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South Africa’s number one travel and outdoor lifestyle magazine. We pay our own way and tell it like it is. We drive back roads and speak to real people, giving you practical information about affordable destinations in southern Africa. Each issue is crammed with excellent photography, honest gear reviews and delicious recipes to make at home or in the bundu. Whether you’re looking to escape for a weekend or a month, your journey starts here.

EDITOR'S LETTER

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Go with the flow • When summer rains pour down in South Africa's interior and the dams on the Orange River burst from their sluices, Augrabies Falls National Park prepares itself for a flood… Of water and people.

Untangling Addo • Addo Elephant National Park is a vast network of conservation areas in the Eastern Cape, stretching from the Indian Ocean over the Zuurberg and into the south-eastern Karoo. It all seems quite intimidating… Where should a first-time visitor start?

BOAT TRIPS

BIOMES OF ADDO

Scattered pockets of plenty • KwaZulu-Natal has a bunch of provincial reserves and other wilderness areas that preserve unique ecosystems. Toast Coetzer did a whirlwind road trip from Spioenkop Dam to Umlalazi Nature Reserve on the coast, then worked his way south via Vernon Crookes Nature Reserve and Oribi Gorge.

Botsalano it's basically Botswana! • Just a four-hour drive from Joburg, Botsalano Game Reserve in North West offers a taste of nearby Botswana without having to cross the border.

At home in the wild • Where does your soul find peace? Deep in the mountains, on a deserted beach, next to a river? In the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve in the Western Cape, you can have any of these wild places to yourself in no time at all.

Film stars of the Kgalagadi • The red dunes of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park are covered in grass at the end of a good rainy season. Animals appear from these dunes and walk into the open riverbeds, almost as if they're stepping onto a stage - and you're there to enjoy the show! These amazing photos were taken by our ever-alert readers. Turn to page 90 for accommodation details in the park.

A coast for all seasons • Every season brings something different to the West Coast National Park and its diversity of habitats. Here's your guide come rain or shine.

Not for creatures of habit • With its rest camps, tar roads and occasional cellphone reception, you could be fooled into thinking the Kruger is tame. Not so! Experience the park at its wildest on these five adventures.

Parks and reserves of South Africa • HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE Flip to the relevant page number for each province to see all the listed reserves in that section (see Quick Finder below). Marked on this map are most of our best-known provincial reserves and national parks, as well as a few private game reserves. Some are expanded upon in the provincial listings which follow, but not all. This is not a comprehensive list of every protected area in South Africa, but it includes many of our readers’ favourites.

WESTERN CAPE

EASTERN CAPE

NORTHERN CAPE

NAMAQUA NATIONAL PARK • This reserve has so much more to offer than only wildflowers, says Esma Marnewick, deputy editor of our sister magazine Weg.

FLOWER SEASON TIPS

FREE STATE

KWAZULU-NATAL

UKHAHLAMBA DRAKENSBERG PARK • Together with Sehlabathebe National Park in Lesotho, uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park forms the MalotiDrakensberg Park World Heritage Site. Travel journalist and television director Konrad Raubenheimer has been exploring this area since childhood.

GAUTENG

RIETVLEI NATURE RESERVE • Field guide Petrus van Eck tells us why Rietvlei Nature Reserve is so close to his heart.

NORTH WEST

MOLOPO NATURE...