Of Hominins, Hunter-Gatherers and Heroes: 20 Amazing Places in South Africa

by David Bristow

Of Hominins, Hunter-Gatherers and Heroes offers spellbinding stories of some amazing, little-known places in South Africa. Who knew that on the West Coast, just an hour’s drive from Cape Town, is one of only three places on earth where you can see the fossils of creatures that lived in antediluvian times and died right where you see them now? Or that all Bushman art, whether painted or engraved, is a conversation with the spirit world? Bristow ventured to some lesser-known places such as the West Coast Fossil Park, Mapungubwe, Hogsback, Lambazi Bay, Port Grosvenor, and Nieu Bethesda, as well as some old favourites, like the Garden Route, Kruger National Park, Cape Point, and the Johannesburg war museum, which each get a new treatment here. Written in the same engaging style as as his last successful book, The Game Ranger, the Knife, the Lion and the Sheep in the Stories from the Veld series, Of Hominins, Hunter-Gatherers and Heroes is a journey through a bucket list of must-see places in this “world in one country.” These stories will excite, entertain, and enthrall you.

200 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2020

About the author

David Bristow, former editor of Getaway magazine, is an entertaining writer with a palpable love of the Drakensberg. His writing is both factual and lyrical, and he doesn't beat about the bush. He has written and contributed to several books about hiking and travel, among them Drakensberg Walks, Mountains of South Africa and the wildly popular 1001 Places To See Before You Die, published by Random House Struik. He is a freelance journalist, photographer, ecologist, environmentalist (with a Master's Degree in Environmental Studies) and stubborn mountaineer.

Reviews

[Don Pinnock · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first glance these are simply 20 travel stories about South Africa. They’re easy to read, written in conversational style as befitting a former travel journalist and editor of Getaway magazine.
But it’s soon apparent they’re a lot more than that. Bristow has a catalogic mind full of unusual facts and angles and considerable knowledge of history, zoology, geology and much more.
You’re reading about beautiful Kosi Bay and suddenly learn that, under a new, impatient generation the fish traps in the estuary were reversed, decimating the aquatic population or the relationship between the bay,csailing ships and turtle soup at the London lord mayor’s banquet.
Or how South African soldier Job Maseko, captured by the Germans in World War 2, sank a German ship in Tobruk harbour with a bomb made in a condensed milk tin, but was refused a Victoria Cross because he was ‘only an African.’
Then there’s a dive back into the past along the Cape West Coast to a time when sivatheres, gompotheres, alcephalines and proto elephants, or finding the Rosetta Stone of San rock art at Game Pass Shelter in the Drakensberg.
Bristow’s storytelling is so easy you’re unaware that he is laying little fact-traps that make it hard to stop reading. That’s his special skill which threads through all three books in his Stories from the Veld series.

[Samantha Venter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this book a few months ago but it was slow going initially and I got busy, so I put the book down and was only able to come back to it now. The writing is difficult to read at times BUT I am glad I persevered because I learnt so much about the history of South Africa. I have visited many of the places in this book but now I have a renewed passion to revisit/visit these places and to read more about the history (political, social, environmental and astronomical) of South Africa!

[Pedro Paes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really interesting read of various places in South Africa with a very good level of detail of historical events. Some parts a bit heavy, but i guess it depends on your interests, the stories covered have a good range. Certainly it has opened my eyes to the history of our beautiful country and to cherish. Its a 5 star for what it is, not one place was boring.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is absolutely packed with information about South Africa but it is not written in a style that makes for easy reading.