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South Africa’s number one travel and outdoor lifestyle magazine. We pay our own way and tell it like it is. We drive back roads and speak to real people, giving you practical information about affordable destinations in southern Africa. Each issue is crammed with excellent photography, honest gear reviews and delicious recipes to make at home or in the bundu. Whether you’re looking to escape for a weekend or a month, your journey starts here.

When life gives you limes

BEHIND THE SCENES • Although he’s exchanged the bush of South Africa for the soggy dales of the UK, Patrick Cruywagen still answers the call of the great outdoors at every opportunity. Read his encounter with the wilds of Wales on p 120.

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LETTERS

Q&A

CHECK THIS!

Four Questions • Architect and Obama Foundation leader Wandile Mthiyane walked 1 600 km in 60 days, from Durban to Cape Town, to discover what makes South Africans feel at home.

IN BRIEF

NIGHT WATCH

King of my mountain

Slow down in Springbok • Born and raised in Namaqualand, Rey Janse van Rensburg shares some of his favourite places in and around the region’s unofficial capital.

Memories by moonlight • Listening to his CD collection, Albert du Plessis is instantly transported to a childhood fishing expedition on the Vaal River.

BOOKS AND MUSIC

Jeep tracks to heaven • In the Richtersveld World Heritage Site, adjacent to the national park, you’ll find a silent world of space and mountains, and faint jeep tracks that lead to life-giving springs. Pack your camping gear and come explore.

The place of elephants • Zimbabwe’s Gonarezhou National Park is far away, hard to get to and full of wild animals. But that’s also what makes it one of the most adventurous 4×4 wilderness destinations in southern Africa. Here’s your guide.

Backpack Patagonia • The W Trek is a four-day, 73 km hike in Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park. If you’ve hiked every major trail in Southern Africa and you’re looking for a big international tick on your bucket list, this might be the one…

Torres del Paine with a toddler! • In 2024, Aliza de Vos did the W Trek with her husband Steyn and their 19-monthold son Klein-Steyn - while pregnant with their second child! We asked her about the adventure.

TAKE YOUR PIC

Sunny, with a sprinkling of dogs

Better on the bone • Meat cooked on the bone is where the real flavour lives – try it!

Pack up and go! • Thankfully, the days are long gone of cramming all your holiday luggage into the boot and on the back seat between the squashed kids and Bogo the beagle. Now the range of vehicle and travel accessories is so extensive that all the toys including mom’s and dad’s - can be carried along. Here’s our pick.

Everything keeps going right • It doesn’t matter if you despise the brand, or if you love your Toyota like a brother from another mother, the launch of the new Hilux and the Land Cruiser FJ proved yet again why this motoring giant dominates the local market when it comes to bakkies and overlanding vehicles.

Silence without borders • Shade is a valuable thing on the plains of the Upper Karoo. In Vosburg, there’s more than enough, and very little to disturb the general sense of peace and quiet. Shade and peace-what more do you need?

STAY HERE • HEMELSBREED, GREYTON

GONE BIRDING • Seven lessons that birding has taught me

WITH MY OWN EYES • You don’t have to drive all the way to the Kruger Park to see feasting predators - Pieter Theron just walked around his farm near Fraserburg!

WIN! • A THULE CHASM GEAR CUBE WORTH R1 299!

Here be dragons • We‘re not talking skinks and geckos… No, these are some of South Africa‘s biggest and most impressive...