Detour via Nieu-Bethesda to the seaside

For most South Africans the Christmas holiday season means long, lazy days next to the sea… braaivleis and fun times with family and friends. If you are one of the people who annually migrate down to the coast from upcountry, make your road trip an equally important part of your holiday.

Explore the beautiful back roads and interesting little towns rather than speed down the N1 highway. Make this an opportunity to get to special out-of-the-way places like Nieu-Bethesda which is a good overnight stop between Johannesburg and the Southern or Western Cape. Continue reading Detour via Nieu-Bethesda to the seaside

How a little knowledge can help you survive

Modern overlanders travel well-equipped with maps, instruments, water tanks, etc, but just imagine your vehicle in the middle of the Kalahari, Kaokoland or Richtersveld where you sometimes don’t see other people for days. Then, whilst you may or may not know where you are, having a little knowledge about the signs of nature can make the difference between surviving or not.

bots-map-met-kolligThe San people, the oldest inhabitants of Southern Africa, knew how to survive in the veld; a skill which modern humans have lost. They knew how to read the weather, where to find water, what plants were safe to eat, how to hunt and also how to find their way home. They learned to read nature’s signs because their survival depended on it. Continue reading How a little knowledge can help you survive

How to survive group overlanding

Some people prefer to overland as part of a group, either because they feel safer when travelling in remote areas or because they enjoy the company of others. It can be fun and very comforting to travel in a group but if it doesn’t work out it can become extremely unpleasant and ruin even long-standing friendships. There are many stories of people who started out a trip together but then split up along the way.

How do you prevent that from happening? Jan Joubert was a well-respected name in overlanding circles in South Africa and was a real pioneer in marking the 4×4 trails of Namibia. He was also one of the early contributors to Tracks4Africa. Sadly he was tragically killed in 2006 on one of his excursions into Kaokoland.

Jan had led many African overland trips and as a tour leader he had experience in group dynamics that he wanted to share , together with his other knowledge, in a book that would serve as a bible for overlanders.

Continue reading How to survive group overlanding