Roxanne Reid's Blog, page 27

Spion Kop: how to botch a battle

Spion Kop near Winterton in KwaZulu-Natal was the site of one of the most futile battles of the Anglo-Boer War. The Brits, frankly, made a bit of a hash of it. At the end of a long hot day of fighting, at least 380 people were dead but nothing much had been achieved. It’s a sad example of how to botch a battle. Imagine a skirmish in which the guy in command doesn’t even know he’s supposed to be calling the shots. Where a lot of energy goes into digging a trench at the top of a hill, only...

Young elephant takes on 14 lions (video)

You’d think that a pride of 14 lions would be unstoppable, able to take down any animal of their choosing. But in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park recently, a different scenario played out. Watch what happens when a young elephant takes on 14 lions. The video was shot by guests on a game drive from Norman Carr Safaris’Chinzombo Camp. With them was Innocent, one of the top safari guides who works with Norman Carr Safaris. ‘In the many years I have been a safari guide in Zambia at the Sou...

Kruger’s Sweni Hide: an antidote for Big Five Fever

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. On a recent visit, the closest we got to the Big Five at the Sweni hide were the sounds of elephant tummies rumbling offstage. Onstage was a parade of African jacanas, openbill storks, pie...

Falling in love with Mapungubwe National Park

Seven years ago I found myself fallingin love with Mapungubwe National Park on my first visit. Everything had me under its spell, from the enormous baobabs and gnarl-rooted fig trees clawing their way out of rock, to the red rock formations and the cultural history. So I was really looking forward to our second visit and hoping that guide Moses Baloyi would be there to share more about this place he loved. The Venda-style Leokwe camp, the red rocks and baobab trees are just a few thin...

Diesel & Crème vintage diner on Route 62, Barrydale

By Roxanne Reid
We’ve stumbled on the set of a mid-20th century movie. You can almost see the tumbleweed drift across the road and hear the rattle of a coiled snake. There’s a sepia undertone to the brick-and-rust vintage diner. The red, green and yellow of the fuel pumps in front stand out in sharp relief. We’re at theDiesel & Crème vintage diner on Route 62, Barrydale, in South Africa’s Karoo heartland, but we might as well be anywhere in Jack Kerouac’s America. There are wooden tables,...

The leopard man of Limpopo

He raised his rifle and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. He ejected the cartridge and tried again. Nothing. Still the leopard rushed towards him, eyes locked on its target. There was time for only one more attempt before the animal was on him. But it wasn’t third time lucky forthe leopard man of Limpopo, Ramolefe ‘Boy’ Moatshe. Fast forward 25 years to where we sat under a spreading black-thorn tree in Matlabas village in Limpopo. Ramolefe was a giant of a man, just over six feet tal...

Kruger’s new restaurants: a huge improvement

When the Kruger National Park announced that chains like Wimpy, Cattle Baron and Mugg & Bean would soon be running some of the park’s restaurants, faithful Krugerites were predictably miffed. All that city yuppieness had no place in Kruger, they argued. But on a recent trip to Kruger I discovered that the nay-sayers got it almost completely wrong. Kruger’s new restaurants are a huge improvement. We all love the scent of the potato bush that wafts across the Kruger air in the late afternoo...

Land Rover Mokopane rocks!

Imagine you’re on an 8000-kilometre road trip. Now imagine the worst thing that could happen. (Okay, the worst thing after death or life-threatening illness.)Nowyou’re getting it: vehicle problems. Because without that vehicle there ain’t gonna be no more road trip. So wait till you hear whyLand Rover Mokopane rocks. We were about halfway through our journey and having a blast. Then one morning we set out along a dirt road in Limpopo, not far from Marakele National Park. Whoa! What had ha...

Night at the Museum – Talana style

Remember the movie Night at the Museum, where a night guard discovers a curse that makes the animal exhibits come to life and cause mayhem? If you’d like to experience your own Night at the Museum – Talana style, visit the Talana Museum in Dundee in KwaZulu-Natal on Friday 17 October 2014. Find out how brave you are and whether the ghosts of Talana really do walk after dark. What’s the true story of the ghosts of two British soldiers who stand outside the Smith cottage in the museum’s gro...

Q&A with photographer Heinrich van den Berg

By Roxanne Reid
A bout of cerebral malaria 18 years ago made Heinrich van den Berg reconsider his life as a civil engineer and decide to live his passion – photography. Now, with some 20 photography books already published, he’s bringing out a new one called Reflection. It’s a deeply personal book in which, he says, he has used ‘something deeper inside me than just sight, hearing and touch’. In this Q&A with photographer Heinrich van den Berg, he shares some insights and some of the photos fr...