DREAMS CLOSE TO HOME
Revisiting her bucket list, Nancy Richards finds a book to press the refresh button
YOUR BUCKET LIST 150 Must-Do Experiences in Southern Africa by Patrick Cruywagen (Mapstudio)
CHERRY-blossom time in Japan was on my grandmother’s bucket list. And, young as I was at the time, she always promised to take me with her. But as each season came and went, Japanese blossoms became a mantra of missing. Then I grew up and left home, grandmother grew frail and died. We never made it. Recently, I heard about the Shikoku walking pilgrimage, which takes in 88 temples. If I got the timing right, this might be the moment to finally tick those blossoms off the list, hers and mine. But Japan is a long, expensive haul — and I’m still vacillating.
But that’s the thing about bucket lists, everything on them tends to be a biggie, which I guess is the point. So, if you really want to get round to realising your BL, maybe the answer is to lower the bar or just reduce the distance. Keep it local.
Enter: 150 Must-Do Experiences in Southern Africa. Author Patrick Cruywagen has done near as dammit every one of them. Not surprising. For 10 years, he was bush editor of SA 4x4 magazine and his adventures have appeared in all the leading activity publications worth their rope: National Geographic Traveller, Runners World, Bicycling etc. Still “out there”, he is presently features editor of the UK’s Land Rover Monthly. Interestingly, Cruywagen started his “adventuring” career in the army, after seeing posters that said “Join the army and see the world.” He loved it — though it ultimately seems like he loved his freedom more.
Maybe his military training stood him in good stead, because every one of his travel commissions, he says, he treated like a well planned manoeuvre, taking all the right kit and being ready for all eventualities.
The result is that each concise, page-long entry contains useful tips on the hows, wheres and what elses you might need or do while you’re there, together with a box listing “similar experiences” and a map with how to get there, accommodation and contact details.
“Southern Africa” takes in Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Madagascar, Malawi, Angola and Zimbabwe — though, in many cases, these countries are represented by one or only a few activities, with the bulk being in SA.
Some adventures are quite loosely defined — “See the best dorps in SA”; “Chase waterfalls in Mpumalanga”; “Hang with the Himba” — but others are very specific — “Abseil down the Maletsunyane Falls”; “Have a drink at the highest pub in Southern Africa”; “Walk with meerkats in Oudtshoorn” etc. You can also choose your own bucket style as they’re categorised: adventure, chilled, cultural, sport and wildlife. And if you get to tick off even half of checklist at the back, your life will have been enriched.