South Africa

South Africa Overview

South Africa covers an area of well over a million square kilometres (386,000 square miles) of the southern subcontinent. To the east, north and west it is bounded by the republics of Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and enclosed within its borders are the kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland. A country rich in diversity, South Africa’s contrasts are strikingly apparent in the bewildering mix of culture and language. Variety is there, too, in the character of the cities and the nature of the land.

Eastwards from the modern metropolis of Johannesburg lies the rugged Escarpment which falls rapidly away to the humid, subtropical Lowveld with its world-famous Kruger National Park. Southwards lies KwaZulu-Natal, with its own compliment of bushveld, wetland and marine reserves. Durban, a harbour city fringed by golden beaches, is the third largest conurbation in the country. In contrast to the string of coastal towns and resorts south of Durban, is the spectacular and unspoilt Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape. Along South Africa’s southern shores, lies the Garden Route, a place of gentle beauty, comprising seaside towns, forests and lakes, against the backdrop of the Outeniqua mountains.

The westward journey through the rich Western Cape farmlands and along South Africa’s southern seaboard culminates in the Cape Peninsula and the city of Cape Town, at the foot of Table Mountain, and its surrounds – the Winelands – a magical setting of craggy peaks and secluded valleys with their vineyards, orchards and historic homesteads.

The Land

In broad geophysical terms, South Africa can be divided into just two regions. The greater is the semicircular interior plateau, varying in altitude from the central region of the Great Karoo (a flat, semi-desert area that covers around 400,000km2 or 154,440 sq miles), to the towering Drakensberg in the east (the loftiest segment of a necklace of mountains known as the Great Escarpment). The second region is a narrow coastal belt fringing the plateau on three sides.

MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS
The grandest of the country’s heights are those of the Drakensberg, the spectacular eastern part of the Great Escarpment, whose gigantic basalt face falls almost sheer for a full 2000m (6565 feet) to the green midlands of KwaZulu-Natal. So formidable is the rampart that the main 250-km (155 miles) stretch can only be negotiated by one route – the Sani Pass. Formed by a quite different geological process are what are known as the Cape Fold mountains, a series that runs parallel to the southern coast. Here, rising majestically over wide valleys, are the Swartberg and Tsitsikamma, the Outeniqua and the Langeberg. Inland, beyond the lovely winelands of the west, are the Hottentots-Holland, the Drakenstein, and the rugged Cederberg – place of strangely eroded rocks, of caves, deep ravines and streams, and home to the rare Clanwilliam cedar tree and the pure-white snow protea (Protea cryophila). And then, of course, there is world-renowned Table Mountain and its attendant heights, great sandstone buttresses that run south from the city of Cape Town towards Cape Point.

A number of the country’s rivers rise in the KwaZulu-Natal’s Drakensberg, eight alone on the aptly named Mont-aux-Sources (mountain of springs) massif. Many of these, including the Thukela (Tugela), cut their way down the eastern slopes, and over the eastern coastal plain to discharge into the Indian Ocean. South Africa’s largest watercourse, the Gariep (Orange) River, on the other hand, flows west across the subcontinent plunging magnificently through the Augrabies gorge, close to the Namibian border, before embarking on its last, desolate stretch to the Atlantic Ocean. Though much of its course crosses arid, treeless terrain, its waters are increasingly being used to irrigate flanking farmlands. Among the Gariep’s bigger tributaries is the Vaal, longer but less voluminous than the Gariep. The Western Cape’s Olifants and beautiful Berg, the Breede, the Sundays and Great Fish in the Eastern Cape, and the Limpopo, which marks the country’s border with Zimbabwe, are other significant rivers. South Africa’s rivers, though, do not amount to very much in world terms. Put together their total run-off is barely equal to that of the Rhine at Rotterdam, and to just half that of the mighty Zambezi 1000 kilometres (620 miles) to the north.

SEAS AND SHORES
The country’s coastline presents a striking study in contrasts. The western seaboard’s rocky, windblown shorelines backed by raised beaches stretching inland for up to 50km (31 miles), and washed by the cold Benguela Current, does have its attractions: a wealth of seabirds (gannets, cormorants and terns roost and nest on the offshore islands), charming fishing villages, and, for a few brief springtime weeks, a countryside magically transformed by great carpets of wild flowers. The south and east coasts, are washed by the warmer waters of the Agulhas Current, and in tourist terms are more popular. In the south, the 220-km (135 miles) Garden Route, stretching roughly from Heidelberg to the Storms River, is very beautiful; its forested coastal terrace is overlooked by not-too-distant Outeniqua mountains. Equally enticing to holiday-makers are the wide expanses of golden sand and the sun-drenched resorts to either side of Durban on the east coast.

Wild Kingdom

South Africa’s prime tourist attraction is without doubt its magnificent wildlife heritage, seen at its most spectacular in the big-game areas of Mpumalanga (Kruger National Park area) and KwaZulu-Natal – areas well frequented by international visitors. In terms of overall species diversity, South Africa ranks third in the world, bested only by Indonesia and the Amazonian forests. There are more then 20 national parks (a few are very new and still under development) and about 300 smaller regional and local reserves in South Africa, some created primarily to protect wild animals, others the unique plant life or distinctive scenic character of a region.

The largest and best known of these is the Kruger National Park, where the great diversity of wildlife includes the ‘big five’ – lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo – and some 500 different species of birds. In addition to the many tourist camps in the Park, there is a choice of luxurious lodges situated in the private game reserves along its western boundary. Impressive, too, are the reserves of Northern KwaZulu-Natal (KZN Safaris), where varied vegetation types provide ideal habitats for a similarly impressive array of animals and birds, including a wide range of waterbirds. Quite different in character but equally attractive is the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, a vast wilderness of Kalahari dunes, sandy plains, thornbush and scanty grassland that is home to cheetah,lion, wild dog and herds of antelope. Its two segments – one in northern South Africa, the other in southern Botswana – were recently combined to create Africa’s first cross-border or ‘peace’ park.

PARK ETIQUETTE

• Loud voices and aggressive behaviour are only going to send wildlife scampering off into the wilderness. On any driving or walking excursion, keep voices low and conversation to a minimum. Stay in your vehicle or close by your guide unless advised otherwise.
• Never try to interfere with animal behaviour by shouting, clapping, imitating their sound or throwing stones, and never ever get in the way of an animal’s escape route or between an animal and its young. This is particularly true of an elephant cow and her babies or a hippo trying to get to water. Both are highly protective of their young and their territory and will turn ferocious if threatened in any way.
• Respect the commands of your guides and trackers as their experience makes them far more knowledgeable than you in the event of a crisis. Above all, don’t ask them to let you get closer to a wild animal than the distance they feel comfortable with; animal behaviour can be wholly unpredictable and this can endanger your lives, particularly if an individual feels threatened. Getting too close can also obstruct a hunt and force the animal to abandon its chase, denying it a meal.
• If you’re out game-viewing in your own car, approach animals carefully, quietly and calmly. Sudden movements or a panic-stricken retreat will get more of an aggressive reaction out of an animal – particularly elephant and rhino – than a slow, calm reversal out of charging distance.
• Never approach a wild animal on foot unless you are being guided by an expert on a walking trail.
• Don’t feed animals such as baboons, monkeys or those that have become habituated around camps, such as jackals, mongooses, and so on. This interferes with their natural habits and can make them dependent on camp food.
• Respect the environment; don’t throw litter into the wild. Certain items can choke or poison animals and birds. Never smoke on a game drive and never, ever toss a burning cigarette into the bush; the dry vegetation ignites easily and this could cause a highly destructive veld fire. This is a very real problem in South Africa, and has resulted in major devastation of both environment and animal life.

Food and Drink

Special culinary draw cards are the local meat and venison (including springbok, ostrich, kudu and impala), fruit, fish, shellfish – particularly rock lobster (crayfish) – and other seafood delicacies such as mussels and oysters. There isn’t, however, a single, coherent South African cuisine – the country is too ethnically diverse, and eating patterns are drawn from many different parts of the world. Nevertheless, the eating traditions of some of the immigrant groups – Greek, German, Portuguese, for example – are more prominent than others in various regions. Durban restaurants are renowned for their fiery curries, and marvellous breyanis; the Western Cape for traditional fare in which Karoo lamb, venison (particularly springbok pie), sweet potato, cinnamon-flavoured pumpkin and sticky sweet konfyt are popular. The Western Cape, too, is the home of ‘Malay’ cooking, noted for its fragrant bredies (a mutton stew with potato, onion and other vegetables), its lightly spiced boboties and luscious desserts. The cuisine’s origins are mainly Indonesian, though over the centuries other culinary traditions have been influential: curries and samoosas from India; puddings, tarts and biscuits from the early Dutch settlers; the sweet preserves from the French Huguenots. Also part of the South African experience is potjiekos, a long-simmering stew created with layers of meat, potatoes and a variety of vegetables in a large cast-iron pot, cooked over an open fire to allow the flavours to mingle. Traditional African cooking does not appear on many menus. For most of the indigenous people, eating remains a practical and often formidably challenging necessity. The ordinary meal of the day in townships and villages is usually a no-nonsense affair of maize meal (‘samp’), vegetables and, less often, stewed meat. South African wines, both red and white, are generally very good. Some of the labels are fast gaining a reputation for excellence, a generous handful are quite sublime, and many are receiving accolades in international competitions. The wines are still fairly cheap by international standards, though prices have been rising. Some handy and informative volumes on the country’s wines can be found in most bookshops.