Indholdsfortegnelse for Oct/Nov 2024 i go!

Part of the donkey family? MARIETJIE CRONJE from Bloemhof writes: I saw this roan antelope in Mokala National Park near Kimberley. From behind it looked like a donkey with its big, floppy ears. I read somewhere that the roan shares DNA with an extinct antelope called a bluebuck. Is this true, and can you tell me more about the roan antelope? Wildlife expert LD VAN ESSEN says: The extinct bluebuck belongs to the same genus – Hippotragus – as roan and sable antelopes. The bluebuck was once thought to be a subspecies of the roan, but genetic studies have since confirmed that it was a separate species and actually genetically closer to the sable. The roan is one of the biggest antelope species in Africa. It belongs to the tribe…

How far can you see? A question I'm often asked about my telescope is,“How far can you see with it?”I usually respond with a counter-question,“How far can you see without it?” Take the sun, for example. You can see it with ease even though it's 150 million kilometres from earth! Many stars, thousands of light years away, are also visible to the naked eye. (One light year is about 9,46 trillion kilometres…) Here's a fun fact for your next dinner party: The most distant object visible to the naked eye is the Andromeda Galaxy, which is 2,5 million light years away! (The calculator catches fire when you try calculate how many kilometres that is.) When viewed from the southern hemisphere, Andromeda appears in the far north of the night sky.…

ZAMBIA The sun has slipped away and it's getting dark. The guides nod to each other and the Land Cruisers lurch forward. South Luangwa is known for its leopards, but the guides tell us we only have a 50/50 chance of seeing one on our night drive. As quickly as they drive off, they hit the brakes. I turn my head and look straight into a pair of yellow eyes. They don't belong to a leopard, though. It's a young lion and it's so close that its stinky breath makes the kids wrinkle up their noses. A metre or two further, the rest of the lion family is feasting on a zebra. We watch as they tear into their prey until the guides indicate that it's time to move on…

Between the Swartberg in the north and the Langeberg in the south is a gorgeous landscape of low hills and ancient watercourses. It can be dry, but in a year of good rain the veld comes alive with wildflowers. Tucked away in the middle of it all is this wonderfully remote guest farm where you can say goodbye to the real world for a few days. Lizelle van den Bergh and Joseph Krige are your hosts and each of their three cottages feels like a sanctuary. We stayed in Red Rock Cottage, at the base of a daisy-studded koppie. Stylishly furnished and decorated in soothing neutral colours, with a breeze wafting the curtains, it immediately felt like home. A loaf of Lizelle's home-baked olive-and-rosemary bread was waiting for us on…

My dad was planting trees once and he got a bit overenthusiastic, digging a few more holes than were required. But I had a use for them. I wriggled into one until my eyes were at ground level. My wife Ronél covered me with shade netting and sprinkled bird seed around me. I only had to wait a few minutes before the red-billed queleas descended. Thousands of them. They were so close I could hear their bills scraping and clicking as they ate the seeds. And every time they got a fright, the whole flock would fly up as one, their beating wings blowing empty seed pods into my face. I didn't have a camera or sound recorder; it was just for the fun of it. That was the best…

Alonely windmill stands in just the right place. A koppie catches the orange glow of sunset. A flock of sheep next to an old stone kraal… Yes, the Karoo is a photographer's dream! On this intimate tour, photojournalist Toast Coetzer will be on hand to help you learn all about composition, light, and the inner workings of your camera. (All cameras are welcome, from mirrorless to smartphones!) The itinerary is designed to include stops at a handful of great sites every day. The pace is easy – and there will be time to do birding, too. Non-photographers are also welcome. The trip is a celebration of the Karoo and covers an area Toast and guide Douwe Vlok of Heuningland Tours know very well. They both grew up in the Karoo…

Zambia's wilderness stole freelance journalist Lucille Botha's heart. Read the article on page 34. What are the road conditions like in Zambia? The bigger roads aren't too bad, but as soon as you turn off them, you should be prepared for anything. The D104 tar road between Chipata and Mfuwe was riddled with potholes, for example. Animals on the road – especially goats – are often a problem. The M10 tar road between Katima Mulilo and Livingstone will also make you swear out loud. How easy is it to find fuel and supplies? We didn't experience any problems because we travelled out and back from Lusaka, where the shops have everything you need. The seasonal fruit and vegetables sold on the roadside were delicious – especially watermelon, tomatoes and sweet…

COLUMN When I was a child, my grandparents lived on a farm in the Baviaanskloof. Their house was humble, but it had the most beautiful belhambra tree outside – we played between its roots with our toy cars for hours. My grandparents were self-sufficient. Everything they needed came from the farm. They slaughtered their own goats, ate the eggs laid by their chickens, and all their vegetables came from my grandfather's fields. What they couldn't grow, they traded with other families and farmers in the district. My grandmother baked bread, rusks and biscuits. They only bought flour, sugar and coffee. It was 1961 and I was nearly six years old. A few months previously, South Africa had split from Britain and declared itself an independent republic. When we arrived at…

This year, National Garden Day will be on Sunday 20 October. To celebrate, invite friends over and have a tea party in your own garden! Share your photos on social media with the hashtag #GardenDaySA or WhatsApp 074 288 1487 to join in the fun. In the next few months, you can also visit gardens across the country to enjoy the beautiful flowers, trees and plants grown by others. These open garden shows all work on the same principle: You buy a ticket, get a map of the town and visit the participating green spaces. The funds raised by the ticket sales often go to a good cause. Here are some to look forward to: 1 September - 8 December Blackwood's Open Midlands Gardens. R80 per person. For the next…

CEDERBERG DID YOU KNOW? The Algeria forestry station was first called Garskraal. In the early 1900s, French forestry officials who had been brought in to help develop the area renamed it Algeria because the landscape reminded them of the Atlas Mountains in North Africa. The name change was apparently done at the request of an English colonial official called George Ernst Bath, who couldn't pronounce“Garskraal”… Six tired people slog up the slopes of Middelberg in October. The hike is not the cause of our exhaustion – we've only just set off from CapeNature's Algeria camp down below. No, we're all a bit frazzled because it's been a long year. Our little group walks along in silence. My throat is still scratchy from the latest Covid variant. We're following a few…

CHOOSE THE RIGHT SHOE FOR YOU If you want to chuck a caracal into the chicken coop, mention things like “heel drop” and “minimalist barefoot shoes” to a group of keen trail runners or hikers. The resultant argument will be worse than a bunch of Province and Bulls supporters having a go at each other in a bar on the eve of the Currie Cup final. Over the years, shoe design has been engulfed in so much pseudoscience that the average outdoor enthusiast is more confused than ever. And besides, there are hundreds of shoes to choose from these days. Here's the fact of the matter: here is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to footwear. Our feet are like our fingerprints – and our personalities. Every foot is different.…

No matter how experienced you are as a hiker, it's always an unpleasant feeling when the map in your hand doesn't match the path in front of you. Even more so when dark clouds are gathering overhead… This is the situation I found myself in as we walked through a forest near Hogsback in the Amatola Mountains. We wanted to get to Madonna and Child Falls – one of Hogsback's main attractions. But which of the three turn-offs was the one to take? And would the rain clear, like the YR weather app had promised? We'd already hiked about 500 m and we hadn't seen any signs to confirm that we were on the right path. We did see a waterfall called Nomthunzi's Falls, even though it wasn't indicated on…

Take your pooch to the Museum of Dogs They're not called man's best friend for nothing… Millions of people know what a huge role dogs can play in our lives – as companions, protectors and workers. Now there's a new museum to celebrate our four-legged friends! The Museum of Dogs focuses on the relationship between humans and canines and is the first of its kind. It's the brainchild of Karel van der Vyver, who grew up loving dogs and wanted a way to honour them. Visitors can look forward to photo exhibits by photographer Emma O'Brien, ceramic sculptures by Tania Babb, and stories about world leaders and their dogs, like former US president John F Kennedy and his dog Pushinka. (The dog was a gift from Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev…

It's 7am on a very wet Wednesday in June, and there's a never-ending stream of headlights coming towards me. While the rest of Cape Town steels itself for another damp day in the office or at school, I'm driving in the opposite direction towards Strandfontein Pavilion, in the belly of False Bay. I've booked a five-hour guided angling session with Wikus van der Merwe, owner of MMM Cape Town Fishing Adventures and author of an extremely detailed book about how to catch our national fish, the galjoen. I'm a lifelong trout and bass fisherman and I've tried my hand at rock and surf angling about 40 times; I've even managed to catch a few edible fish, including a couple of galjoen in the winter of 2003. But all of my…

KLAARWATER (GRIEKWASTAD) TO KAABI'S KRAAL: 434KM BURCHELL: 11 DAYS WILLEM: 3 DAYS Two centuries ago, Griekwastad wasn't part of South Africa. It also wasn't known as Griekwastad – it was Klaarwater, or Karrikamma, a settlement and mission station established by a group of Basters. They called themselves Basters; the name “Griqua” only came into use later. Klaarwater was far from the border of the Cape Colony, which at that time stretched from the Kamiesberg in Namaqualand to the Sak River near Fraserburg and then towards Graaff-Reinet. To tell the truth, there weren't many borders at all back then. When the explorer William Burchell travelled beyond the colony in 1811, he wrote: “It is difficult to define boundaries of the country inhabited by any of these wandering African nations.” In Travels…

There are certain genres of photography where the stratospheric leaps in technology over the last decade have changed the game. “Underwater” is one such genre: As cameras and lenses have become faster and able to render beautifully detailed images in even the dimmest conditions, photographers have been able to capture ever more impressive scenes of life below the surface of oceans, lakes and rivers. Underwater Photographer of the Year is a prestigious international competition that honours the work of these photographers and their role in conserving our vulnerable aquatic environments. The 2024 edition attracted more than 6500 entries in various categories.“As always, the collection is a great reminder that while underwater photography is a specialist discipline, there is huge diversity within it. Our winning photographers come from around the world,…

It's surprisingly quiet for a Friday morning in a Gauteng mining town. Cape turtledoves call from the jacaranda trees: “Work harder! Work harder!” Or, since it's the weekend: “Drink lager! Drink lager!” In the distance, air-conditioning units rumble at the Cullinan Mine. Then a group of motorbikes roars into town – now it feels like the weekend. Cullinan is only about 40km north-east of Pretoria. It's a popular weekend destination for the people of Gauteng, especially if you're into motorbikes and cars. During one of my previous visits, there were two motoring clubs visiting town: one group of AC Cobra petrolheads and another of Mercedes enthusiasts. Classic cars driving past Victorian buildings make for a pretty picture, but it's just as fun to explore Cullinan on foot, especially in spring,…