Use winter to plan your next adventure
Winter has its charms: hot chocolate and icy nights spent watching DVDs are two of them. Winter is also the time to learn about places, wildlife and nature and to be inspired to plan adventures for summer when days are long and friends are willing to join you.
The Best of Getaway Gallery is a coffee-table book bursting with images of wildlife, landscape and portrait images taken by Getaway Magazine readers. Getaway’s editor Cameron Ewart-Smith will discuss the things that make powerful images work, why many of the images were chosen for this book, outdoor and travel photography as well as the magazine’s photo competitions.
Mpumalanga also gets in on the action with a presentation in Nelspruit on Mt Kilimanjaro. The experienced team at Wild Frontiers will take you through everything you need to know about heading for Kili in this informative presentation. They’ll offer training advice, alert you to medical considerations and recommend gear and apparel. They’ll also pass on their tips and tricks for summit success.
Multi-day hikes like the Otter Trail and Fish River Canyon are well known and much loved. There are also others, like the Rim of Africa, which will be discussed in this one-hour presentation by Nick Bennett. Developed in the same vein as North America’s Appalachian and Continental Divide Trails, Spain’s Camino de Santiago and South America’s Sendero de Chile, the Rim of Africa is a 650kilometre length of mountain paths between the Cederberg and the Garden Route’s Outeniqua Mountains. Bennett will discuss how to prepare for multi-day hiking as well as suitable gear for different regions and seasons.
The Black Eagle Project (BEP) was initiated in 2011 and the research is undertaken by post-graduate student Megan Murgatroyd (UCT). Her study focuses on the effects of land use on the diet and hunting habits of the Black Eagle (Aquila verreauxii; formerly known as Verreaux’s Eagle) in the Cederberg Mountains and the Sandveld. The Cederberg is a region that remains relatively pristine while the Sandveld has undergone extensive land conversion for agriculture.
In this fascinating presentation, Murgatroyd will introduce the Black Eagles – their diet, hunting behaviour, breeding cycle and how she monitors nests. She’ll also fill you in on her findings thus far and the breeding status between the start of the project and the current breeding season.
Although these presentations are given free of charge, seating is limited and it is essential to reserve your place. This can be done through the Events page on the Cape Union Mart website – www.capeunionmart.co.za/events. The presentations start at 18h15 for 18h30 and will be one hour in duration. Drinks and snacks are served after the presentation and attendees can take advantage of on-the-night discounts in store.
