There’s nothing I love more than a road trip, whether it’s a weekend just 100km from home or a multi-week journey across different countries. And 2015 has been a wonderful year of roadheart – defined by author Mary Sojourner as ‘The much to be desired condition of suddenly finding everything astonishing, fascinating, and unique the second you are on a roadtrip … so that even the local gas station becomes full of characters and stories.’ Here are my 6 travel highlights of 2015.
By Roxanne Reid
There’s nothing I love more than a road trip, whether it’s a weekend just 100km from home or a multi-week journey across different countries. And 2015 has been a wonderful year of roadheart – defined by author Mary Sojourner as ‘The much to be desired condition of suddenly finding everything astonishing, fascinating, and unique the second you are on a roadtrip … so that even the local gas station becomes full of characters and stories.’ Here are my 6 travel highlights of 2015.
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By Roxanne Reid ‘This is a delicious book. It evokes things we love about the country around us. It conjures up places that soothe the soul. Its huge fault is that ... well, people are going to read it. And then where will all our best-kept secrets be?’ So said author and TV presenter Denis Beckett in his foreword of A Walk in the Park, which takes readers on a road trip in and around South Africa's national parks. Now an updated 2nd edition e-book has been published. By Roxanne Reid
The rhino is a homely beast, For human eyes he's not a feast. Farewell, farewell, you old rhinoceros, I'll stare at something less prepoceros. (Ogden Nash) By Roxanne Reid Hubby and I can drive around game reserves all day and not get tired of watching animals and their interactions. By dusk, though, the rules say we have to be back in camp. Yet our best chance of seeing creatures of the night like genet, serval, civet and porcupine is after gate-closing time. That’s why we signed up for a sunset drive at Pretoriuskop, Kruger Park. By Roxanne Reid ‘He says he’ll never divorce me,’ said Katrina Bosman of her husband Jan, ‘but he might murder me!’ They’d been married for 60 years and were now both in their eighties. But they weren’t letting that get in the way of a full life. We met them when they were camping in an ancient caravan at Kruger National Park’s Pretoriuskop camp. By Roxanne Reid A big thrill when you’re exploring the savanna and open grasslands of the north and north-east of southern Africa is to come upon a small family of Southern ground hornbills. It’s special because they’re classed as ‘vulnerable’ in the Red Data Book of endangered and threatened species, but also because they’re so entertaining. Case in point: the hunting hornbills of Kruger National Park. By Roxanne Reid Any regular Krugerite can tell you the area around Satara camp is Big Five country in the Kruger Park. And sure enough, on a recent five-day stay we’d ticked them all – more than once. We’d also had a small leguaan living in a tree next to our campsite and African scops owls calling every night. These sights and sounds are just as special to us as seeing the Big Five. By Roxanne Reid Tsendze Rustic Camp near Mopani is by far my favourite campsite in the Kruger National Park. But on a recent visit, we found ourselves visiting Kruger’s Maroela camp for the first time – and we really liked it too. By Roxanne Reid If you’ve stayed at Kruger National Park’s Satara camp you’ll know that you can tick off the Big Five in a matter of a couple of hours in the morning and then again in the afternoon. Sometimes it’s just too much excitement. So we like to spend time at Kruger’s Sweni hide: an antidote for Big Five Fever. By Roxanne Reid If you’ve been to the Kruger National Park but never sat for a couple of hours at Sunset Dam a few minutes' drive from Lower Sabie, you are obviously neither a birder nor a photographer. |
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AboutI'm an independent travel writer and book editor with a passion for Africa - anything from African travel, people, safari and wildlife to adventure, heritage, road-tripping and slow travel. Categories
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