Escaping the everyday as much as the emotional, with a dad battling
cancer, Justin Fox hits the open road with a driving resolve to ‘take South Africa’s pulse, get inside it’s head’, 10 years on from democracy.
It’s a 10,000km journey that would see him circumnavigate the country
along its coastline and borders, favouring its offbeat outposts and
marginal characters.
‘I’ll pick up the road and shake it till the stories and characters fall like ticks,’
he promises as his 4×4 crosses the Bloukrans River and leaves behind
the familiar. Page after evocative page, he delivers, and it’s a
compelling ride.
Who can resist the diamond smugglers, the male beading secretives,
the survivor-style tsamma melon coffee, the accidental adventurers, the
small town beauty with the exotic name, the after-dark desperate, the
double-standard farmers, the entrepreneurs, the infectious beat of
eighties maskanda, the guides with their ready jokes, the dreamers and
the drunks? And the conservation creatures, the singular flower in a
thirstland, the call of the wilderness and returning home.
It’s a well-researched and well-told story that will make you reach
for a map of South Africa to plan your own, customised epic. And why
not? South Africa is as edgy as ever, the ultimate road trip destination
where everything is possible and the land and the locals serve
adventure for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
To help you decide, I’ve got 2 complimentary copies of The Marginal Safari to give away, comment on this blog post to be eligible…
