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Books > Sport & Leisure > Travel & holiday > Travel writing
In May 2015 Weg/Go journalist Erns Grundling was disillusioned with love, life and himself. Then he decided to embark on a life-changing journey, undertaking a solo walk along the Camino, the famous Spanish pilgrimage – despite being illprepared, overweight, unfit and nursing an injury. Walk it Off recounts Erns’s 1 025 kilometre journey, completed in 40 days without cell phone, camera or watch, so that he could rediscover what it means to truly live in the moment. He falls in love (three and a half times), meets a fellow pilgrim who’s his doppelganger, experiences numerous adventures and comes across a series of colourful characters. In the process he sheds 10 kilograms and undergoes an inner transformation. Walk it Off is something out of the ordinary – a travelogue and memoir, and a life-affirming adventure story that will inspire readers to put on their walking shoes and dare to venture where they haven’t gone before.
Told with the immediacy of a diary, which is where the book began, Patrick takes us on a journey to the highest mountain in the world, where one of the greatest tragedies in climbing history was about to unfold. Filled with photographs and sketches from his notebooks we become part of the Radio 702 team sent to cover the South African Everest Expedition of 1996. It would turn out to be the deadliest climbing seasons in the peak’s history. Twenty years later the controversy around what truly happened on the mountain continues to rage. Conroy kept a meticulous diary and recorded many hours of radio communications between the climbers. Now, two decades later, his memoirs reveal a remarkable and untold story of what happened on the mountain that fateful year. Everest Untold includes hidden insights and never before revealed transcripts that shed new light on the 1996 disaster, including the mysterious disappearance of one of the South African team members in the death zone. Conroy’s hidden story reopens the debate on the risks of high-altitude mountaineering and what it meant to a young democratic South Africa unaware of the dangers that lay ahead.
South Africa is a country rich in pathways, tracks and roads – both tar and gravel. It is also a country of wonderful stories, blessed with a varied, colourful and contested history. For more than a year veteran journalist Luke Alfred walked South Africa’s roads through cities, countryside and everything in between. Early One Sunday Morning I Decided to Step Out and Find South Africa tells the stories of some of the country’s most interesting and sometimes forgotten places.
What’s your cat up to when you’re not around? Do dragons exist? Are clouds alive? Why did three men risk their lives for a single penguin egg? These are just a few of the questions and stories puzzled over by award-winning travel writer and naturalist Don Pinnock. Assembled from years of wandering around Africa, this is a funny, entertaining and thought-provoking book.
Azille Coetzee gaan studeer in Nederland, kry ’n Nederlandse lover en besluit om in Europa aan te bly. Maar iets voel nie reg nie … Daar is tog altyd die vraag: Watter herkoms hou die styfste vas, Afrika of Europa? Dié is ’n uiters leesbare verhaal van identiteit, reis en liefde: intiem, eerlik en slim.
“Sometime in November 2007 while working as an entertainment and lifestyle journalist, a job that had seen me party and hang out with local and international stars, including John Legend, I realised that I was over my life in South Africa. My job was fab and my life should have been great but it wasn’t because who cares if you get to pose with Beyoncé? I had had enough of writing about people living their wildest dreams. It was time to see what the story of my life would be. I had always had wanderlust, especially for Africa. And so I made the decision to leave South Africa, an urgent need that consumed me and almost drove me to a point of insanity. I planned to spend three months in Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo and Benin.” When Lerato Mogoathle left South Africa for a planned three-month break to West Africa little did she know that those three months would turn into five years. Vagabond is her hilarious and honest account of her five years of living as a drifter in Africa. In between the borders, foreign architecture and interesting new ways of life, Mogoatlhe found passion, love, laughter and heartbreak. On these pages you will find capsules of time spent in 21 countries in five regions of Africa. You will be regaled by the tales of how she tries to worm herself into hotels when she has no money because of unpaid invoices back home. You will be mortified and proud of how she navigates herself out of difficult situations like being misread by a man who tries to force himself on her. Mogoatlhe’s book is a travel memoir driven by the belief that whatever else Africa is, it is first and foremost a home. It is punctuated with a deep urge to know the continent differently.
Most people think of Antarctica as a white smudge at the bottom of the world map. Yet it’s a landmass almost half the size of Africa with weather and ocean currents that dominate the planet. In Blue Ice, award-winning travel writer Don Pinnock journeys to the seventh continent – the last to be discovered. He explores what drew Cook, Bellingshousen, Shackleton, Scott and other adventurers and naturalists to this vast terrain With sensitive descriptions and startling photography, he travels to the heart of Antarctica’s wilderness and explores the intimate relationship between Cape Town and the frozen south. This is an extravagant travelogue, which paints a vivid portrait of one of the most remote and unforgiving places on earth. It reveals the extremes of adventure, courage and unspoilt beauty with precision, humour and a sense of wonder.
One of South Africa’s most accomplished travel writers takes you on a series of journeys through Africa – following the footsteps of David Livingstone, wandering the back streets of old Stone Town in Zanzibar, crossing the central Sahara, puzzling over the rock-hewn churches of Ethiopia. He hikes over lost mountains, motorcycles along the 29th parallel, canoes clear across the Okavango Delta and explores the secrets of Knysna Forest. His descriptions show a sharp eye for detail, a fascinating knowledge of the continent’s history and, above all, a deep love of the warm people and strange creatures of Africa.
Nancy Brooks was sixteen when she went to sea with her father. Despite a gypsy fortune-teller’s warning to her mother, on 2 July 1938, she signed up as Captain’s Clerk for a shilling a week on the SS Nailsea Manor. Leaving from Birkenhead in Liverpool, the ship was to circumnavigate the world. The log Nancy Fancy Pants, as she became known, types during the voyage tells tales of exotic ports, fascinating people and places, and the rope-and-grease routine of a sailor. On board, she masters navigation, the Morse code as well as all the sea knots, and she flies high on the swing the crew rig up for her. On land, she learns even more, but when a squall takes its toll one stormy night in Australia, she is unprepared for the lessons death brings. Between the neatly typed lines of her extraordinary record, she captures her own journey, of self-discovery, and love. The Skipper’s Daughter interweaves the log with Nancy’s recollections and is lovingly shared with us by her daughter, Nancy Richards.
Blacks Do Caravan tells the story of a young South African family’s caravan journey, and the everlasting memories created along the way included amazing adventures and wonderful experiences. The book aims to inspire South Africans to take time out of their busy schedules and spend that valuable time with their families to discover the beauty of our country. Fikile’s trip began on 15 September 2014 and during the journey she came to the realisation that South Africa is still a divided nation. Over twenty years into democracy, boundaries still divide us. Fikile aims to break those boundaries created by the past regime and contribute to the unity that is needed for all South Africans to move forward and experience this country equally. What better way to do it than caravanning? Fikile and her family visited over 60 caravan parks and extended their travels to the Kingdom of Swaziland, which became an eye opening, mind changing trip of a lifetime.
Dana Snyman is volksbesit. Met Die binneland in verken dié geliefde skrywer ons land en sy mense vandag. Dana reis landin, op soek na sekerheid en lig. Hy rou oor dié wat weggeval het, soos die ikoniese Fred Mouton. Hy gesels met Pipo die clown, die karwag wat Adriaan Vlok onthou en oom Bok Horn wat 'n leeu uitoorlê het. In die nadraai van die pandemie, met beurtkrag, oorlog in Oekraïne en die politiek, begin mense moed opgee, ook oor hulself. Maar Dana vind hoop, liefde - en geloof.
‘A journey that I don’t think could be made again today’. It was this comment by Sir David Attenborough on the fiftieth anniversary of the iconic First Overland expedition that became an irresistible challenge for filmmaker and adventurer Alex Bescoby. In 1955, Attenborough, then a young TV producer, was approached by six recent university graduates determined to drive the entire length of ‘Eurasia’, from London to Singapore. It was the unclimbed Everest of motoring – many had tried, none had succeeded. Sensing this time might be different, Attenborough gave the expedition enough film reel to cover their attempt. The 19,000-mile journey completed by Tim Slessor and the team captivated a nation emerging from postwar austerity. Tim’s book, The First Overland, soon became the bible of the overlanding religion. Inspired by the First Overland, Alex made contact with now eighty-six-year-old Tim and together they planned an epic recreation of the original trip, this time from Singapore to London. Their goal was to complete the legendary journey started more than sixty years ago in the original Land Rover. In awe of the unstoppable Tim, and haunted by his own grandfather’s declining health, Alex and his team soon find themselves battling rough roads, breakdowns and Oxford’s constantly leaky roof to discover a world changed for the better – and worse – since the first expedition.
“Let us, then, set off together on a series of journeys around South Africa with an old kitbag full of books instead of maps to guide us. Let us follow meandering paths through the landscapes of literature, and celebrate how local authors, characters and readers are shaped and inspired by place …” In this gripping travelogue, Justin Fox goes on a one-of-a-kind journey. Marrying his love for travel and writing, he sets off to explore the places of his favourite books. From the mountainous eastern Karoo of Olive Schreiner to the big-game lowveld of Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, from Deneys Reitz’s wide-open Cape interior to the bushveld of Eugène Marais’s Waterberg, Fox reveals the majestic power of place. Through the savannah of Herman Charles Bosman’s Marico, the dusty plains of JM Coetzee’s Moordenaars Karoo, the forests of Dalene Matthee’s Garden Route, the subtropical hamlets of Zakes Mda’s Wild Coast, and finally the sandstone crags of Stephen Watson’s Cederberg, he brings to life the settings we’ve only seen through characters’ eyes. Place is a moving love letter to South Africa, merging literature and landscape, and taking the reader on a breath-taking journey – into the heart of South Africa’s spectacular landscape and the inner-worlds of its most celebrated authors.
Die wêreld is te groot vir een leeftyd. Tyd en lewe het my geleer dat hoe jy ook al probeer, die donner weet, jy kan nie regtig alles wat jy wil doen, inpas nie. Maar dit beteken nie jy kan nie probeer nie! Johan Bakkes kies altyd maar die smalle weë, daar waar min ander dit nog gewaag het. Soos die berg Stok Kangri in Indië, al 6 200 meter daarvan. Maar Samoe(r)sa reis gee ons nie net insae in Bakkes se Indiese ekskursie nie. Benewens die heerlik avontuurlustige vertellings is daar ander stories wat veel nader aan die huis afspeel, en hy gee veral aandag aan die “Boksombende” wat al sy wedervaringe saam met hom meegemaak het.
Ver in die wêreld is 23 stories oor die lewe in die buiteland. Sommige van die vertellings is suiwer fiksie en ander is intiem persoonlike ervarings. Dis verhale oor die verlies aan die bekende, die verlange huis toe, maar ook oor die aanpassing in die verre vreemde wat dikwels met ’n goeie skoot humor gepaard gaan. Skop jou skoene uit, sit agteroor en laat jou wegvoer na Engeland, Nieu-Seeland, Australië, Kanada, of na een van die ander plekke waar Suid-Afrikaners nesgeskrop het.
Emile Joubert is sy lewe lank ’n kosgenieter. Op sesjarige ouderdom het sy ouma se kerrie ’n groot indruk op hom gemaak en van daar af was hy ’n onkeerbare smulpaap en het kos hom betower – of dit nou die skoolmaaltye in sy kortstondige verblyf in Londen was, die honger en dors in die weermag, of die seekos wat hy uitgeduik het – Joubert se kosobessies word lewend in sy lekker skryfstyl in die oortreffende trap. Sy kosreise strek van Londen tot Griekeland, Italië, Frankryk en die dorre landskap van Angola. Die Mars bar, fondue, baked beans, oesters en boeliebief is enkele van die kossoorte wat sy reise vergesel.
Poskaarte van 'n reis is 'n keur van Jacqueline Leuvennink se rubrieke en artikels wat deur die jare in menige tydskrifte verskyn het. Jacqueline se fyn waarneming en vermoë om verwikkelde emosies en situasies in eenvoud te verwoord laat die leser opnuut verwonderd oor die skoonheid van ons wêreld. Die skrywer nooi die leser om haar te vergesel op ver reise na interessante bestemmings en inspirerende ervarings. Poskaarte van 'n reis is 'n unieke versameling artikels wat maklik en individueel gelees kan word vir lesers wat nie baie tyd het vir lees nie, maar steeds iets moois en voedsaam vir die siel op een slag wil lees.
Every now and then a book comes along that is both timely and remarkable, that integrates all aspects of life; from recognising one’s roots, developing a moral grounding, building from strong family foundations to follow a chosen path to reach one’s goals, and remaining humble when it all comes to pass. Time and Chance is an account, in a variety of contrasting images, voices and experiences gained from travelling the world in pursuit of business, where LAZARUS ZIM, industrious Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) enthusiast, recounts his journey to become one of South Africa’s business leaders, with several firsts, while navigating the political minefield – disclosing descriptions of behind-the-scenes intrigue and conspiracy – and his interactions with Heads of State in South Africa and around the globe. The recounting of Zim’s extraordinary rise to success oscillates between hope, faith, ethics, and diligence as he lays bare his successes and failures, and the organic wisdom, knowledge, and wit that have framed his business acumen and moral grounding. It is a poignant reminder of a black child’s quest to fulfil his purpose in which the writer dares everyone to dream, even in the face of hopelessness.
Openbaring is 'n inspirerende reisstorie wat wipplank ry tussen twee uiterstes - C. Johan Bakkes en sy reisgenote trotseer die koudste en warmste plekke op aarde waar mense nog leef en 'n bestaan maak, in onderskeidelik die snerpende Siberiese koue en die verswelgende hitte van die Danakil-depressie. Hoekom? Want dié reisigers doen hul bes om nie “lou” te wees nie, maar met absolute oorgawe te lewe!
Ondanks sy juweel van 'n Afrikaanse naam verkeer Fanie van der Merwe reeds vir twee dekades in selfopgelegde ballingskap. Danksy sy nering as geskiedenisonderwyser aan internasionale skole kry hy klokslag geleentheid om internasionaal te reis, wat hy met oorgawe doen. In die proses het hy reeds meer as vyftig lande besoek. In 2017 skep Fanie sy "Fanie Os Oppie Jas"-blad op Facebook - 'n hoekie in die kuberruim waar hy dagboek van sy reise hou, en vandag volg meer as 11,000 intekenare sy avonture. Met "Die reisstories van 'n nomadiese geskiedenisonderwyser" neem Fanie die leser op 'n warrelwindreis na ses lande wat nie gereeld op die gemiddelde reisiger se radar verskyn nie - Noord-Korea, Mianmar, Kambodja, Tibet, Belgie, en die uithoeke van die VSA. Danksy 'n kombinasie van pittige anekdotes in die suiwerste Afrikaans, asemrowende foto's en lighartige, dog boeiende geskiedenisverwante vertelllings, beloof die boek om 'n reisbundel te wees soos wat nog selde in Afrikaans gesien is. Die geskiedkundige feite sal verbluf, die foto's sal betower, maar dis Fanie se unieke, tong-in-die-kies-waarnemings wat selfs die mees huisvaste Jan Tuisblyer sal laat jeuk vir 'n internasionale reis.
An enthralling, intimate collection of essays and over 75 recipes
exploring the history of eight countries to understand the impact of
geopolitical conflict and its outcomes on cuisine and food system, from
Somali refugee and James Beard Award-winning author of In Bibi's
Kitchen.
Twee verhale word in hierdie teks gelyktydig vertel: die van die skrywer se reis deur Angola tydens die herdenking van die Dorslandtrek en die geskiedenis van daardie epiese tog. De Klerk se lewendige verteltrant laat 'n veelbewoe stuk geskiedenis uit die stof van ou geskrifte opstaan. W.A de Klerk was een van die voortreflikste literere joernaliste in Afrikaans.Vir die skryf van Swerwer op die sonpad het hy onder meer talle onderhoude met Dorslandtrekkers en hulle kinders gevoer, wat hier woord vir woord weergee word in elkeen se unieke, sappige Afrikaans. Dit is ’n ryk geskakeerde boek vol wetenswaardighede, lewenslustigheid en lewenswysheid.
Fringing the Black Sea are a kaleidoscope of countries, some centuries old and others emerging only after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Through the stories of the people he meets there, Jens Muhling seeks to paint a picture of this cauldron of cultures and to understand the present against a backdrop of change stretching back to the arrival of Ancient Greek settlers and beyond. A fluent Russian speaker with a knack for gaining the trust of those he meets, Muhling's cast of characters, as diverse as the stories he hears, is ready to tell him their complex, contradictory, often fantastical tales, full of grief and legend. He meets descendants of the so-called Pontic Greeks, whom Stalin deported to Central Asia and who have now returned; Circassians, known from Tolstoy's Caucasus stories, who fled to Syria a century ago and whose great-great-grandchildren, now displaced, have returned to Abkhazia; and members of ethnic minorities: the Georgian Mingrelians, Turkish Lazis, or Bulgarian Muslims expelled to Turkey in the summer of 1989. Not to mention the molluscs and other species that have unsettled the delicate ecological balance of this unique body of water. Nowhere does the uneasy alliance of tradition and modernity seem starker, and there is no better writer to capture the diverse humanity of those who live there.
This best-selling memoir from Richard Proenneke's journals and with firsthand knowledge of his subject and the setting, Sam Keith has woven a tribute to a man who carved his masterpiece out of the beyond. To live in a pristine land unchanged by man . . . to roam a wilderness through which few other humans has passed . . . to choose an idyllic site, cut trees by hand, and build a log cabin. . . to be self-sufficient craftsman, making what is needed from materials available...to be not at odds with the world, but content with one's own thoughts, dreams and company. Thousands have had such dreams, but Richard Proenneke lived them. This book is a moving account of the day-to-day explorations and activities Dick carried out alone....alone in the wilderness...and the constant chain of nature's events that kept him company.
Run for the Love of Life is a must-read for anyone who desires to escape the day-to-day sameness of our new pandemic-informed lives, or who seeks to feel alive, inspired, and filled with a renewed enthusiasm for the year ahead. It recounts the extraordinary journey of South African Erica Terblanche, an ordinary woman who manages to not only achieve – but excel – on the world stage of extreme distance-running in some of the most inhospitable and majestic landscapes across the planet. Raw, honest and infinitely human, this part-memoir, part-travel novel thunders through one exotic race location after the other, as the runners battle the elements and each other across the vastness of the Sahara, Atacama and Namib Deserts, the great Grand Canyon, Turkish Cappadocia and the Kalahari Desert, to name only a few. But more than just a book on racing, what makes this novel infinitely compelling and rewarding is that in the echoes of Erica’s story, one begins to sense the pulse of one’s own potential and long-forgotten dreams. While you may laugh, cry, and forget to take a breath at times, it is inevitable that Run will spur you on to find your own bliss, that which is buried deep within your soul and body. At its heart, Run for the love of life is a story about love, forgiveness, perseverance and growth, and about the important things in life that ultimately makes us happy. Told with wit, humour and vulnerability, it is a book that will stay with the reader long after the final page is turned. |
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