About A Walk in the Park
ISBN: 978-1-920154-07-3
Published by Aardvark Press
Publication date: 2009
Format: Soft cover; 240 x 168 mm portrait; 160 pages; one colour text, colour plates
Cover: Four colours, gloss finish
Price: R170 excl P&P (currency converter)
The book has two aims. The first is to inform and entertain the average armchair traveller who wants to live vicariously. That’s why you’ll find answers to some intriguing questions, such as:
• why your partner is potentially more dangerous than a black mamba
• what Patricia Lewis, James Small and Ozzie Osbourne’s bizarre kids have in common
• why hippos are vegetarians and vultures need a spin doctor
• how to prove the Free State isn’t flat
• why a really tiny little fish is actually the Big Mob Boss of the deep
• why a barnacle has a penis that’s 20 times longer than its body.
The book’s second aim is to provide inspiration and practical ideas for people who want to get up out of their armchairs and do things for themselves. That’s why contact details are included for all the activities mentioned. (These will be updated regularly on this website, so they should never be out of date.)
There are nearly 300 ideas to choose from, so almost everyone should find at least a handful to wrap a holiday around – where to catch up on some cultural history, places to enjoy good food or even just a relaxing sundowner, and of course some more extreme adventures like paragliding or skydiving. And lots of stuff in between – a horse trail, a wilderness hike among lions, elephants and creepy crawlies, a Tarzan-and-Jane swing among the treetops, a 4x4 trail, even a walk in the Kalahari desert with a San tracker who has a gazillion-gigabyte memory of fascinating stuff.
Contents
Introduction
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
◆ Walk with a Bushman
◆ Kalahari in style
◆ Kalahari clinics
◆ More things to do
Augrabies Falls National Park
◆ Place of great noise
◆ More things to do
Ai-Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park
◆ Prozac for the soul
◆ More things to do
Karoo National Park
◆ ’n Boer maak ’n plan
◆ Numbskulls and gluttons
◆ More things to do
Marakele National Park
◆ Place of sanctuary
◆ Leopard man
◆ More things to do
Mapungubwe National Park
◆ Falling in love
◆ Lost city of gold
◆ More things to do
Kruger National Park
◆ People and other animals
◆ A walk on the wild side
◆ More things to do
Golden Gate Highlands National Park
◆ Big medicine and a homemade drum
◆ Vulture burgers
◆ More things to do
Mountain Zebra National Park
◆ Graffiti, ghosts and rock art
◆ A woman ahead of her time
◆ More things to do
Addo Elephant National Park
◆ All creatures great and small
◆ Return to Addo
◆ Virgin bones
◆ More things to do
Tsitsikamma National Park
◆ Monkeying around
◆ Birds of Eden
◆ Three, two, one, bungeeeee!
◆ More things to do
Knysna National Lake Area
◆ Mobbed!
◆ Gold rush
◆ Gender benders
◆ More things to do
Wilderness National Park
◆ Stroll the beach by torchlight
◆ From soil to soul
◆ More things to do
Table Mountain National Park
◆ Southern lights
◆ Slime hags and rocksuckers
◆ More things to do
Looking back
Glossary
Contacts
Further reading
Index
About the author