Every year, thousands of people walk the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. Fed up with love, life and himself, Cape Town-based journalist, Erns Grundling, joined them in what turned out to a life-changing experience. In Walk it Off – A South African on the Camino, he shares his thoughts as well as his experiences. During his 40-day, 1025km journey, among the many interesting characters he meets is a fellow a doppelganger (there’s a photograph to prove it), falls in love three and a half times, has many adventures and sheds 10 kilos. It’s a book that will inspire readers to put on their walking shoes and set off to discover themselves as well as distant horizons. Queillerie, R280.
Television producer Deon Maas grabs the opportunity to join the stream of South Africans who have left their homeland to live in the First World. He describes his struggles to settle in the land of his forefathers in Witboy in Berlin. In decadent Berlin he has to deal with obnoxious bureaucrats, nosy neighbours, militant vegans and football hooligans along with many other new challenges. He also marvels at German idiosyncrasies, debunks a number of myths about the first World War and German efficiency. In adapting to a very different way of life, Maas learns just how deep his South African roots go. Jonathan Ball, R267.
