Inhaltsverzeichnis für Oct/Nov 2023 in go!

ED'S LETTER Even though our editorial team and contributors have spread across southern Africa and the globe since we said goodbye to an office three years ago, we don't work in isolation. All the features in every issue result from thousands of kilometres of travel, a multitude of encounters along the way, and hours of conversations with the people we meet. In a world of made-up stories (especially on social media) and shallow reporting done by artificial intelligence, we're privileged to engage in proper, old-school, feet-on-the-ground journalism. It's our source of joy and pride, and it seems that our readers feel the same way. The latest market research that measures readership of South African magazines pegs ours at 382 000 readers across go! and Weg per issue. This is the…

IN BRIEF The next generation Leopard cubs are impossibly cute, but what needs to happen for those adorable little fuzzballs to grow into strong, independent apex predators? Female leopards are ready to reproduce at around two years old, and males at around three. However, if they are not yet dominant enough to hold a territory, it's unlikely they'll breed at such a young age. Leopard breeding is non-seasonal; they mate throughout the year. They're polygamous, which means that males will mate with more than one female and vice versa. Females become receptive to mating every 45 days and stay receptive for about a week. After successfully mating, the female is pregnant for about 100 days before giving birth to a litter of one to three tiny cubs. She will seek…

Time (The Revelator) by Gillian Welch US$10 from bandcamp.com Released in 2001 and co-written by David Rawlings, this album contains stripped-down (guitar, banjo) alternative country songs, guided by Welch's sinewy, hypnotic voice. The lyrics bring characters to life, like on “My First Lover”: “He was tall and breezy with his long hair down, but he gets a little hazy when I think of him now…”Or on “Elvis Presley Blues”: “He put on a shirt his mother made and went on the air…” Most songs are taut, like perfectly made short films (“Red Clay Halo”, for example, and “I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll”), but the final track, the 14-minute “I Dream a Highway”, is what you're here for. Sometimes I'm driving in the middle of nowhere, in complete…

CAPE MOHAIR SOCKS Some people mutter when they get socks for Christmas, but if you've ever done a long hike you'll never turn up your nose at a pair from Cape Mohair! South Africa is the biggest producer of mohair in the world and Cape Mohair has been making socks and clothing from “the noblest of all fibres” for more than 30 years. The advantages of mohair over cotton or synthetic fabrics are legion: By naturally absorbing and releasing moisture, your socks have their own air-cooling system and your feet don't sweat; mohair is soft and doesn't irritate or scratch your skin like some other woollen socks; it's lightweight so you can easily pack three or four pairs on a multi-day hike; it's warm in winter; and it's durable. You're…

St Francis Bay is named after St Francis of Assisi – the name was bestowed in 1575 by a Portuguese seafarer called Manuel de Mesquita Perestrelo, who was tasked with mapping the coastline of southern Africa, noting safe places to anchor. “A storm forced Perestrelo's ship into this bay,” says local resident and history buff David Lundon as we cruise around the canals on his boat, Matilda. “He was impressed by the dunes and named the bay after the patron saint of animals and the environment.” Little did Perestrelo know that the name would stick and 400 years later it would be one of the most popular places for South Africans to spend their summer. Despite being only about 7 km apart, St Francis Bay and Cape St Francis developed…

EAST AFRICA Part1 Sleeping next to a toilet is the kind of thing you'd expect on a rough trip through Africa, but not on the very first night in the City Lodge next to OR Tambo! Earlier that day, we'd flown from King Shaka, where our families had gathered to send us off. I was travelling with my son Ryan, friends Pete Meyer and Paul Kalil, and Paul's son Josh. We had dubbed our month-long adventure “Africa – Wild & Untamed”and I'd picked my travel partners carefully. Pete is an old Durban business associate of mine; I've known him for years. Paul and Josh work for their family packaging business, also based in Durban. I have six children but Ryan is the only one left in South Africa so he…

Windhoek-based photojournalist Le Roux van Schalkwyk visited Botswana for the first time with Bhejane 4x4 Adventures (p 44). He was blown away by the wildlife and the sunsets, and had an “interesting” experience crossing the Khwai River… Which destination did you enjoy the most? The two days next to Moremi Game Reserve. Hippos yawned, kingfishers dived after fish and elephants pulled up water lilies and swung them around to get rid of the soil before they scoffed them down. One afternoon, six bateleurs flew overhead and perched in a nearby tree. I took way too many photos! What surprised you? When I camp, I try to keep meals as simple as possible, but the Bhejane cooks, Comfort Thete and Rooi Jan Seforo, somehow managed to turn out one delicious and…

Long before fossils were found outside Grahamstown in the mid-1980s, Rob Gess was bitten by the palaeontology bug. “I grew up in Makhanda – the new name for Grahamstown – but I often visited my uncle's farm in the Colesberg district of the Karoo. I found a Dicynodon skull there when I was eight years old and I've been hooked ever since.” Dicynodon was a herbivorous animal that was toothless except for two prominent tusks – the name means “two dog teeth”. They thrived in the Upper Permian period around 250 million years ago, but it was fossils from an earlier period – the Late Devonian period around 360 million years ago – that catapulted Rob's career. “I was still in high school when the fossil site at Waterloo Farm…

FOOD French toast tray bake with peanut butter and cinnamon Serves 8 Preparation time 15 minutes Baking time 25 minutes You need • big pat of butter • 1 loaf of white bread • about ½ cup crunchy peanut butter • 6 eggs • 1½ cups full-cream milk • 1 tin condensed milk • ½ teaspoon cinnamon Here's how 1 Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a shallow oven dish with butter. Make peanut butter sandwiches using the entire loaf. Cut off the crusts and cut each sandwich into three fingers. Put the bread fingers in the oven dish with the sliced sides facing up – they should fit snugly. 2 Beat the eggs, milk, ½ cup condensed milk and cinnamon together to make a custard. Pour half of the…

Many travellers stay at Baobab's Farm Cottages near Marnitz on their way to Botswana or back – it's close to the Grobler's Bridge border post and a good overnight spot on the long journey. These travellers now have an activity to do the next morning: the Baobab to Baobab Trail! It's a short route and easy to walk, so young and old can stretch their legs together. Shortly after breakfast, I meet the farm owner, Henk Malan, and his friends Amanda and Johan Kense. As the trail's name suggests, this is baobab country – a row of them welcomes you at the farm gate. They're not giant baobabs (yet). To see one of those, you'll have to visit the Swartwater Baobab nearby – ask Henk about it. But a baobab…

SACRED SURVIVORS Birders tend to get their feathers ruffled when a bird gets a name change, but my favourite names – and the ones I invariably end up using – are those invented by my kids. Meet the rubbish bin crow. Or more accurately, the asblikkraai, as Owen my youngest has dubbed it. His reference was an illustration I did for my field guide for kids, of two African sacred ibises exploring an overflowing bin on rubbish day. Of course, it's an ibis, not a crow, which led to a lengthy explanation of bird classification. Afterwards, Owen revised his name: asblikhadeda! From whence the “sacred” moniker? That's a whole other story. In Ancient Egyptian culture, these naked-headed, frazzle-butted birds were considered the earthly incarnation of Thoth, the god of wisdom…

When I was 24, I flew to Brazil and hopped on a bus bound for Chile. After two days on the road, I got off in Argentina in a city called Mendoza. It was meant to be a temporary stop but I ended up staying two years; learning Spanish, joining the local squash club (I got roundly beaten by legendary Pumas prop Federico Méndez a few times), and eating my way through what felt like an entire herd of cattle. I rented a tiny flat in the centre of town (the neighbours once asked me to turn my music up!) and started teaching English at schools and companies around the city. I was, in true Argentine style, almost perpetually broke. But the good vibes and friendly people more than made…

LETTERS COMPILED BY MARTINETTE LOUW Write to editor@gomag.co.za WINNING LETTER No Photoshop, all natural! In September 2021, I spent a week with Pangolin Photo Safaris at their hotel on the Chobe River in Botswana. We went out every morning and afternoon on a bespoke photography boat, trawling the river. We saw so much wildlife, especially elephants and hippos. Even though we kept our distance, one particular hippo took offence every time our boat passed. It would often mock-charge us in the water. On this occasion, there was an elephant between our boat and the hippo, so I'm not sure whether it was us or the ellie that got on the hippo's nerves. Either way, I thought it made for an interesting photograph. I promise I didn't Photoshop one of the…

Vendetta by Tony Park, Macmillan R350 in bookstores Australian author Tony Park has developed a winning recipe for his thrillers set in Africa: a cast of welldeveloped characters, wildlife crime and high-stakes plots that play out at a fast pace. In Vendetta, we meet captain Sannie van Rensburg from the Hawks again. She's recently moved to the KZN South Coast and after a shootout at a mall, she meets car guard Adam Kruger, who is not what he seems. They end up travelling to a luxury lodge in the Kalahari together, where safari guide Mia Greenaway, also a recurring character in Park's work, is employed. Soon the two women are drawn into a feud between Kruger and his army buddies – they served as paratroopers in Angola during the Border…

PETER FRANKLIN IG: @pdfranklin_ct Canon EOS R6 Canon 100 – 400 mm lens PETER WRITES: I was privileged to travel to Antarctica in 2022. Along the way, we spent several days skirting the coast of South Georgia Island. One afternoon we used inflatable boats to cruise around a bay called Godthul, where we photographed a lone leopard seal. We followed the leopard seal for a short while, but he suddenly swam to a different part of the bay. Then we saw what had drawn him away… Gentoo penguins – a favourite prey – were entering the bay from the open sea, returning to their colony. The porpoising penguins made for great photo opportunities against the late afternoon light. My shutter speed was 1/1 600 second, aperture f8 and ISO 400.…

THE TROUT POD, UPPER OLIFANTS RIVER There's only one road into the Witzenberg Valley above Ceres, and you follow that road to its very end to get to The Trout Pod, a hideaway on the upper course of the Olifants River. The Olifants eventually widens and slows as it flows past Citrusdal and into the Clanwilliam Dam, but up here it's fast and clear and full of brown trout. You're surrounded by mountains: the Groot Winterhoek Wilderness Area to the west, the Koue Bokkeveld to the east, the Witzenberg to the south and the Cederberg to the north. There are no other signs of human habitation to spoil the vibe: The Trout Pod is completely private – you have the views, the birds and your section of river all to…