore · South Korea · Sri Lanka · Tajikistan · Thailand…

We’ve always been South Coast people. My dad never liked the Cape because he hates wind, and besides, the rest of our family lives in Johannesburg. We always went to the KZN South Coast instead, to Port Edward specifically. I once asked my dad why he always chose Port Edward. “It has the best beach in Natal!” he said with authority. The real reason was that the caravan park belonged to the police. My brother was a police officer so we got a discount: R15 per night for a caravan stand. And if you knew Koos Grové (the commander of the Linden station, now retired), he would organise you a camping freezer, too. I don’t really know why those holidays were so special. Maybe the stark landscape of the Free…

Christiaan and I don’t have much on our hiking CVs except for a day hike or two, but we wanted an adventure. The obvious choice for two fearless men was to summit the highest mountain in South Africa: Mafadi in the Central Drakensberg (3 450 m). We begged, borrowed and bought all the necessary gear; we’d have to carry everything we’d need, including a tent and mattresses. We read as much as we could about the trail online, and we pored over the map. We felt as if we were well prepared. The plan was to hike from Injisuthi rest camp up the escarpment over two days, climb Injisuthi Peak and Mafadi on the third day, and hike back over two days – about 50km in total. Easy-peasy. Or so…

First up is the hefty Haval H9, a big seven-seater SUV that offers luxury on a budget, and the first real indication that the steady trickle of Chinese cars onto our roads might soon become a flood. Ha-what, you ask? It’s difficult enough to resist the call of a familiar brand of breakfast cereal, never mind when you’re shopping for a new car. But venture outside your comfort zone and you’ll be surprised when you get behind the wheel of the H9. There are already plenty of Havals on the road. Play “punch buggy”, substituting Beetles for Havals, and you’ll get more bruises than you bargained for. Great Wall Motors’ line of SUVs only made landfall in South Africa in 2017, but has shown a 50 % year-on-year growth in…

DURATION: 8 days DATES: 21 – 28 March 2020 INTRODUCTION: St Helena Island is an isolated volcanic outpost in the South Atlantic Ocean. It forms part of the British Overseas Territory and is one of the most remote settled islands in the world. St Helena is truly remarkable, with a rich history, rich marine life and unique fauna and flora. Famous exile Napoleon Bonaparte was banished here in 1815, while the 6 000 Boer prisoners detained here during the Anglo-Boer War connect the island to South Africa. DON’T DELAY  Bookings close on 10 January 2020 or sooner once the tour is full. ITINERARY HIGHLIGHTS  Day 1: Celebrate your arrival on St Helena with a locally produced liqueur. Day 2: Go on a guided tour of the island including visits to…

1. Drive through the golden gates Golden Gate Highlands National Park is about 15 km east of Clarens – a good distance for a day trip. The R712 runs straight through the park to KwaZulu-Natal. Two tar roads – Blesbok and Oribi loops – turn off towards lookout points. Here you can see eland, zebra and even an oribi if you’re lucky. On the Oribi Loop there’s a raptor restaurant where rangers feed the endangered bearded vultures to help them through lean times. Cost: Free if you just drive through the park, otherwise R53 per adult, R27 per child (free if you have a Wild Card; rates to go up on 1 November). Contact: 058 255 1000; goldengate@sanparks.org; www.sanparks.org 2. Say cheers Stephan Meyer, a local farmer, started making cider…

STAY HERE RiverStill Guest Farm There are five self-catering units – the biggest sleeps eight people. It costs R370 per person in each unit, except Gypsy Cottage (sleeps two), which costs R250 per person and is also a glamping option. Discounts for children under 12. Visit their website for lower weekday and winter rates. Where? About 6 km south of town. 083 272 2958; 014 503 0085; info@marico.co.za; riverstill.co.za Djembe Backpackers It costs R100 per person to camp, or R100 per person to overnight in a backpacker-style dorm room. If you want your own room, rates start at R250 per person, including breakfast. Where? 1 km south of Groot-Marico. 079 955 8119 (Jolene) Up The Creek There are three self-catering cottages (each sleeps four or five people) – R250 per…