Getaway January 2019

It’s a time of summer holidays, exciting travel, beach lounging and New Year’s resolutions. Many of us make wildly unrealistic promises to ourselves about the things we’ll change in the coming year. If you happen to be reading this while lying on a beach, look around you. Chances are you’ll see litter of all kinds dotting the sand. Humans have been producing rubbish since the beginning of time. Stone Age people discarded hand axes, strandlopers left piles of shellfish middens, early civilisations are marked by mounds of rubble. Most of this ancient litter was biodegradable: the planet recycled our mess for us. All that changed after World War II. The invention of plastic and the myriad products it spawned created a throwaway society. The chemical structure of most plastics renders…

Jacques Marais Mozambique, page 88 Most of his outdoor mates know Jacques as #DieOom … let’s just say he’s pretty okay with that. With more than five decades of adventuring – starting as a barefoot boerseun in the wilds of the Baviaans River Conservancy – he’s travelled to nearly 30 countries on his favourite continent, Africa. And nothing beats a trip like his recent exploration of Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area, in which he crossed the border to hunt down stories and action. Jacques is an imaging ambassador for Sony Xperia and a range of global photographic brands. Rachel Moncrieff-Robinson Garden Route, page 82 Explorer, road-tripper and happy-hour lover, Rachel likes nothing more than finding a good deal and a new pet-friendly spot where Valentino, her four-legged best friend, will also…

‘Do you think it’s much further?’ said my uncle. He was starting to struggle. ‘I’m sure we’re nearly there,’ I said, but secretly I was worried. It was hard walking on the beach sand, even though we were following a path that had been compacted by many feet before us. It was hard going for me, and I am nearly half a century younger than he is. I don’t see my uncle very often. He lives in Spain in an old farmhouse in Andalucia with his partner of 50 years. I had been having difficulties in my marriage and I was living on a small Greek island called Symi, and my uncle was too frail to visit me there. It required a long sea crossing on a bouncing ferry, and…

My husband and I recently returned from a wonderful three-month holiday with our family in the United States. One of the highlights was a visit to Alaska, a place that has been on my bucket list for some time. Our daughter presented us with a fully paid tour as a gift. We enjoyed every moment – from the tram ride to the top of Mount Roberts in Juneau, Alaska’s capital, where we watched cruise ships sail into the pretty town, to witnessing a cruise boat in Seward on the Kenai Peninsula calve [split] glaciers, to watching locals catch salmon in Ship Creek, Anchorage. A glorious tour on board the Alaska Railroad was jaw-dropping. We saw magnificent scenes of snow-capped mountains, rushing rivers and glaciers from the observation car. Denali National…

In response to our online story about Africa’s longest suspension bridge in Mozambique, Michelle Mengel wrote: On a recent visit to the US, we drove over a 27-kilometre bridge linking Virginia Beach and Cape Charles [across Chesapeake Bay]. It was spectacular driving across the ocean while passing an oil tanker and a cruise ship. The bridge briefly tunnelled under the sea, to let ships pass, and popped up a little further down. All I could think was to take this dream back to SA: of subway trains running swiftly under our cities; of bridges connecting people; and a public-transport system of trains, trams, trolleys, buses and taxis in abundance, so that all of us can afford to go to work and get there quickly, reliably and safely, without having to…

FACEBOOK All the way from snowy Sweden to Cape Town, of course. – Ulf Hedlund Sunny and vibrant Durban. – Thabo Khanda The Waterfront in Cape Town. – Joey van Zyl TWITTER Serengeti, Tanzania. – The Real Zolani @Dr_Zolani Victoria Falls. – Angie @Angie_jeppe – xhosafrican @VinkqiK Kruger National Park. – Alicelmy @alicelmy52 The Garden Route. – Zaheerah Patel @zloonat28 INSTAGRAM If all goes well, Antwerp. – Joan Stow @joanstow…