South Africa: Hiking Trails in and Around Pretoria and Johannesburg

Book excerpt: With this detailed guide, you can save valuable time when planning your hiking adventure in South Africa. For three years, the authors explored and recorded 837 kilometers (523 miles) of astonishing hiking trails and walks in amazing landscapes, encountering giraffes, zebras and rhinos, magnificent valleys, and unique people and culture. Most trails can be completed in 4-6 hours as day trips from Pretoria and Johannesburg. The more than 120 hiking trails in this guidebook have been grouped into the following geographic areas: • Pretoria and surroundings; • The Magaliesberg Mountain Range (northern and southern slopes); and • Johannesburg and surroundings. The book provides easy to understand custom-made hiking maps and trail descriptions. Users of the book also have access to a unique collection of GPS E-trails. Trails in the guidebook are classified either as a wildlife or nature hike/walk. A trail can be easy, moderately difficult or best suited for advanced hikers. Although most trails can be completed without a GPS device, owners of the book can download carefully recorded E-trails (1,136 waypoints) to maximize their time on the trail, exploring the hiking grounds using GPS devices and GPS enabled smart phones and tablets. Users of the book also have access to the Day Trip Finder and the Itinerary Planner. These interactive planning tools provide hikers easy access to trail descriptions based on many search criteria including waterfalls, historic sites, wildlife (zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, rhinos, etc.) and other interesting artifacts on the trail. The guidebook has been written with the independent traveler in mind, but is also a valuable source of hiking ideas if you plan to organize your holiday with a travel company. --- With the Cape Peninsula, Garden Route, Kruger Park and the Drakensberg Mountain Range, South Africa is a major tourist destination. Millions of tourists explore these magnificent places annually, bringing home memories of a beautiful and diverse country. Less known are the incredible national and municipal parks, numerous private nature reserves and the many little towns in the northern part of South Africa in and around Pretoria and Johannesburg that offer equally interesting experiences. If you visit South Africa beyond the major tourist centers or if you live in the major metropolitan areas, you will be amazed what the country presents in terms of its people, culture, nature, wildlife sightings, hiking, walking, food, wine, local craft beers and entertainment. Unknown to many, the nature reserves and wildlife parks in and around Pretoria and Johannesburg have outstanding hiking opportunities that can easily compete with other destinations in South Africa. --- Travelers will find South Africa: Hiking Trails in and Around Pretoria and Johannesburg and its multimedia resources an invaluable "next generation" resource guide to explore the region from a truly unique perspective.