The Intrepid Explorer magazine - Autumn 2013

Explorer

Autumn 2013

The Intrepid

Live the life of Adventure

ON SAFARI WITH SPUD An African odyssey

GREY MATTERS

Sharon Pincott and the President’s Elephants

SURVIVETHIS! AMBUSHED in the amazon Davey du Plessis’ rumble in the jungle

SIR RANULPH RETURNS

Antarctic winter of his discontent NEW adventures with our Intrepid Contributors

AJ Calitz’s top extreme trail runs

Goodbye, Tribute to Mama Afrika, “Mashozi” Holgate

GAIL

COOKING ON THE GO

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• Braam Malherbe • Ryan Sandes • Ronnie Muhl

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contents 04

Foreword

Andre Labuschaigne, Cape Union Mart CEO

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Editor’s Note The real meaning of adventure

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READERS’ LETTERS &

COMPETITION

Win a trip worth R15 000 with The Intrepid Explorer and Jock Safari Lodge

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TRUE UNSUNG HERO A tribute to Gill “Mashozi” Holgate, the Mama Afrika of Adventure

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ON SAFARI WITH SPUD

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THE ICE MAN RETURNETH Angus Begg tries to work out the complex Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who recently had to cut short his winter Atlantic crossing due to frostbite

John van de Ruit experiences an African odyssey on the Chobe and Zambezi rivers

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WOULD YOU LIKE SOME

ICE, SIR?

Graham Howe visits the impressive new memorial to the ill-fated ‘Queen of the Seas’, the Titanic

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AMBUSHED IN THE

AMAZON

How Davey du Plessis’ conservation adventure turned into a perilous escape from bandits

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FROM THE ULTIMATE

BRAAI MASTER

Celebrity chef Justin Bonello shares his novel ‘food on the move’: a pit-oven braai and an engine stew

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C on ten ts

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ON THE WILD SIDE News from the outdoors

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HIT THE ROAD, JACK The Big 5 – catch a sighting of the latest motor vehicles

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RELENTLESS QUEST If you have big dreams, nothing is impossible, says extreme adventurer Braam Malherbe

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TRIAL BY TRAIL Could you survive AJ Calitz’s pick of extreme trail runs?

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MAGNIFICENT

OBSESSION

Roy Watts tracked down Sharon Pincott, saviour of the Presidential Elephants of Zimbabwe

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FEAR & LOATHING IN

MOZAMBIQUE

It’s misdirection and misadventure in Maputo for Ben Trovato

LIFE THROUGH THE LENS In this edition, we feature the photographic masterpieces of Barry J. Brady

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Cape Union Mart

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Store Listings

TAKE A DEEP BREATH Trail runner Ryan Sandes turns to free diving to increase his lung capacity

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TO THE ROOF OF THE

AMERICAS

Ronnie Muhl and his fellow intrepid climbers take on Aconcagua

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WINTER COMFORT Evan Haussmann shows you how to dress for just about any cold, wet and windy environment

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Last Laugh Stir-fried spider and other delicacies

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Last Word We get to the ‘inside centre’ of Springbok captain, Jean de Villiers

The Intrepid Explorer issue 2

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Explorer The Intrepid

Live the life of Adventure

Publishing Editor ROBBIE STAMMERS robbie@intrepidexplorer.co.za Advertising Sales Director KEITH HILL keith@intrepidexplorer.co.za Art Director STACEY STORBECK NEL indiodesign@mweb.co.za Chief Sub-Editor TANIA GRIFFIN Advertising Sales Executive TONY DIEKMANN Editorial Contributors Graham Howe, Braam Malherbe, Kingsley Holgate Ryan Sandes, Jacques Marais, Evan Haussmann Davey du Plessis, John van de Ruit, Jean de Villiers Angus Begg, Roy Watts, Ben Trovato Ronnie Muhl, Justin Bonello, Barry J Brady

foreword Andre Labuschaigne

C

ape Union Mart’s first edition of The Intrepid Explorer was extremely well received by our customers. So much so that the magazine disappeared from the shelves so quickly that we had to order in extra!

We have had incredible feedback on the content, and our customers loved discovering more about the South African men and women doing amazing things in The Great Outdoors, as well as the funky gear they use to assist them on their adventures.

This next edition of The Intrepid Explorer promises equally rich content on a diverse range of topics. Readers can look forward to more from the author of the immensely popular Spud series, John van de Ruit, as he disappears into Africa; readers can further hone their campfire cooking with a series of mouth-watering recipes from Justin Bonello.

We also introduce you to Andre Calitz – a K-Way sponsored athlete who is tearing up trail races all over the country. With the Hi-Tec Puffer, K-Way Platteklip Charity Challenge and Red Bull LionHeart (fastest man up and down the iconic Lion’s Head) conquered in 2012, Andre is looking forward to an even more successful 2013.

Cape Union Mart is very proud to chronicle the expeditions and achievements of our country’s outdoorsmen and women, environmentalists and extreme athletes – those who have been shopping with us for years, and who rely on us for all their gear and apparel.

Here’s hoping that you only spend more time outdoors.

Yours in adventure,

Photography Cover – Chris Winter Julia Clarence, Angus Begg, Graham Howe, Jacques Marais, Davey du Plessis, Sharon Pincott, Ross Holgate, Barry J Brady, Natural History Unit Africa Shutterstock Back Office Support and Accounts Solutions BOSS (PTY) Ltd Managing Director: Rita Sookdeo Account managers: Lucindi Coetzer, Ohna Nel IT Support Christo Engelbrecht Cape Union Mart www.capeunionmart.co.za Group Marketing Manager: Evan Torrence Marketing manager: Nick Bennett Marketing department: Odile Hufkie, Penny Parker Tramaine Hartzenberg, Anja Morkel Printer Creda Communications Distribution Universal Mail Link Special thanks to: Greg James and the entire Sagitta Group team.

Sabrina Hill, Jenneth Pillay PUBLISHED BY

Managing Director: Robbie Stammers Physical Address: Block K, Steenberg Office Park 1 Silvermoon Close, Tokai, Cape Town 7945 Telephone: +27 (0) 21 702 7880 Postal Address: PO Box 20, Constantia 7848 Web Address: www.intrepidexplorer.co.za

Andre Labuschaigne Chief Executive Officer Cape Union Mart

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No article or any part of any article may be reproduced without the prior written consent of the publisher. The information provided and opinions expressed in this publication are provided in good faith, but do not necessarily represent the opinions of Cape Union Mart (PTY) Ltd, Insights Publishing or the editor. Neither this magazine, the publisher or Cape Union Mart can be held legally liable in any way for damages of any kind whatsoever arising directly or indirectly from any facts or information provided or omitted in these pages, or from any statements made or withheld by this publication.

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Our Intrepid Explorer

contributors

Jacques Marais is a pro photographer/author who regularly contributes to a wide selection of premium adventure, travel and outdoor magazines, both in SA and abroad. He has shot and authored numerous outdoor titles and is currently working on An Adrenalin Guide to southern Africa. His short stories feature in an adventure anthology and during the acclaimed Red Bull Illume Image Quest sports photography awards, Jacques was honoured as a TOP 50 finalist from a field of well over 20 000 international shooters. Most recent honours include both a Gold and Silver Award in the respected SONY Profoto Awards.

Davey du Plessis is driven by his quest to make a positive difference in the world, through working with individuals and groups and inspiring others to explore their unique gifts and fulfil their optimal potential. Davey chooses to utilise adventure as a source of experiences which can be shared with others as an example of what’s possible, and to demonstrate the unlimited potential of the human spirit. He is passionate about the environment and animal kingdom, and his choice to follow a plant-based diet reflects his belief that all life forms should be respected and protected.

Ben Trovato is working on many things, but mainly on a way to spend winters in Durban and summers in Cape Town. A print journalist and television producer by trade, he has travelled to hundreds of countries, slept with thousands of women and written millions of words. Currently skating on thin ice as a Sunday Times columnist, he can often be found surfing instead of meeting his deadlines. He has written 10 books, although you wouldn’t think so if you had to see his living conditions. Trovato lives alone with two regrets and a hangover.

Graham Howe is one of South Africa’s most experienced lifestyle journalists; he has contributed hundreds of food, wine and travel features to South African and British publications over the last 25 years. When not exploring the Cape Winelands, this adventurous globetrotter reports on exotic destinations around the world as a travel correspondent – and for the weekly travel show on SAfm.

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The Intrepid Explorer issue 2

Roy Watts is one of South Africa’s top adventure and travel writers – always seeking the ultimate sunset, the definitive bush experience and the perfect lodge.

Braam Malherbe is an extreme adventurer, conservationist, youth developer, motivational speaker, television presenter and author of the best-seller, The Great Run. He has been involved in counter-poaching operations as an honorary ranger for SANParks, co-founded the Table Mountain National Park’s Volunteer Firefighting Unit, and is actively involved in numerous non-governmental organisations and conservation groups.

Malherbe has run the length of the Great Wall of China as well as the entire coastline of South Africa, and has taken part in an unassisted ski race to the South Pole.

Ronnie Muhl is the managing director for Adventures Global. He is an athlete, adventurer, author and inspirational speaker who hold talks both locally and internationally. In recent years, Muhl has climbed Mount Everest thrice, twice leading international teams to the Roof of the World.

In 2007, he became the seventh South African to summit via the northeast ridge.

Angus Begg likes to giggle, but he is serious about his craft. A CNN award-winning television producer, he was the first South African broadcast journalist to report from the chaos of Somalia in 1992. It was these episodes in Somalia and Rwanda that took Begg the roundabout route to the fields of travel and environment, in which he now writes, produces and photographs. He has gone on to cover every aspect of travel – whether rural communities clashing with wildlife, tracking the Serengeti migration, hiking Table Mountain or searching for that perfect sauvignon blanc.

Kingsley Holgate is a South African explorer, humanitarian and author. A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, he has been described as “the most travelled man in Africa”. Holgate has written several books about his expeditions and fronted several National Geographic documentaries.

John van de Ruit is the author of the highly successful Spud series of novels, of which more than half a million copies have been sold in South Africa alone. They’re laugh-out-loud tales of life at boarding school, told through the diary entries of John “Spud” Milton. Spud, the first in the series, broke all sales records for a debut novel in South Africa. Van de Ruit is now The Intrepid Explorer’s very own ‘Bill Bryson of the Bush’, whereby he takes us on wily adventures visiting some of the finest bush lodges that southern Africa has to offer.

Ryan Sandes is a South African trail runner. In 2010, he became the first competitor to win all four of the 4 Deserts races, each a six- to seven-day, 250-kilometre, self-supported footrace through the Atacama Desert in Chile, the Gobi Desert in China, the Sahara Desert in Egypt, and Antarctica.In addition to trail running, he is an active mountain biker, paddler and surfer.

Evan Haussmann is an award-winning copywriter, travel writer, gear blogger and consumate photographer. In his career he’s searched for lost tribes in the Amazon, sailed a leaky dhow through the Querimbas, ridden dogsleds in the Arctic circle, hitched a ride on a Harley around Australia and sought the source of the Zambezi. He lives in Kommetjie but can’t think of anything else to write about himself right now because the surf is perfect and there’s nobody else in the water...

Justin Bonello is a South African filmmaker, chef and television personality best known for starring in his own cooking and travel show, Cooked, since 2006 and more recently the popular show, The Ultimate Braai Master. He has combined his three favourite things – southern Africa, food and friends – into his daily work.

Andre “AJ” Calitz is a trail runner who has made his mark on the SA trail running scene, setting course records at almost every race. He came to trail running in 2011 with a strong pedigree and has been a multiple All Africa Triathlon Champion, South African Duathlon and Triathlon Champion and South African Cycling Champion.

He also holds silver medals for Two Oceans and Comrades finishes. As of 2013, he is a full-time athlete. Watch this guy: AJ runs for K-Way.

editor’s note The real meaning of adventure The word ‘adventure’ has different meanings for different people.

Generally, adventure implies thrills and excitement, risks and dangers as well as unexpected and extraordinary experiences.

Wow, if that is the case, then it certainly has been an adventure getting The Intrepid Explorer off the ground!

We held the first-issue launch in mid-December at the Canal Walk Cape Union Mart, where friends, family, our intrepid contributors, advertisers, the Cape Union Mart team and our game lodge distribution partners all partook in a very memorable evening. A special mention goes to the incredibly supportive Cape Union Mart chief executive Andre Labuschaigne, marketing director Evan Torrance, and marketing manager Nick Bennett – it’s a pleasure working with you all.

Following the launch, The Intrepid Explorer flew off the shelves at Cape Union Mart stores quicker than we could shout “Restock!” and we ended up having to do an extra print run to keep up with the demand. What a pleasure of a problem.

Subsequently, I have had the great privilege of meeting up with two of my heroes who fully embrace the spirit of life’s journey with vigour: Sir Richard Branson himself (whom you can see pictured left with a copy of our magazine) and Kingsley Holgate (above) who, I am overjoyed to report, will be working closely with us on many more Intrepid magazines to come and who in this edition has honoured us with his own penned tribute to Gail “Mashozi” Holgate after her sad passing in December last year.

I am also thrilled that our intrepid explorers and writers from the launch edition have returned: Graham Howe, Angus Begg, Evan Haussmann, Braam Malherbe, Ryan Sandes, Ronnie Muhl, John van de Ruit and Justin Bonello are all again involved in our adventure. I am proud to welcome Ben Trovato, Davey du Plessis, AJ Calitz, Jacques Marais and Barry J. Brady to ‘La Familia’ and certainly hope we can share in more of your escapades in future.

We were overwhelmed with the emails and feedback on the magazine, and the number of competition entries was quite phenomenal – we had thousands!

Congrats to the winners of last edition’s competitions (you know who you are) and I urge readers to enter again, as we have even more goodies up for grabs – including an amazing trip to Jock Safari Lodge, worth R15 000.

From this second edition of The Intrepid Explorer, we will be going digital (cue trumpets here!) and our magazine will be available via Apple’s App Store for a mere R2! Go to www.intrepidexplorer.co.za for more information or visit our Facebook page by typing in – yes, you guessed it – The Intrepid Explorer. Please follow us on both platforms, as there will be LOADS of extra footage in photos, interviews and video compilations – all available from the end of April.

With all adventures, there comes a certain amount of stress, strain and self-sacrifice for the ultimate goal – and with that in mind, I need to thank my brother-in-arms, Keith Hill. It is not easy starting something from scratch, burning the midnight oil and sweating big bullets to make something become a sum of all its parts. I appreciate it, boet! The same shout-out goes to my incredible artist, art director Stacey Storbeck-Nel and wordsmith, Tania Griffin.

Like most people, we have been through the School of Hard Knocks and the University of Life and I could not be working with a better team in our attempt to peak our own publishing Everest with such a small squad and even smaller resources. But I guess one does not merely have to be an adrenalin junkie or a thrill seeker to enjoy adventures; all you have to do is take that first step, and just where that will lead you – well, no one truly knows. I suppose that’s why it’s called adventure?

In the wise words of Mark Twain, “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Until next time, live the life of adventure!

Robbie Stammers Publishing Editor

The Intrepid Explorer issue 2

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win big

with The Intrepid Explorer and Jock Safari Lodge, worth R15 000!

Two lucky readers of The Intrepid Explorer can win a two-night luxury holiday at the Shamwari Group’s Jock Safari Lodge

J

ock Safari Lodge is nestled where the Mitomeni and Biyamiti rivers flow as one, situated in the southwestern corner of the Kruger National Park.

It offers 6 000 hectares of exclusive traversing rights in an area of the park that is celebrated for its big five game viewing. The legendary Jock of the Bushveld served as inspiration for the aptly namely Jock Safari Lodge. This true tale, penned by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, highlights canine devotion and relates stories of African adventure which have excited exploring travellers.

Carefully screened by lush trees and reed walls, the 12 individual thatched rooms at Jock Safari Lodge impart a sense

of aloneness and oneness with the landscape, surrounded by African Jackalberry trees – creating the feeling of utter seclusion.

The winners will be accommodated in one of the luxury suites, with their own plunge pool overlooking the riverbed. Included in the prize are all game drives as well as meals and drinks on the game drives.

All you need to do is send the answer to this simple question, along with your personal details and contact number, to The Intrepid Explorer editor at robbie@intrepidexplorer.co.za.

Q: Who was the owner of the legendary dog, Jock, after whom the lodge is named?

Competition rules The competition closes on 16 June and the winner will be notified by telephone and/ or email. This prize is not transferable or redeemable for cash. All other drinks, spa treatments and any extras are for your own account. Transport and transfer costs, as well as gate fees to enter Kruger National Park, are not included in the prize either.

Winners must use their prize before the end of September 2013.

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The Intrepid Explorer issue 1

ExplorerLetters to the Ed The Intrepid

Live the life of Adventure

When we first asked for letters to the editor, I never quite expected the overwhelming response we got from all over southern Africa – it was staggering! A very big heartfelt thank-you to everyone who took the time to send us lovely praise for the magazine; ideas for future editions; and even readers’ features with photographs of their own intrepid travels – some of which we are even going to publish in future editions.

Please keep those emails coming on robbie@intrepidexplorer.co.za as we want to hear more of your fun outings and humorous adventures. We have great prizes up for grabs, including 5YO Three Ships Whisky and another R500 Cape Union Mart gift voucher!

These are the two winning readers’ letters from the first edition: Hi Robbie, I was really excited about the launch of your new The Intrepid Explorer magazine.

The title reminded me of an adventure on which 13 of my friends and I embarked in December, and made me feel quite nostalgic! We backpacked through East Africa by public transport (12 000 kilometres of it!) all the way back to South Africa, on a shoestring budget of around R13 000 including absolutely everything – for almost five weeks.

We are all students and members of a hiking club at Stellenbosch University, called the Berg-en-Toerklub, which is incidentally celebrating its 85th birthday this year. The celebrations will be held at the club’s new mountain hut in the Hermanus mountains which was completed last year after our old hut – which was built through the blood, sweat and tears of members in the 1970s – sadly burnt down.

The club organises day hikes and weekend hikes almost every weekend in and around Stellenbosch, as well as five long backpack tours each year all around the country, with between 30 and 120 (yes, you read that correctly!) hikers per tour. We have loads of traditions, stories and history: I’m sure there’s something that could be of entertainment to your readers.

We’re all just huge fans of the outdoors – and if we can promote that, we’re happy!

Hi Robbie, I picked up a copy of The Intrepid Explorer in a waiting room last week – what a great read!

I will make a plan to obtain each issue.

On seeing your request for letters about adventures, I just had to send in this one. I bought a pair of K-Way shoes years ago (maybe six, I can’t recall) and since then they have been all over with me. They started as work shoes and then got put onto travel duty.

Since then they have been to the USA (Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Maine), Namibia, Kgalagadi (twice) and many outings to local 4x4 trails where they work hard running up and down, guiding other drivers.

Two weeks ago, they were my shoes of choice for a work team-building paintball outing, and while rapidly backing out of the line of fire, I tripped on a tree root and the rubber grip was ripped off the sole. Not to worry: a spot of duct tape later and I was back in the game – but perhaps it’s time for a new pair…

Cheers, Julian

Cheers, Bryan

PS: Here’s a photo of some of my friends from our Africa backpack tour, with the first edition of The Intrepid Explorer.

Editor: Thanks, Bryan – it certainly seems that your K-Way shoes have seen the world with you. It is certainly time for some new shoes, and we hope that this R500 Cape Union Mart gift voucher will help toward the purchase of a new pair that will be your new travel companions for many years to come!

Editor: Thank you, Julian and the Berg-en-Tourklub, for your lovely email and photo. 12 000 kilometres over five weeks on R13 000 is very impressive, and we would love to cover your story in a future edition Listed in Ian Buxton’s 101 Whiskies To Try Before of The Intrepid You Die, Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky is proudly Explorer. In the interim, South African and the country’s first 100% here is a gift of a single-grain whisky. Inspired bespoke Khaki & Dust by the Cape Mountains travel bag, along with and its natural beauty, two bottles of Bain’s the whisky is Cape Mountain Whisky crafted at The – valued at R1 300.

James Sedgwick Enjoy the bag and make Distillery in sure you share the Bain’s Wellington. with your team!

The Intrepid Explorer issue 2

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Ra n ulph Fien n es

ice man returneth The

Angus Begg attempts to work out the complex character that is Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who recently attempted to become the first person to cross the Atlantic during the winter months

He’s mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records as the greatest living explorer. I’m not quite sure how one would apply to set such a yardstick, but my abiding memory of the impressively eye-browed Sir Ranulph Fiennes is of him posing for a photograph, in a jacket and watch, on the east pier of Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront. A modelling ‘shoot’ for a label, he was leaned against a Land Rover, with a designer travel bag draped over his shoulder.

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Ra n ulph Fien n es

I

t had been a favour for Sir Ranulph’s American-sounding-Germanspeaking nephew named Michael, who lives in Nepal and owns the label. This was the day before the explorer would depart for Antarctica on his latest polar expedition – ‘The Coldest Journey’. Michael was taking the pictures.

That bit of the adventure was the easy part. The problem is that Sir Ranulph got frostbite while training for the hard part – the skiing. So he’s already back, probably on his Devon farm by now, nursing his sorrows and daily living with the adventurer’s agony of what might have been.

Nevertheless, the journey continues. It remains Sir Ran’s quest, and he is still very much alive, albeit understandably a little deflated after the years spent preparing for this most significant and dangerous of polar expeditions.

But I’m still trying to work out this distant relative of the royal family, this third cousin to actor Ralph Fiennes, this part-time country gentleman who cut off his own frostbitten fingers with a saw on the advice of his wife. Prince Charles – a long-time patron of Fiennes’ expeditions – has referred to him as “marvellously mad”.

Not many will know that ‘Sir Ran’ grew up in Constantia and spent his early school years in Cape Town; that he was

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The Intrepid Explorer issue 2

The Ice Team on the crevasse boom of the Caterpillar

Not many will know that ‘Sir Ran’ grew up

in Constantia and that they used to play skipdie-blik in what then must’ve been a larger and wilder Tokai Forest. part of a local gang, in the old sense of the word; that his nickname was ‘By’ – Afrikaans for ‘bee’; and that they used to play skip-die-blik in what then must’ve been a larger and wilder Tokai Forest.

Or that his full name is Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 3rd Baronet OBE (Order of the British Empire). This speaks to a history of privilege found in the United Kingdom and a few other select spots keen on monarchic tradition.

But with said privilege comes expectations, often self-imposed, to perform better than most in some or other field. His father had died while serving in the Royal Scots Greys regiment of the British armed forces, and after a stint with the Special Air Services as a demolitions expert, Sir Ranulph’s life of adventure had only just begun.

He was involved in counter-insurgency

operations in Oman, after which he led a hovercraft expedition up the Nile; parachuted onto a Norwegian glacier; travelled the entire planet via both Poles; discovered the lost city of Ubar in Oman; and walked across Antarctica unaided.

It’s his tale of cutting off his own fingers that had me battling to work him out.

Admittedly, the better part of an hour – before he was down the gangplank and off in a helicopter – didn’t give me much to work on, and after viewing our interview yet again I was questioning whether the deadpan expression accompanying a tale related like buttering toast was ‘macho’ Sir Ranulph playing up for the camera for the thousandth time or simply his telling it the way it is.

Someone who knows him very well is Dr Mike Stroud, a gastroenterologist at a Southampton hospital and relative giant

The Fuel Scoots and Snowflake, the snow truck

of polar exploration. He has been exploring with Fiennes for over 30 years.

He’s the man who dreamt up The Coldest Journey, and speaking to us on the deck of the SA Agulhas the day before the expedition set off, he confirmed that his veteran exploring partner was “extremely tough” – all the more reason for Sir Ranulph’s intense irritation at having allowed himself to get frostbite before they had even started the trip.

Stroud didn’t underplay the danger of the venture. No one has ever crossed the Antarctic in winter, a period that will see four months of darkness and temperatures between -20 and -90°C. Stroud himself has completed five North Pole expeditions. In 1992 – walking with Sir Ranulph – he made the first unsupported crossing of the Antarctic.

And he’s one of very few men to have lived for a month at temperatures of -68°C. That may be seriously off-putting to some, but Sir Ranulph has famously been quoted as saying that, “There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.”

What would be a serious deterrent to most, however, would be the living conditions – something that no one has yet experienced. He and the five supporting crew would share a shipping container for the better part of a year, including the four dark, thoroughly

freezing months of the polar winter.

So unique are these living conditions that for the duration of the expedition, Stroud is conducting a study for the European Space Agency and NASA called the ‘White Mars Project’. “The crew… will be isolated in a small living module in a very hostile environment, with no way out and no daylight for six months.”

It’s the perfect analogy for astronauts on a prolonged space mission. It’s also a recipe for extreme stress.

Stroud seems to delight in relating just how tense living quarters in cramped, freezing, polar conditions can be. “There have been huts where there’s a white line drawn across the hut with one group of individuals saying this is our half – that’s your half. That’s happened.”

Conditions are so inhospitable and dangerous in Antarctica in winter that the British Foreign Office has until now refused permission for its citizens to attempt to cross it (because there’s no chance of rescue). Not that there’d be a rush in applications, but it nevertheless meant these polar explorers had to wait for the development of certain technology before they were given the green light.

So the challenge that Stroud once saw as a two-man expedition has become a massive operation. In essence, it’s a train involving two Caterpillar bulldozers, two

containers (one for accommodation, the other for stores – both on ski-fitted sleds) weighing 80 tonnes each. Fiennes was meant to be one of two skiers 40 metres ahead of this ‘train’ of vehicles – whose job it would be to warn of deadly crevasses that may lie in their path. That perilous job now will doubtless reside with one of the others.

Expedition co-leader Anton Bowring – another of Fiennes’ polar expedition veteran comrades – says although the machinery has been tested to temperatures of -50°C in Sweden, they have no idea how it will perform at 90 below.

“So we’re relying on technical knowhow and, uh, good luck,” says Bowring, his left eyebrow arching upward.

Bowring was with Fiennes when they carried out their first expedition. Called the ‘Transglobe Expedition’ and crossing both Poles in the three years it took to undertake the journey, it was to set a standard for extreme global adventure.

And for Bowring, then a novice polar enthusiast entrusted with planning that and subsequent Fiennes’ adventures, it revealed the man’s character, which will be called upon in regard to this latest journey of 4 000 kilometres through what will often be blinding snow in temperatures never before experienced

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R a n ulph Fien n es

The show must go on

by man – at least, not by anyone alive.

Now it’s to be attempted by lesser known polar mortals. Men who haven’t lived a life of setting records, and who themselves will have to be wary of the dreaded frostbite.

Sir Ranulph’s previous encounter with the condition was painful. He says that while waiting for the nerve ends to grow beneath the frostbitten ends of his fingers (on the surgeon’s advice), he was eventually prompted by his wife – tired of his complaining as he painfully bumped a nerve end yet again – to end it all. After trying the odd saw, he found the right one – and dispatched the offending digits.

Although that particular hand spends more time in his pocket, he happily wiggles his fingers for the camera when needed. It’s easy to think of the expedition as a Boys’ Own adventure, paid for by the various corporate sponsors who see mileage in Sir Ranulph’s sense of risk and adventure. But he has long been aware that the publicity his expeditions raise can be put to good use, and in 1993 – the same year he and Stroud had crossed the Antarctic unassisted – he was awarded the OBE for “human endeavour and charitable services”.

This particular trip hopes to raise US$10 million for Seeing Is Believing, a charity that combats preventable blindness. Relating a tale he’s obviously

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told too many times, Sir Ranulph says he once had snow-blindness for 10 days – in which time he couldn’t see, and thought he may never see again. “It’s absolutely frightening.”

Beyond the charity and White Mars projects are significant studies involving climate change, new GPS techniques and an educational website – with an interactive component – for those British and Commonwealth schools connected to the Internet, and even those that are not. It’s a lot of work, which won’t leave much time for the Monopoly and Kindles the crew have taken along.

Most of his expeditions had in part been planned by his wife, Ginny, by all accounts a true soul mate he met when he was 12 and she was nine and who, evidence suggests, loved getting her hands dirty. On expeditions, she’d man the radio, and back at their farm in Somerset she’d bring in the cows.

Her death from stomach cancer just over nine years ago is said to have devastated Sir Ranulph. Although he has since remarried and had his first child, Ginny’s passing could well have triggered a renewed desire to explore. Some have even whispered that he took on such a dangerous expedition because he no longer has anything to lose (although he did tell us that leaving behind a six-yearold daughter is “a new experience”).

The rest of Sir Ranulph’s Ice Team has decided to continue ‘The Coldest Journey’. “The decision was unanimous and immediate. We had a job to do and a strong desire; we were going to stay and do it,” said Brian Newham, who has now taken over as expedition leader on the ice.

Sir Ran was evacuated from Antarctica in February after he had developed severe frostbite. The five remaining team members he was meant to lead will now attempt to cross the polar ice cap without his valuable expertise. With Newham will be Ian Prickett, Rob Lambert, Spencer Smirl and Richmond Dykes.

The Ice Team immediately had to reassess how they would continue their journey. “With one fewer, it meant that the workload for each of us increased, and we had to rethink how we would deploy the groundpenetrating radar for detecting crevasses, as this was going to be chiefly Ran’s role during the traverse,” Newham told BBC News.

The team had been in Antarctica for over two months and were preparing for the official start of the Antarctic winter on 20 March at 11:02 GMT – the time of the equinox, Newham explained.

Sir Ranulph added his words of support in a press release: “Under the expert leadership of Brian Newham, I know that they have every chance of pulling off this extraordinary feat and making me and people across the Commonwealth extremely proud.

It is a very difficult and dangerous undertaking, but if there is any one group of people who can do it – it is them.”

But for now, the 3rd Baronet of Banbury won’t meet some heroic end in the snow.

Neither will he himself set any records.

While the sumptuous challenge of the cold, white unknown remains, this legendary explorer may have to be content with milking the cows, and bouncing his little daughter up and down on his lap. As they say in the comparatively timid game of rugby, “It’s a big ask”.

G ill Holga te

hero True unsung

A tribute to Mashozi – the ‘Mama Afrika’ of Adventure

All who knew Gill Holgate will miss her dearly. She’s cared for many an intrepid

explorer, looking after them when they were down with malaria, treating festering tropical ulcers, and making sure everyone was well-fed and alright. Petite yet so

tough, she’d survived countless African adventures and risked bandits, unexploded landmines, armed rebels and civil wars. We are honoured that Kingsley has chosen to share this tribute to his life partner with The Intrepid Explorer readers.

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G ill Holga te 18

“W

e’ll all miss her terribly,” says Kingsley Holgate. “She was the glue that held the expeditions together, a true unsung hero.”

Mashozi was adamant that she never wanted a conventional funeral and so at the Zulu village of Shakaland, we paid tribute to her by celebrating her wonderfully full life. It was just as she had wanted: the smoke from the cooking fires, a choir of Zulu mamas from Simunye, squash box and Zulu guitar, her Malawian friends singing a praise song, another in Swahili. The Zulus danced, as did the emcee, ‘White Zulu’ Barry Leitch. Eulogies were made from a small raised area under an umbrella acacia, and beyond the distant hills of Zululand…

Still more people arrived to pay respect to the most travelled woman in Africa.

And then there was silence as this humble pre-recorded tribute taken from Kingsley’s scribbled notes was played. It was the story of their life…

“Forty-five years ago, while backpacking the world, I met Gill, a Yorkshire lass. She came out to Africa and we got married at Mandawe Cross, a little

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stone-built mission church in the shape of an inverted traditional Zulu milking pail and which is situated close to King Shaka Zulu’s great military kraal of KwaBulawayo on the ridge overlooking Shakaland and the Nkwaleni Valley not far from here.

Gill fell in love with Mama Afrika, and the Zulus named her Mashozi (‘she who wears the shorts’). You see, in those days her little pink English ‘leggy peggies’ stuck out from the old khaki colonial shorts.

Mashozi was once heard to say: ‘When I first met Kingsley, he had a short black beard and a rucksack of dirty clothes. I fell in love twice – firstly with Kingsley and then with Mama Afrika, my newly adopted home.’

Little did she know at the time that her passion for the continent would one day make her the most travelled woman in Africa – a modern-day explorer with the same passion for adventure as the great Victorian women explorers such as Mary Livingstone, Lady Florence Baker and Mary Kingsley, whom she so admired.

Our early days in Zululand were special, spent on the banks of the uMhlathuze in the valley below Shakaland, where we owned and ran a trading post called Phobane – named after Henry Francis Fynn, the early ivory hunter. We traded

Mashozi (‘she who wears the shorts’). You see, in those days her little

G ill Holga te

Gill fell in love with Mama Afrika, and the Zulus named her

pink English ‘leggy peggies’ stuck out from the old khaki colonial shorts.

with the Zulus in everything from beads to blankets, maize meal, sugar, rice, three-legged iron pots, enamel plates, tin buckets, colourful cloth, padlocks, giant sized navy-blue bloomers, huge bodices, guitar strings and plastic shoes.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trading store days: Mashozi would help deliver babies in the middle of the night and our old Series 3 Landy would be the local ambulance, hearse, wedding car and delivery van. We milled maize from a tractor belt-driven hammer mill, traded with cattle hides, goat skins and bones, generated power from an old crank-start single cylinder Lister, pumped our water from the uMhlathuze and had to keep an eye open for a big black mamba that lived down at the pump house. At night, we listened to serials on the wireless, read by candlelight and had wonderful parties where people slept over wherever they could find space. We were the only

mlungus this far up the valley.

It was tough getting in and out in the rains, sliding around the 65 hairpin bends that followed the river to the trading store.

It used to make Mashozi angry that she, as a girl, wasn’t allowed in the public bar of the Royal Hotel in Eshowe, and I remember her tucking her hair inside a cap and wearing manly overalls. She got away with it for a few rounds, but then the Indian barman twigged on and we had to continue with drinks on the veranda.

By this time, Mashozi had helped set up a community craft industry at the trading store, cutting Zulu shields and forging spears, and the girls crafting beautiful beadwork. Far from England where she was born, this was her life.

Ross gets embarrassed when I tell him that he was conceived over a 90-kilogramme bag of mieliemeal during lunch hour at the back of the store.

There was no television nor computer

games, and he grew up kaalgat with the other Zulu kids and went on to the convent school in Eshowe. I remember one day hearing screaming from outside the trading store where little Ross, stark naked other than for a pair of red gumboots, together with his mate Sipho Makhatini, also aged 5, had knocked the old Peugeot bakkie out of gear, let loose the handbrake, and with Ross at the ‘steeling’ had gone careering out of control down the hill, dodged a few donkeys and customers, and then left the road – only to be saved by colliding with the cement base of an old tank stand.

Because of Mashozi’s interest in Zulu tradition, we got involved with the making of the movie Zulu Dawn and the successful TV series Shaka Zulu, which led to our turning one of the sets into a cultural attraction called Shakaland.

Those tough early years of running a trading store, operating safaris and making

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G ill Holga te movies were some of our best, but at every opportunity we travelled southern Africa in our old 4x4s, enjoying the freedom of the Kalahari and the Namib, Lake Malawi, the Okavango and the Zambezi – but we longed for more.

With the miracle of Nelson Mandela’s release and the opening up of the wider continent to all South Africans came the opportunity to cross Africa from Cape to Cairo and Alexandria at the mouth of the Nile in open boats, an expedition that was grandly called ‘Afrika Odyssey’. It was in late 1992 and the start of many wonderful journeys of discovery that allowed us to fulfil our lifelong dream to embrace all of Mama Afrika – even including a recent dangerous journey down the Nile from the Murchison Falls to arrive in Juba for the birth of Africa’s newest country, South Sudan.

Mashozi’s humanitarian work was legendary, helping tens of thousands of pregnant mums with mosquito nets and malaria education, and through her Rite to Sight campaign in which she so lovingly distributed spectacles to the poor-sighted in remote villages.

Her sense of humour in the face of adversity was legendary. When we were in the hands of Central African rebels, and I said to her, ‘Roll out of the Landy when the shooting starts,’ she answered by saying: ‘What side’s the exhaust – I don’t want to get burnt.’

She was great fun around the campfire; when the nyama was finished, she would

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knock up a great bean stew and always find a glass of wine to celebrate even the toughest situation. Our times in East Africa can best be described in this quotation from Beryl Markham, the British-born Kenyan aviatrix and adventurer who, during the pioneer days of aviation, became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west: ‘Africa is mystic; it is wild; it is a sweltering inferno; it is a photographer’s paradise, a hunter’s Valhalla, an escapist’s Utopia. It is what you will, and it withstands all interpretations. It is the last vestige of a dead world or the cradle of a shiny new one. To a lot of people, as to myself, it is just home. It is all these things, but one thing – it is never dull.’

The best way to pay tribute to Mashozi – who will be remembered not only as a loving wife, mother and grandmother, but also as the greatest friend and fellow traveller we could ever have had – is to continue with her ‘work’. The next expedition will be called ‘Izintaba Zobombo – a Tribute to Mashozi’ – a Cape Union Mart-supported expedition to track the Lubombo Mountain Range through three countries, with a strong humanitarian and conservation link.

After that, when we are all stronger, we will carry her ashes to East Africa, to her special place high on the Oloololo Escarpment overlooking the vast wildebeest migration plains of the Maasai Mara and Serengeti – just how

Mashozi had wanted it. We will keep you posted.”

Kingsley Holgate wears and tests K-Way on all his expeditions

Win!

A signed copy of Greybeard’s new book Two lucky readers can win a signed copy of Kingsley Holgate’s new book Afrika – Dispatches from the Outside Edge.

Send your answer to the following question to The Intrepid Explorer editor on robbie@intrepidexplorer.co.za by 31 May 2013.

Question: What is the nickname by which Gill Holgate was better known?

On Sa f a r i w ith S pud

African odyssey John van de Ruit sees wild Africa as it was years ago, as it is now, and as it will always be

When it was agreed that my second trip for The

Intrepid Explorer would include two nights on a luxury houseboat, Zambezi Queen, adrift on the Chobe River, there was a certain degree of uncertainty.

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m

y first ever foray onto a houseboat took place a decade ago on Lake Kariba in northern Zimbabwe.

Fired up with youthful bravado and a vast quantity of Bollinger beer, I and some friends suffered the rare and unfortunate occurrence of a capsized houseboat while attempting to sail through a terrific African thunderstorm.

The boat sank, and there followed my brief Chad le Clos impersonation through crocodile-infested waters – wearing only a bad necklace and a pair of unflattering underpants.

Ever since that fateful day on 19 January 2002, I have harboured (if you will permit me) a healthy suspicion of freshwater vessels with sleeping facilities, crocodiles and Bollinger beer.

I was repeatedly assured by my intrepid partner, Jules, that the

There is something about

Zambezi Queen would offer the most luxurious, safe and idyllic experience of the mythical Chobe River. As such, I hauled out my backpack, chased a few angry spiders around the study, and manned up for an unforgettable 5-star African odyssey.

Landing by turbulent air in Victoria Falls, we embarked on an immigration tango through three countries in a mere 102 minutes. A 70-kilometre drive westward saw us pass through a largely uninhabited national park with no apparent name. Our driver wasn’t deterred by the lack of any animals, nor my probing questions about poaching and conservation, and proudly pointed out numerous piles of elephant dung as conclusive proof that all was well in Zimbabwe’s national parks.

We arrived at the Botswanan border where we were briefly ushered over a foot-and-mouth-disease sterilisation carpet.

Above the border post, the telephone lines were littered with Carmine Bee-eaters. In truth, I found it hard to walk straight.

After a brief but highly enjoyable 10 minutes in Botswana, we boarded a speedboat and were whisked across the Chobe River to the western bank where a small sand dune and a rudimentary shack signalled our entry into Namibian territory. A mangy yellow dog officially welcomed us to the country, with a tired growl and an absent-minded scratch of his rump. The dog’s owner and Namibian immigration official staggered into the shack some time later with sleepy eyes and unfastened pants before issuing us with our umpteenth stamp of the afternoon. The immigration tango made little sense, but then Africa was never meant to be understood in straight lines.

the African sunset that tangles the emotions and floods the brain with questions about civilisation and the very lives we choose to lead.

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On Sa f a r i w ith Spud Our speedboat raced up the splintered waterways of the Chobe where elephants bathed and wallowed in the shallows and water birds of every description flew, perched and preened.

The expanse of wild nature extended in every direction as the balmy air blasted our faces and tugged at our clothes. To the east lay Botswana and the immense Chobe National Park; to the west, endless Namibian floodplains, the far-reaching finger of the Caprivi Strip.

The speedboat burst around yet another island and throttled back in respect and deference to the statuesque Zambezi Queen that materialised before us. This was no houseboat – this was a boutique floating hotel of note.

Our cabin was deceptively spacious, with a private balcony from where one could gaze out at the natural abundance that abounds wherever you settle your eyes. If the upper deck which houses the lounge, bar and restaurant is unashamedly luxurious,

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the plunge pool on the stern is downright audacious.

Upon boarding, we were immediately offered drinks and a delicious cheese platter by our hosts, Wayne and Vicky, and their friendly staff, before being ushered into a waiting tender boat for a late-afternoon game drive around the many islands that divide the Chobe River into a maze of channels and waterways.

The Chobe comes alive in the late afternoon. As the sun sinks into the western sky, casting arrows of orange and silver across the meandering water, wildlife stirs itself – as do a multitude of birds and catfish that swirl and plop around the boat. Pied Kingfishers as well as the impossibly beautiful Malachite Kingfishers stalk the banks, and it seems that almost every reed is being danced on by the ungainly Squacco Heron. Countless crocodiles ripple their way across the surface and ominously disappear as our slow-moving boat sidles on into the fading light.

Evenings on the Chobe are hypnotic. There is something about the African sunset that tangles the emotions and floods the brain with questions about civilisation and the very lives we choose to lead. The naked, beautiful simplicity of it all can be unbearably euphoric.

The following morning we elected to undertake a spot of tiger-fishing instead of a game drive in the Chobe National Park. Tigerfish were scarce as the water levels were high, and the visibility poor – although drifting our baits through the reed-fringed channels and rapids was enormous fun.

An ambitious yet wayward cast into the reeds produced arguably the sighting of the day when a mischievous Cape clawless otter surfaced, intent on devouring my bait. Much to the relief of our river guide, Stanley, mad reeling and heaving on the line saw me escape what might well have turned into a minor international ecological incident.

After dinner our host, Wayne, entertained guests with a story of Georg Leo von Caprivi, the noble yet misguided Prussian major general who swopped this thin strip of land with England in return for the island of Zanzibar. Caprivi figured this was a

On Sa f a r i w ith Spud

Mother Nature at her finest, with a cocktail in one hand and binoculars in the other, does come highly recommended.

masterstroke, as Germany could then access the Zambezi from the west and cross the entire continent to the east without the bother of circling the Cape. How his face must have fallen when he first heard about a rather alarming obstacle called the Victoria Falls. I confess that I have found it difficult to take the Caprivi Strip seriously after hearing this story.

The end came far too soon as we found ourselves waving goodbye to the crew, who sang us off with a rousing rendition of “We will not forget you”. I plan to return next year to test them.

The reverse round of the immigration tango began without incident. Thankfully, the Namibian officer had his pants on as he strode purposefully into his immigration shack, holding a large and aromatic dead catfish in his hands. Before getting down to some serious administration, he kindly wiped his greasy hands on the wall before sliming up and stamping our passports.

The balance of the return immigration tango ran smoothly, apart from the Zimbabwean official who ordered us to stand in aisle 1 until we reached the front of the queue. The smiling villain then proceeded to inform us that we were in the wrong queue entirely, and directed us to aisle 3, where the queue snaked ominously out of the door and halfway back to the Chobe.

Our good humour returned upon laying eyes on the fabulous Stanley and Livingstone Hotel, situated 10km from Victoria Falls, nestled in its own private game reserve. Seventeen beautifully appointed suites overlook wild African savannah and a cleverly placed waterhole.

Lush planted gardens with fruiting trees attracted birds in their numbers, and I grew highly excited during breakfast the following morning upon sighting the rare Meyer’s Parrot. The Norwegians at the next table leapt up with a shout, assuming that I had spotted a leopard – which only made the Italian family at table 6 flee in fright to the safety of the lobby.

There is something incredibly opulent about The Stanley and Livingstone when considering the humble nature of the country that surrounds it. It must be said, however, that lolling in a private Jacuzzi overlooking Mother Nature at her finest, with a cocktail in one hand and binoculars in the other, does come highly recommended.

Nothing can prepare you for the sensory experience that is the Victoria Falls in the rainy season. If the sight of the spray rising up over the town doesn’t set your heart pulsing, then you’re most probably a psychopath or an alien.

Our driver advised us to hire ponchos, as he assured us we were certain to be drenched by ‘the smoke that thunders’. After renting a $1 orange poncho for $3, Jules and I set off along the path toward one of the world’s great natural wonders.

Livingstone’s statue greets all visitors, and it seems that despite his colonial motives, he is widely loved and celebrated in Zimbabwe. While analysing the proud statue, I wondered what

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the first words would have been that tumbled out of his mouth as his eyes fell upon the magnificence of the falls. I finally settled on “By Jove!” as a probability, “Good gracious!” as a possibility, and “Crikey!” as a rank outsider.

No words do the Victoria Falls justice, and neither does any photograph. Yes, it’s a visual feast, but the roaring cacophony and the pelting spray that descends on you as a driving rain only heightens the experience, rendering you almost breathless with excitement. I found myself jabbering away uncontrollably, momentarily rendered mad by the magnificence of it all. No wonder Zimbos are all insane.

We staggered away, drenched and elated; despite still being morning, we found ourselves drawn as if by magnet to the nearest watering hole: The Victoria Falls Hotel. Muddy and bedraggled, I hailed a waiter with as much dignity as a drunken skelm at 3.35am on a Sunday morning. “Two Bollingers, please.”

What else could I order?

Returning to the soft embrace of The Stanley and Livingstone, the precious hours of our southern African adventure ticked away. Swimming a few lengths of the pool in the late afternoon, I paused and gazed at an unnaturally large lime tree as a male waterbuck strolled up to the waterhole for an untroubled drink.

The sun sank low for the traditional African happy hour, sound-tracked by an unruly mob of Arrow-marked Babblers.

I ceased my exercise and floated on my back, looking out at wild Africa as it was years ago, as it is now, and as it will always be.

For more information on the Zambezi Queen or The Stanley and Livingstone, visit www.mantiscollection.com John and his partner were flown from Durban to Vic Falls with the compliments of British Airways

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On the Titanic Trail in Ireland, Graham Howe is enthralled by the new Titanic Belfast Quarter, opened to mark the centenary of the tragic voyage of the Queen of the Seas

The Titanic Museum

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sir?

I must look really gullible. The joker at the last petrol station told me to get my passport ready. But heading north on an overland drive from Dublin to Belfast, the boundary between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland turns out to be invisible – with no border checks or frontier posts.

G r a h a m Howe

Y

ou have to watch out for the telltale signs. The kilometre-per-hour signs of the south change to miles-perhour signs in the north (pretty confusing because the rental cars only show miles or kilometres on the speedometer). The colour of the number plates and postboxes change (green to red); the town names on the bilingual road signs in the south are in English AND Gaelic (but only in English in the north); the accent and dialect changes completely; and the currency goes from euros to pounds sterling.

Even the colour of the tar changes between north and south, said my guide – though he, too, might have been pulling my leg! The Irish have a great sense of humour. The same fella told me, “The Titanic wasn’t our fault. We built the ship – not the iceberg!”

I weighed anchor in Belfast recently on the Titanic Trail, to experience the new Titanic Quarter in the Belfast docks where ‘the Queen of the Seas’ was built in 26 months from 1909 to 1911. One of the highlights was the brand-new Titanic Belfast complex, opened to mark the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic on 15 April 1912.

Opened in March 2012, the city’s new landmark – made out of 3 000 silver aluminium shards shaped like four hulls to depict the star logo of the White Star Line – was built at a cost of 97 million pounds (about R1.5 billion). I noticed that even the ticket desks in the six-storey atrium of Titanic Belfast are built out of old wooden keel blocks. High-tech interactive exhibits spread across nine galleries, or decks, have attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors, making Titanic Belfast the hottest new attraction in Ireland.

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Standing at the exact height of the Titanic from keel to top deck, the Titanic Belfast complex looms over the waterfront.

Looking up, I was overawed by the immensity of the ship: if you imagine adding funnels to the top, the Titanic soared to over 50m.

Looking around the historic shipyard, you get a sense of her vast size from the giant yellow cranes – called Samson and Goliath, icons of Belfast today – used to build the giant ship.

Our guide added that the steel Titanic sign on the new museum is 2.5cm thick and weighs 16 tonnes (the same weight as the forward anchor of the Titanic).

Titanic Belfast overlooks the very slipway where she was launched on her ill-fated maiden journey. According to one of the many legends, the champagne bottle never broke against her hull at the launch, and two workers died at her

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launch – an ill omen of things to come.

Inside, I watched the actual slipway launch on a nostalgic old black and white movie. Among the tens of thousands who turned out to watch the launch, an eyewitness said, “She took to the water as if she were eager for the baptism.”

I spent a whole morning lost in legend at Titanic Belfast. A virtual reality ride takes you on a dizzying journey up through the massive Arrol gantry and scaffolding where thousands of workers put together the ship, hammering three million glowing rivets into her steel sides.

Interactive displays in nine galleries explore the social history of Belfast, a boom town founded on textiles called Linenopolis in the 19th century, the history of these famous shipyards, and the legend of the Titanic. To be fair, Titanic was ship number 401 built here, so up until then they had had an unsinkable track record.

Visitors experience the tragedy of the ship step by step, from the sounds and sights of the fit-out, the sea trials to France and England, the maiden voyage, and the horror of the sinking – told in the terrified voices of actual survivors. Standing in a darkened room, watching virtual images of the bow of the ship going down in the freezing waters of the North Atlantic, the end of her doomed voyage is terrifyingly real.

Novelist Thomas Hardy wrote ominously, “As the smart ship grew in stature, grace and hue, in shadowy silence grew the iceberg too.”

The last moments of the Titanic are related minute by minute down to the chilling SOS sent out from the bridge at 23h40 on 14 April 1912: “We have struck an iceberg.” Experiencing the tragedy through the survivors is a moving experience – the stories of heroism and sacrifice.

Opposite page: Titanic Belfast – the new iconic museum in the shipyards of Belfast resembles the hulls of the great ship This page clockwise from top left: Scenes from the world’s most famous shipwreck. The unsinkable ship goes down in the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage; Bronze figurehead of woman diver outside Titanic Belfast Museum; the iceberg and the Titanic collide on the fateful night of 14 April 1912; a submersible explores the wreck of the Titanic lying deep on the ocean floor in 1985.

The collision caused the ship’s hull plates to buckle inward along her starboard side.

With five of her 16 watertight bulkheads breached, the ship inexorably filled with water. Many of the lifeboats were launched only partly loaded by officers, under the ‘women and children first’ protocol.

Two hours and 40 minutes later, she broke apart and sank, with a thousand people still on board, 600km from the nearest landfall in Newfoundland. The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia rescued an estimated 705 survivors, while 1 512 passengers and crew went to a watery grave. In one of the great legends of the Titanic, the ship’s band heroically played on in the first-class lounge while the ship was sinking. Their last song was reputedly, “Nearer, My God, to Thee”. Listening to the old hymn gave me a lump in the throat.

I’m a sentimental sucker, I’ll admit. The story of Rosa Abbott, a lucky survivor plucked from the icy waters, who had lost her two young sons, gave me goose bumps. Phew!

The tragedy of the Titanic has captured the imagination of people around the world for over a century. Movies and plays about the tragedy have been made over the years – captured in a collection of lurid movie posters. James Cameron’s epic Titanic (1997) – yes, the great romance with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet – was the most expensive and most profitable film made at the time, and won 11 Oscars.

One fascinating gallery explores all the myths and legends of the Titanic: whether the owners ever claimed the ship was unsinkable; whether it risked going too

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Left: At Titanic Belfast you can do high tea on Sunday beneath a replica of the first-class staircase of the Titanic Below: The entrance to the Titanic exhibition at the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum

far north to make the fastest ever Atlantic crossing; the locked binocular cabinet in the wheelhouse; the lifeboat shortage (only 24 lifeboats for 2 224 passengers and crew); whether passengers were saved in order of first, second and third class; the quality of the rivets; design faults in ‘watertight’ compartments; the fire in a coal bunker when she set sail from Southampton; and the curse of the Egyptian mummy said to be on board!

Fact or fiction? Titanic buffs will have to visit the exhibit and find out for themselves.

My own journey into the past culminated in the discovery of the location of the shipwreck at a depth of 3 784m, by Professor Ballard in 1985. The glass floor of the Titanic Beneath gallery reveals images of the wreck on the ocean floor below your very feet – while an intrepid explorer in a mini submersible points out remnants of the ship down to rusty steel ‘icicles’, called rusticles, on a documentary on a giant screen.

I also dropped into the VIP top floor, which has a replica of the ship’s iconic first-class grand staircase and banisters. You can do high tea on the Titanic on Sunday in

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the first-class style – without leaving terra firma! Over a seafood lunch in the Titanic Restaurant, I chuckled when the waitress asked me if I wanted ice in my lemonade!

I was intrigued to learn there was no laundry on board the Titanic. She took enough linen for the entire voyage. The provisions showed they took on board 250 barrels of flour, 2 500 pounds of sausages, 40 000 eggs (and live hens), 800 bundles of fresh asparagus, 438 gallons of ice cream, 15 000 bottles of ale and stout, and 8 000 cigars!

You can follow the Titanic Trail on foot, by bus, bike or boat and on a guided tour.

I came across the names of all passengers, victims and survivors, inscribed on glass panels in the Titanic memorial garden nearby. The seats and benches on the plaza are positioned to depict the SOS Morse code message sent by the ship’s wireless officer.

I also visited the drawing offices of Harland & Wolff, once the biggest shipbuilding company in the world, which designed the Titanic. I descended 44 feet into the most famous dry dock in the world to get a sense of the vast scale of

the ship that it was built to fit.

Staying on the Titanic Trail, I went to see the Titanica exhibition at the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum on the outskirts of Belfast. The original designs of the Titanic are on display, showing some of the faults in the height of sealed bulkheads. Exhibits include ship models and artefacts salvaged from the depths of the Atlantic: from a rusty old porthole to tickets to the launch, replica silver soup tureens, ceramic teapots, and postcards sent by passengers on the sea trials to England and France.

The exhibit includes a replica of one of the iconic deckchairs that gave rise to the saying, “It’s like moving deckchairs on the Titanic”, to describe a pointless act.

The Titanic Trail ends at the magnificent Belfast City Hall built in 1906, which has stained glass windows depicting the Titanic – and a monument in the garden inscribed with the names of the 1 512 passengers and crew who died in the sinking of the ship.

The indomitable Victorian spirit of the Titanic lives on in Belfast, a city lined with exquisite redbrick and granite façades from the 19th century shipping boom, from the grand opera house to the old linen halls.

I ended up enjoying a pint of Guinness in the Crown Liquor Saloon, the most famous bar in Belfast. This Victorian saloon with stained glass windows, gas lamps, pressed tin ceilings and private wooden booths has antique brass bells for placing bar orders!

I wondered how news of the tragedy had been received in this very place on the night the Titanic went down. Lost in the past, I rang the old bell and waited to see if the ghosts of the past would surface to refill my glass.

For more information, contact Tourism Ireland in South Africa: E-mail: tourismireland@dpgsa.co.za www.discoverireland.com www.titanicbelfast.com

1300804_FP_E

IF YOU'RE cOOkIng, DO YOU knOW WHAT YOU'RE cATcHIng? Fishermen catch what’s in demand. So choose wisely before you cook your next fish dish. Send an SMS to WWF-SASSI on 079 499 8795, typing in the name of the fish you want to prepare. You’ll quickly see whether what your recipe calls for is Green-listed sustainable seafood to serve. you have a choice. make it green.

ambushed in the Amazon I could feel my breath shortening. I did my utmost to inhale and exhale slowly and deeply as I ran frantically through the thick vegetation of the Amazon jungle. I had counted

Injured and alone in the greatest jungle on Earth, Davey du Plessis’ adventure for the good of the planet quickly turned into a run-for-your-life thriller

four shots: one that had knocked me out of my kayak, two while swimming to solid ground, and a final shot as I took off running. My body was screaming for a rest, but the thought of the two men in pursuit allowed me to push on. I wanted to get as far away as possible from where I had been ambushed.

Da vey du Ples s is

I

had conjured the fantasy that upon entering the Amazon, I would have encounters with wild animals and experience the sights and sounds of the greatest jungle on Earth – yet here I was, running through the forests alone, injured and not knowing how I was going to escape. How had I ended up in this nightmarish situation?

I had been ambushed by two local men. The shooter had delivered shotgun pellets to my back, neck, face and leg, leaving me in a state of confusion and in a situation where I was fighting for my life.

I had had a moment with one of the culprits as we locked eyes briefly when he approached me in his boat, as I lay helpless and defeated on the riverbank.

I had never seen such emptiness in someone’s eyes – a look that brought fear to my bones and that catapulted me into action. I was scared of what this man may do if he reached me and I still had some life left within me.

The fear triggered a classic flight or fight response. I chose flight, and as the adrenalin kicked in, it started me running.

I took off at a good pace, only then I seemed to be getting lost in the jungle; nowhere to go and no idea as to what may follow.

My pace decreased as I forced air into my failing lungs. I was beginning to reassess the situation. The deeper I went into the jungle, the more I would ultimately disappear. I had to get back to the river and use it to navigate my way out; it was the best chance of finding help. I realised that if I didn’t find help, I probably wasn’t going to make it out of there alive.

I reached a wide and open bend of the river. Slowly, I waded in ankle-deep while looking upriver to see if I could catch a glimpse of the two men. I saw no one. I was relieved that the two men

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Da vey Du Ples s is

Clockwise from above left: Entering the Amazon – my first view of the jungle A fully laden, foldable kayak – my transport for the next 6000 km.

Hospital! As I reached hospital in Lima, this photo was taken and sent to my mom to let her know I was safe

might have been distracted by all my equipment and the kayak I had left behind. Perhaps they had given up the choice to pursue me and instead had settled for my belongings. They had probably thought I would eventually die and perish in the jungle.

I started jogging again and followed the river. After a while I stopped and began to fully absorb the current situation.

I was alone; I had been ambushed and shot for no reason. I needed urgent medical assistance and the two men were a few kilometres upriver. I could not go deeper into the jungle for the fear of getting lost and I could not go upriver and risk being seen.

I was overwhelmed and collapsed onto the muddy riverbank. I wanted to cry at the hopelessness of the situation.

I whimpered, but could not force out a tear. Perhaps it was the realisation that the lack of tears meant I could not allow myself to lie down and feel sorry for myself. I had to get up and get moving.

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I rose slowly and began walking further downriver.

As I gazed across to the other side of the river, to my surprise I noticed another two men emerging from the thick vegetation. Help! They would be my escape out of this hellish scenario…

Rewind The idea to paddle the Amazon from source to sea sprang into life shortly after my return from an African cross-continental cycle in 2011, from Egypt to South Africa, and representing Habitat for Humanity.

I had a fascination for the Amazon, and the taste of adventure urged me to pursue the idea of paddling this mighty river. I wished to gain some credibility as an adventurer and had realised that further experiences would provide content for my desired career as a public speaker and writer.

The Amazon adventure, named ‘World Wonderer’, would be a project that would ultimately fulfil more than just my personal ambitions, an adventure that could further punt the message for a unified and respected attitude toward the natural kingdom. I had the privilege and opportunity of teaming up with the Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation by agreeing to collect

research for the South American Wildlands and Biodiversity project.

It was my compassion for a unified existence between all life forms that provided the impetus for the journey and a ‘take action’ initiative toward conservation and protection of all life.

A solo, unaided navigation of the Amazon from source to sea was my way of inspiring and empowering fellow individuals to take action and take a stand for a reason and cause greater than the individual. By representing a cause I believed in, and by living a lifestyle that was in alignment with my beliefs, including following a plant-based diet, I hoped this adventure would provide further encouragement for others to make their own positive differences on this beautiful planet.

My paddling experience was limited to none, and the initial stage of the adventure took me into dangerous whitewater sections with huge rapids that were channelled into steep and winding canyons. “Once you’re in it, you’re stuck in it”, was Tim Biggs’ best description of the initial tributaries of the Amazon which he had previously paddled.

My lack of experience resulted in my decision to structure the navigation into

I had seen only two snakes, several bird species and very little other animal life.

Seeing what man had done to the supposedly wild jungle further increased the need to inspire a conscious movement toward protecting and conserving the remaining life of all biospheres.

I had traversed just over 2 000km and had been travelling for two out of the expected five-month journey. I felt comfortable in my new surroundings and grew in confidence day by day. I was managing the projected concerns I had prior to the adventure, and my endurance was increasing, paddling just over 50km a day. I was focused on admiring and absorbing the sights and sounds of one of the most remote and isolated parts of the planet. I was sharing an existence with some of the most unique, largely

fired at again. I never saw the man who shot me; during the first three shots I was in a complete daze.

After escaping from my assailants, and running for a number of kilometres, seeing help across the river was a huge relief.

When I eventually managed to get the men’s attention, they took me into their village and devised the plan to transport me to a hospital through the night by hopping from village to village.

I had been shot with a shotgun and the numerous pellets lodged within my body had scattered all over my neck, back, leg and face. The shots had punctured my heart, lung and carotid artery. The injuries had caused the restricted breath as I had taken off running into the jungle. I also had severe internal bleeding and much discomfort from the dispersed pellets.

Da vey du Ples s is

three stages that would ultimately play to my strengths: a hike to the mountain source of the Amazon; a cycle along the rapids section of the river; and then a straight paddle to the Atlantic Ocean on the coast of Brazil – a journey from just under 7 000km from the high altitude of the Peruvian Andes, dropping into the thick and isolated jungle terrain that makes up the Amazon rainforest. What I lacked in experience, I made up in enthusiasm and a passion for doing something with a purpose greater than myself.

Once in the jungle, my disappointment grew as I began to notice humankind’s manipulation and destruction of the perfect natural ecoystems of the jungle.

I witnessed numerous forest fires that signalled the clearing of land to be

I had been shot with a shotgun and the numerous pellets lodged

within my body had

scattered all over my neck, back, leg and

face. The shots had punctured my heart, lung and carotid artery.

substituted for agricultural plantation.

I paddled alongside huge floating barges of harvested trees that would eventually be sold and make their way into someone’s home as furniture. Humankind’s impact on the jungle was easy to spot once I knew what to look out for.

Initially, I thought the green of the jungle meant it was a thriving metropolis of plant and animal life – until it was pointed out to me that the green I was seeing was actually planted by humans to gain a profit. Eventually it made sense: the indigenous vegetation had been wiped out and substituted for agriculture. In wiping out indigenous vegetation, the natural and functioning biospheres were wiped out as well.

The ripple effect of clearing nature’s systems with our manipulated systems resulted in a lack of flourishing life. I was shocked that in all my time in the jungle,

undiscovered and most endangered species and creatures known to us.

It was a privilege to be able to be in the Amazon and experience a life in the jungle.

Fast-forward I was shot just after midday on Saturday, 25 August 2012. The two men had seen me upriver, hopped into their boat and set up an ambush that I was to paddle straight into, unsuspecting and unknowing. One of the men had run into the jungle and had remained hidden behind the trees while the accomplice waited further downriver in the boat.

Without warning or provocation, I was shot – and twice more until I lay lifeless on the riverbank. It was when the accomplice came from downriver to assess the situation that we locked eyes and I eventually took off running, when I was

Once I reached the hospital, I spent a month in and out of the intensive-care unit and was eventually flown home at the end of September 2012.

Epilogue I had failed to achieve my goal of navigating the Amazon from source to sea. Despite this, I was happy to be alive and breathing. From this escapade I have a new story to share and a firmer desire to continue utilising adventure for promoting worthy causes and as a means of testing oneself against the elements.

I will continue to share any experiences to inspire a movement of a greater existence and to stand for the call of a unified life for all living creatures.

Visit Davey’s website at www.daveyduplessis.com, or contact him via email: anthony@daveyduplessis.com

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The Intrepid Explorer issue 2

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The

ultimate Braai Master Our Intrepid celebrity cook, Justin Bonello, not only shares some of his favourite tips on hosting a brilliant braai, but offers us two incredibly clever ways of making a magical meal while you are on your travels and you do not have your usual Weber or grill at hand!

Photographs Louis Hiemstra

R

ule number one of braaing: Don’t interfere with the tong master. When you do that, it gives him permission to turn his back on you and boot you out of the braai circle – and no one wants to be booted out because you’ll end up making salad in the kitchen.

Rule number two?

Don’t even think about standing around the fire without a drink in your hand. It’s definitely illegal and is moreover an integral part of any braai; if you’re lucky, all your (more irresponsible) friends will still be standing by the time the food is ready. Should you find them swaggering around aimlessly, mumbling incoherently and looking a bit glassy eyed, feed them till they either sober up or their eyes become droopy and they pass out on your couch (again).

Enjoy the ride – and who knows, maybe you will become the next Ultimate Braai Master!

Justin

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PIT OVEN First things first. Go scrounge for igneous rocks, and igneous rocks only (these are the same ones that are used in saunas).

If you use any other type of rock it will explode and if you’re actually making a pit oven braai it means you’re nowhere near a hospital. You can test if the rocks you’ve collected are igneous if you take two, bash them together and your ears start ringing.

But take heed, this is not always an idiot-proof method of checking for igneous rocks. So once you’ve gathered a whole lot of bigger-than-your-fist igneous rocks, wipe the sweat off your brow and dig a hole roughly three times bigger than the food you’re going to put inside. Pack the rocks to one side then make a huge fire (somewhere on the ground where you won’t burn down trees) next to the hole you’ve just dug. Once your fire is blazing, put the rocks around it to let them heat up.

The idea behind cooking in a pit oven is that whatever you’ve put inside will cook very slowly – think of it as an underground pressure cooker. The greatest thing about it? It’s pretty much impossible to burn your food. Pit oven cooking is nothing more than a slow, even release of heat within a sealed hole, and because there are no flames to worry about it’s impossible to burn your food. Simply put: this is nature’s pressure cooker and please remember that it is a steamer.

To cook in the pit

After a while, take a rock out of the fire and splash some water on to it. If the water evaporates immediately, it’s hot enough. (If not, put it back next to the fire and test again about 20 minutes later.)

Now pack the hot rocks inside the hole (at the bottom and the sides). Don’t try to pick them up with your bare hands, use tongs for this. Put loads and loads of fresh herbs that you think will

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complement the dish you’re making straight on top of the rocks.

Wrap whatever you’re cooking in banana leaves (you can do vegetable parcels, chicken or even bigger cuts of meat) and place it on top of the herbs. (If you’ve become a pit oven pro, try cooking a whole lamb or even a pig.) Cover with more herbs, any remaining banana leaves and pile on the hot rocks.

Cover with an old towel or piece of fabric to keep the sand out.

Fill the hole with sand and find something to mark the spot . . . unless you want to play hide and seek later.

Estimated cooking times vary and depend on many factors. Here’s the basic gist of it, although it’s better to cook for longer if you’re unsure. Your food won’t burn, but once you’ve opened up the pit oven, it’s a mission to close it again.

• A vegetable parcel: between 1½ to 2 hours • A whole chicken: between 2 to 3 hours • A whole pig: between 6 to 8 hours • A whole lamb: between 8 to 10 hours

J us tin B on ello

engine stew The Myth Buster!

If you ever plan one of those road trips where you know you’re going to arrive after dark (which is always the case with me and my crew), then engine stew is the perfect dinnertime solution.

Simply prepare the stew you would like for dinner before you leave home. Put it on the manifold (that’s a part of YOUR CAR ‘S engine) about 500 kilometres from your destination and tuck in as soon as you’ve unpacked the boot (and the engine). This is Gal Power’s recipe.

You’ll Need • 1 car that can travel 500km (or 6 hours) • a couple of onions – chopped • 1 green pepper – chopped • a couple of pinches of paprika, cumin and ground coriander • a couple of chillies – seeds removed and finely chopped • fatty beef shin – cut into cubes • a couple of tomatoes – chopped • a couple of glugs of red wine • a handful of carrots – chopped • a couple of leeks – washed and sliced • about 3 potatoes – peeled and cubed • about ½ cup of beef stock • chopped thyme, rosemary and sage • salt and pepper to taste • 1 x foil roasting tin First sauté the onions and pepper until soft. Add the paprika, cumin, coriander and finely chopped chillies, and then add the beef cubes. Stir until all the meat is covered in the spices. Add the chopped tomatoes and stir continuously for about 2 minutes, then add the red wine (none for yourself though – you’re driving!), the diced carrots, leeks and potatoes and enough beef stock to cover the contents. Lastly, add the herbs and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Now for the fun part. Get your hands on a tin foil roasting pan. Go to your car and open the bonnet. Look for a level place where the heat of the engine will radiate through the roasting tin – I used the manifold. (Heat transference is very important, otherwise you will have no stew.) Shape the roasting pan so that it will fit firmly, but beware of the fan belt and any other moving parts.

Go back into the kitchen, fill the roasting tin with the prepared stew and seal the whole lot in a couple of layers of foil. Go back to your car and place the stew on top of the manifold. Secure it with some soft wire so that it won’t fall over. Check your oil and water, close the bonnet and drive. (Don’t tell your insurance company what you’re about to get up to.)

About 500 kilometres later the stew should be cooked perfectly, and the beef will be tender.

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“City Life nowadays means that we are constantly surrounded by ‘things’ – noise, people, traffic, lights and cars. It’s a complete overload and in my opinion not natural. If you get time off, I urge you to go off the grid – you’ll soon reconnect with what is important.”

Editor’s note Following the incredibly successful The Ultimate Braai Master series, Justin and the braai teams have put together a culinary delight in the Justin Bonello’s Ultimate Braai Master cookbook, published by Penguin Books.

Win!

Two lucky readers will get their grubby paws on this book, filled with the best braai recipes from around South Africa.

All you need to do, is read the two braai tips and email your answer to the following question to The Intrepid Explorer editor: robbie@intrepidexplorer.co.za.

Question: In this edition of The Intrepid Explorer, which two methods of cooking does Justin recommend you try?

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XR CROSSMAX 2 THE IDEAL TRAINING SHOE FOR RUNNING FROM YOUR DOOR TO ANY TRAIL, ANY TIME

AJ Ca litz

trial by trail

South Africa boasts hundreds of trail runs and events, so how do you go about selecting your Top 10? Jacques Marais cornered the ‘Ninja of Trail’, AJ Calitz, to get his take on what makes a trail event a keeper.

AJ Calitz is not just another trail runner. How ordinary can a man be who answers to in-your-face nicknames such as ‘The Ginger Ninja’ or ‘The Beast’? There is an easy answer (in a word, extraordinary), but to get the boytjie to admit this is about as difficult as running up and down Table Mountain a dozen times between sunrise and sunset.

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His eyes blaze like a blowtorch as he relates how he chased down the field to take the lead in a race famed as ‘The Grail of Trail’.

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AJ Ca litz

a

nd that is no idle joke: this is the type of challenge that Calitz thrives on. Part legal eagle (he studied Law at Stellenbosch, and finished his articles in Cape Town in 2010), part bruiser (he used to weigh in at over 80 kilogrammes and still looks as if he could flatten Andre Venter in a tackle) and full-time runner from 2013 onward, he is about to hit those trails this year and demolish them.

“For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a professional athlete,” he muses over a bowl of muesli (I had to catch him early before a five-hour base run). “I’ve done triathlon at professional level, got my Iron Man fix and dabbled in top-class road ultras, but the day I did my first trail run I was hooked.

“It was a run in Stellenbosch: a bit of mountain, a bit of vineyards, not long – maybe 10 or 12 kilometres. I think I came second, but got my butt firmly kicked by a 15-year-old laaitie,” adds Calitz. (The ‘laaitie’ in question was Kane Reilly, currently one of Calitz’s toughest contemporaries.)

He smiles ruefully, but behind the façade it is all steel and determination; his record for 2012 very much speaks for itself, with more than a dozen wins against top-class competition.

The two blips on his radar are the Otter African Trail Run and Table Mountain Challenge (TMC), and his demeanour changes to that of a flanker about to take on the All Blacks as he thinks back to these runs. “TMC was a bit of a miscalculation on my part:

Kane Reilly and I ended up too far back from the leaders, and left it too late to haul in Mike Bailey,” Calitz explains.

“Then I went into the Otter African Trail Run three weeks later, like George Foreman storming into ‘Rumble in the Jungle’.

I could still feel TMC in my legs, and was determined not to lose sight of the runners in front of me again, as I had little knowledge of the trail.” His eyes blaze like a blowtorch as he relates how he chased down the field to take the lead in a race famed as ‘The Grail of Trail’.

More than two-thirds through the gruelling 42km off-road ultra, Iain Don-Wauchope – one of South Africa’s top runners and the first man to break the five-hour Otter barrier – came from behind to blast past Calitz in an unprecedented show of force. “I knew right away that no one was going to catch ‘The Don’ on the day, but defeat brought me back to earth, and made me hungry.”

It is therefore no wonder that The Otter is Calitz’s big local focus for 2013. That is only the first step of the proverbial giant leap, with international races such as Zegama-Aizkorri (Spain), the Leadville Trail 100 (United States) and the Mountain Ultra (also in the US) on the cards.

Nothing breeds success like success – and with his new sponsor, Liberty Medical Scheme’s Own Your Life Rewards Programme (in conjunction with K-Way, Vivo, Ultraspire and Gu), it would take a brave man to bet against ‘The Ginger Ninja’.

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Survive this!

AJ Calitz may survive these extreme trails, but will you? The only way to know is to go and run them, so here’s his list of ultimate events for 2013:

Muizenberg Trail Run – ‘Short Bomb’ Run Province: Western Cape Closest town: Lakeside

Get ready to do battle with gravity as you head straight off the Boyes Drive tarmac strip into Cloud Country; do not be surprised if you lose the sun as you ascend into the high mist zone along an extremely technical and rugged trail certain to take its toll. The event is part of the SPUR Country Classics Series, but the trail makes for a great escape on any given fun day.

Why run it: If you want to shock your system into reset, this is the one.

Distance: A circular route of 13km Website: www.quantumadventures.co.za

Hout Bay Trail Challenge – Most Complete Run Province: Western Cape Closest town: Hout Bay

This pearl of a circular run from Hout Bay leaves you breathless as you first pound up and over Karbonkelberg before taking on the craggy Table Mountain trails. Should you survive this mother of a mountain, a river crossing and sandy finish await you as you sprint toward the line at Hout Bay harbour. Event date is set every year for end July, so expect

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rain and all kinds of weather as you navigate the no-holds-barred route.

Why run it: Everything goes, from rock-hopping and single-track to sandy beach running.

Distance: A circular route of 36-40km Website: www.houtbaychallenge.co.za

Otter African Trail Run – Ultimate Soul Run Province: Eastern Cape Closest town: Storms River Village

Legendary event organiser, Magnetic South, switches direction on ‘The Otter’ every year, just to keep it interesting. This means there are two records on the cards: one for the Otter Classic Route, and the other for the Retto (Otter in reverse). Whether you start in Nature’s Valley (for the latter) or stick with the intended direction of this breathtaking hiking trail from Storms River Mouth Rest Camp, you are certainly guaranteed the run of your life.

Why run it: Free-ranging run within the Garden Route National Park, probably along the most spectacular coastline in the world.

Distance: A one-way route, perfectly pitched at a 42km marathon distance Website: www.ottertrailrun.co.za

K-Way Platteklip Challenge – Most Masochistic Run Province: Western Cape Closest town: Cape Town K-Way has come on board to sponsor

this important fund-raising event on the trail running calendar, and approximately 100 athletes will once again gather this year in April to see how many times they can run to the very top of Table Mountain in a single day. What you’re looking at are laps of 5.5km, each with 760m of climbing – just the gorge itself poses 800 double-steps over a distance of 2.1km. Once you get to the top, run to the aerial cableway, and swoop down to start the next insane climb.

Why run it: Because it is there. And did we mention the masochism issue?

Distance: Every lap consists of 5.5km of climbing, with a staggering 760m of ascent!

Website: www.charitychallenge.co.za

AJ C a litz And as an added bonus, here are five up-country routes and events not to be missed!

Thule 4 Peaks Mountain Challenge (Free State)

A difficult-to-extreme run, even though it is relatively short at just about 24km, the Four Peaks is rated as one of South Africa’s top trail events. Organiser Adrian Saffy insists it is more than ‘just a run’, but rather an adventurous weekend away in the great outdoors for you and your family.

Website: www.pureadventures.co.za

Salomon Skyrun (Eastern Cape)

Certainly one of the country’s toughest runs and, in my opinion, as beautiful as any other trail running event in the world, the Skyrun should undoubtedly be on every ultra-runner’s bucket list. Make it a big bucket because you’ll need it for all the blood, sweat and tears along the tough and gruelling 100km route.

Website: www.pureadventures.co.za

Magaliesberg Challenge (Gauteng)

AJ Calitz trains and competes wearing K-Way apparel

Oorlogskloof – Most Different Run

Province: Northern Cape Closest town: Nieuwoudtville The ‘War Gorge’ ravines run amok here upon the very edge of the inland escarpment, with a rugged network of kloofs and gorges and valleys gouged into the plateau overlooking the Knersvlakte way below. Start from the reserve entrance at Groot Tuin, and get ready to run like a klipspringer as you cavort through caves, follow tracks along the escarpment edge, and tramp onto footpaths meandering within truly magical indigenous forests. Natural grandeur, a rich history and the friendliest people – it all comes together at Oorlogskloof.

Why run it: Come on, what are the chances you’ll ever go to Nieuwoudtville, if not to run this mind-blowing route?

Distance: A circular route of 41km Website: www.quantumadventures.co.za

Ask anyone from Jozi’s urban jungle and you can bet your trail shoes their favourite escape is the Magaliesberg. It is therefore no wonder the Magaliesberg Challenge traverses the spectacular Magaliesburg ranges, covering 65km over three stages.

Website: www.trailrunning.co.za

Mont-aux-Sources Challenge (KwaZulu-Natal)

This 50km run through the Royal Natal National Park is not for beginners, with the out-and-back route expected to take anything from five to 10 hours. However, the vistas and game sightings along the way are sure to blow your mind.

Website: www.montauxsourceschallenge.co.za

Num-Num Trail Challenge (Mpumalanga)

Indigenous forests, stream crossings, waterfalls, kloofs, sandstone labyrinths and views to die for – you’ll get all this along the 36.5km Num-Num Challenge Route. Be warned – it is rated difficult to extreme.

Website: www.thenum-numtrail.co.za Photos by Jacques Marais with NIKON The Intrepid Explorer issue 2

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Magnificent

Our Intrepid contributor Roy Watts tracks down Sharon Pincott, author of The Elephants and I and Battle For The President’s Elephants so we can share in the amazing journey her life has taken and how it has made such a difference to so many herds of greys

obsession

Why would a high-flying executive sell her home in Brisbane along with her fashionable sports car, and all the trappings of success in exchange for a life in the wilds of Zimbabwe? Probably for the same reasons that Lawrence Anthony (aka The Elephant Whisperer) went bouncing through the war zones at the height of the Iraq War in a hired Toyota, to save the Baghdad Zoo. Both are possessed by an all-consuming passion for animals that became their life force.

R oy Wa tts

m

y friendship with Anthony began when I wrote two articles about him in 2004. The first was about his extraordinary taming of a delinquent herd of angry elephants, and the second chronicled his exploits in Iraq.

I was privileged to be with him on three separate occasions when he walked among his faithful jumbos, and through him I came to realise how closely they match human beings in the sphere of basic emotions: anger, grief, jealousy, loyalty and, yes – love.

The best example of this occurred the last time he interacted with the herd. I noticed that Nana, his beloved matriarch – instantly recognisable for her missing tusk – was not there. When asked about this, he told me to wait while we moved 100 yards down the road where we found her waiting for him under a tree. Just like all other women, she didn’t want to share him with the herd.

Elephant mothers have very few equals in the wild when it comes to nurturing and protecting their young. And anyone who has watched them cavorting in a river like kids in a water park, would have no doubt about their capacity for fun. Yet, there are many people who would happily put a bullet between their eyes, either legally or as poachers seeking financial gain in the form of trophies or the valuable ivory of their tusks.

In 1990, a measure of protection was introduced when Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe conferred the status of Presidential Elephants on the pachyderms of the Hwange Estate, in an effort to eliminate illegal hunting. It was a noble gesture, but lacked the teeth to provide the protection they deserved, and upholding the spirit of this decree was largely left to a heroic battle fought by Australian, Sharon Pincott.

From the year 2001, she embarked on a continual struggle against poachers, wire snares and a dubious government official who managed a land grab complete with hunting concessions. This was done under

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After

Before

the ‘Settler’ tag – a polite euphemism for a ‘connected’ squatter. Much of her good work was undermined as hunters returned and spooked the formerly placid elephants, causing them to panic and flee the area.

Over the years, Pincott has been threatened, assaulted, abused and refused access to her favourite watering holes. She was also framed as a spy, and for a while appeared on Zimbabwe’s most wanted list. Most recently, she was thrown out of her home of 10 years, with nowhere else to live.

Her African odyssey began in March 2001, when she received a letter granting her permission to work full-time on a voluntary basis with the Presidential Elephants of Zimbabwe. Her base was a single rondavel with plumbing on the Hwange Estate, which measured 140 square kilometres, and was separated

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from the 14 600km² of the greater Hwange National Park by the railway line linking Bulawayo to the Victoria Falls.

When she arrived, the area was already famous for the advanced degree of habituation present among the elephants there. This was largely due to the fact that they had not been hunted for the past 30 years.

With an obsession born of her driving passion, Pincott began to study, document and familiarise herself with the various herds through a process of rigorous patrolling and monitoring. She introduced a system whereby she gave each matriarch a name beginning with a successive letter of the alphabet. The rest of the herd were then given names starting with the same letter. Thus Mertle, the M group matriarch, had followers called Marmite, Marion, Magic, Mandy and Marianne etc.

In an amazing feat, she got to know most of the estimated 450 elephants by name, along with their habits and personalities. After a short while, she was on stroking terms with many of the matriarchs through the window of her 4x4 vehicle.

Pincott’s epic struggle to preserve her pachyderm friends has been well documented in her two absorbing books.

Backing this is a DVD titled, All the President’s Elephants, a riveting documentary that features extraordinary footage of the trials, tribulations and some of the joys of her controversial existence in the Zimbabwe Wilderness. So as a dedicated jumbonista, I was given the signal honour of interviewing her en route to satisfying my own curiosity about her remarkable story.

Roy Watts: Who granted the consent for your initial entry, and were there any terms

Roy Wa tts of reference regarding your permission to work with the Presidential Elephants? Was there any hint of executive approval and, in particular, anyone at ministerial level who could be called upon for some sort of assistance in troublesome situations?

Sharon Pincott: In 2001, I had no ministerial contacts, although I knew of the high-level Zanu-PF minister (now minister of state in the President’s Office), who was key in obtaining the initial presidential decree in 1990. He kindly assisted me when things got tough, and helps me still.

Things were quite different (and, indeed, much easier) when I first arrived in Zimbabwe 12 years ago, since land reform hadn’t yet hit the Hwange Estate area. At this time, a photographic safari company called Touch the Wild controlled the majority of the Presidential Elephants’ land and it was this group who granted me my first approvals and assisted in obtaining my first government-issued work permits (which were required regardless of my doing voluntary work). Today, Touch the Wild no longer exists – at least not on the Hwange Estate.

Much of your energy went into getting President Mugabe to sign a reaffirmation of the original decree that was made 21 years ago. This he did in 2011. Was this accompanied by any extra measures that would help you in your efforts to preserve the safety of the elephants?

Regrettably, nothing has been forthcoming to assist with anti-poaching, monitoring or patrols. Verbal affirmations were made at this time, however, and awareness was certainly raised. The public was sent a clear message that shooting a Presidential Elephant was as bad as shooting the president, and that if you killed one, you could expect to be killed.

The message was loud and clear; penalties for compromising the Presidential Herd would be severe.

Thankfully, I no longer encounter as many snared animals as I did during my early years in Zimbabwe. Donor-funded anti-poaching teams now patrol, destroying snares and ambushing

poachers. Penalties for snaring are less lenient than they were 10 years ago, which has deterred some would-be poachers.

But as you see in the documentary, two snared elephants were encountered during the two months of filming – and that’s still two too many.

Taking on, and eventually defeating, the land-grabbing high-level government official involved great courage and considerable risk. The fact that you managed to get him evicted does suggest that you must have had some friends at the coal face of government? What was the background to his departure?

There are still some people in high places who do have the welfare of these elephants at heart. Without these supportive government ministers, our problems would be far graver. In fact,

Young elephants certainly follow the lead of their elders. Family members learn quickly in whom their mothers and matriarchs put their trust, and tend to display this same level of trust. The reverse is true, too, with less friendly matriarchs leading more reserved families. These shrewd elephants know who their friends are, and are far less responsive around humans they don’t know well.

Lawrence Anthony was convinced that elephants have a very highly developed ESP capability. Proof of this to him was the fact that they were all waiting at the gate when he returned from hospital after his first heart attack. Further evidence of this was well documented on the day he died, when all the Thula Thula elephants congregated outside his house in the reserve. Do you have any opinions on this?

“Over the years, Pincott has been threatened,

assaulted, abused and refused access to her favourite

watering holes. She was also framed as a spy, and for a

while appeared on Zimbabwe’s most wanted list.” without the high-level support of these few, I would long ago have been expelled – or worse – and Zimbabwe’s flagship herd would no longer exist in any meaningful form.

Once the issues were highlighted, these supportive ministers recognised how disastrous it was for key Presidential Elephant land to be negatively interfered with. It didn’t happen overnight, and it certainly wasn’t easy – in fact, it was the most frightening and trying time for me in Hwange to date, but eventually things were put right by those in high places.

Most of your favourites were matriarchs, and I was particularly moved by your relationship with Lady – and your elation at finding her after a long absence. Do you believe that winning their confidence meant quicker acceptance by the rest of their herds?

When a friend asked me about this not long after Lawrence’s death, my immediate response was that I would expect nothing less from his elephants. It didn’t surprise me in the least. There are times when I’ve been at my lowest, during yet another preposterous or alarming Hwange Estate incident, and I’ve driven into the field to find solace.

Almost without fail, I’d end up with some of my favourite Presidential Elephants right beside the door of my 4x4, remaining there for an extended period of time, rumbling their alluring contact calls. Obviously I can’t know that they’re talking to me – as opposed to their family members – but it always feels as if they are; as if I’m one of their family after all, and they’ve come to offer comfort.

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R oy Wa tts What has been the level of support from all branches of the media (newspapers, television and magazines)?

Overall support from the South African media has usually been quite encouraging. It’s disappointing, though, that the media in other countries (including my own homeland, Australia) tends to take little or no interest. A good-news story – generally positive at least – isn’t what international media seems to want to know about, when it comes to the troubled nation of Zimbabwe! I think that’s a real shame.

You just have to look at what Zimbabwe has been through during the past 12 years, and here we are with some of the friendliest wild, free-roaming elephants on Earth. Remember that there are no fences here; these elephants aren’t restrained in any way. That they allow me so intimately into their vast world, despite all they’ve endured, is an incredible thing.

Social media now plays an important role in spreading awareness, too, with the Presidential Elephant’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ PresidentialElephantsZim) having attracted excellent interest in the few months since its inception.

Can you recall the funniest (or happiest) incident during your time in Hwange to date?

There are so many of these (a fantastic thing, of course, since why else would one continue to endure the seemingly unendurable?) that it’s difficult to choose just one incident. There’s no more entertaining species on Earth than a

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wild elephant! In the documentary, you see one of the W family elephants steal my yellow jacket from the backseat of my 4x4, followed by a great commotion – all of these wild elephants clearly celebrating their own cheekiness!

That in itself is a great moment, but what you don’t see – since the cameraman didn’t manage to get his camera on us in time – is my jacket seesawing through my back window, my pulling on one arm and the playful

elephant pulling on the other. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth my jacket went, through the open window, until I started to fear it would be split in two, and you see me on film releasing my grip. That was Elephants – 1; Humans – Nil! Elephants giggle in infrasound; of this I have no doubt! They were definitely snorting their own happiness at this victory, and it’s at times like these that you can’t help but laugh out loud with them.

Win

All the President’s Elephants is also available as a documentary DVD filmed on the Hwange Estate in 2011 and produced by the Natural History Unit Africa. NHU Africa commissions and produces wildlife and natural history documentaries for both international and local audiences, focusing on telling compelling and unique African wildlife stories. NHU Africa also runs Wild Talk Africa, the premier wildlife and natural history film festival in Africa, and the Wildlife Film Academy, where aspiring wildlife filmmakers can learn everything they need to start – from filming and scriptwriting to producing and editing.

The film has just been nominated in EVERY Wildlife category at this year’s South African Film and Television Awards.

There are four categories for wildlife films – and it’s been nominated into each one: Best Director, Best Editor, Best Cinematographer and Best Wildlife Programme.

Two lucky readers can win a copy of the DVD by answering this question and sending it to robbie@intrepidexplorer.co.za Q: For how many awards has the All the President’s Elephants DVD been nominated at this year’s South African Film and Television Awards?

pReSentinG ifaw’S lateSt, MUSt-Read diGital RepORt

UnvEiling thE

ivOry tradE Global seizures of illegal ivory suggest that some 25,000 to 50,000 elephants were slaughtered in 2011 alone to furnish demand in major markets around the world. This interactive report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare lifts the veil on the escalating multi-million dollar illegal trade that has arguably become the gravest threat to the survival of the world’s elephants.

Online • dOwnlOad • tablet app

ElEphantdigimag.ifaw.Org/ivOrytradE

fear & loathing in

Mozambique Ben Trovato recalls his (mis)adventures in Maputo

Minutes before hitting the border, Brenda spotted a roadblock and shouted at me to fasten my seat belt. I slammed on anchors, sending the beer bottle flying from between my legs. Stupidly, it wedged itself under the brake pedal while the seat belt did what all seat belts do in times of emergency: release, lock, release, lock. When I looked up, the cop was at my window.

Ben Tr ova to

“W

hy are you trying to kill your wife?” he asked. Good God. What does he know? Who has he been talking to? I played dumb. “What do you mean, officer?” I asked, trying not to breathe on him.

“You’ve been driving like this,” he said, making his hand move like a black mamba on a hot tar road.

I assured him that I would never try to kill my wife – especially not in front of the police. His mouth twitched in what must have been amusement because he let us go instead of taking us back to the police station and harvesting our organs for muti.

The border was a tremendous disappointment. No one insisted on searching us. No one asked for a bribe. I felt offended. Were we not worth harassing? I wanted to confront someone and ask: “Is it because we’re white?”

Instead, I accosted a grizzled war veteran and asked him which road led to Maputo. Half a dozen tracks fanned out like a sandy delta. One sign read ‘Ponta do Ouro’. Another read ‘Ponta Malongane’. A third read ‘Ponta Mamoli’. The veteran looked in the direction of Mamoli and nodded imperceptibly.

The Land Rover went 100 metres and sank up to its ankles. This was a brutal start to our holiday. Brenda looked at me as if to say, “What kind of man are you that you can’t drive a 4x4?” I looked at her as if to say, “Well, who wouldn’t rather be lying in a meadow in a turquoise sundress with flowers in their hair, writing poems to lovers we have never met?”

I slammed the flailing beast into low range and got us back to the border where a heavily armed Frelimo soldier laughed long and hard when I enquired as to the whereabouts of his capital city. The only reason I never got out of the car and smacked him sharply across the side of the head was because I knew he would shoot me in the face.

Good thing we got stuck because we were on the wrong road. Imbecile car.

After endless screaming and gunning the engine, the right road took on all the characteristics of a road that was very, very

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wrong. No one had warned me that I would need the instincts of a migrating swallow to find my way around this godforsaken country.

Instead of bringing a GPS, we relied on verbal communication to get a fix on our position: “The sea is on our right.”

“Rubbish! It’s on our left.”

“You’re crazy.”

“No, YOU’RE crazy!”

That’s how we found ourselves violently veering along the desolate fringes of an elephant reserve where no white man has been since 1st Reconnaissance Battalion was here and no elephant has been spotted since a Renamo patrol impaled the

fantastic advert for a free market economy if they did.

Because Brenda’s outstanding map-reading skills had taken us left to Boane instead of straight to Catembe, the trip to Maputo took most of the day and 15 years off my life. The sun was setting when I wedged our snorting block of mud between two sparkling Toyota Prados in the Holiday Inn parking lot. Guests visibly recoiled at the sight of us bickering and squabbling and tracking sand through the chandelier-infested lobby.

“We need your cheapest room for the night,” I said to the grey-faced desk clerk.

“That will be R2 000, sir.”

“This is an outrage!” I shouted. “Come on,

reminded me of the spawn of a violent marriage between Escher and Dante. She told me to drop the artistic pretensions and rather focus on getting us the hell out of there. How unbelievably rude.

After several rounds of arm-waving, shouting and threats of divorce, we eventually found someone who told us what road to take instead of vaguely pointing in the direction of Madagascar while trying to sell us a live chicken.

Out on the open road, I put my foot down and took the Land Rover up to its top speed of 115 kilometres per hour. It was exhilarating stuff. Brenda nodded off. Then came the first of an endless succession of signs. 80km/h. Followed

last one on a telephone pole and turned it into a spitbraai. Brenda had sent us down a filthy road from hell which left the Land Rover covered from head to toe in mud and me a gibbering wreck.

The civil war may be over, but there’s a new battle being waged for the hearts and minds of Mozambicans. “This is Mcel turf,” Brenda whispered nervously when we passed through villages with abandoned spaza shops painted bright yellow. Several goats and a dead dog later, we would enter enemy territory, the vivid blue shacks demarcating a Vodacom stronghold.

I have no idea if the villagers take machetes to one another over their cellphone allegiances, but what a

Brenda. We’re going to the Polana.” The staff at this overbearing colonial wedding cake were even less pleased to see us.

“Our available rooms start at R5 000 a night,” said a man dressed like the president. It was a polite way of saying, “Please leave my hotel at once.”

“This is an outrage!” I shouted. “Come on, Brenda. We’re going to the Holiday Inn.” Maputo may have a vibrant street life and booming economy, but the last thing you want is to be sucked into it when you’re trying to find the road to Xai-Xai. Mozambique’s capital is made up of concentric circles of expanding mayhem.

As I swerved for a donkey cart pulling a car with no engine, I told Brenda that it

50m later by 60km/h. Followed by a village. Just as I picked up momentum, at one time even nudging 120km/h, I would be forced to slow to a crawl.

Under normal circumstances, I would have ignored the signs and ploughed through the villages at the speed of sound. However, I had been warned that the Mozambican traffic police would be out soliciting donations for their Christmas orgies so I exercised a little self-control. Or, as Brenda put it, acted my age for once.

Inexplicably, the cops not only left us alone, but they made a deliberate point of doing so. They sat under trees and looked away as we crawled past. Once, a policeman walked into the middle of

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the road and actually turned his back on us. I felt insulted; humiliated. Brenda instructed me to drive around him and not stop and cause a scene.

Xai-Xai sounds much more fun that it is. Anyone expecting to find casinos, dancing elephants and whiskey bars staffed by topless virgins will be disappointed. In a bid to cheer me up, Brenda said she’d buy me a beer. I pretended to be delirious with joy.

The only bar we could find was in the campsite. I think it was the campsite. It could have been an old Portuguese landfill

for ‘I want to look around’, he lifted his baton and made the international gesture for ‘leave now or I will dent your cranium’.

A few hundred metres down the track, we pulled in at another lodge that was in various stages of what was either construction or decomposition. I hadn’t even switched off the engine when a thickset member of the Afrikaner tribe came bounding down the drive to head us off.

I don’t know what terrible secrets are being harboured along that strip of beach, but we were once again sent on our way.

for toxic waste because the only other person around was a badly disfigured barman who gave me a cold Manica beer before I had even asked for it. Brenda ordered a gin and tonic, her standard anti-malaria prophylactic. We avoided each other’s eyes and drank in silence.

There is only so much cheering up a man can take, so we got back into the car and swung a sharp left down a sandy track running along the beach. Half-built lodges were strung out along the dune belt.

Brenda suggested we stay overnight, but when I tried to pull in at one of the lodges, two uniformed guards refused to open the boom. One came to my window, and when I made the international gesture

“Beware of the big dune,” he said, kicking my tyres. Brenda stopped me from getting out of the car and kicking him back. “Take them down to one bar,” he said.

“Please. I’m a professional,” I said, reversing into a palm tree. I stopped when we were out of sight and stuck a match into the valves. I tried picturing what the tyres would look like with a bar in them, but then I started wondering where the tiny people would sit and what kind of music would be playing and whether they would have beer on tap – and then I had to stop or risk going mad.

After driving and driving, all the while fighting a car that clearly wanted to get off the road and go for a swim, we came

Ben Tr ova to

The great thing about going off-road in Mozambique is that you don’t have to wear seat belts or even clothes across a hotel that hadn’t seen action since the last guest was airlifted to Lisbon.

I suggested taking one of the shellshocked rooms, but Brenda had other plans. And so, for the first time in my life, I engaged something called ‘low range’ and headed, bucking and swaying, straight for a murderously big dune. The Land Rover chewed it up and spat it out. Earning my 4x4 stripes made me want to drink rum from the bottle, kill a bunch of blue marlin and impregnate my barefooted wife right there and then. I settled for a warm beer and a pat on the head.

Back on the tar, we made splendid progress veering between the potholes and the goats, the soft tyres cushioning the bumps and creating a floaty sensation that put me into a trance-like state. The fun ended when Brenda sounded her inner foghorn.

“We’re in Inhambane. Slow down.”

What on earth for? From what I could see, Inhambane was moving slowly enough for all of us. In fact, it appeared to have stopped altogether.

Brenda insisted on reciting a scrap of narcolepsy-inducing history of this crumbling wreck of a town. In the mid-18th century, Inhambane was a fabulous free-for-all with Arabs, Christians, Indians and possibly even the odd Jew or two trading textiles, ivory and slaves by the thousand. It was Fun City. Then, 150 years later, one or other interfering foreign do-gooder pulled the plug on slavery and the party was over.

It’s Sunday today and the bottle store is closed. This wouldn’t have happened in the good old days. What a shame.

Inhambane was shutting down for the night and I still hadn’t found what I was looking for. Whenever I swerved onto a pavement and cornered the locals, they would show me the whites of their eyes and quickly back away from the Land Rover. Could my Portuguese be so bad that they thought I was asking for heroin instead of fresh fish? Quite frankly, I would have settled for either.

Earlier, I had had to fend off packs of what appeared to be unemployed

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Ben Tr ova to investment bankers shouting, “Dow? Dow?” I tried to reassure them that although the Dow was down, the Hang Seng was up and they should put their money into blue chips on the Hong Kong exchange. It was a long shot, but it seemed to work. They moved off, confused and angry.

Brenda slapped me affectionately across the back of my head, sending my sunglasses out of the window and under the back wheel. “They want to know if we’re interested in a dhow ride, you idiot,” she said.

With the Land Rover in low range and me in high dudgeon, we left this paintdeprived ruin of a town and bounced down a pitiful excuse for a road that led to our accommodation on the coast.

The great thing about going off-road in Mozambique is that you don’t have to wear seat belts or even clothes. Nor do you have to stick to the speed limit or worry about bribe-mongering policemen leaping out from behind a coconut palm.

There are more coconut palms in Mozambique than there are Chinese in China. The Chinese, however, are harder working, but less pleasing to the eye.

The road to Jangamo Bay was rougher than a Northern Cape farmer and twice as hairy. We arrived at the house minutes before my kidneys began to liquidise.

The first thing to greet us was a giant spider moving across the floor like Usain Bolt, with eight legs and a really small head. In hot pursuit was a detachment of geckoes, their hideous voices raised in a crackling war rattle that scared the bejesus out of me.

I woke early the next morning, doused myself in the local Tipo Tinto rhum that serves as a panacea for everything from shark bites to sobriety, and talked Brenda into coming snorkelling with me at a spot called Paindane, a couple of clicks down the beach.

Cresting a dune, we saw a few 4x4s on the beach. Brenda suggested we park at

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the top and walk down. Nonsense, I said. If they can do it, so can I. Using baby turtles for traction, I got us right down to the water’s edge.

I like snorkelling because fish don’t talk. They may look at you as if to say, “Who are you and what the hell do you think you’re doing here?”, but they don’t actually say it. The only sound was my sucking on the snorkel. And then, when an appalling snake-like creature stuck its dreadful snout out of a crevice, the sound of my chest being ripped open on the coral as I scrambled, mask askew, to reach the safety of the Land Rover. Brenda had seen an octopus and was already in the passenger seat.

I took a big run at the dune and made it halfway across the beach when the car sank up to its thighs. I got out and kicked the tyres. Nothing happened, so I took off my shirt, flexed my muscles, coughed up a bit of blood and lay down on the sand.

I told Brenda it was important not to lose face in front of the other people with 4x4s.

We needed to pretend that we had decided to stop there for a bit. She gave me the lazy eye, got out and waved over a posse of bracelet-sellers who scrabbled around beneath the wheels and pushed the car out.

As punishment, I kept driving and made Brenda walk all the way to the top of the dune. In return, she made me sleep in the spider’s room until fear got the better of me and I begged for mercy.

Move over, Kingsley Holgate.

Then it was up the Barra peninsula to swim with whale sharks, which flock to this area in their thousands – except, apparently, on Tuesdays. We had more chance of frolicking with a shoal of coelacanth. I was bitterly disappointed because my friend Ted had told me that if you hold on to a whale shark’s dorsal fin and jab it with a spear gun, you can have the ride of your life.

Over the next few days, I rolled a quad bike and fell off a horse. My toe swelled up

like a sea cucumber and Brenda spoke nothing but pidgin Portuguese. The time to leave came with the onset of tropical crotch rot and a deranged fisherman who stumbled up to me and shouted, “Crab!” right into my face. I packed the cooler box with a dozen plastic bottles of Tipo Tinto, three wall-eyed barracuda and a conch the size of Jacob Zuma’s head, then pointed the Land Rover’s face toward Swaziland and floored it.

It was getting dark when we hit the border. Fairly reliable sources had recommended Phophonyane Falls Lodge near Piggs Peak as a good spot to overnight. What they didn’t mention was the savagely rutted dirt road that went up a mountain the size of Kilimanjaro. Night fell. A heavy mist descended. The Land Rover struggled between first and second.

Higher and higher we went. The village lights disappeared. The forest closed in.

The petrol ran out.

“Do something!” said Brenda. I fetched the panga from the back of the car and opened a bottle of Tipo Tinto. It was so dark that I missed my mouth and wet my pants.

After three hours of sitting in the car, speechless with terror, we saw headlights behind us. Two cars. They drove past. I couldn’t blame them. I wouldn’t have stopped for me, either.

But then they did. They were trade unionists returning from a meeting. Archie agreed to take us to a garage in Piggs Peak. Shamefaced, I told him we had no money. Neither did we have local sim cards for our phones, no fuel in our jerry cans, no idea where Piggs Peak was and no plans to speak of. We all had a good laugh at how retarded I was.

Archie bought us 200 emalangenis worth of petrol and his comrade, Henry, drove us back to the Land Rover where I poured petrol all over his hands while he held the funnel he had carved from a plastic coke bottle. King Mswati aside, Swazis are princes among people.

No lim its

relentless quest We can all do simple, small things to make a positive difference, says Braam Malherbe

m

y intense passion to protect our natural resources and our global biodiversity began at the young age of 17, when I ran 532 kilometres to ‘save’ the beautiful Langebaan lagoon on the Cape West Coast.

This achievement merely emphasised what I believe is inherent in all of us: that if you have big dreams, nothing is impossible.

Have a cause beyond just your own ego and watch what happens.

When David Grier asked me to run the Great Wall of China with him, I agreed, but on one condition: that we adopt a children’s charity and raise funds to make a positive difference in the lives of those less fortunate. David agreed with my suggestion to take on Operation Smile SA and to raise funds for the inaugural mission (group of operations) in South

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Braam Malherbe was awarded the prestigious Enviropaedia/SABC3 ‘Eco-Warrior’ title for 2012. He is known as ‘Wild Child’ among many of South Africa’s youth and ‘Mr Relentless’ among many adults. He tells us where all this stems from.

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No lim its Africa where 54 children would smile for the first time.

This commitment, to facilitate positive change in others, is what I stand for. I empower others to make a difference in two ways. Firstly, to show people that we all are powerful beyond measure, and secondly, that we have an obligation to be assets to our planet Earth – our only home.

It is only we, as a collective species, who can ensure a sustainable future for our kind, and for all the species that we so depend upon for our survival. If we do not think as a collective mind for the greater good of our home, our children’s future will be severely compromised.

So why do I explore extreme places?

Is it simply because I enjoy punishing myself? I think not! I have a deep love and understanding for wild open spaces. I believe it is here that the intrepid explorer finds purpose. Because, in wild, untamed nature, we are not distracted by the pseudo world of greed and consumption that we have created, but go to the essence of who we are – connected to this amazing place we call home.

This is a big reason I wanted to do the Great Wall of China: to be in the vast

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open spaces of the Gobi Desert, to be at -22 degrees Celsius at 4 000 metres, to embrace nature’s harsh elements head on – and to know my very life is supported by what nature provides.

One does not suddenly figure out all this in a boardroom or a crowded

summer when temperatures can peak at 50°C. Conversely, one cannot run at -35°C day after day. So we started in autumn and hence had to push these excessive distances. But it was worth it because I can share the story and motivate our youth to reach for big dreams. Also, the difference

We totalled 98 marathons over some of the harshest terrain on Earth. Our accumulated ascents placed back to back equalled the height of Everest 14.8 times! restaurant with friends; one figures it out, alone, in nature, over a long tough time.

In order to complete the epic journey, David and I ran an average of 43km (that’s longer than a marathon) per day, six days a week. We totalled 98 marathons over some of the harshest terrain on Earth. Our accumulated ascents placed back to back equalled the height of Everest 14.8 times!

One cannot run in the Gobi Desert in

we made to children via their operations is truly priceless.

So if a regular bloke like me can help others see that anything is possible if they dream big, imagine what we could achieve collectively. I really believe that, in the grand scheme of things, if you’re not an asset, you are by default a liability.

We can all do simple, small things to make a positive difference.

deep breath Take a

Trail runner Ryan Sandes takes lessons from free-diving champion, Hanli Prinsloo, to push him to go further, faster and higher

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rowing up, I spent most of my spare time on the beach, in the water – and the first race I had ever won was as a seven-yearold at an interschool swim gala.

It was only in my mid-20s that I discovered trail running and the mountains.

My journey as a trail runner has taken me to some really beautiful places and up many gigantic mountains. Running to the top of a 3 000-metre mountain peak in the Rockies or Alps is an incredible but almost foreign experience because I’m so far from the ocean.

I feel most comfortable and grounded when I’m at home on Table Mountain, with panoramic views of the sea. However, I enjoy challenging myself and pushing my body and mind out of my comfort zone. I feel most alive when my quads are

aching from the lactic acid surging through them and my lungs feel as if they are about to explode from the lack of oxygen at high altitude. The search for these experiences is what motivates and drives me to run further, faster and higher.

The very first thing we do when we are born into this world is take a breath of air. We are not taught to breathe; it just

“

comes naturally. Over the past few years, however, as I have progressed as a professional athlete, I’ve realised the importance of breathing correctly.

After meeting and being inspired by 11-time South African free-diving record holder, Hanli Prinsloo, I decided to attend one of her free-diving courses. Hanli is a phenomenal athlete who has just about doubled her lung capacity through her

I focused on staying calm, embracing the foreign environment around me. My entire focus was on reaching that 14m marker – which I did!

”

free-diving training techniques. I hoped this course would give me a few valuable tips on how to breathe correctly, which would come in handy while running on the trails and at high altitude. I was also really intrigued to see what motivated Hanli and why she was able to push her body to such great depths.

Hanli’s one-day course started off with an early-morning yoga session, followed by breathing exercises and warm-ups. She taught us how to increase our lung capacity and showed us breathing and relaxation techniques.

Hanli also gave us a brief history of free-diving and what happens to our body when we hold our breath. In her words: Free-diving is the sport of diving

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Rya n Sa n des

One of my earliest childhood memories is of learning to swim.

I remember the day clearly: I jumped into the pool after my toy boat, and it was sink or swim.

After a few nerve-wracking seconds of thrashing about in the pool, I somehow figured out how to swim.

Now, as a trail runner, I’ve come to realise how crucial it is to breathe correctly.

as deep, as far or as long as possible on one single breath of air. It is an age-old activity with roots in ancient Polynesian, Japanese and Greek cultures, where free-diving for pearls, shellfish and sponges was a way of surviving off the sea. Today, free-diving is an advanced competition sport with athletes pushing their physical boundaries into a realm where mental strength and deep-rooted aquatic mammalian responses keep them alive.

In the afternoon, we went to a quarry to do some underwater dives so that we could put everything we had learnt into practice. My free-diving experience was epic and I really enjoyed the mental aspect of things. The water became colder and darker the deeper I swam, taking me out of my comfort zone.

Swimming down for the first 10m felt easy and I felt comfortable, but as soon as I passed the 10m mark, it was harder to equalise and the water became really cold and my visibility was reduced to a black cloud. Immediately I panicked, and all I could think about was breathing.

I headed straight up to the surface and enjoyed a few deep breaths. Hanli told me I had to stay calm and relax when I experienced those feelings of being out of control, and I would be able to go even deeper.

I descended into the depths again and as I passed the 10m mark, where everything was once again dark and eerie, I focused on staying calm, embracing the foreign environment around me. My entire focus was on reaching that 14m marker – which I did!

On my drive home, I reflected on what had just passed and how important it was to stay calm and not panic when diving. Going from 10 to 14m was not physical; it was about the mental strength in remaining calm. Running ultra trail races are pretty much the same: you go through a number of ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ during a race and it is really important to embrace these lows, stay calm and zone in on the end goal of crossing the finish line.

The course taught me much about breathing and how to improve my lung

capacity, but I found it very interesting that Hanli and I share a number of commonalities in our two very different worlds: the love and passion we have for what we do; and the respect we have for our natural surroundings which enables us to follow our dreams.

Breaking records and winning races is not about beating other people; it is about wanting to push ourselves beyond our personal boundaries. I admire the utmost respect that Hanli has for the ocean, and her drive to make our planet a better place.

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Spea k in g f r om th e Sum m it

to the roof of the americas Ronnie Muhl takes on The Stone Sentinel, Aconcagua – the highest trekking peak in the world

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his beautiful mountain lies in the middle of the rugged Andean Range in Argentina – and at 6 962m above sea level, it is considered the highest trekking peak in the world. But it is much more than that: It is truly a big mountain experience, testing you way beyond your wildest expectations.

With a summit success ratio of only 30%, you are guaranteed to be extremely challenged in trying to get to the top.

It did not take long for the team to come together and start preparing for an attempt on the highest mountain outside of the Himalayas, the tallest mountain in the Americas, and one of the Seven Summits.

Soon after our conversation, the preparation began with long walks, carrying heavy backpacks on Table Mountain and in the Magaliesberg.

Specialised gear was bought and borrowed and the nervous anticipation grew as our departure date for Mendoza, Argentina drew closer. Within days of wishing our families and friends Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, we were finally on a plane to South America.

An expedition to Aconcagua – ‘The Stone Sentinel’ – always begins in the beautiful tree-lined city of Mendoza. After spending a night there, we drove to Penitentes (2 700m), where we organised

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loads of gear for our move up to Base Camp. We made use of mules to assist us with this three-day trek up the Vacas Valley to Plaza Argentina (Base Camp 4 300m).

The muleteers are a gregarious and rough bunch of cowboys who make their living by ferrying loads to and from Base

and 3 (6 000m). These load-carrying days were tough. Carrying 20 kilogrammes above 5 000m is hard work, but our team was strong and very determined. As the leader of this group, I was astounded at how helpful everyone was and this supportive behaviour was underpinned

Our hearts and lungs were bursting and our exhausted legs felt heavy with lactic acid. Many of us questioned whether we had the strength to

get there as the mind

games prevailed

Camp. We had the pleasure of being wined and dined by them in traditional and authentic style in Pampa de Lenas and Casa de Piedra, the two intermediate camps leading up to our base.

Acclimatisation on any big mountain is of paramount importance and, as a result of gaining 3 500m since leaving Mendoza in the three long days of trekking, we all needed a few days’ rest.

After settling in to Plaza Argentina, we spent the next seven days carrying loads further up the mountain and establishing Camps 1 (5 000m), 2 (5 500m)

by a wonderful sense of humour and camaraderie. A great attitude is infectious and, as a result, we attracted an assortment of mountaineers to the camps we had established on the eastern slopes of Aconcagua.

Success on any big mountain is all about good strategy, careful decision making and patience – and with those factors in mind, we moved up to Camp 3 in full awareness that a snow storm was brewing and that if we did not take advantage of the relatively clear weather window, we could get pinned down at

“Hey Ronnie, we’ve climbed Kilimanjaro and been to Everest Base Camp with you. What’s next?” I had received this collective call 10 months ago from a group of guys with whom I had done some climbing, and knew that this adventurous bunch was keen to climb a 7 000-metre peak – so without hesitation, I suggested we climb Aconcagua.

6 000m for days on end. We moved up to Camp 3 and established ourselves in a flurry of snow. As we settled into our two-man tents in the late afternoon, we could hear other climbers returning from the summit. They had likely been out there and exposed for at least 14 hours, and they all looked extremely exhausted.

How would we all cope with the arduous task that lay ahead of us in less than 12 hours’ time?

Our appetites were non-existent, but we forced ourselves to drink some soup and eat a few bits of cheese and biscuits because we knew that we needed all the fuel we could consume for our summit push the following day. Most of us had a restless night, due to the altitude and the anticipation of what lay ahead.

We woke at 02h00 and went through the difficult challenge of packing and donning boots, crampons and other warm clothing while gasping for air at the same time. Cocooned in down jackets, balaclavas and goggles, we climbed out of our tents and slowly made our way through the upper reaches of the mountain, guided only by a small shaft of light cast by our head torches.

The coldest and darkest time of any summit push is just before dawn, but -20° Celsius seemed much more tolerable as it slowly became lighter and the sun

inched its way above the horizon. Seeing the awesome shadow of Aconcagua reflected in the early morning light against the foothills below is a sight I will not forget as long as I live.

It was time to tackle the long rising traverse of the Canaleta, which leads to a 250m couloir (corridor) which, in turn, leads to the summit ridge. This section of the mountain is steep – and in the snow conditions in which we were climbing, potentially dangerous. We painstakingly put one foot in front of the other and slowly made our way up the 45° slope of the Canaleta, stopping to catch our breath after every five to 10m. Our hearts and lungs were bursting and our exhausted legs felt heavy with lactic acid. Many of us questioned whether we had the strength to get there as the mind games prevailed.

We climbed for hours. We could see the summit, but it seemed to recede from us in a tantalising and tormenting way.

We persevered until eventually, one by one, we stepped up onto the summit of Aconcagua. For one brief moment we were probably the highest people on Earth, as in all likelihood no one would be climbing in the Himalayas at this time of the year. What an awesome thought!

We spent a few brief minutes on the summit, each of us finding that quiet

personal moment to contemplate what we had just achieved – but we were brought back to reality as we realised the predicted snow storm was starting to make its presence felt. It was time to descend. Our bodies were exhausted, but we found that reserve strength and resolve to struggle our way down. Hours later, we stumbled into Camp 3, physically wasted but emotionally exhilarated and relieved.

We descended back to Base Camp over the next few days and soon found ourselves in Mendoza once again. All those who had pushed for the summit had reached the top. There is something remarkable and challenging about being on a high mountain and then coming back down to earth again.

As I reflected on our experience of being on one of the great mountains of the world, I felt embraced and touched by the warmth, passion, honesty and enthusiasm of my fellow teammates and by our local guides, Pablo and Bruno, but I also felt humbled by the awesome power of Mother Nature and the mountains themselves. The lessons they teach are profound and timeless, and I hear their call to go back for more.

If you would like to join Ronnie Muhl on one of life’s great adventures, visit www.adventuresglobal.net Ronnie Muhl is a K-Way ambassador The Intrepid Explorer issue 2

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winter

The science and art of

comfort

Winter weather shouldn’t stop anyone from enjoying the outdoors. Evan Haussmann shows you how to dress for just about any cold, wet and windy environment.

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A Finnish wilderness guide once cut short my grumping about the minus-30-something-degree night air when he said, “If you’re cold,

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you’re not dressed properly.”

rom this experience, the Internet and trial and error, I learnt how to dress and, in so doing, could get on with enjoying the environment without being distracted by the discomfort of being cold.

Here’s what I have since learnt:

You’re hot!

Your body is the furnace. It produces heat that increases and decreases with corresponding levels of activity.

Trap that heat

Insulation in the form of clothing traps the body’s heat near the skin to keep you warm. Quality of insulation is determined by the fabric’s ability to trap heat in small pockets of dead air. Dead air essentially retards air convection (cooling) so the tiny pockets of air are warmed by your body heat; because they don’t cool quickly, a heat barrier is formed around you. Once you’ve trapped the air, you have to work against wind, rain, sweating and breathing to retain it.

Control temperature

As you run, walk or relax, your body temperature fluctuates. Sweating also compromises heat retention because evaporation has a cooling effect. So you need to be able to release the heat as the body temperature rises with increased activity, or trap heat as you slow down. Wind and rain need to be warded off to avert their cooling effect.

Get layered

The best way to take control of fluctuating temperatures is by dressing in layers.

Layering the right types of clothing allows you to add and shed layers as the conditions vary. With the right combinations of clothing – with suitable features such as armpit zips, and fabric properties such as moisture wicking and/or waterproofing – you can control comfort by releasing or retaining the right amount of heat.

The gear

Combinations of the following technical gear, matched to the environment, will improve your comfort and enjoyment of just about any cold, wet and windy environment:

Base layer

Thermal undergarments cover the whole body in a layer of heat-retaining fabric. Base layers should also be able to transfer moisture away from the body so as not to compromise their heat retention.

K-Way Thermalator Thermal Underwear Vest and Long Johns Price: R230 each

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Combination jackets

Three-in-one jackets combine a fully waterproof outer with a removable softshell fleece liner. The warm liner or windand-waterproof outer can be worn individually or in combinations suited to the conditions at hand.

K-Way Men’s 3-in-1 Antares Jacket Price: R1 599

Fleeces are extremely light and offer excellent insulation allowing you to open zippers – and if that’s not enough, they are easily removed to help regulate heat. They also form an adequate barrier against light winds, are breathable and repel water.

K-Way Strauss Fleece Top Price: R199

Softshell jackets, which are a combination of a hard shell and a fleece, retain body heat but have an added water-shedding and windproof outer layer to prevent body heat from being ‘blown away’ by wind or ‘washed away’ by rain or snow.

K-Way Men’s Felixx softshell Jacket Price: R599

K-Way Valiant Fleece Jacket Price: R499

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Tr a vel gea r The extremities Hands

Mittens are warmer than gloves, as glove design restricts airflow between the fingers. With mittens, the fingers actually keep each other warm. This, of course, poses a problem when you are trying to open the water bottle or take a picture. There are two good options: For sub-zero conditions, combine thermal gloves (as liners) with mitts. Remove the mitts when you need to use your fingers.

K-Way Le Grand Ski Gloves (incl. internal glove liner) Price: R599 If the temperatures are not too radical, I find the half-finger gloves with a mitt flap to be the most useful.

Your fingers are covered with a mitt but, when needed, you can fold the mitt section back and have full use of your fingers.

K-Way Peary Mitten Gloves Price: R250

Down below

So far we’ve mainly spoken about the torso, but the same principles and practices apply to keep the legs warm. Thermal leggings retain heat while waterproof outers are imperative as a barrier to water and wind. Waterproof outers keep pants dry and allow you to sit down on wet grass or snow without compromising your heat-retention layers beneath. Look for ease of access to pockets, the fly and zippered and/or Velcro outer seams that allow easy removal without having to take off your boots.

K-Way Men’s Vega Tri-lam Trousers Price: R1 199

K-Way Men’s Boulder Fleece Trousers Price: R399

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Feet

Thick thermal socks combined with high-cut waterproof boots and gaiters should be enough to provide sufficient protection for most winter activities.

Sub-zero hiking socks Price: R75

Hi-Tec Men’s Altitude Ultra Boots Price: R1 499

Winter gear tips & tricks Auxiliaries Batteries for your batteries

Battery life is negatively impacted by cold weather, and in especially cold environments it is a good idea to bring extra batteries or alternative backup power solutions for GPSs, mobile phones, cameras and similar gadgets.

Powertraveller Solar Monkey and Solarnut Charger Price: R499 Powertraveller Solarmonkey Explorer Price: R899

Weather to go or not

It is good practice to keep an eye on the weather and to pack and plan accordingly. While weather services are very advanced, having a real-time report on your immediate location to be extra sure cannot hurt.

La Crosse W57027 Weather Station Price: R499

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Fire in your pocket

Carry a pack or two of chemical hand warmers in your kit to increase the comfort factor in case the conditions deteriorate beyond the capabilities of your kit. They are inexpensive, relatively light and can provide hours of warmth inside a sleeping bag, pocket or inside the gloves.

N-rit Heat Pad Pocket Warmer Price: R15

K-Way Extreme Lite 500 Price: R1199

A few degrees more

Drink in the warmth

When your body’s core temperature begins to drop, a quick way to address the issue is to down a hot drink. Good quality flasks and insulated drinking cups will also preserve cooking fuel if you are camping, and reduce the inconvenience of having to heat water repeatedly.

Motion mug Price: R60

A lightweight and cost-effective way to extend the usefulness of a sleeping bag is to add a sleeping bag liner to your winter kit. Besides keeping a sleeping bag clean, it is great to use as a lightweight ‘sheet’ on a hot summer’s night, too.

K-Way Microfibre Inner (sleeping bag liner) Price: R199

I am my own concierge These are the few relatively basic things that allow me to enjoy a journey and get my work done. They make up a specific combination of worldly things that contribute to the very big difference between being distracted or downright frustrated at the destination, and returning with great images and tales of adventure to share.

Follow @EvanHaussmann on Twitter or visit www.evanhaussmann.com

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On the

wild side We give you the inside scoop on the outside world. We look at some of the astounding feats that are being

accomplished by intrepid people and places; new developments and books on offer; and a host of events on the calendar to diarise in which you, The Intrepid Explorer reader, can become involved. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and make the most of the outdoors!

Compiled by Robbie Stammers

Cooper never ‘tyres’ to perform

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t a recent function held at the Cradle of Humankind, Cooper Tyres South Africa launched a range of SUV and passenger products to complement its already well-known 4x4 tyres in southern Africa.

In attendance was Cooper brand ambassador Kingsley Holgate, well-known South African explorer and humanitarian, who shared the stage with Xavier Foj, two-time winner of the Dakar Rally production class on a Cooper-shod Toyota.

These two men have travelled many kilometres of rough terrain on their Cooper tyres and they entertained guests by sharing their experiences.

Foj, who used Cooper Discoverer S/T Maxx tyres on his production-based Toyota Land Cruiser for the

9 000-kilometre Dakar, crossed the finish line 13 minutes clear of his nearest rival to seal the T2 class title for the second year in succession – finishing 27th overall in the car standings.

“The Dakar Rally is regarded as the world’s toughest race, with good reason. The terrain and altitude that crew and tyres have to endure, combined with the navigational demands of the course, make it really difficult,” he said.

Explorer and humanitarian Holgate commented: “Cooper tyres have proven their pedigree as serious off-road performers time after time on our expeditions, carrying huge loads and enduring road surface extremes. These tyres excel in all conditions. Cooper tyres will not only get you anywhere, but will also bring you back again.”

For more information, visit: www.coopertyres.co.za.

Kingsley Holgate with Spaniard Xavier Foj – two-time Dakar Rally production class winner

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Film your outdoor adventure and win R10 000 Cape Union Mart invites local film-makers and outdoors people to contribute to the Cape Union Mart Adventure Film Challenge 2013. The purpose of this challenge is to celebrate the athletes, personalities and initiatives that form part of the South African outdoor community.

Cape Union Mart invites local film-makers to submit a five-minute short film on South African outdoor culture. Submissions will be reviewed by a panel of judges from the outdoor community. The winning submission will be screened in South Africa in connection with the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour 2013, and the winning film-maker will receive a R10 000 cash prize and K-Way gear to the value of R2 000.

Entries close in June 2013; for all the terms, conditions and details, go to www.banff.co.za.

More than just hot air People have done some crazy things for charity – and it doesn’t get much crazier than this. In April 2013, Matt Silver-Vallance will be strapping himself to 200 heliumfilled party balloons and flying from Robben Island to the mainland.

Why? To raise funds for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital – a cause close to his heart. In doing so, he hopes to raise R10 million for the hospital to add on a new wing to the existing building.

This daring stunt will be the first ever cluster-ballooning flight in Africa and has been in the planning stages for over four years. With both local and international stakeholders and sponsors – including, among others, BMW, Google SA and the South African Rugby Union – the Robben Island Balloon Run promises to draw quite a crowd and raise awareness around the need for paediatric care in South Africa.

The connection of Madiba to this iconic site makes the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital a fitting beneficiary for the initiative.

The stunt is set to take place between 1 and 27 April 2013, depending on optimum wind and weather conditions.

Driven by beer and biltong, a Springbok supporter’s 28-month journey from Cape Town to the 2015 Rugby World Cup (RWC) in England, through every country on mainland Africa – on a bicycle – is a world first.

Ron Rutland’s decision to undertake this journey is an accumulation of years of reading stories of great modern and past adventurers, of ordinary people doing seemingly extraordinary things, and of imagining great adventures of his own.

“Ultimately, I believe life should be lived simply and with passion, food, shelter and health – it really is that simple. The motivation to push myself way beyond previous physical and mental limits, to complete a true adventure, and to reach London in time for the RWC, is a powerful force!” says Ron excitedly.

“The bicycle is simple and cheap; powered by the most efficient engine there is – the human body. It is almost silent, emits zero carbon, and doesn’t require fuel, tax discs, paperwork, or space to park. It doesn’t pay toll fees, can be maintained and repaired by almost anyone, and can be hauled onto a dug-out canoe or lifted over a fence. Its ‘limitations’ ensure you carry only what you really need, and it’s the only vehicle that truly allows you to experience a place with all your raw senses: on a bicycle, you can’t escape the sounds, the smells, the heat, the cold, the flies and mosquitoes, the dust, the mud, the mountain climbs and valley descents, the wind and the rain of a place – that’s living, that’s experiencing.”

Pureness and authenticity are the ‘rocks’ on which this trip is built – a limited budget of $30 per day, unsupported and alone (although guests from time to time will be most welcome!). This is a journey of discovery and adventure, and of believing that, ultimately, one will always be provided for.

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Big Bok fan peddles for his passion

Ron leaves in May 2013 and readers can follow his epic journey to the RWC 2015 on twitter @ronrutland as well as via our website: www.intrepidexplorer.co.za.

Visit www.balloonrun.com for more information.

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Hatching new ideas to save our eagles

Leopard Trust project in the spotlight Since its humble beginnings back in 2004, The Cape Leopard Trust has grown organically into a well-respected conservation initiative underpinned by sound scientific research. The focus of the project is to highlight the leopard while exploring the various facets of biodiversity conservation and the interconnectedness of ecosystems.

There are currently three different research areas that lead the campaign. The vast Cederberg wilderness continues to be the main domain for Dr Quinton Martins, while the Boland mountain region framing the Cape Winelands now has two full-time researchers working in an area where 55 individual leopards have already been identified.

Equally important is the outstanding Environmental Education Programme and eco camp, using research material to enlighten future generations. More than 30 children and adult camps are held in a year, 16 of which are sponsored camps for children from disadvantaged areas, thanks to funding from the National Lottery Distribution Fund. For many of these children, it is the first time they get to experience nature and begin to understand why they have a responsibility to safeguard the environment.

A few more exciting projects are in the starting blocks, though currently under wraps, and it seems the saying ‘a rolling stone gathers no moss’ is certainly true for The Cape Leopard Trust as it continues to pioneer predator research inspired by nature.

Members of The Cape Leopard Trust wear and test K-Way gear as part of their daily fieldwork. Find out more at www.capeleopard.org.za

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The Black Eagle Project was initiated by Megan Murgatroyd, a PhD student in the Animal Demography Unit at the University of Cape Town. The project aims to compare and contrast the status of Black Eagles (now known as Verreaux’s Eagles) in the unspoilt Cederberg Mountains and the agricultural Sandveld region of the Western Cape.

“Installing nest cameras has been an important part of my research. The cameras give an otherwise impossible insight into what is happening on the nest. The main purpose of the cameras was to analyse which prey species are delivered to the chick,” Megan explains to The Intrepid Explorer.

In 2012 they installed cameras at five nests, and from these captured photos they have found out exactly on which date the eggs hatched, why some breeding attempts had failed, and whether both of the two eggs hatched – none of this information has been available before from observing the nests from below.

The cameras were all installed by Mark Cowen, a professional climber, and Megan had the privilege of abseiling to retrieve one of the cameras. Having spent many hours watching the eagles from below, this was a close-up experience and new perspective of their home. The photo here shows an adult eagle delivering a rock hyrax to the nest where the chick is eight days old.

The Black Eagle Project has been made possible with the support of the Animal Demography Unit, National Birds of Prey Trust, The Cape Leopard Trust, Darling Brew and K-Way apparel and equipment.

For more information, visit www.blackeagleproject.blogspot.com.

Megan Murgatroyd is a K-Way sponsored environmentalist

African Epic The Untamed African Mountain Bike Race, the Absa Cape Epic, has published a coffee-table book to mark its 10th year. The book, titled African Epic, will be available on its website, from Kalahari.net as well as through Amazon in the United Kingdom.

Written by journalist and television commentator, Neil Gardiner; former cycling magazine editor and part-time adventurer, Nic Lamond; and editor, travel writer and novelist, Justin Fox, it promises to encapsulate all the epic moments in the race since its inception in 2004.

Talented photographers, who have sweated their way through the Absa Cape Epic over the years, have captured the beauty, drama and scale of the event through their lenses.

They include world-renowned photographer Gary Perkin, well-known South African Karin Schermbrucker, and World Cup downhill racer Sven Martin. Sports and lifestyle photographer Nick Muzik and Tour de France photographer Greg Beadle complete the team.

African Epic will be available at between R480 and R500.

Mild to Wild: Adventures & Activities in Southern Africa The ultimate guide to adventures and activities in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and the Indian Ocean Islands.

This book rates activities as MILD or WILD, depending on intensity, as well as grouping them in categories of LAND, WATER and AIR adventures. A brief description of each activity is given, as well as contact details of companies and tour operators that can assist you in planning your adventure.

Detailed maps show the location of each activity, using icons that can be cross-referenced to the text entries. Maps of popular tourist regions are also featured.

Mild to Wild is edited by Fiona McIntosh (for MapStudios) and retails for R250.

Vote for your top adventurer of 2013

Adventure – it’s hard-wired into our genes, from game fishing far out at sea to scaling gnarly peaks. We’ve been doing it since the dawn of time, when bear-skin slippers and a sharp stick were cutting-edge gear; judging by what today’s adventurers can achieve with modern technology, we’ll be pushing the boundaries of our imagination for some time yet.

Why? Because despite the nagging pressures of bonds, careers and children, there is still a small group of men and women who want to push themselves to their limit and find what lies beyond.

They are the reason the rest of us can also now aspire to climb Everest and paddle down the Amazon. Our local adventurers are swimming in water that can freeze your eyes shut, or sailing the Arctic seas. They are lugging mountaineering gear across Africa on buses. They are pushing every boundary – and you can follow them.

Over the coming weeks, Nightjar Travel is telling the stories of these intrepid explorers, so that you can vote for your Nightjar Adventurer 2013.

The Nightjar Adventurer Award ceremony will be held at the Cape Union Mart Adventure Centre at Canal Walk in May 2013. So go and vote for the adventurer you best think deserves to win, at www.nightjartravel.com/adventurer-2013.

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The Intrepid Explorer’s best new books

Out a n d a bout Become an Intrepid Explorer yourself in 2013!

Instead of merely reading about all our incredible adventures, become part of one yourself. The Intrepid Explorer and Wild Frontiers are planning some unforgettable trips this year. The next two are planned for August, with the Kilimanjaro Machame

Route Hike from 10 to 18 August, and the spectacular Wildebeest Migration Safari from 17 to 25 August.

Upcoming talks for the Kilimanjaro and Wildebeest Migration Intrepid trips (and one for the Inca Trail trip) will take place at the following venues:

18 Apr 2013 Cape Town

Canal Walk Adventure Centre, Cape Union Mart Store

Inca Trail

18h30

08 May 2013

Wild Frontiers office Kyalami

Kilimanjaro & Wildebeest Migration

18h00

23 May 2013 Pretoria

Centurion Mall Shopping Centre, Cape Union Mart Store

Kilimanjaro & Wildebeest Migration

18h30

29 May 2013 Durban

Gateway Shopping Centre, Cape Union Mart Store

Kilimanjaro & Wildebeest Migration

18h30

30 May 2013 Pietermaritzburg

Midlands Mall Shopping Centre, Cape Union Mart Store

Kilimanjaro & Wildebeest Migration

18h30

05 Jun 2013

Wild Frontiers office Kyalami

Kilimanjaro & Wildebeest Migration

18h00

06 Jun 2013 Johannesburg

Eastgate Shopping Centre, Cape Union Mart Store

Himalayas

18h30

12 Jun 2013 Cape Town

Canal Walk Adventure Centre, Cape Union Mart Store

Himalayas

18h30

13 Jun 2013 Cape Town

Canal Walk Adventure Centre, Cape Union Mart Store

Kilimanjaro & Wildebeest Migration

18h30

20 Jun 2013 Johannesburg

Eastgate Shopping Centre, Cape Union Mart Store

Kilimanjaro & Wildebeest Migration

18h30

27 Jun 2013 Pretoria

Centurion Mall Shopping Centre, Cape Union Mart Store

Himalayas

18h30

Johannesburg

Johannesburg

For more detailed descriptions of each trip, go to www.wildfrontiers.co.za, and for other speakers and events that will be taking place during this quarter, you can visit www.capeunionmart.co.za/newsevents/cat/events/post/events.

Out a n d a bout The force is strong with this one

I was privileged recently to take the new Mercedes-Benz G-500 away for a weekend fishing trip to Theewaterskloof. The slogan used at the launch of this vehicle was ‘Can’t is not in its vocabulary’ – and in my opinion that stands for ‘Can’t stop admiring this goddess on wheels!’, as that is what my friends and I did for most of the weekend.

Since it was originally conceived in 1979 as a vehicle to be used primarily in tough off-road terrain, the G-Class has undergone an astounding process of evolution. Over the course of 33 years, Mercedes-Benz has refined what was initially a very practically oriented off-road specialist, by giving it high-class interior and road-going qualities on par with those of the premium sedans.

The G-Class today is considered the top model among luxury-class cross-country vehicles, and has provided the gene pool for the other very successful SUVs built under the Mercedes brand. One can certainly see why.

Mercedes-Benz has once again significantly upgraded the G-Class, in so doing re-emphasising its position as the leader

among off-road vehicles. The interior is characterised by highquality appointments finished with exquisite materials. It purrs with an incredibly powerful 5.5-litre V8 petrol engine. This engine has an output of 285kW and offers excellent torque of 530Nm, with generous reserves of power to deal with any situation.

To top off the pleasure of this ride, you have a 7G-TRONIC Plus automatic transmission that has been thoroughly revised to optimise consumption and comfort compared with its predecessor.

Off-road, this vehicle is superb. In fact, that is the understatement of the year. The technical qualities of the G-Class continue to be highly prized. The tremendous torque of its engines makes the luxury off-roader an excellent vehicle for towing, while its three electrically controlled 100% differential locks, ladder frame and rigid axle are characteristics that make it an unrivalled proposition in rough, off-road terrain.

I am in love with this car; all I now need is the R1 494 000 it costs to get hold of one…

Go drool over it at www.mercedes-benz.co.za.

pioneering journeys Tanzania Uganda through africa Kenya Wildebeest migration

Tel: 011 702 2035 or 072 927 7529 Fax: 086 689 6759 reservations@wildfrontiers.com www.wildfrontiers.com

Rwanda Ethiopia Botswana Namibia Zambia Zimbabwe

A F R I C A T R AV E L S P E C I A L I S T S

Hit th e r oa d, J a c k

5 i the big

Robbie Stammers gives us a guided tour of the new, exciting vehicles that have been spotted on our roads recently

Like the Big 5 in the bush, these vehicles have unique characteristics: some may be featured for their strength and speed, and others for their comfort and size.

n Africa, the Big 5 game animals are the lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard and rhinoceros. The term ‘big five game’ was coined by big-game hunters, and refers to the five African animals that are most difficult to hunt on foot.

Subsequently, the term was adopted by safari tour operators for marketing purposes.

For our purposes, we have chosen this quarter’s five preferred vehicles to review. Some would be ideal for an intrepid adventure into the bundus, while others would be more suited to the concrete jungle and the school run.

A Car for All Seasons – Audi Allroad A4 Quattro

Audi recently celebrated 42 years of its famous tagline, ‘Vorsprung Durch Technik’. The phrase translates into English as ‘Progress Through Technology’ or, more precisely, according to Audi, ‘Advancement Through Technology’. Well, it certainly lives up to its motto because this all-road vehicle pretty much has everything for everyone! Here, one has the ‘soccer mom’ estate car crossed with a powerful Quattro sports car, crossed with an incredible off-road mudslinger.

This dynamite package comes in two engine options including a 130kW/380Nm 2.0-litre TDI engine and a 155kW/350Nm 2.0-litre T FSI engine. Both options are offered with S Tronic transmission, permanent all-wheel drive and electronic stability control (ESC).

The 2.0-litre TDI has a fuel consumption figure of 6.0 litres/ 100km while the 2.0-litre T FSI variant consumes an impressive 7.3 litres/100km. An automatic start-stop system and recuperation come standard on both models.

Inside the vehicle are all the bells and whistles one has come to expect and appreciate from Audi, from the navigation system to the stylish seats. One of its many clever tricks is that the ride height has been raised by 180 millimetres, and there is additional stainless steel underbody protection, so the Allroad A4 Quattro is equally at home both on- and off-road, yet retains its sporty elegance.

It has distinctive design features such as the single-frame grille with vertical chrome bars, the all-road specific range of 17-inch alloy wheels fitted with 225/55R17 radials, a more off-road-ready look with black wheel flares, lower bumper sections and skirting, front and rear skid plates, aluminium roof rails with window trim surround, and additional stone covers – all of which underscore its strong character. There are also redesigned xenon headlights, LED daytime running lights, and the distinctively shaped bumper of the latest Audi A4. My favourite trick is the Allroad’s off-road detection system, which senses the condition of the driving surface and adapts the control characteristic of the ESC accordingly.

The new Audi A4 Allroad Quattro is essentially a raised compact SUV with the dynamics of a car, in an attractive, classy package! What more could you ask for?

Price tag Audi A4 Allroad 2.0 T FSI Quattro S Tronic – R433 000 Audi A4 Allroad 2.0 TDI Quattro S Tronic – R438 000

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Hit th e r oa d, J a c k Lady of Leisure – Range Rover Evoque Si4 Dynamic

A Noble Steed – GWM Steed 5 Double Cab 2.0 VGT 4x4

Price tag Range Rover Evoque Si4 Prestige (5-door) – R610 500 Range Rover Evoque Si4 Dynamic (5-door) – R616 800

Price tag Steed 5 D/C 2.0 VGT – R239 900 4x4 – R264 900

As a die-hard Landie and Range Rover fan, I tut-tutted when I first witnessed the unveiling of the Evoque at the Paris Motor Show in 2010. To me it seemed as if an elephant had placed her derrière atop the typical Range Rover roof and squashed the whole darn thing in! Then they told me that Victoria Beckham had been involved in the interior design. Be still my beating heart.

By the end of the weekend, however, the Evoque has grown on me and I actually started liking the looks of it. It seems I am not alone, as the Evoque was nominated as a South African Car of the Year finalist 2012 and has just received the most votes in the annual 2013 People’s Wheels Awards. These latest accolades are in addition to over 120 other global awards – and counting.

It must now rank among the most award-winning vehicles in the world.

So let’s have a look at this beauty, then. The Range Rover Evoque Si4 Dynamic is powered by a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with remarkable fuel economy and tractability. (There is also a diesel version.) Driving through a six-speed automatic transmission with rotary-dial shift, the 177kW Evoque is capable of 0-100km/h in 7.6 seconds while returning 8.7 litres/100km. Its all-wheel drive system makes it as adept and refined on the road as it is off-road – all in Range Rover style.

Inside the Evoque, it is sophisticated with leather throughout, high-tech trim finishes and a comprehensive spec list. While there is plenty of boot space, the rear accommodation does feel a little claustrophobic, with the sloping roofline and narrow side glass panels. From a driving point of view, however, taking this lady to the road is a pleasure.

All in all, the Evoque may be a huge departure from the Range Rover norm, but it is certainly turning heads – predominantly in the female buying audience, who is lapping it up.

One has to feel for Great Wall Motors, as the vehicle manufacturer probably had to weather tired old ‘Made in China’ jokes when it first came out to our shores – but it has certainly turned that on its head.

As an owner of any one of the GWM products, you can rest assured that this manufacturer is committed to providing world-class support in the form of a multimillion-rand parts distribution warehouse located in Durban, where it aims for a 100% parts supply rate; not many car companies can claim these figures locally.

Let us not forget that China is arguably the world’s biggest superpower – so if you weren’t paying attention before, you’d better start doing so now. So let us look at this Chinaman and what he has to offer.

First and foremost, you get a lot of honey for your money.

With these tough economic times in mind, the fact that you can get a brand spanking new double cab with leather seats, air con, electric windows, power steering, a CD/MP3 radio, dual front air bags, a fair amount of storage space, steering wheel satellite controls, a comfortable cabin layout, front fog lamps, 16-inch alloy wheels with 70-profile Chinese tyres, individual bucket seats and a double-insulated square load bin with plenty of eyelets and hooks for lashing purposes – is impressive in anyone’s chequebook.

It develops 110kW of power at 4 000rpm and 310Nm of torque between 1 800 and 2 800rpm, which is not bad for a two-litre diesel, and it’s impressive on fuel consumption as well.

I found the drive both on- and off-road comfortable. My only issues with the Steed would be that the gears are very close together on 1 and 3, and the vehicle could do with a bit of extra suspension, as one does feel the bumps quite considerably. On the whole, though, a very good buy, my China!

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Hit th e r oa d, J a c k With Guns Blazing – Chevrolet Trailblazer

True to its name, the Trailblazer is blazing the trail for new vehicles coming into the market. It has been built tough to offer Chevrolet customers everything they need from a heavy-duty SUV. The Chev certainly seems to live up to its ‘haul anything, go anywhere’ status.

Chevrolet is no newcomer to the manufacture of sports utility vehicles, enjoying some success with the Captiva – which I still rate very highly. The Trailblazer is simply a bigger, more comfortable and refined version of that SUV. First off, it has 34 storage compartments including a doubledecker glove box. Now what guy doesn’t like that sort of boasting ammo to throw out around the braai?

Entry level is the 2.5 4x2 LT that puts out 110kW and 350Nm at 3 800 and 2 000rpm through a five-speed manual gearbox.

Next is the 2.8 diesel manual or automatic in the LTZ in 4x2 and 4x4 guise, capable of 132kW/470Nm, also at 3 800 and 2 000rpm. There is also the V6 built for 176kW/329Nm at 6 600 and 3 200rpm. The range comprises five models in all.

There are no multiple gear-shifters: 4x2, 4x4 and 4x4 low-range are selected through a rotary switch on the fascia. Given the ‘intelligent’ drive train, a lockable differential is also absent; the car steps and grabs its way across rocky, loose terrain and scoffs at thick sand gradients.

Fuel consumption is listed as from eight to 10 litres/100km for the diesels to 11.1/100km for the petrol V6.

With its high stance and bulky dimensions (4 878mm long, 1 902mm wide and 1 848mm tall), the Trailblazer feels more at home in the bush than in the bends. However, it does excel when it comes to towing, with the 2.8 litre boasting a massive towing capacity of 2 950kg. The 2.5 litre can manage 2 500kg while the 3.6-litre V6 petrol can haul along 2 480kg. Great news for our intrepid explorers with boats, trailers and caravans!

On the inside, there are seven seats, each capable of housing an average-sized adult with legroom to spare – which is quite impressive, particularly if one has a big extended family to consider. The two seats in the rearmost row are mounted higher (so-called ‘theatre-style’ seating) than the rest, and fold flat to increase your boot space if and when needed.

In closing, the Trailblazer is a fun, practical and fully loaded vehicle for the big outdoor family.

Price tag Chevrolet Trailblazer 2.5 LT 4x2 – R364 000 Chevrolet Trailblazer 2.8 LTZ 4x2 AT – R423 500 Chevrolet Trailblazer 2.8 LTZ 4x4 MT – R454 500 Chevrolet Trailblazer 2.8 LTZ 4x4 AT – R469 900 Chevrolet Trailblazer 3.6 LTZ 4x4 AT – R479 500

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A fistful of pit bull – Nissan Juke

Call me biased, but I have been driving a different car each week for over five years, and anything that starts with the word ‘Nissan’ always has me smiling! In my book, you simply cannot go wrong with one.

Nissan has a history of crossover vehicles; the Murano and the gorgeous Qashqai spring to mind. Now the manufacturer has applied this to the smaller B segment in the robust form of the Juke.

Now, I do realise the Juke has its detractors, one being my fiancée, who thinks its lines and form are ugly. I happen to love it!

I wanted to nickname it ‘Jock’ and head out into the open field, chasing dinner. It’s playful and rotund, and when I see it I just can’t help picturing a muscular Staffie.

The Nissan Juke interior has the same effect on me: that ‘boys with toys’ feeling when everything lights up and dazzles the male mind. All the buttons, knobs and levels make me feel like a kid in a candy store.

You can choose between the Eco, Normal or Sport configurations. For example, swapping between Eco and Sport changes throttle mapping and the amount of steering assistance.

Three separate buttons to the right of the screen give access to various other displays such as boost and torque gauges and a fuel consumption skyline. Press the Climate key and the same Eco, Normal, Sport and info buttons light up differently to display typical air-con control icons.

Add to this a long list of standard kit including heated leather seats, multifunction steering wheel, electric windows and mirrors, cruise control, automatic air con, 17-inch alloys, a rain sensor and auto-on headlights. The MP3/CD/Aux/USB audio system offers full iPod and Bluetooth functionality.

On the open road? Pure driving pleasure! The 2013 Juke is powered by Nissan’s brand new 1.6l Direct Injection turbo engine that was specifically designed with the urban environment in mind.

It offers fast acceleration, ultra-responsive drive performance and some of the best fuel consumption figures around.

The 6-speed manual that I drove boasts a torque of 240Nm and 140kW of power, but it is the handling that leaves one breathless.

This is as much fun as one could have behind the wheel of a vehicle in this segment of the market. Don’t listen to your partner if she does not like the shape and design – go get one!

Price tag Nissan Juke 1.6 Acenta – R210 900 Nissan Juke 1.6T Tekna – R272 900 So those are our Big 5 for this edition of The Intrepid Explorer. Until the next sighting – hit the road, Jack, and don’t you come back no more…

The NorTherN CApe

A remArkAble WINTer desTINATIoN!

Majestically stretching over 360 000 square kilometres from the world-renowned Kalahari desert in the North to the arid plains of the Karoo in the South, the Northern Cape Province of South Africa offers visitors an unforgettable holiday experience. The vast open spaces of South Africa’s largest province make the Northern Cape the ideal destination for any traveller. The largest province within South Africa offers splendid and diverse natural beauty, a fascinating cultural mix, warm hospitality and some of the world’s greatest experiences.

ELEVEN TANTALISING REASONS TO CHOOSE THE NORTHERN CAPE AS A LEISURE DESTINATION: 1 Unique flavour and flair The Northern Cape is a truly remarkable holiday destination for a romantic breakaway. Explore the unique flavour of the province with its unique combination of ancient Africa and confident modern democracy. Walk barefoot on the land of the ancestors and discover your proud roots and the wide, warm smile of our people.

2 Unforgettable, enriching experiences The Northern Cape is more than an adventure – it is an enriching life experience. Go stargazing in Sutherland, fossil hunting in the Karoo or search for San rock art deep in the caves of the Diamond Fields. Be overawed by the world’s richest floral offering in Namakwa, go camping deep in the bush surrounded by wildlife and the famed black-maned lion of the Kalahari or kayak down the mighty Orange River. These adventures will change your life.

3 Rich, cultural encounters The distinct cultural groups that makes up the Northern Cape are as rich as the country’s history. Meet the oldest human inhabitants of Africa, the San Bushmen, at Riemvasmaak or the indigenous Setswana and Nama in Namakwa and the Diamond Fields. Visitors to the Northern Cape have ample chance to immerse themselves in these unique cultures through exploring cultural villages and arts and crafts markets, indulging in local cuisine at township restaurants, watching traditional dances and ceremonies, listening to real stories at interactive museums and talking to our people, who are willing to teach their customs and phrases to inquisitive visitors. It’s the best way to experience the heartbeat of the province and to take a bit of the Northern Cape with you when you leave.

4 Value for luxury The inherent warm hospitality of the people of the Northern Cape makes visitors feel like celebrities when they come to this vast province. Our superb facilities, adventurous activities and exceptional service equal outstanding value, so you can do more for your money. We call it value for luxury. Spoil your Valentine with luxury accommodation, an indulgent spa pampering session, dine on fabulous food and award-winning wines, while being able to afford all those once-in-a-lifetime experiences you’ve been longing to try.

visitors to enjoy the outdoors, play golf all year round, indulge in massages under open skies, have a braai or a potjie or go on stargazing safaris. Visitors can choose from a huge variety of outdoor adventure activities including watersport adventures and take advantage of our vast array of outdoor experiences.

6 Leading adventure destination

With unexpected adventures around every corner, the Northern Cape is arguably the adventure capital of Southern Africa and a great place to boost your heart rate during the month of love. It’s all about pushing individual boundaries and personal growth – an experience that becomes even more special when shared with your loved one. For some, adventure is going on a walking trail, a hot-air balloon ride or tasting a foreign cuisine. For others, adventure is captured in an adrenaline rush by traversing the rapids of the mighty Orange River in a kayak or leaping off a mountain or waterfall. No matter the skill, inclination or interest, there is an adventure to thrill all.

Combined with our beautiful weather and spectacular scenery, it’s a heady mix!

7 Natural beauty and wildlife The Northern Cape is most possibly South Africa’s most beautiful and natural province. For the active visitor, it’s an ideal environment for exploration and adventure. We have an awe-inspiring setting for any enthusiast. Visitors are hardpressed to choose between our UNESCO World Heritage Site and two Transfontier Parks, the Kgalagadi and the /Ai-/Ais Richtersveld with its red and golden sand dunes. Share the intimate bush knowledge of a Nama or San Bushman guide or tracker. The natural beauty of the Northern Cape is enhanced by its enigmatic wildlife. From the small five to the big five, watching wild animals at dose range is something truly unforgettable. There are hiking, horseback, 4x4, little five and many more safaris to incorporate in your trip.

8 A firm favourite for incentives Due to our great weather, diverse cultures, adventure credentials, historic freedom struggle, lively urban rhythms, award-winning food and wine, luxury accommodation, natural wonders, spirit of Ubuntu, fascinating wildlife and welcoming nature, the Northern Cape has become a firm favourite for domestic and international travellers. Build memories to last a lifetime with an unforgettable, life-enriching trip to South Africa.

9 Special Occasions, Weddings and Honeymoons The Northern Cape’s unspoilt nature and breath-taking scenery with deserts, rivers, beaches, mountains and forests can provide the perfect backdrop for the romantic interlude of your wildest dreams. That is why the province is fast becoming one of the world’s most desirable and sought -after wedding and honeymoon destinations.

10 Provincial Treasures The Northern Cape boasts six national parks, six provincial nature reserves and numerous private game reserves, which allow visitors to experience the natural splendour, bird life and game as well as the awesome natural vistas of this vast province. This includes two Transfrontier parks crossing into world-famous safari destinations such as Namibia and Botswana. The province is also home to two of the largest rivers in South Africa and three legendary deserts. Each region will capture the imaginations of those who dare to explore its rugged mountains,endless flatlands and undulating dunes.

11 The Floral Kingdom of the Namakwa Each spring, the dormant and arid winter plains of the Northern Cape’s Namakwa region are transformed into a kaleidoscope of colour with the arrival of the flower season. The wild flowers of the Namakwa are definitely a natural phenomenon and best discovered on foot, which make it ultimately appealing to hikers and outdoor enthusiasts. As part of the Succulent Karoo, the Namakwa is a biodiversity hotspot and as such is the only arid hotspot in the world. It contains more than 6 000 plant species, 250 species of birds, 78 species of mammals, 132 species of reptiles and amphibians and an unknown number of insects, making it the world’s most diverse, arid environment. More than 40% of these species are found nowhere else on Earth.

This floral diversity has also made the Namakwa the richest bulb flora arid region in the world. The various tourism offices in the region keep track of the peak blooming areas and advise tourists accordingly.

5 Great weather Autumn is the perfect time to visit South Africa’s largest province as the great weather of the sunny Northern Cape invites For more information or for booking details please contact Northern Cape Tourism Authority Private Bag X5017, Kimberley, South Africa, 8300 TEL: +27 (0)53 833 1434 / 832 2657 • FA X: +27 (0)53 831 2937 E-mail: marketing@experiencenortherncape.com • w w w.experiencenortherncape.com

www.experiencenortherncape.com

Ph oto es s a y

lens

life through the

In each edition of The Intrepid Explorer, we showcase one of South Africa’s top photographers. Our Intrepid man behind the camera for this autumn edition is barry j. brady.

Barry J. Brady has been a full-time photographer

since 2008. In this time, he has won numerous awards, most recently a silver award in the Professional Fuji Film Awards for South Africa in the Scenic or Landscape category. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, he specialises in commercial photography and fine art landscape photography. On the commercial side, he has done numerous assignments for hotels, venues, real estate companies and other big brand companies. But it is in fine art landscape photography that Barry is able to truly express himself. He takes time out to capture the beauty in the natural world and capture the essence of places he is fortunate to visit. In December 2009, he and his wife undertook a nine-month journey through South America, which took them to Argentina, Chile and Peru. They saw amazing, once-in-a-lifetime sights and were also fortunate to visit the last Eden, experiencing the beauty and silence of Antarctica. The journey continues as he explores the Canadian Rockies and the magnificent beauty of the North American continent in years to come. Barry has lectured at the College of Digital Photography in South Africa on Photoshop techniques and photography. In 2012, he started his own photography training company in Vancouver. He is also a contributor to Getty Images.

El Tatio Geysers, Atacama Desert, Chile. The steam rises as the geothermic activity begins in the early morning at El Tatio

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Website: www.barryjbrady.com E-mail: barry@barryjbrady.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barryjbradyphotography

Dallmann Bay, Antarctica. Brash ice floats silently in the passage and emphasises the coolness and blue of Antarctica

Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina. One of the few glaciers that is still growing, its size defies belief; the front wall is 5km long, the ice is 70m above the water – it is like a slow-moving city, in the mountains!

Uhuru Peak, Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.

This is the goal of every climber on Kili, to see this signboard that tells you that you are standing on top of Africa

Ph oto es s a y

Moon Valley, Atacama Desert, Chile. The Atacama is the driest, most inhospitable place on Earth. The shapes, colours and textures of such a barren place are astounding, silent and beautiful.

Salinas Grandes, Northern Argentina. The third largest salt pan in the world, incredibly flat and amazingly dry

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Iceberg in Gerlache Strait. Penguins clamber up an iceberg as the sun sets in Antarctica

Sunset over Buffalo Bay, Knysna. This was one of the most amazing sunsets I had ever witnessed, made perfect by a great rocky outcrop at Buffalo Bay

Lone Rock, Brenton-on-Sea, Knysna. The pink magenta of the sunset gave rise to a peaceful scene over Brenton

Storm brewing over Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is the largest lake in South America, so big that it creates its own weather; this was a storm brewing on the horizon in the late afternoon

store listing western cape STORES Bayside Mall (021) 556-3861 bayside@capeunionmart.co.za Blue Route Mall (021) 712-5979 blueroute@capeunionmart.co.za Canal Walk (021) 555-2846 canalwalk@capeunionmart.co.za Canal Walk Adventure Centre (021) 555-4629 cwac@capeunionmart.co.za Cape Gate Shopping Centre (021) 982-2000 capegate@capeunionmart.co.za Cavendish Square (021) 674-2148 cavendish@capeunionmart.co.za Constantia Village (021) 794-0632 constantia@capeunionmart.co.za Garden Route Mall (044) 887-0048 gardenroute@capeunionmart.co.za Gardens Centre (021) 461-9678 gardens@capeunionmart.co.za Knysna Mall (044) 382-4653 knysna@capeunionmart.co.za Langeberg Mall (044) 695- 2486 mosselbay@capeunionmart.co.za Mountain Mill Mall (023) 347-1484 worcester@capeunionmart.co.za Paarl Mall (021) 863-4138 paarl@capeunionmart.co.za Somerset Mall (021) 852-7120 somersetwest@capeunionmart.co.za The Market Square (044) 533-4030 marketsquare@capeunionmart.co.za Tygervalley Shopping Centre (021) 914-1441 tygervalley@capeunionmart.co.za V&A Waterfront (021)425-4559 quayfour@capeunionmart.co.za V&A Waterfront (021) 419-0020 waterfront@capeunionmart.co.za

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West Coast Mall Middleburg Mall Kolonnade Shopping Centre (022) 713 4113 (013) 244-1041 (012) 548-9811 weskus@capeunionmart.co.za Middelburg@capeunionmart.co.za kolonnade@capeunionmaart.co.za

EASTERN CAPE STORES Riverside Mall Mall@reds Greenacres Shopping Centre (013) 757-0338 (012) 656-0182 (041) 363-1504 nelspruit@capeunionmart.co.za redsmall@capeunionmart.co.za greenacres@capeunionmart.co.za NORTH WEST STORES Menlyn Park Hemingways Shopping Centre Waterfall Mall (012) 368-1015 (043) 726-0908 (014) 537-3656 menlyn@capeunionmart.co.za hemmingways@capeunionmart.co.za waterfall@capeunionmart.co.za Nicolway Shopping Centre Walmer Park Brits Mall (011) 706-7573 (041) 368-7442 (012) 250-1909 nicolway@capeunionmart.co.za walmer@capeunionmart.co.za brits@capeunionmart.co.za OR Tambo International Airport Vincent Park Mooiriver Mall (011) 390-3245 (043) 726-2900 (018) 293-1788 ortambo@capeunionmart.co.za vincentpark@capeunionmart.co.za mooiriver@capeunionmart.co.za

Rosebank Mall Fountains Mall LIMPOPO STORE (011) 442-1959 (042) 293-0005 Mall of the North rosebank@capeunionmart.co.za fountainsmall@capeunionmart.co.za (015) 265-1067

mallofthenorth@capeunionmart.co.za Sandton City KWAZULU-NATAL STORES

(011) 884-9771 Boardwalk Shopping Centre GAUTENG STORES sandton@capeunionmart.co.za (035) 789-0321 Brooklyn Mall boardwalk@capeunionmart.co.za (012) 460-5511 The Glen Shopping Centre brooklyn@capeunionmart.co.za (011) 436 -1300 Galleria theglen@capeunionmart.co.za (031) 904 -2318 Carnival Mall galleria@capeunionmart.co.za (011) 915-0470 The Grove carnivalmall@capeunionmart.co.za (012) 807-0642 Gateway World thegroove@capeunionmart.co.za (031) 566-5111 Centurion Shopping Mall gateway@capeunionmart.co.za (012) 663-4111 Vaal Mall centurion@capeunionmart.co.za (016) 981- 5186 Midlands Mall vaalmall@capeunionmart.co.za (033) 342-0152 Clearwaters Mall midlands@capeunionmart.co.za (011) 675-0036 Woodlands Boulevard clearwaters@capeunionmart.co.za (012) 997-6960 Pavilion Shopping Centre woodlands@capeunionmart.co.za (031) 265-1666 Cresta Centre

pavillion@capeunionmart.co.za (011) 478-1913 BOSTWANA STORES Game City, Gaberone cresta@capeunionmart.co.za 00267-391-0948 Westwood Mall gamecity@capeunionmart.co.za (031) 266-6049 Eastgate Adventure Centre westwood@capeunionmart.co.za (011) 622-8788 Riverwalk Mall, Gaberone

egac@capeunionmart.co.za 00267-370-0040 NORTHERN CAPE STORE riverwalk@capeunionmart.co.za Diamond Pavilion Centre East Rand Mall (053) 832-3846 (011) 826-2408 Pick n Pay Centre, Francistown diamondpavillion@capeunionmart.co.za eastrandmall@capeunionmart.co.za 00267-241-0398

francistown@capeunionmart.co.za FREE STATE STORES Fourways Mall

Mimosa Mall (011) 465-9824 NAMIBIA STORE (051) 444-6059 fourways@capeunionmart.co.za Maerua Mall, Windhoek mimosa@capeunionmart.co.za 00264-612-20424 Greenstone Shopping Centre windhoek@capeunionmart.co.za Loch Logan (011) 609-0002

(051) 430-0230 greenstone@capeunionmart.co.za OUTLET STORES lochlogan@capeunionmart.co.za Access Park, Cape Town Hyde Park Corner (021) 674-6398 MPUMALANGA STORES (011) 325-5038 accesspark@capeunionmart.co.za Ilanga Mall hydepark@capeunionmart.co.za (013) 742-2281 Atterbury Value Mart, Pretoria ilanga@capeunionmart.co.za Irene Village (012) 991-3171 (012) 662-1133 atterbury@capeunionmart.co.za Highveld Mall irene@capeunionmart.co.za (013) 692-4018 Woodmead Value Mart, Johannesburg highveld@capeunionmart.co.za Killarney Mall (011) 656-0750 (011) 646-7745 woodmead@capeunionmart.co.za killarney@capeunionmart.co.za

The last laugh

w

e were on the road from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh. Joining the locals and chickens on a bright blue bus, we overtook ox carts and rice trucks on the national highway through an exotic Asian landscape of rice paddies, jungle and bamboo houses.

The highway abruptly ends on the banks of the mighty Mekong. Boarding a car ferry, we made our way across the broad river, assailed by hawkers selling strange padkos such as deep-fried grasshoppers, bottles of homemade rice wine with pickled geckoes, snakes and frogs, and dried freshwater cockles. It was way too early for such way-out fare. We stuck to the familiar: sweet steamed yellow corn.

By midday, we were in Phnom Penh among the gilded pagodas and temples of the Royal Palace of Cambodia. This charming capital, known as the ‘Pearl of Asia’, lies at the green confluence of three rivers: the Tonlé Sap, Bassac and Mekong.

We joined the locals on an evening stroll along the promenade on a picturesque waterfront of old colonial villas, temples and French cafés. Time for a sundowner at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club – a landmark during the civil war under the Khmer Rouge.

Over a chilled Beerlao from neighbouring Laos, our friendly Cambodian guide Phalkun Phourng treated us to a snack of boiled green duck eggs. “A very popular snack, with a surprise inside,” he promised, smiling broadly. “After you,” I said politely. He broke open an egg to reveal the tiny foetus of an unborn duck – perfectly formed in the shell. “Surprise!” I politely nibbled at the yellow yolk – and left all the crunchy bits and bones intact. “Cor luvva duck,” as my grandfather used to say.

At Veiyo Tonle, a café on the riverbanks,

Howe to tr a vel

Stir-fried spider and other delicacies Graham Howe gives us a taste of the street food scene in Phnom Penh we met founder Lay Neith, one of the war orphans who survived the famine under the Khmer Rouge by scavenging off rubbish dumps. Today, he runs a restaurant that shelters and trains 30 street children from one of the city’s many war orphanages. We explored the exotic herbal flavours of Khmer sweet and sour broths, green mango salads and amok – a fabulous local specialty of Mekong catfish steamed in banana leaves with coconut, ginger and chilli.

We took the ‘dancing road’ north – named after the way traffic weaves between the potholes – between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (gateway to Angkor Wat, the largest Hindu temple complex and the largest religious monument in the world).

Variety is the spice of travel, and street food is a great way to experience a foreign culture. I sampled an array of snacks bought from roadside stalls: from rolls of sticky rice, sweet mung-bean cakes and red bananas steamed in leaves, deep-fried buffalo skin (like hairy crackling) and buffalo burgers – so far, so good – to deep-fried red ants, yucky fish bladders and peeled frogs grilled on coals. Weirder and weirder.

“We got used to eating everything during the famine,” was our guide’s simple, irrefutable explanation.

We fed a whole arm of bananas to a hungry tame elephant we met in a market en route. The tropical fruits of the jungle were amazing: giant jackfruit, coconuts, pineapples, mangosteen, rambutan, and the tastiest mangoes in the world. You can smell the infamous durian a mile off – the spiky fruit which is so stinky that passengers are banned from transporting it by airlines in Southeast Asia. Eat it with a nose peg.

The most bizarre street food of all lay in ambush at Skuon, on the way to Angkor

Wat. Deep-fried spiders are the speciality of the village known as Spiderville, a legendary crossroads for travellers who come a long way to eat our eight-legged furry friends, freshly stir-fried in a wok by hawkers at the local market. Not for arachnophobes.

I stared at the live spiders running around on branches, kept in a large plastic bucket. Phalkun, our enthusiastic guide, demonstrated how to eat one of these deadly little spiders. Disassembling it like a crab, he cracked open the body and pulled the legs off one by one, warning us not to eat the visceral fluid from the abdomen.

Would I be brave enough to eat an eensy weensy spider? Was this a delicacy too far for a travelling gourmand? I closed my eyes and held one of the hairy legs up to my mouth. I thought of all the weird things I’ve eaten on my travels: bull’s testicles, haggis (lungs, heart, stomach ‘n’ all), grilled udder in Argentina, fruit bat curry in the Seychelles, mopane worms, camel, horse and sheep’s head stews, fish eyes, shredded pigeon pastilla and even argan oil and pastes (made from nuts found in the droppings of mountain goats in Morocco)…

“After you,” I always insist to my host; a useful delaying tactic in the circumstances.

“Ugh, not fresh,” pronounced a disappointed Phalkun, handing back his platter of spiders and demanding a refund (one dollar for six spiders was the going rate).

“How can you tell?” I asked, relieved at my last-minute reprieve.

“No crunch,” he chuckled.

“I’m not eating stale spiders, either,” I replied bravely. “Let’s hit the road to Angkor.”

Graham Howe was a guest of Intrepid Bundu South Africa E-mail: salessa@intrepidbundu.com www.intrepidbundu.com

The Intrepid Explorer issue 2

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the last word The Intrepid Explorer gets up close and personal with our

Springbok rugby captain, Jean de Villiers

What are the top destinations on your ‘bucket list’ of places to which you’d like to travel?

I have been to some fantastic places due to playing professional rugby, but would love to travel more into Africa; places such as Mozambique, Transkei and Tanzania really appeal to me.

Which favourite places have you already ticked off your bucket list?

My wife and I went to the Seychelles for our honeymoon and that was just fantastic.

What is the weirdest food or drink you have ever tried?

I ate shark on my honeymoon!

Are you an adrenalin junkie? Can you share any experiences of shark-cage diving, bungee jumping, parachuting, abseiling or the like? If you have yet to try any of these, what would appeal to you, and what would not?

I wouldn’t say that I’m an adrenalin junkie, but I have done some cool things. I did a bungee dive a number of years ago and this year I did a tandem skydive, which was quite cool. I also proposed to my wife up in the sky in Portugal while parasailing, so that was pretty special.

If you consider your upbringing, were/are you a bush baby or a city slicker?

City slicker, without a doubt.

Braai or sushi?

I am proudly South African so it has to be a braai!

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The Intrepid Explorer issue 2

What is the most memorable experience you have had with wildlife?

We did a team-building exercise with the Springboks prior to the 2011 Rugby World Cup where we walked for a couple of kilometres with some of the rangers in the Kruger National Park, then they set up camp for us there to stay the night.

To be there in the middle of the bush, surrounded by animals, was amazing and we witnessed some hyenas and lions fighting over a carcass.

Beer or wine?

I prefer beer, but I love wine, too.

Camping or luxury lodge?

Luxury lodge. We are just so spoilt!

Alternative favourite sport/s?

Cricket and golf.

What are your pet hates/dislikes in people?

People being late!

I proposed to my wife up in the sky in Portugal while parasailing, so that was pretty special If you were stuck on a desert island, would you know how to make a fire without matches, and how to catch dinner?

Not a chance! I am useless when it comes to things like that.

What is your tried-and-tested signature dish you serve your friends?

Oxtail potjie.

If it were up to you, what do you think we should do to the people running the rhino horn trade?

A life sentence in jail! It is just such a terrible thing to do and those people should get no mercy.

What has been the most inspirational book or movie you have read/seen?

I enjoyed Andre Agassi’s autobiography, titled Open.

As a role model yourself, whom did you see as your inspirational role model when growing up, and whom do you hold in high esteem?

My parents and brother had a big role to play in my life and I hold them in very high esteem.

Now, being married and having become a dad myself has also changed my life, and my wife and daughter really inspire me!

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