If you’re going on safari these hols, these are brilliant guides to pop into the cubbyhole.
If you’ve ever thought of a self-drive trip through Botswana, trust us, it’s brilliant! And this Botswana Self-Drive – Routes, Roads and Ratings by James Gifford and Van den Berg is exceptional. With Botswana wildlife destinations like Moremi, Khwai, Central Kalahari and Nxai Pans featured, suggested routes and a comprehensive guide to the roads, as well as ratings and maps, it’s a practical, hard cover book that will make your trip a lot easier and far more enjoyable. R850, HPH Publishing.
Tick Track Listen Kruger is brilliant if you’re visiting the park with children. There’s a QR code for you to download a free app which allows you to listen to the calls of each animal, images of each animal, bird and tree, with star ratings for special or rare sightings, and tick boxes so you can record your sightings, as well as tracks of the animals and useful good-to-know info. R199, HPH Publishing.
No matter where you’re travelling to in South Africa, Sky Guide Southern Africa, published annually, is a practical resource for all stargazers … novice, amateur or professional. It highlights cosmic events and planetary movements, predicted eclipses and meteor showers, has star charts and a wealth of info about the Sun, Moon, planets, comets, meteors and bright stars, with photos, diagrams, charts and the images. Struik Nature / Astronomical Society of Southern Africa, R170
Get the most from your game drive with Kruger Birds, Philip van den Berg’s pocket-size book that’s just crammed with spectacular photographs and interesting facts about all the birds of Kruger. R350. In the same A Safari Guide range is Kruger Wildlife, also photos and facts – collective nouns, gestation period, life expectancy, but also with sighting ratings, a tick box to keep track of your sightings, and animal names in English but also German, French, Afrikaans and Zulu. R295, HPH Publishing.
South Africa’s Fynbos Biome, which spans the country’s Western and Eastern Cape provinces, is one of the richest floras in the world. In addition to its spectacular botanical diversity, the region is also famous for its remarkable variety of fauna, with some species occurring nowhere else – from the tiny Micro Frog to the brightly coloured Orange-breasted Sunbird and the large, strikingly marked Bontebok. Field Guide to Fynbos Fauna by Cliff and Suretha Dorse is a guide to more than 400 species in four animal groups, with key identification features, full-colour photographs and distribution maps. This guide encompasses popular tourist destinations such as the Cape Peninsula, the Kogelberg, the Cederberg, the Agulhas Plain, the West Coast and Baviaanskloof. R350, Struik Nature
