David Bristow's best hikes in South Africa

South Africa has one of the most extensive hiking trail systems in the world, exploring virtually every type of landscape and habitat.

It was a bold plan, back in the early 1970s, to initiate a project on the scale of the National Hiking Way System, and few people then could have realized just how extensive and popular it would become.

So popular, in fact, that each year an estimated 250,000 people pace out the 3,200-odd kilometres of the hiking system.

David Bristow’s Best Hikes in South Africa presents 20 of the country’s premier hiking opportunities. Spread widely through the various natural regions—from fynbos to bushveld, desert to coast—each hike has been chosen for its unique attractions and environment.

Varying degrees of fitness are catered for, as the hikes range from an accessible, guided wilderness trail through to a challenging tented hike in the Drakensberg.

Each of the hikes is described, informing prospective hikers what type of environment will be encountered and what they can expect to see.

Brief historical notes of the respective areas add a further dimension, while photographs have been carefully chosen to provide an enticing visual perspective.

Innovative, three-dimensional computer-generated maps create an immediate impression of the terrain in the region of each hike, enabling the relative severity of each to be assessed.

Vital information, as well as pertinent hiking tips, are encapsulated in a trail-at-a-glance summary at the end of each hike.

David Bristow’s Best Hikes in South Africa is both sensible and stimulating and will inspire active adventurers as well as armchair hikers to explore the hiking opportunities available in this country.