Table of contents for Feb/Mar 2023 in go!

Hyena on the menu? BARRY HUGO from Kloof writes: We saw this big male leopard with a dead hyena in a tree near Afsaal picnic site in the Kruger Park in October 2022. It didn't appear that the hyena had been eaten and we wondered why the leopard had dragged it up the tree. But when we returned the next morning, we found a half-eaten hyena with a clearly satisfied leopard. Is this normal behaviour? Wildlife expert LD VAN ESSEN says: Predators are opportunistic and won't pass up a meal if it readily presents itself. There's also interspecies competition among different predators, which means that an adult of one species will kill the young or juvenile individuals of another species. And yes, they'll eat them too. As far as Barry's…

DRAKENSBERG Unplug at the Cavern by Jon Minster When I was 10 years old, in 1992, a day at the Cavern went as follows: Wake up filled with excitement; eat all the things for breakfast that you never get at home; meet on the front lawn for the morning walk to somewhere magical like Echo Cave, where the guides serve tea and crunchies out of a backpack; eat lunch (ice cream!); play cricket on the bowling green; have tea and biscuits and play table tennis in the games room; dress up for dinner; and finally, try to keep your eyes open for bingo. In 2022, I returned to the Cavern with my own children aged 7 and 9, and guess what? Everything was exactly the same. It was a privilege…

Looking for a tough day hike close to Cape Town? Duiwelskloof is heavenly but devilishly hard to climb… The Duiwelskloof Trail in the Banhoek Conservancy is tough – there’s no way to sugarcoat it. It’s for people who think that signage and flat paths belong in airports, not in the wilderness. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating – the first 5 km section is doable for the average hiker and makes for a nice adventure. The Banhoek Conservancy is an amalgamation of about 54 km² of private property, roughly between the Jonkershoek Mountains and Plaisir de Merle Wine Estate west of Stellenbosch. When you walk through the entrance gate on Old Bethlehem farm early in the morning, the Groot Drakenstein Mountains tower overhead, dark and foreboding. You'll see a kloof in front…

If you think Hoedspruit is a hot and sleepy slowveld village, you’d be right about one thing: It definitely gets hot! But like a block of butter left on a kitchen counter, all your preconceived ideas will melt away as you explore this haven for wildlife and wildlife lovers alike. So, where does the name come from? In Afrikaans, Hoedspruit directly translates as “hat stream” and unsurprisingly, the origin story concerns a man who lost his hat in a river. His name was Dawid Johannes Joubert and he was the first owner of the farm situated between the Zandspruit and the Blyde River. In 1844, a flash flood dispossessed him of his trusty wide-brim, and he named the farm after this calamity. Not much changed over the next hundred years…

WHAT'S FOR LUNCH? In January 2022, I was driving north from Twee Rivieren along the Auob road in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Arriving at Batulama waterhole, I noticed two cars parked there with the occupants' cameras aimed at the waterhole. I edged closer and saw a leopard was busy drinking. After a short while, the leopard strolled off and disappeared over the dunes. Wow, I thought to myself, how lucky to be in the right place at the right time! Little did I know that my morning was not over yet… Continuing north, about 3 km further on, just before Montrose waterhole, I came across a group of vehicles parked alongside the road. A small herd of springbok were grazing in the riverbed nearby. Mark and Lucia - friends I'd…

Why the move? We wanted to expand the offering of our guiding business, Itchyfeet SA (itchyfeetsa.co.za). We've already established ourselves in the adventure industry with hiking, rock climbing and river rafting and we wanted to add bush safaris to the portfolio. What makes Hoedspruit a lekker place to live? The relaxed lifestyle, the friendly community and all the animals running around. You're bound to see impalas, warthogs, nyalas and mongooses almost every day. Any niggles? Because of the growing popularity of the town, property and rental prices are quite high. And being out of the way, travelling anywhere else in the country can be time-consuming and expensive. Your favourite place to hang out? If not at a poolside braai, you'll most likely find me at the The Thirsty Giraffe Pub…

Monitoring dwindling penguin numbers in Algoa Bay An automated penguin monitoring system has recently been installed on Bird Island in Algoa Bay. Bird Island is home to the third largest African penguin colony in South Africa, but numbers have dwindled by 68% since 2015 - a trend mirrored by the species across the country. This concerning statistic has spurred a group of NGOs, researchers and conservationists to act. They've installed a monitoring system to identify the core threats these birds face at sea, and hopefully mitigate those threats. What will the system measure? Weight. Typically, penguins breed between February and August each year. During this time, they don't stray more than 30 km from their nests, needing to return frequently to relieve their mate of incubation duty and later, feed…

PIT STOP The 258 km-long stretch of the B8 tar road between Grootfontein and Rundu is a marathon to drive, with very little roadside distraction. It's for this very reason that Die Pienk Karavaan (the pink caravan) catches you unawares - a bit like seeing an aardvark trot across the road in broad daylight. The caravan is powder pink, not shocking pink. If you've had your foot flat, you might have to find a spot to turn around. It appears so quickly in the sunbaked bush on the roadside that you'll be long past by the time you've processed what you've seen. It's one of those old caravans used by the road grading teams - they're originally yellow. It was near closing time when I stopped there late in the…

Where did your passion for insects begin? I grew up in Alberton in the 1950s and spent my early years roaming the Transvaal Highveld. I didn't qualify to study at an agricultural college, so I looked for a profession that indirectly involved farming and ended up studying entomology at the University of Natal. I was particularly interested in the biological control of insect pests, and most of my career was involved with such projects. Early allergy problems brought my honeybee research to an abrupt end, but I eventually started my own apiary and took special care not to be stung. After retirement I teamed up with two honeybee conservationists, Jenny Cullinan and Karin Sternberg, and we published original research about the nesting sites of Cape honeybees in pristine fynbos at…

The ocean doesn’t seem to like Hondeklip Bay. Angry waves batter the rocks as if trying to push the land away, back into Namaqualand. In the cemetery, on a sandy hill outside town, you can count how many lives have been taken by those waves. Gravestones are etched with long lists, sometimes five people with the same surname. Father, sons and uncles, all pulled down into the cold, salty darkness. Nearby, on a veranda facing Foxterrier Street, Myrtle Lewis looks towards the horizon. “The sea has changed completely,” she says. “Look, it’s always been like a wild mare, but over the years she’s been biting and kicking even more.” Tannie Myrtle has lived in this house for many years, with the roar of the waves smashing into Spitfire Rock always…

WHEELS The old Ford Everest was a comfortable and capable bakkie-based workhorse that was built locally since 2016. More than 26 800 South Africans bought one - a respectable sales figure, but nowhere near the numbers achieved by its biggest rival, the ubiquitous Toyota Fortuner. Ford South Africa has since turned its attention to building its bread-and-butter star performer - the latest Ranger bakkie - at its massive plant in Silverton, Pretoria, and the new Everest will be imported from Thailand. (It's not only the Ranger that will be built at Silverton; the new VW Amarok will also be assembled there and will share many of the Ford Ranger's components.) What Ford has managed to do with the imported Everest is to completely sidestep the Everest vs Fortuner debate. By…

M y phone beeped last Sunday morning. The message was short: “Hi, what are you doing? Anton.” I was still in bed, listening to Italian opera and looking at my pot plants. “I don’t have to do anything,” I told myself and turned over. Anton is a South African I met a few months ago on the beach at the Mole in Swakopmund. He’s a so-called digital nomad: someone who travels around and works from wherever he finds himself. The Mole attracts tourists and locals - it’s basically Swakop’s version of the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. So, it was no surprise that Anton was there: bare-chested, wearing flip-flops and an exuberant smile. I was at the Mole for a different reason. My therapist had advised me to take walks…

What is the Gravel Corridor? It's a web of gravel roads that can be used as an alternative to the tarred R62.The corridor is suited to SUVs, motorbikes, mountain bikes and gravel bikes. How did it come about? I've been a keen mountain biker for years and I have a mild obsession with maps! Since moving to this area, I've spent many hours exploring the countryside on my bike. Local guest farm owners would constantly reach out to ask for route recommendations for their guests, so I decided to make some maps. About two years ago, an idea started to form: Perhaps I could put together a map of all the mountain-biking routes in the entire area. I had a vision of a Camino of sorts, but for cyclists -…

COLUMN It was a long and frightening afternoon in 1983 as I waited for the security police to come and arrest me. I was eight years old. Earlier that day, my eldest brother Zane and cousin Glynn had dared me to swear at PW Botha over the phone. What I didn’t know was that they’d called the number for the speaking clock, which told you the time, then handed me the landline headset to say, “PW se moer!" I’m not sure whether I wanted to impress them or if I understood at that young age that apartheid was an evil system, but I did swear at the president. Only then did my brother inform me that the security police could tap phones and listen to your conversations. He said he…

I’m on a long dirt road somewhere deep in the Karoo, about halfway between Beaufort West and Fraserburg. The dusty ribbon disappears into a mirage on the horizon. The only movement is my shadow next to me, and the only sound is the crunch of my shoes on the gravel. I haven’t seen another hiker for at least an hour. Am I even going in the right direction? I look at the trail map. It’s so quiet you’d hear a bird’s feather falling to earth - as if all the plants and animals are holding their breath as I approach. Then suddenly it’s as if the Karoo decides it can trust me and the veld comes to life. Cicadas sing, a fly zooms by and an African pipit calls from…

PORTFOLIO Photography has always been an important part of the content mix in this magazine, and while we have access to some of the best professional photographers in the world, we also have a direct line to the most passionate travellers in southern Africa - our readers! That's how we met Louise Victor. She's based in Joburg but visits the Kgalagadi as often as she can."It's the perfect escape from city life,"she says. "The red dunes and dramatic sunrises and sunsets provide a beautiful backdrop to capture the diverse wildlife. Spending time at one of the waterholes is never boring - there are always interesting characters coming and going." Louise's photographs have been published in "Take Your Pic" many times, and when we compiled our last Kgalagadi guide, she was…

Explore Botswana's Makgadikgadi Pans, the Okavango Delta, the great rivers of the old Caprivi Strip in Namibia, and mighty Victoria Falls. Our experts will make sure you're safe, well fed and comfortable at all times. The journey begins with a night of camping under the baobabs on magical Kubu Island, adrift on the vast Makgadikgadi Pans. From there we travel to Maun, with the option of a scenic flight over the Delta (not included in the rate) and up the Okavango Panhandle for two nights on the banks of the river. Marvel at the sunset, tick a Pel's fishing-owl off your list, or cast a line for tiger fish. Next we cross the border into Namibia and spend three nights camping at Ngepi - a famous spot on the Kavango…

There are eight pangolin species in the world - four occur in Asia and four in Africa. The species found in South Africa is the Temminck's ground pangolin. Our pangolins are ground dwellers that mostly live in the savannah grassland and bushveld habitats of northern KZN, Limpopo, the Northern Cape and the Kalahari. They usually roam near a water source and like to hide in rock crevices or old warthog or porcupine burrows. DID YOU KNOW? • The pangolin is the only mammal with scales. When a cub is born, it's only about 15 cm long that's half a ruler. Its scales are soft at birth but harden within days. The cub drinks its mother's milk for three to four months and learns how to hunt ants during this time.…

go! Botswana 2023 is on shelf now. Or buy your copy at (unk) media24shop.com Birds are my passion and they're also my job. I consult on how renewable energy projects like solar and wind farms can minimise their impact on birds. And when I'm not doing that, I'm behind my camera photographing them. Southern Africa's biggest rivers, like the Chobe and Zambezi, are dream destinations for birders and bird photographers. You're almost 100% guaranteed to see an African fish-eagle - I photographed this one on the Zambezi while I was staying at Caprivi Mutoya Lodge in Namibia. Even though fish-eagles are masterful hunters, some of them have also grown accustomed to eating fish that the local fishermen put out for them. On one such occasion, I was lucky to be…