Innehållsförteckning för April 2020 från Getaway

WE ASKED: What are your best cruising and boat-holiday memories? In the early 90s, I was aboard the ill-fated Achille Lauro on a cruise from Durban to Cape Town. At one point, there was a large pod of dolphins performing alongside the ship! Margy Leicher Cruising in the Mediterranean. Darryl Louch Midnight feasts and dessert for breakfast aboard a MSC cruise from Durban to Portuguese Island in Mozambique. Jannie van Dyk I’ve never forgotten – I had an amazing trip on a Union Castle liner between Durban and what was then Lourenço Marques (Maputo) and back. It could’ve been 50 years ago... Colin Atwell I remember sailing on the RMS Windsor Castle from Southampton to Cape Town in 1962. I was nine years old. Camelia van Nus On a houseboat…

If you have to have a birthday, you should have it far away – that way you aren’t surrounded by people reminding you that you’re a year older, slapping you on the back and saying congratulations and secretly thinking, ‘I’m glad it’s him who’s nearly ancient, and not me.’ I’ve been known to sink into gloom and misanthropy on my birthdays, refusing to acknowledge them, then abusing everyone for respecting my wishes. Distance is the only remedy, so this year I found myself on a road trip around the south-west of France, stopping off wherever the fancy took me, like some ageing Jack Kerouac, if Kerouac drove a 2004 Toyota Corolla instead of jumping freight trains. My birthday dawned in Carcassonne, which was a good start. Carcassonne, with its crenellated…

The five most dangerous animals in Africa, or the Big Five, are symbolic to South Africans, and while they already appear on our bank notes, you’ll now find them on collectable silver coins. The South African Mint is launching the third coin in its Big Five series, the Rhino, which is a Brilliant Uncirculated (BU) quality coin struck from 999.9 fine silver. The reverse-side of the coin features two halves of the face of the rhino. Placing two coins together reveals a complete close-up, with multiple coins forming an image of a herd. A portion of the proceeds will go towards the Wildlife Conservation Trust which facilitates rhino conservation, rehabilitation and research projects, as well as education and training programmes. Help save the rhino by purchasing a coin. From R595,…

This is a cautionary tale about the assumption that, on any journey, money can buy you out of trouble. Alexine Tinne was a young, pretty, adventurous and enormously wealthy Dutch aristocrat. She was widely travelled, headstrong, the only child of her father’s second marriage, adored and indulged by her parents. When she was 10 her father died and, on turning 21, her inheritance made her one of the richest heiresses in Europe. When her mother died she inherited even more. Money was almost limitless. Life in The Hague entertained her initially, but eventually bored her and she resolved to journey beyond the bounds considered reasonable for a young woman. Africa, in the mid-19th century, was just such a place. Most Western travellers in 19th-century Africa had definite goals: the source…

From Switzerland to Shanghai, food has taken Jackie all over the world, but her favourite place to holiday is still the South Coast. My go-to holiday place is Pennington, where my family has had a cottage since I was a child. I couldn’t have asked for a better childhood. Mornings would consist of early trips to the beach and foraging for mussels with my mother. And afternoons were spent in the sun, enjoying meals with friends and family. A very special occasion was going foraging for mussels recently on the same rocks as I did as a kid, with my husband. It was all so new to him. And while it was unplanned, it was unforgettable, ending up in a fabulous late feast of fresh South Coast mussels flavoured with…

1. Check your equipment before you launch. Are there any leaks in your kayak? NB Is the plug in? 2. Take your cell phone in a drybag. 3. Always wear your life jacket. Having it in the kayak is no good if you fall out in waves. 4. Check the weather – if there’s wind, fog or mist perhaps reconsider. Never go out in a strong off-shore wind. 5. Tell someone where you’re going and what time you expect to be back. Or use the free NSRI app called SafeTrx and share your trip with a friend. 6. Wear highly visible clothing and a bright cap. Put high-vis decals on your paddles. In other words, stick out in the ocean as much as you can.…

and more and more cruise lines want to put the Mother City on their schedules. In March, for the first time, Norwegian Cruise Lines sailed from Dubai to Cape Town with the Norwegian Spirit . And Oceania’s Nautica is visiting three times this season, with a 14-day sailing in January 2021. Currently a memorandum of understanding between stakeholders is about to be signed to launch the Cruise Cape Town project, which will enable greater port access for larger cruise liners. So watch this space.…

GETTING THERE Alaska’s capital, Juneau, is 16 000 km from Joburg. Break up the journey with a stopover in Europe, Canada or the USA, from where you can fly Alaska Airlines out of Seattle to your cruise departure city – likely Ketchikan or Juneau – from R4 200 return. alaskaair.com COST AND BOOKING UnCruise Alaskan itineraries for 2020 start at R48 000 pp sharing for seven nights. uncruise.com WHEN TO GO The Alaskan cruising season stretches from April to September. Early season (spring) is cheaper and sunnier. Summer is more crowded but with long days for exploring. From July, spawning salmon pack the streams and tempt bears and eagles to congregate. On the season’s first and last voyage, ships travel between Seattle and Alaska on extended trips. NEED TO KNOW…

MORGAN TRIMBLE Southeast Alaska, page 74 ‘I’m not really a cruise person,’ says Morgan, a Cape Town-based wilderness enthusiast who’d rather be in the bush. Crowds and confined spaces make her claustrophobic, but she concedes that ships are sometimes the best way to travel, so a small-ship cruise was the perfect way to explore fjords and forests in Southeast Alaska. Morgan has joined three research expeditions on the SA Agulhas II and, as a student, circumnavigated the world on Semester at Sea . LAUREN GRANGER Malawi, page 90 A lawyer by profession, but a trail runner and all-round adventurer by heart, Lauren forsook the Bar for a bike when she heard about friends doing a year-long cycle trip from Cairo to Plett. She joined the expedition in Nairobi, cycling through…

A family stay at Sanbona Game Reserve, worth R42 000 ‘This will be mine and my husband’s first time visiting a wildlife game reserve!’ Linda Drury Signed African Journey Collection posters, worth R1 800 WINNER 1 ‘Thank you so much, the Drakensberg print is my favourite.’ Christian de Klerk WINNER 2 ‘Thanks for my awesome poster. The attractive, bright prints serve as mementos of previous holidays and inspiration for new ones.’ Tamar Levin WINNER 3 ‘I travelled to over 35 countries by the age of 27, so a piece of art by Duncan Butchart will be a joyful reminder of my African journeys.’ Tiffany Rheeder…

A BIG YEAR FOR BIRDING GAMES Carlie Jordaan was only 14 when she started the Big Year Group. Inspired by the comedy film The Big Year , she challenged her friends and family to a birding competition and they all consequently caught the birding bug. A twitcher-case so severe that it’s since led to the Bird Safari Board Game. Carlie, now 18 years old, tells us more: About the game It’s an interactive, bilingual board game that educates through play. Players compete in teams to see who has the most bird knowledge for their level of birding. We’ve included the names and sounds of about 300 different bird species. Inspiration My friends and family are all big nature enthusiasts, which is why we started our own Big Year in 2015.…

Hidden Pretoria Johan Swart and Alain Proust (Penguin Random House) Like its predecessors ( Hidden Cape Town and Hidden Johannesburg ) this book gets under the skin of the Jacaranda City. Architectural historian Johan Swart and veteran photographer Alain Proust champion the architecture of South Africa’s administrative capital, delving into its unique heritage landscape. Swart’s essays and Proust’s photos celebrate public spaces, lesser-known precincts and uncover private buildings. My Penguin Year Lindsay McCrae (Harper Collins) The British wildlife cameraman who helped bring you BBC’s Dynasties series spent 337 days documenting Antarctica’s iconic residents: some 11 000 emperor penguins. McCrae journeys with them, observing their migratory breeding patterns and social structure, but at great personal cost. Often homesick, he reflects on missing the birth of his first child. My Penguin Year…

Captive wildlife attractions and animal interactions remain a controversial issue, but the industry is changing, and it’s mostly thanks to tourists. Growing awareness has visitors calling for conscious tourism, and to help them make informed choices the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (Satsa) has released a toolkit of new guidelines to ethical animal encounters, which advise tourists not to endorse facilities that offer human-animal interactions, animal performances, or activities that involve unnatural animal behaviour. Other tourism bodies and operators are also taking a stance. TripAdvisor has ended ticket sales to attractions that breed cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) or ‘continue to contribute to their captivity’. Airbnb has launched its own ethical experiences on their popular adventure platform, and G Adventures offers travellers a guilt-free guide to wildlife interactions. Even Instagram…

CULTURE ON A PLATE West African cuisine is a mix of diverse food cultures from different countries in the region. Fresh produce is abundant at local markets, plus aromatic spices that are subtle reminders of the Islamic influence from generations past Kelewele – Fried Plantains with Spicy Peanut Sauce West Africa grows more than 30 per cent of the world’s plantains, also called ‘cooking bananas’. They look like bananas but are denser and more savoury in flavour and are often enjoyed fried with peanuts. Getaway has pumped up the flavour by adding spices to the plantains before they are fried, along with a spicy peanut sauce. MAKES 4–6 6 ripe plantains ½ onion 1t cayenne pepper 1T minced ginger 2 garlic cloves 2t lemon juice ½t nutmeg 1t salt 1t…

The rapid advancement and acceptance of instantaneous cellphone imagery has made it much easier for my photography. In all my travels, I have two methods: one, a walkabout in a city or place carrying a flash mounted on the camera and equipped with a small softbox (light modifier for diffusing); and two, a more elaborate process using a camera on a tripod and a torch for lighting for specific scene scrutiny and pictorial construction. The first is a quick-fire operation and the other, often at dawn or twilight, is a manipulated exposure with planned image designs.…

• Consult Cruise Critic for useful info. cruisecritic.com • Research your destination and other ports of call to maximise the experience. • Book shore excursions before you sail to avoid disappointment. The best activities fill up quickly. • Bring your meds and essentials with you – medication and toiletries are expensive onboard. • Plan to arrive at your departure city at least a day before the cruise. Ships don’t wait for delayed flights or heavy traffic. And don’t be late back from your shore excursion. • Switch your cell phone to airplane mode on international voyages. Roaming rates can cost a packet. The majority of cruise liners offer Wi-Fi – at a price. • Take some foreign currency for your destination. Make sure your credit card is valid for international purchases and notify your bank that you’ll…

CRUISING WITH MSC MSC offers regular summer cruises from Durban and Cape Town. Prices for a standard inside cabin start from about R2 550 pp sharing for a two-night cruise. 087-630-0333, msccruises.co.za ACTIVITIES AND THEMES On-board there are pools, a theatre, a casino, duty-free shops, health spa, photo shop, disco, library, video arcade, mini-golf and gym. Apart from almost non-stop shipboard entertainment (table tennis, Bingo, darts, quizzes ... you name it), there are a number of shore-based activities. Options on our cruise included tours to explore Walvis Bay, Swakopmund and Lüderitz, as well as wetlands wildlife and 4x4 desert excursions, craft-gin tasting, quadbiking in the dunes and a visit to the ghost town of Kolmanskop near Lüderitz. Many cruises are themed (from jazz to dance music, Bok Radio fans to…

HOW TO GET THERE Return flights from Johannesburg to Lilongwe start at around R8 000 with Ethiopian Airlines. ethiopianairlines.com WHEN TO GO Year round, but avoid the hot summer rainfall season from November to April. Originally only for Mulanje’s porters, the Porters’ Race now attracts hundreds of participants from all over the world. The date for the 2020 Porters’ Race is still unconfirmed, but it’s usually the second weekend of July. NEED TO KNOW Certain parts of Malawi are malaria areas – consult your doctor about prophylactics. Our cycle through Malawi was self-navigated and self-supported which, from our experience, is a fun, easy, cheap and safe way to do it. Don’t be afraid to wing it a bit, but set yourself up with proper panniers, not a backpack.Grant at cycletouring.co.za is…

Talking Heads’s liquid song of love and longing may be about a girl, but I couldn’t get their lyrics out of my head as I drove into Port Alfred, a sleepy town tucked into a curve of the glassy-green Kowie River just before it greets the Indian Ocean on the Eastern Cape’s Sunshine Coast. ‘Take me to the river, drop me in the water…’ could be the anthem of the laid-back folk living here, who seem to have a love affair with all things aquatic. There are plenty of great beaches here, but the river is what sets Port Alfred apart. Chilling on the terrace at Tash’s Craft Bar, guzzling fish and chips, I watched boats coming and going from the small-craft harbour. A booze cruise full of noisy tourists…

3 000... is roughly how many kilometres you’d drive to cover every public road in the Kruger National Park. Next month’s Kruger focus issue is all about roads, but we won’t always be sticking to them. Heinrich van den Berg tells us what his nine all-time favourite driving routes are; then we go off-road for a 4x4 shootout between the Lebombo and Mafunyane self-drive trails, and journey to the park’s Garden of Eden up north (pictured). We look at affordable options in neighbouring Manyeleti Game Reserve and test out a cool new Kruger app.…

CELEBRATING OUR HERITAGE As this year is the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the 1820 Settlers in South Africa, I was fascinated to read Don Pinnock’s historical journeys piece (January 2020) about the Griqua leader, Adam Kok, and his arrival in the Eastern Cape in what was then Mpondo and Xhosa territories. There was a lot of interaction between settlers and the local population. My grandfather, Claude Henry Humphrey, was born in the Wesleyan Mission in Buntingville in 1879 in the Transkei, which was set up by Reverend Boyce from Grahamstown on the request of King Faku of Pondoland to spread Christianity. The bicentennial celebrations will involve the towns of Port Alfred and Grahamstown. I plan to visit the Eastern Cape in May and meet with the 1820 Settlers…

TAG US on Instagram @getawaymagazine…

FESTIVAL FEVER 3–5 APRIL GREYTON Ever wondered what the collective noun is for a gathering of brewers? An intoxication? A barrel of brewers, perhaps? In Greyton, it’s a Fools and Fans Beer Festival. Selected brewers from across the country will congregate in the village to boast their personal range, including a one-off beer brewed specifically for the event. You can judge home-brewed beer during the Homebrewers and Harlequins competition, sip on other drinks like gin or cider, and sign up for the five-course food and beverage pairing. R150 for a weekend ticket and camping from R200. foolsandfans.co.za 5 APRIL CAPE TOWN April marks the end of long summer days and with it, the end of the Kirstenbosch Summer Sunset Concerts. The series is saying farewell to the sun with the…

I’d been invited to try out the Vumba Trail in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe and didn’t need a second invitation to escape from cash- and fuel-starved Harare. But the second day of our four-day trek through the fabled ‘Mountains of the Mist’ was harder than I’d anticipated as we crossed over Blue Swallow Ridge in baking October heat. Day one had been hot too, but we’d cooled off in an icy stream above Zebra Falls after a stunning walk along a ridge shaded by msasa trees ringing with the shrill of cicadas. We’d swum again in the Zonwe Dam, and pitched our tents along its shoreline lit by dancing fireflies. Day two was proving tougher; a punishing seven-and-a-half kilometre trek up and out of the Zonwe Valley to reach…

KAYAKS FOR COURSES: CHOOSE YOURS Choosing a kayak can be a confusing business. There are more than 10 local companies in South Africa alone, each producing a range of different models. There are kayaks for white-water, touring, sea recreation, fishing and racing; they come as sit-insides or sit-on-tops, in plastic or fibreglass or composites, with or without a rudder, as solos or tandems. Beyond kayaks there are canoes, surfskis, K1s and K2s – all paddle craft but essentially quite different. It’s enough to make you feel at sea before you even begin. Kayaks have emerged as the most popular recreational choice in recent years. There are three reasons for this: 1. They’re robust and virtually unsinkable. 2. They’re stable so everyone in the family can use them. 3. Most of…

Not so long ago, people realised their travel dreams by taking to the ocean. Journeys were filled with delightful entertainment, significant encounters; romance even. Travellers felt that a sizeable part of the Earth had rolled beneath them by the time they reached their destination; they were gradually being introduced to a new world. Then airlines took over and we are now shuttled back and forth between cultures and climates with little more than a notion of what cattle must feel like en-route to the abattoir. So why not trade your cramped airline seat for a comfy cabin; stretch your legs on a deck with a grand view of the ocean instead of squeezing between the drinks trolley and the lech in 43C; disembark refreshed and ready for adventure instead of…

1 They’re easy to plan. 2 It’s great value if you do it right. 3 Cruises are family friendly – from tots and teens to grandparents. 4 They cater for everyone from the couch potato to the Duracell Bunny. 5 Unpack only once but see many destinations. 6 Cruises are great for group travel. 7 It’s usually a singles-friendly environment. 8 Staff speak your language – and quite a few others too. 9 It’s sociable (if you want it to be). 10 Cruising is romantic.…

Press freedom, democratic principles and a firm belief in the value of education were ideas the 1820 British Settlers brought with them when they stepped ashore at Algoa Bay as part of an immigration scheme to beef up what was then the Cape Colony’s eastern frontier. They had no idea they would be caught in the crossfire between British forces and the mighty Xhosa nation battling for supremacy. The promise of land and a chance to better themselves lured some 3 800 to risk the unknown as unemployment bit deep during the UK’s industrial revolution. Nearly 200 years after the arrival of the first ships in Algoa Bay, I took a leisurely road trip along their route from Port Elizabeth to the area they settled west of the Fish River…