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DON'T MISS OUR NEXT ISSUE! The December/January magazine will be on sale at retailers from 21 November 2025. Years ago, in a previous career and another life, I moved to the US with my family and lived and worked in Washington DC for three years. We regularly shopped at our local Costco supermarket (a bit like Makro, but on steroids). I remember you could buy any fruit or vegetable available to mankind, imported from all over the world, regardless of the season: giant bananas, unblemished peaches, blood-red tomatoes… Everything looked beautiful but tasted like flour mixed with the wind. The produce was cultivated (and treated) to stay “fresh” for weeks on a container ship. In a consumer world where everything must always be available, things had lost their taste. I…

Every month our experts answer your questions about birds, bugs and beasts. Send your photos and queries to editor@gomag.co.za Strange stripes CHARLENE PATTERSON from Ermelo writes: I saw this female kudu in October 2024 on the S41 gravel road near Satara in the Kruger Park. Apparently, she's seen frequently in the area and doesn't seem to be part of a herd. It was the first time I'd seen a kudu with such unique stripes – what causes this colouring? Wildlife expert LDVAN ESSEN says: The white spots might be the result of a condition called leucism, which is caused by a recessive allele that leads to low levels of pigment in the body. Leucism occurs in grades of severity – the animal can be nearly all white or just have…

Precious Bane by Jim White & Trey Blake US$10 from bandcamp.com I've been a fan of Jim White since 2001, when he made his name with a standard-bearing album in the Americana (aka alternative country) genre, called No Such Place. After that album, however, he drifted back into relative obscurity. On this album, he collaborates with an even more obscure artist called Trey Blake. She has a voice that reminds me of Portishead's Beth Gibbons at times, or Patti Smith. The songs are all long, meandering stories, sometimes apparently without a point. Indeed, it's the wandering that seems to interest Jim White the most.“I fell off the bridge, I remember that day well,” he starts on the opener,“Ghost Song” – a line that's typical of the journey that follows. On “One…

Creamy Bloody Mary pasta Serves 4 Preparation time 30 minutes Cooking time 20 minutes You need 100g diced bacon 2 tablespoons olive oil 8 chicken thigh fillets, each cut into 3 pieces salt and pepper, to taste 1 onion, chopped 2 celery stalks, finely chopped 2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced 1 cup passata 1 shot of vodka (optional) ½ cup cream a few drops of hot sauce (likeTabasco) 1 teaspoonWorcestershire sauce or to taste 300g pasta (we used bucatini)  12 basil leaves, shredded ⅓ cup grated parmesan Here's how Season the fillets with salt and pepper and add them to the bacon in the pan. Fry until the chicken starts to brown. Make sure the celery is cooked through. At the same time, cook the pasta in salted water…

It's a cloudy, rainy morning when I get my gear together for my first dive at Sodwana Bay, in the far north of KZN. The weather may be moody, but my spirits are high. I've heard good stories about this place. We launch the boat through the surf and finally I roll backwards into the ocean. As I descend towards the reef, my eyes grow wider behind my mask – there's coral everywhere! Goldies – shimmering orange fish – flit around a huge green tree coral while other corals shelter an array of creatures, from psychedelic nudibranchs to a honeycomb eel peeking curiously from its crevice. Sodwana is just south of the Mozambican border. It's renowned for its rich marine biodiversity and world-class scuba-diving. Sodwana Bay National Park is part…

HAVE YOU SEEN SOMETHING AMAZING? Send your series of photos and a short description of the sighting to toast@gomag.co.za. You could win a Thule Subterra PowerShuttle bag! The Thule Subterra PowerShuttle bag is ideal for people who travel with a lot of tech. It's a sturdy carrier made from durable materials and is perfectly sized (21 x 7 x 14,5cm) to organise everything from cables, earphones and adaptors to power banks and compact external hard drives. There's also an easily accessible pass-through slot that allows you to charge your device in the exterior slip pocket from a power bank inside the bag. With the Subterra PowerShuttle, you'll never have to search for a single cord again! For more information about this and other great gear for your active lifestyle, visit…

ANSWER #7 Argh, come on! This LBJ could be any bird… Let's take it slowly and systematically. The bird looks quite comfortable in the sand, so it's probably some kind of ground dweller and not a tree percher. And the bill? Well, it falls somewhere between the strong, triangular bill of a seed eater, and the thinner bill of an insect eater. Correct, this species eats seeds and insects. Its plumage also suits its orange surroundings. What else? A few fine stripes, a long(ish) tail, a big head, a horizontal posture. Go get your bird guide and start paging. Very few birds are as uniformly coloured as this species. And there's only one that is this rich, orange-brown: the dune lark of the Namib. This plain little bird is very…

We hear you're a bit of an archaeology fan… I grew up in George and the town museum was my favourite place. I spent many afternoons there with my dad, exploring the exhibitions. It's wonderful how archaeologists can bring the stories of long-gone people and places back to life. I'd love to visit Türkiye one day, specifically the neolithic settlement of Göbekli Tepe and the underground city of Derinkuyu. Ethiopia's rock-hewn churches at Lalibela are also high on the list, as is the Iron Age village of Chysauster in England. Is there a story Tim told you that didn't make the cut? He mentions his run-in with a herd of elephants, but he also had another exciting animal encounter… He was doing research in Botswana and had a bit of…

Picture a quiet, misty morning in the dunes of the West Coast, with the ocean rumbling nearby. A soft, mournful whistle, repeated every few seconds, breaks the silence. You might be inclined to imagine the sound coming from a bird, but no, what you're hearing is the characteristic call of one of South Africa's strangest creatures: the rain frog. These grumpy-looking frogs with rotund bodies and short, clumsy limbs live below ground, where they absorb moisture from the soil or from dew cast by morning mist. As the name implies, the frogs generally only come to the surface after heavy rain and are seldom observed otherwise. Classified in the genus Breviceps, a total of 19 different rain frog species have been documented in South Africa. They occur in a diverse…

What's your earliest memory of the railway? When I was about five years old, I remember standing in the lounge of our little railway house in Estcourt, KZN, where my dad worked as an electrician. I'm leaning on the cold stone of the sill and I've pulled the net curtain over my head to clear the view. I'm watching a black steam locomotive, in the grey light before the sun comes up, shunting goods trucks. Puffing dark smoke from the chimney, hissing out jets of steam near the front wheels, she pulls a line of trucks forward to the left, past the points, then pushes them back. In the book, you blend your memories with a historical look at the country's railway system. How did you strike the balance? My…

Have you always wanted to show off your photos in print? Give it a shot! Send your best wildlife, travel, landscape and macro pics to Toast Coetzer at takeyourpic@gomag.co.za. WINNING PHOTO DIETER WELP Nikon Z6 III Nikon Z 400mm lens DIETER WRITES: During a visit to the Berry Islands in the Bahamas, I noticed some activity in one part of the bay where birds were diving for fish. Tracking the gulls was difficult – it was a hit-and-miss affair. After a few attempts, the gull I was tracking dived, emerged from the water and took off almost immediately. A second or two later, it seemed to shake off the remaining water on its wings – that was the moment when I got my shot. TOAST SAYS: I love the energy in…

Polar bears are 500kg-plus beasts and the undisputed apex predators of the Arctic. Accidentally bumping into one could mean a rather messy demise. I have been to Greenland a few times. Back in 2003, I was invited to cover an adventure race called the Arctic Team Challenge. It was a tough assignment, working 23-hour days to keep pace with the week-long event. I don't think I ever really recovered from that period of total immersion in Greenland's ice and snow. It also took me a while to recover from the solid drinking session I enjoyed with then CEO of Visit Greenland (their tourism agency), Anders Stenbakken, a Dane who took a liking to me. It was the start of a friendship that resulted in me being invited back to Ammassalik…

Where have you been? What have you seen? Write to editor@gomag.co.za WINNING LETTER Smile, you're on camera In March this year, we travelled to Mabuasehube on the Botswana side of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. We were camping at Mpayathutlwa Pan with our friends when a pride of young lions showed up. The grass was high after good rain and the lions were obscured. One of the young males was playing with something – at first we thought it might be the tail of a wildebeest from a kill. But then we saw that it was a camera! We're not sure where he'd found it. The lion eventually dropped the camera in the road and we retrieved it. We tried to activate the SD card, but it seemed to be corrupted…

The Oom – The Biography of John Whitmore by Miles Masterson, self-published R495 at all good surf shops and johnwhitmorebook.com Any South African who has surfed or ridden a bodyboard, sailed a Hobie cat or free-dived in the ocean, partly has John “The Oom” Whitmore to thank. This meticulously researched and well-told book is not just a biography of a fascinating sportsman and entrepreneur; it's in many ways a history of South African beach culture. Whitmore was not the first South African to ride a wave standing up (although he did pioneer several spots including Elands Bay, Llandudno and Outer Kom – without a wetsuit, nogal), but thanks to a combination of happenstance and perseverance he had an outsize influence on the history of surfing in South Africa and beyond.…

“The whole idea that history ‘began’ here in 1652 is nonsense,” says Dr Tim Forssman, who has been trying to fill in what he and the team of archaeologists and historians he works with call “a thousand-year gap” in our understanding of southern African history. “The story that previous generations were taught at school – that trade began when Europeans first rounded the Cape – discounts a rich and complex history, especially here in the Limpopo River Valley.” The collection of stone tools, tiny beads and pottery shards on the workbench in front of him all testify to this. As an Associate Professor at the University of Mpumalanga, Tim says his love for archaeology was sparked as a teenager when an uncle introduced him to the pseudoscientific writings of Zecharia…

The Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition is one of the world's most prestigious platforms for budding nature photographers under 17. Run by the Natural History Museum in London, under the Wildlife Photographer of the Year umbrella, it celebrates creativity, technical skill and a deep connection to the natural world. Young entrants submit their best wildlife images across various categories, with strict ethical guidelines ensuring that animals are never harmed or manipulated for a shot. Judges assess entries on originality, composition and storytelling power, and the winning photos are showcased in an international exhibition, featured in magazines – like this one! – and shared online. In an age of biodiversity loss and climate change, the competition is more relevant than ever. It not only nurtures photographic talent but also…

On the second-last afternoon of our holiday, Marissa and I decided to head out on the Red Rocks Loop (S52). It's a longish route to the south-west of Shingwedzi rest camp; on the return, you can drive along the course of the Shingwedzi River. It was a cold, windy afternoon and our children chose to stay in the camp. Just past the turn-off to the Tshanga viewpoint, we came across a young leopard. We watched as it crawled into a storm water pipe under the road. The leopard had barely disappeared into the pipe when a porcupine peeled out the other side! A game of cat and“mouse”followed for about an hour. The leopard was young and inexperienced, and the porcupine was quite big. It looked like they were doing the…

TRUE BLUE INDIGOBIRD One of the main reasons we moved from Gauteng to the West Coast was to give our kids more freedom to roam. You know, being able to ride their bikes in the street and all that? In the estate where we live in Langebaan, this actually happens. Every afternoon after school, the kids jump on their bikes and go riding. After a while, when they get hungry and the sun gets too hot, they head to the nearest house to watch TV. The most direct route happens to run through my office. I often work to a chorus of “Hallo Oom”, “Hallo Oom” as the kids file past my computer. But there's always that one laaitie who makes himself too comfortable. “What are you doing, Oom? Can…

In Namibia, it often feels like you're the first person to travel through a landscape, that you've been transported to another, wilder era. If exploring the distant parts of our neighbouring country has always been on your bucket list, then this Kunene Region Photography Tour is for you. Expert guide Douwe Vlok from Heuningland Tours will take a group of 16 people on a self-drive, 4x4 trip of the region. Toast Coetzer will act as your photography guide, offering advice and tips on how to improve your photography skills (all cameras welcome, even smartphones). You're guaranteed to take more than a few pics that will impress the people back home. The adventure kicks off at Spitzkoppe – home of the famous Rock Arch – and from there we will traverse…

The Swartberg Pass, built between 1883 and 1886, is the masterwork of road builder and engineer Thomas Bain. It connects Oudtshoorn in the Little Karoo with Prince Albert in the Great Karoo – and it's the only way to reach the access road into Gamkaskloof, or Die Hel. (You can drive the Swartberg Pass in any vehicle, but you need a 4x4 to get down into Gamkaskloof.) This is the view looking down the pass on the Oudtshoorn side. In the 2025 edition of go! Karoo, you can read all about the Gamkaskloof Trail – a slackpacking hike through the kloof – and you can travel along Route 62 with Chris Marais and Julienne du Toit, visiting some of the best guest farms and other stayovers from Montagu to De…