Table of contents for May 2020 in go!

This is a tough editor’s letter to write. By the time you read it, three weeks would have passed since I put finger to keyboard. Who knows what our world is going to look like tomorrow, never mind 21 days from now? It might be that the only way you’re able to read this is on a screen. Right now, at the start of our mandatory lockdown because of the Covid-19 pandemic, there’s a likelihood that we won’t be able to print the 167th edition of go! and it will only be available digitally. Our teams are ready to print and distribute the magazine as soon as we’re allowed to, and naturally I hope that this will happen, but it’s also okay if we can’t print. We’ll make a plan…

The N14 between Springbok and Upington can be brutal. Not everybody finds meditative pleasure in gazing out over endless “nothingness”. The sun will start attacking you from an unexpected angle; on your neck from an awkward position through the windscreen – and you forgot to wear a collared shirt… Your eyelids will start to feel heavy, even though there are no sheep to count. Perhaps hunger will start gnawing away, which is bad news if you forgot to eat fish and chips at Olé Fisheries before you left Springbok. Precisely three things happen between Springbok and Upington. The first is the Aggeneys mine, which rises next to the road like something out of the City of Gold. (They actually mine other stuff here: zinc, copper, lead and silver.) After that…

My father had 34 friends on Facebook, almost half of which were family members. He never posted a photo, never mind a selfie. The only page he followed was of Corné Krige – not because Corné once captained the Springboks, but because he’d been a pupil in my dad’s science class back in 1987. Dad was seldom seen on Facebook, and just over a year ago, he would never be seen again. Now the house is sold and my mom and I have the impossible task of filtering through his possessions. What to toss out, what to keep? The more we try to sort through his things, the more we get stuck: “Hey, check this!” “Do you remember these?” “I could have sworn we threw that out years ago!” And,…

Alma Janse van Rensburg, Cape Town “I grew up in Sutherland, but I’ve been avoiding the Karoo for a long time because it breaks my heart to witness the drought. This hike has shown me that dry as it might be, the Karoo remains beautiful.” Franci Vosloo, Stellenbosch “When it rains and the Buffels is in flood, it’s as if you’re experiencing history in the making: how water began to carve out the soil and eventually form rivers. The cliffs reveal millions of years of mud and sand, and then you realise how vulnerable the earth is. Walking to the source of the river on Komsberg is like stepping into the past, a past you never knew.” Sandi Husted, Joburg & Sheenagh Levy (right), Hermanus Sheenagh: “I’ve trekked to Everest…

Brined chicken salad with blue cheese dressing Serves 4 – 6 Preparation time 30 minutes, plus resting time Cooking time 15 minutes You need • 6 thick chicken breast fillets • 2 sprigs of rosemary • 2 tablespoons olive oil • 2 tablespoons braai sauce • 1 big head of cos lettuce, leaves torn into smaller pieces • 1 cup mielie kernels (braai whole mielies over the coals) • 2 avocados, sliced and drizzled with lemon juice • 1 small red onion, in rings For the brine • 60 ml Funky Ouma braai salt or a mixture of 60 ml sea salt, 3 peppercorns and a pinch each of ground cumin, coriander, chilli powder, garlic and paprika • 1 cup boiling water • 1 cup ice cubes For the salad dressing • 80 g creamy blue cheese • ½ cup sour cream or…

All species (including plants, fish, mammals and reptiles) are classified according to how many are left in the wild. Researchers also calculate the percentage that a population of a particular species has decreased: WHY DOES A BIRD BECOME ENDANGERED? The southern ground-hornbill is endangered in South Africa, Lesotho and the Kingdom of eSwatini. Here’s why: * They sometimes graze in open grassland next to roads and get hit by vehicles. * Farmers sometimes spray poison to kill insects or other birds that feed on their crops. Southern ground-hornbills eat these birds and insects and are then also poisoned. * People who use muti kill the birds because they believe that putting a southern ground-hornbill outside your front door will prevent lightning from striking your house. * Have you ever seen…

“We’d travelled through Botswana before on our way to the Zambezi Region in Namibia, but this was our first visit specifically to the country. The vast plains of the Central Kalahari were exceptional, even though the drought was severe. At night, we stared at the stars and listened to lions only metres from our tent – they roared from 2.30 am until 5 am… “The roaring started as a long bass note, repeated a few times, and ended with shorter guttural sounds. First on one side of the tent, then an answer from the other side. We listened in silence, frightened, but in awe.”…

Approximate daily budget? Travelling with your own vehicle in South America is no more expensive than travelling in southern Africa. Our average daily travelling expenses are about R1 300 to R1 500 per day, which includes, food, accommodation for two, diesel and car services. We often camp wild to save costs, and we only stay in formal accommodation when we have no other option. Getting around? You don’t need your own vehicle to explore Bolivia – or South America for that matter. Bus transport everywhere on the continent is very efficient and there are many options to choose from. The other alternative is to buy a secondhand overlanding vehicle. This is quite popular in Chile. Safety? South America is generally safer than South Africa, but there are certainly many hot…

What was the inspiration for the trip? We wanted to take a break from our careers and live according to our own time and terms. We both resigned from our jobs so we wouldn’t have any responsibilities, and we made a lot of sacrifices in advance so that we could save enough money. We took the whole year off and divided it into three parts: a tour of southern Africa; some time overseas, including a trip through South East Asia; and catching up with family and friends. What did you learn on the road? How to slow down and understand each other better. Camping for six months also showed us how little you need to be happy. You realise that a smile and a few friendly words can sometimes take…

Go virtually anywhere Although the Covid-19 crisis has limited where we can travel to at the moment, that doesn’t mean we can’t dream and explore – virtually. Check out discoverafrica.com/southafrica360 for stunning virtual reality (VR) tours of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg, Kruger National Park, the Garden Route, Table Mountain National Park and Mzansi’s hidden gems. If you search the above link, you’ll land on a page that allows you to watch a “pre-video” of South Africa’s most beautiful destinations. Either click “play” or “skip”, depending on what you’d like to do. When the pre-video is finished (or you’ve skipped), you will see the five options appear on the screen as listed above. Hover your mouse above the one you’d like to see and click “explore”. An introductory clip will play, featuring stunning drone…

Cost: R4 800 per person. This rate includes three meals a day, breakfast on the day of departure and transfers to and from the beginning and end of the hike to your vehicles, which are parked safely on a farm outside Laingsburg. When?The hike takes place during the milder months and has a maximum capacity of 20 people. The remaining 2020 dates are 7 – 13 September and 4 – 10 October. If you’re interested in doing the hike in 2021 e-mail Franci Vosloo ( francivosloo1@ gmail.com) or send her a WhatsApp message ( 083 386 6270). More info: Search “Buffels River/ Moordenaarskaroo hike” on Facebook, or follow them on Instagram: @moordenaarskaroohike What do I pack? A tent, camping chair and sleeping gear. All your clothes should fit into a…

Chicken is affordable, easy to cook, it tastes great and it’s much better for you from a health perspective than red meat. It’s also versatile – you can make a quick mid-week supper or a Sunday lunchtime feast. Here are a few equally versatile wines to go with your chicken, no matter when you cook it or how. Just as chicken is everyone’s favourite meat, I think it’s fair to say that sauvignon blanc is everyone’s favourite white grape, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the two go well together. The Overhex Mensa Sauvignon Blanc 2019 (R77) is a great wine to try with a chicken salad, a wrap or even a spicier dish. Packed with ripe, sweet granadilla and guava flavours, it also has lively acidity and…

Where’s my dad? I just saw him – actually I saw his camera lens sticking out from behind a tree. Experience has taught me that it’s easy to get lost in a miombo woodland – a biome that stretches from Zimbabwe and Mozambique up through central Africa in a wide band. We’re exploring the Dzalanyama Forest Reserve, about 60 km south-west of Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. The trees are tall and landmarks are obscured. The vegetation is open so it’s tempting to leave the trail. I scramble up a big boulder for a better view. There’s dad, rubbing his neck. We’ve been on foot for more than an hour, but so far we haven’t seen a single bird. We scoured the canopies of beautiful brachystegia trees, which are characteristic…

know I must be a sight: a bedraggled woman wearing I Mr Price men’s underpants and a faded rash vest, creeping around in the shallows like a retired crocodile. I know I am often a disappointing sight, surfacing to the sound of squealing kids and pointing parents on the quay who are hoping they’ve spotted a rare dugong, or a raggie, or a seal. “Ag, dis net ’n vrou,” they mutter, before wandering off to coffee and cake, or whatever it is summer people do in Knysna. Winter is my favourite time of year in this town of seahorse mascots and ski boats. The lagoon is cold and clear, and the only anglers around are the women who fish daily with hand lines from the pier. “Is daar vis?” they…

What’s that over tahr? In January this year, I hiked up to Kloof Corner on Table Mountain. Our group was going up the first cliff section when we saw nine mountain goats – two of them were kids. I had never seen such an animal before and neither had the other members of our group. We later did some research and found out they’re Himalayan tahrs, the ancestors of which escaped from the Groote Schuur Zoo in the 1930s and made Table Mountain their home. There have been several attempts to cull the tahrs because they’re an exotic species and they damage the sensitive fynbos, but at the moment they seem to be thriving on the mountain. PIETER COETZEE, Somerset West Sunset down under My wife Sheila and I recently…

Long live these animals! A human who lives to 100 is considered very old, but for some of these incredible creatures, a century is only the beginning! 507 Ming the ocean quahog is a clam that has been alive since the Ming Dynasty in China! Most live for 400 years or more. 400 The oldest known vertebrate in the world is the Greenland shark. One individual was estimated to have been swimming around for four centuries! 226 A koi fish in Japan named Hanako reached this ripe old age. (Most koi have a 30-year lifespan on average.) 200 The estimated lifespan of a bowhead whale. One was even found with a harpoon head in its blubber dating from the 1800s! 152 The age of Lonesome George, a Galapagos giant tortoise,…

There are as many as nine different green-coloured snakes in southern Africa and they’re sometimes tricky to tell apart. But only two are highly venomous: the green mamba and the boomslang. When someone sees a green snake, he or she is quick to assume the worst. But it’s not necessarily these two culprits every time. Here’s how to tell if you’re dealing with a dangerous greenie or not. The green mamba is arboreal (it lives in trees) and mainly occurs along the KZN coast, usually within 4 km from the sea itself. On rare occasions, it has been spotted up to 40 km inland, north of the small town of Mkuze. The snake has a coffin-shaped head and is green all over, above and below. Adults more than one metre…

James Lowe is a Stellenbosch University geology graduate who works in the expedition cruise ship industry. He and a team of experts present on-board lectures in some of the world’s most remote regions. James focuses on topics like plate tectonics, ocean currents and climate change. “I started taking photos as a means to document what I was seeing on expeditions,” he says. “But soon it became about more than that. Now I aim to evoke the same sense of awe I feel in others, and to show why these regions and creatures deserve our protection.” James photographs some of the few places on earth where nature still reigns supreme, like the frozen icescapes of Antarctica, the volcanic archipelagos of Russia, the fjords of Alaska, tropical reefs of Indonesia, and deep…

iPhone 11 Pro KEY FEATURES 3 cameras: ultra-wide, wide, telephoto; 12 MP photos; 4 K video at 60 fps; 4x optical zoom; water- and dust-resistant Whatever your feelings about this fruit brand, you can’t dispute the quality of their fantastic mobile cameras, especially on the iPhone 11 Pro, which has a triple-camera system and next-level processing power. It’s actually quite hard to take a bad photo or video, and it gives the photographer lots of versatility, especially when the cameras are used together. As the old saying goes, the best camera is the one you have with you, and this potent pocket shooter makes most other compact shooters obsolete – it even starts challenging the practicality of bigger D-SLRs and mirrorless rigs, especially if you’re not a serious photographer. However,…

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK Both male and female birds have black feathers, with 10 white feathers on the tip of each wing. These eyes don’t miss a thing – especially not something to eat in the grass. Males and females have a similar appearance, but if you look closely, you’ll see that the female has a purple patch on her red wattle. Fully grown, the southern ground-hornbill is about a metre tall and weighs 3,5 – 4 kg. They scour woodland and savannah grassland for food. To move in the tall grass with ease, the bird has a short tail, long legs and flexible toes. Other birds hop around on the ground, but the southern ground-hornbill walks like a human! WHERE ARE SOUTHERN GROUND-HORNBILLS FOUND? The southern ground-hornbill is endemic…

CENTRAL KALAHARI GAME RESERVE, BOTSWANA After my wife Marguerite and I read an article about Botswana in your magazine, we decided to follow the writer Willem van der Berg’s recommendation and go on a solo mission to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. In May 2019, we spent two amazing days at Kubu Island on the Makgadikgadi Pans and then travelled to the reserve where we planned to explore for six days. We camped at Piper Pan on our last two nights in the CKGR. Early one morning we heard lions roaring nearby. We dropped everything and drove around looking for them. There was water in the pan and we’d seen something in the shallows close to the shore the previous evening. Initially we thought it was a tree trunk, but…