Table of contents for July 2024 in Getaway

We've officially hit the mid-year slump, with chilly weather and seasonal flu keeping us indoors. I’m not saying you should explore if you’re battling the flu and other winter germs — that would be silly - but you shouldn't shut yourself off from the world, either. You can still seek fun in the winter sun. How about a hike in the mountains or drive in the city? You could even tackle a winter road trip with friends and family. At this time of year, many local game reserves have specials ripe for the picking. Is the chance of being rained on while on a game drive not your scene? No worries. Head to KwaZulu-Natal, which, in my opinion, is the perfect place to visit in winter because of its year-round…

WHERE ON EARTH? LA RINCONADA, NEAR A GOLD MINE IN THE PERUVIAN ANDES, IS THE WORLD’S HIGHEST PERMANENT SETTLEMENT ABOVE SEA LEVEL (APPROXIMATELY 5100 M). NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC REPORTED THE 235% INCREASE IN THE PRICE OF GOLD BETWEEN 2001 AND 2009 CAUSED THE POPULATION TO GROW TO 30 000 PEOPLE IN 2009, WHO WITHSTAND THE EXTREME COLD, LOW OXYGEN LEVELS AND LACK OF POTABLE WATER AND SEWAGE IN AN ATTEMPT TO STRIKE IT RICH. High on Gold La Rincanada's economy is based on the production of gold from nearby gold mines. Under the cachorreo system, miners work for 30 days without payment. For one day, they may work for themselves and take as much ore as they want whether that ore contains gold is down to luck.…

BRIEFS First Person I grew up in Limuru, a teaproducing town in central Kenya surrounded by verdant hills and jungles. That's not typical of Kenya: the IUCN classes 80% of its lands as arid and semi-arid (ASAL). When studying community development and project management at Chuka University in Tharaka-Nithi County, a dry, rural area on the eastern slopes of Mount Kenya, I was shocked to meet people struggling with water scarcity because I didn’t think that was how people lived. I fetched water from a nearby river, which often contained lots of silt, colouring it brown. When the river dried up, I had to walk for half a day just for 20 litres of water. In an Environment Day message, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, ‘Water-related diseases are responsible…

One of the claims sees Lambert’s Bay described as the seafood hotspot of the West Coast, while another calls the town the Diamond of the West Coast and a crayfish mecca. The one that made us smile was, ‘Every country in the world has a West Coast, but only South Africa has a Weskus’. They may be onto something. The people in these parts are something else, a delight that makes visiting a pleasure. People aside, there are three superb reasons to visit: peace, birdlife and seafood. You may want to add your own reasons after a weekend here. Like most of the surrounding coastal villages, Lambert’s Bay began as a fishing village but has become one of the major tourist attractions on the West Coast due to its decent…

DESPATCHES Food Chefs John van Zyl of the Melting Pot Seafood in Time Out Market Cape Town and Paul Toussaint from Time Out Market Montreal in Canada collaborated on a nine-course dining experience. The event, which took place in Cape Town, was the fourth edition of Chefs on Tour, Time Out Market’s dinner series that celebrates chefs from different Markets worldwide. They had a few weeks to create a menu seamlessly linking their unique flavours and cultural influences - John’s love of street food inspired by global travel and his South African heritage and Paul’s Haitian roots. PASSION Paul was born in Jacmel, Haiti’s artistic epicentre. He fondly recalls eating produce from local farms, such as malanga, plantains and Scotch bonnet chillies, and says that Haitian cooking celebrates life, culture…

FIELD NOTES Octopus Behaviour National Geographic Explorer and Animal Psychologist Dr Alex Schnell has spent 15 years studying octopus behaviour and has been fascinated with the eight-limbed mollusc since first encountering one in a rock pool when she was five. Their last common ancestor lived 550 million years ago, when acoels split away from other bilaterians (animals symmetrical on two sides, including humans). Yet Dr Schnell and colleagues have witnessed glimmers of intelligence in octopuses we might only expect to see in, say, chimpanzees. ‘To find brainpower in an octopus, which is so distantly related from humans, completely reframes how we view intelligence in the animal kingdom,’ she says. After a mother octopus lays a clutch of eggs, she stops eating and is dead when her eggs hatch. Her offspring…

TRAVEL Motoring As my partner and I navigated the roughly 600 km stretch from our rest camp near Hankey to the Bulungula Eco Lodge, we stopped twice to refuel our old diesel-heavy Land Rover. After the second stop on what was supposed to be an eight-hour drive-that turned into 12 hours behind the wheel and a fair amount of bundu-bashing in the dark-we started discussing the difficulty of even undertaking such a long journey in an electric vehicle. The previous week, a Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV had arrived for us to test and caused an anxious weekend as we looked for a charging station near Montagu. Thankfully, there's a 22-kW DC charging point at the Montagu Country Hotel. Your next best bet on the way back to Cape Town is in…

Ryan Enslin A COLD.WATER HIGH (P46) Ever the global communitarian, Ryan Enslin sleeps with the proverbial fully packed camera bag by his side. Storytelling flows through his veins as he connects with people and their stories. This month, Ryan ventures forth to the hills above Hout Bay in search of a regenerative travel experience that sees him plunge into a mountain pool, bask in a session of sound bathing and walk barefoot in a manicured garden. Alan Valkenburg A DATE WITH HISTORY (P15) If you’d asked Alan what his favourite subject was in school, he’d have had no hesitation in answering: PE or sport. Everything else was secondary, and South African history would have been far down the list But as his hair greys and his back slowly starts to…

Maokeng, or Kroonstad, two hours south of Johannesburg, is one of the Free State’s largest towns. This is Jukskei country - that most South African of sports that is to our country what Gaelic football is to the Irish and baseball is to Americans. The South African Jukskei Association has its headquarters here, and the Vals River flows through the town, providing plenty of sporting opportunities, river-based and otherwise. Fishing and golf enthusiasts will love it here. DAY 1 The town boasts many historical monuments, among them an impressive Sarel Cilliers Monument, which must be the most-photographed spot in the town due to A), its beautiful NG Kerk (Dutch Reformed church) backdrop and B). its location in the town centre ( NG-Kerk-Kroonstad-Moedergemeente-100076870639007/). What makes Kroonstad unique is its graveyard that…

We all love a holiday somewhere new, but over-tourism brings a host of problems: displacement of local residents, negative impact on neighbourhoods and cultural sites, poor tourist behaviour (littering, public urination, drunkenness, noise, damage to public infrastructure), disrespectful behaviour and inappropriate photography. Several cities have come up with solutions, such as Amsterdam, which has banned the construction of new hotels in its latest move to manage mass tourism and preserve the character of the historic Dutch capital. The local government cited the need to improve living conditions for residents and curb the negative effect that too many tourists has on the city. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, an overrun Japanese town has put up a 2.5-m barrier to stop tourists from taking photos of Mount Fuji at…

As the helicopter rises into the air, leaving behind the little but bustling Maun International Airport, the buildings, bars, homes and shacks of town give way to a patchwork of scrub, bushes, trees, cattle kraals and dried-up waterholes. Flying over the Buffalo Fence, built in the '80s to keep buffalo away from domestic cattle, the landscape changes. Game footpaths and animal highways appear, you can see pods of hippos in the waterways, families of elephants stand under trees, and the bright blues and greens of the Okavango begin to appear. All too soon, the outline of a camp takes shape, and as the helicopter descends towards the earth, a vehicle arrives to transport us to luxury. Overlooking a seasonal lagoon with a river along one side and surrounded by lush…

GETTING THERE If travelling from Cape Town, take the N7 towards Clanwilliam. On the approach to Clanwilliam, take the R364 Graafwater/Lambert’s Bay Road to the coast. Once in Lambert’s Bay, follow the signs to the harbour and Bird Island Nature Reserve. The total journey should take no more than four hours. Do This Sandveld Museum This museum houses 15 exhibits, including pieces from the HMS Sybille, a photograph collection, information about the fishing industry and community, a book and bible collection, an archaeological display, a horse mill and farm implements, clothes and embroidery from a bygone era. 24 Church Street, Lambert’s Bay Tuesday to Friday, 10.30 am to 3.30 pm Adults: R20 Farmers Market at Malkoppan This market is on the last Saturday of every month at Malkoppan Farm, opposite…

HIKING AT MONT ROCHELLE NATURE RESERVE From 1 July FRANSCHHOEK Set in the Franschhoek Mountains, the reserve boasts breathtaking views of the Franschhoek Wine Valley and its diverse plant life. Visitors can choose from various trails that cater to all fitness levels, ranging from leisurely hourlong walks to challenging day hikes. Only a one-hour drive from Cape Town, it is a must-visit destination for hikers and nature enthusiasts. With wellmarked paths and stunning natural scenery, it promises an unforgettable outdoor experience. Tickets: from R70 webtickets.co.za ABSA RUN YOUR CITY DURBAN 10K 7 July SUN COAST CASINO PRECINCT, MASABALALA YENGWA AVENUE (MY), DURBAN This race, now in its seventh year, is a unique way to explore the city on foot. The flat-and-fast route attracts local and international elite athletes and enables…

Africa has a few spots on the world’s 2024 best-of lists, from restaurants to hotels and lodges, as is only right and proper given the continent’s outstanding attractions. Each year, in the northern hemisphere's spring, the editors of Condé Nast Traveller publish their Hot List of new spaces. This year, the list features restaurants from Cape Town to Milan to Ho Chi Minh City. Yes, the Mother City, where Nikkei (nikkei.co.za) gets the nod, takes its place among the world's 29 hottest restaurants. Nikkei, of course, is the name for the delicious blend of Japanese and Peruvian cuisine, with the Japanese bringing ingredients like miso, ginger, soy, wasabi and rice vinegar, and the Peruvians adding aji, Andes potatoes and corn. Executive Chef Justin Barker marries South American spices and ingredients…

STILL FLYING Dubai is planning the expansion of its Dubai World Central - Al Maktoum International Airport — the aim is to create the world’s largest airport, able to serve up to 260 million passengers annually. For context, this is more than four times the population of South Africa. The price tag put on the project is a hefty $35 billion, and it will eventually replace the current Dubai International Airport. Covering more than 69 km2, it will have five parallel runways and four terminals with 400 gates, and will be able to handle more than 13 million tons of cargo a year. Once phase one is finished — in 2034 — the airport is expected to accommodate up to 150 million passengers annually. This monumental project, led by Sheikh…

Hiking The Fish BY HENK BLANCKENBERG AND LIZET MEYER Struik, R200 The Fish River Canyon is one of those places firmly at the top of hikers’ bucket lists. But before we get into that, if you don’t intend to add hiking boots to your wardrobe, you can still be stunned into silence by its extraordinary landscapes. Various accommodations spread along the canyon offer breathtaking panoramas; there are several get-out-the-car-andmarvel viewpoints; you can drive to Swaelbron lookout; you can hang out in the Ai-Ais hot springs. You can also do short day hikes into the canyon but get a guide. This book is for those of sturdy stock who like a bit of dust on their boots and the pull and stretch of muscle. The five-day Fish River Canyon Trail is…

I don’t know about you, but one aspect of travelling makes me nervous. No, I'm not talking about the number of things that could go wrong while journeying from place to place — for that, I put my trust and faith in a much higher power and those steering the vehicle in which I find myself. I’m talking about security checks. Yep, going through them can get me so rattled that I’ve missed the entrance to get in line for one by a matter of minutes on more than one occasion. Perhaps it's because of the horror stories I’ve heard of people who’ve unwittingly had items placed in their luggage (some not by strangers) with the worst possible results. Or maybe I’ve binge-watched far too many episodes of Border Patrol…