Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category
by Amy on Apr 25th, 2013
In his article about Kevin Davie’s book Freedom Rider: 10 000km by Mountain Bike across South Africa, Sean O’Toole writes that, “Davie’s narrative is littered with details that alert us to the difficult bodily labour he undertook, one that he argues is linked to our ‘encoded’ ancestral ability to hunt by endurance.”:
There are few rural spaza shops in the Eastern and Western Cape, according to Kevin Davie, although they are plentiful in the provinces of Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.
While pedalling up, down and around the fortress-like mountain range that dominates most of these provinces, a range of “crushing beauty” known as uKhahlamba in isiZulu, Intaba Zokhahlaba in isi-Xhosa, Maluti in Sesotho and Drakensberg in Afrikaans and English, Davie would often stop for a drink, usually a Coke.
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by Amy on Feb 20th, 2013
Jacana Media has shared a flipping preview of Freedom Rider: 10 000km by Mountain Bike across South Africa by Kevin Davie.
The preview comprises the foreword by David Waddilove, the founder of the Freedom Challenge, the prologue by Davie and part of the first chapter, which includes photographs showing the diverse riding conditions that Davie encountered during his journey across South Africa.
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by Amy on Feb 8th, 2013
The Mail & Guardian has published an extract from Freedom Rider: 10 000km by Mountain Bike across South Africa by Kevin Davie. In the extract, Davie lists the people who he admires when it comes to endurance sports, and discusses why they do what they do. He talks about finding out why the ability to run, or endure extreme physical conditions, was actually a basic building block of humanity:
Some years ago I read about The Great Dance, Craig and Damon Foster’s documentary, which filmed Karoha, a Kalahari Bushman, as he ran down his prey. I tried to track it down, and made enquiries on and off, but without success. Then I found it on YouTube and was fascinated by this exploration into another age. I have run 11 Comrades marathons and wondered whether I could claim to have run down that many kudus.
In the meantime, Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run popularised the idea that the ability to run, sometimes covering great distances over many hours of exertion, is one of the basic building blocks of humanity. McDougall writes that distance running gave us the ability to run down our prey; it ensured that we both survived and thrived. “We were born to run; we were born because we run.”
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by Amy on Feb 6th, 2013
Jacana is pleased to invite you to the launch of Kevin Davie’s Freedom Rider: 10 000km by Mountain Bike across South Africa.
Davie will be at the Delta Environmental Centre on Sunday 10 February from 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM to discuss his mammoth journey, share some of the best photographs taken along the way and sign some books.
See you there!
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by Amy on Feb 5th, 2013
This is riding minimalism, the rider carrying all his requirements without any back-up vehicle.
Freedom Rider is not only an adventure story about an epic bike ride in extreme conditions but a foray into the histories and cultures that have made South Africa what it is today.
When journalist Kevin Davie started riding his mountain bike in remote, wide-open South African spaces he found himself on a 10 000km journey that tested his courage and determination through blizzards, lightning and hail storms as well as forty degree heat. Each successive expedition seemed to lead to yet another hidden corner of the country that beckoned to Kevin and his bike.
On his journey, Kevin completed the Freedom Challenge, the Spine (the Drakensberg from end to end), the Ride to Rhodes and the Ganna (Beitbridge to Cape Town). Two of the longest rides, 5 000km in all, are ridden solo.
This is his story – why athletes push themselves to rise to the challenge of extreme sport – as well as an account of the country and the incredible warmth and support from locals who reach out to help in so many ways.
About the Author
Kevin Davie has a passion for endurance sport and in addition to his exploits on the bike has earned his green number (10 finishes) at the Comrades and has completed 23 Dusi canoe marathons, including four each with his wife Lucille and son Dillon. As a journalist he was a Nieman Fellow in 1995/6 at Harvard University and divides his working time between the Mail & Guardian where he edits the business section and Wits Journalism at the University of the Witwatersrand where he teaches financial journalism.
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by Amy on Jan 8th, 2013
Getaway magazine recently published the fourth book in their Funny Signs series. Best of Getaway Funny Signs encapsulates the cream of the hilarious signs their readers have sent in over the years.
On the Getaway blog, Tyson Jopson writes about Best of Getaway Funny Signs, and also selects his top 16 images from the book:
What makes a classic funny sign picture? According to our ed, it’s an exotic blend of innovative English grammar, plain and simple innocence and a dash of classic irony. It’s a wild cocktail that has brought countless laughs to our readers on their travels and readers have been sending us their favourite roadside howlers ever since the first issue of Getaway in 1989.
A preview of the giggle-provoking book is also available on Jacana Media’s website:
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by Amy on Nov 26th, 2012
Most road signs are straightforward. They tell you basics such as what to do, which direction to go in and where you are.
Then occasionally (and usually unintentionally) one will come across funny signs, or severely grammatically incorrect signage, which tends to provide humour.
What makes a classic funny sign picture? Well, an exotic blend of innovative English grammar, plain and simple innocence and a dash of classic irony. Do the creators of these signs do it on purpose? Well, sometimes they probably do.
Join Getaway as they look back over twenty-odd years of publishing to bring you this fourth journey into public oddity, Best of Getaway Funny Signs collection. Share in the spirit of the readers of Getaway as they journey through these hilarious, and often bewildering, signs which include some never-seen-before corkers.
This book is dedicated to all Getaway readers across the globe.
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by Amy on Nov 1st, 2012
Jacana Media and The Book Lounge are delighted to invite you to the launch of The Travelling Rabbi: My African Tribe by Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft as told to Suzanne Belling.
Rabbi Silberhaft will be in conversation with Philip J Krawitz on Wednesday 14 November at 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM.
See you there!
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by Amy on Oct 22nd, 2012
Jacana Media and Jewish Accommodation for Fellow Aged (JAFFA) are delighted to invite you to the launch of The Travelling Rabbi: My African Tribe by Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft and Suzanne Belling. Rabbi Silberhaft will share some anecdotes from the book – and a few untold stories, on 24 October at JAFFA in Muckleneuk, Pretoria at 6:30 PM for 7:00 PM.
See you there!
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by Amy on Oct 5th, 2012
The title of Paul Weinberg’s most recent collection of photographs, Dear Edward: Family Footprints stems from his fascination as a child with a black trunk his family kept, in which he found memorabilia such as photographs and postcards, often written in a foreign language. These were mementos from the time his family came to SA as refugees from Russia in the 1800s.
As an adult, Weinberg explained in conversation with arts journalist Peter Machen at the launch of Dear Edward at Adams Bookshop, he embarked upon a photographic interrogation of his family history. Weinberg’s great grandfather, who came to live in the small town of Philippolis, is the “Edward” of his book’s title. He explained that the trunk became a metaphor for his interest in “raiding” his family history.
Peter Machen observed that there are many pictures of hotels in the book, and Weinberg replied that his family, who were Jewish, have long been associated with hotels, and that for him they are a symbol of community. He said how sad he was to see some of them being torn down, “probably never to be replaced”.
Weinberg spoke of how much he enjoyed being “out there, on the road”, explaining that for him writing the book became an excuse for travelling. He described visiting Edward’s grave in Pioneer Park Cemetery in Kimberley and how upset he felt when he discovered the tombstone had been desecrated.
He said he feels he owes it to his family to tell his story, which he admitted was an odd one – his family found solace with the Boers, who they were loyal to in the Anglo-Boer War. He said he thinks what binds South Africans most is that “we have stories to tell about living in this uncomfortable paradise, SA”. He said he was sad that post-apartheid SA has lost the spirit it had during the struggle against apartheid, “we should have bottled it”.
Weinberg said that after having spent a year on a scholarship at Duke University in the US, the primary difference between Americans and South Africans as regards their attitudes towards local history is that the “US celebrates its history, while SA does not”.
He explained that there is a disaggregated logic to the order of the photographs in his book, so that they form a visual narrative, rather than one arranged town by town. He said he had used a “mik and druk” (a Cannon G12) which took good quality pictures, even though it was by no means “David Goldblatt”.
Professor Jeff Guy, historian, asked Weinberg whether he thought that the Jewish contribution to the liberation struggle in SA had been romanticised. Weinberg replied that the “survival instinct of my family was to assimilate, and take the side of the establishment, which made them conservative. However, there were other Weinbergs who saw beyond survival – which made their clan complex and confused, like everyone”.
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