I am sure that you can recognise a red hot poker when you see one but did you realise that there were around 70 species in the genus Kniphofia ? The majority of these species grow in the eastern half of South Africa and next week I am off on an expedition to try and see as many of these as possible in... Read more..

Do you take some "light" reading with you when you travel abroad? I think this is one of the hardest decisions I have to make whenever I travel somewhere: which books do I want? Which ones will I actually use? Do I need to keep some weight allowance to bring some books back? This trip to South... Read more..

I have now arrived at Buffelskloof and my final stop on my expedition but getting here was not a journey to remember. Apart from the long roadworks and the frequent lorries reducing speed to a crawl, those bits of the countryside that did look appealing to drive through were blighted by continual rain... Read more..

This was to be my last day in the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg and it started off much as yesterday had. The cloud was low and to add to my problems I also found out that the pass to take cars up to the Little Berg was closed. This meant that I had to start my hiking at around 1400m rather than the 1900m... Read more..

Sometimes it is better not to build up expectation - a lot of planning has gone into this trip and in the process I have imagined the joy of coming across the various Kniphofia that I will be seeking. Today was my venture into the eastern end of the fynbos in search of the "original" red hot... Read more..

One of the reasons Colesberg gets so cold is that it is so high, 1400m (around the height of Ben Nevis). The central plateau of Africa is all at a considerable altitude from Nairobi to Johannesburg. At some point, though, as one heads towards the coast one has to descend and in South Africa, this descent... Read more..

I hope you will forgive me if I keep this short after another long drive. I also want to be a bit self-indulgent as my boys wanted to see what sort of car I was driving up all these mountains. So here is a photo of my car on the descent from Naude's Nek pass. Naude's Nek is the highest driveable... Read more..

There are not many places in the world where you can drive for 50km and not pass another car but the highlands of the Eastern Cape is one such place. It is hard to understand why this area is so rarely visited, the scenery is beautiful and spectacular in its wildness. Possibly it loses out to the renown... Read more..