This book highlights only a fraction of the diverse wildlife and wilderness that South Africa, the Rainbow Nation, holds. As travellers, not residents, each journey to Africa is carefully studied, and only a selection of our desired locations can make the list. Mapungubwe, Marakele, Mokala - next time, I promise. Golden Gate, Namaqualand, |Ai-|Ais/Richtersveld - your time will come.

We travelled between January 2012 and July 2013, under the opportunities offered by the annual Wild Card scheme run by South African National Parks. Two were trips to Kruger National Park, one north, one south; then a wild loop from Cape Town and Table Mountain National Park to Sutherland and the Southern African Large Telescope, to Upington, to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, and then back via Augrabies Falls, and peaceful Tankwa Karoo National Park. A final loop took in Addo Elephant National Park, Camdeboo National Park, and the resplendent Mountain Zebra National Park, before gracing the beautiful Garden Route and Tsitsikamma.

The narrative in this book winds around our journey, painting the parts photography misses. As a result no captions are given within the text, but full descriptions, species names and technical photographic information are available in the reference pages at the end.

We begin in the red sands of the Kalahari, with open dunes, open skies, open fires.




Two people
Four visits
Eight weeks
Nine National Parks
One country