UP AND RUNNING WIN

All through winter, like I do every year but especially this one of extra discontent, I have cleaved to one delicious word for comfort: September. Things will be better in September. And now it’s here and, leapin’ lizards, they actually are.

Those “green shoots of tourism” our friends in northern climes were talking about long before we could legally set foot in a local park are indeed sprouting and our social-media feeds are full of happy folks branching out, taking themselves and their families off to … well, pretty much wherever they can get in. And it’s wonderful.

How poetic, too, that September happens to be Tourism Month, observed annually to highlight the economic importance PR of domestic tourism and, of course, to encourage us locals to explore that proverbial back yard. Lucky us, it is a back yard of immense beauty.

At the launch this week, as she noted how the industry had suffered, tourism minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane said “all indications are that the worst is behind us” and she urged South Africans to seize this moment to get out and explore. Never have we needed it more.

Fortuitously, many attractions are now open — with new rules for distancing and sanitiser at the ready, of course. These include the Harties Cableway in Hartbeespoort, and the Joburg Zoo, which reopened this week — as did the cable car pictured here. One of

Cape Town’s tourism superstars, it climbs to the top of the country’s most famous mountain, which is also one of the new Seven Wonders of the World.

● To stand a chance of winning R500, tell us the name of the mountain. E-mail

travelquiz@sundaytimes.co.za before noon on Tuesday September 8. Last week’s winner is GM Palweni. The answer was Anguilla.