Visitor’s Guide: Flower Route by Marion Whitehead, published by MapStudio, is a handy guide just
in time for the flower season.
It is packed with information and covers the various areas in Namaqualand, the Karoo, Cederberg; West Coast, Western Cape and the southern Cape. In addition to the routes, there are tips to help you plan your trip, snippets about places and flora of interest and even the “sex life of plants”.
If you’re feeling peckish along the way, the author has included a list of farm stalls and places to stay, along the N7 from Cape Town to Clanwilliam. If you’re interested in the San Culture then a side trip to !Khwa ttu is worthwhile. The colourful and profusely illustrated guide gets a blooming 10/10.
Slingsby Maps have produced three new updated maps: Overberg Whale Coast edition 6; Swartberg and the Klein Karoo edition 2 and the Garden Route edition 6.5.
Peter and Maggie Slingsby have driven every road to research these maps (nice job if you can get it) and taken numerous byways, many passes, visited the village of Guava Juice, slept in places as diverse as old wagons and elaborate ostrich pala-
ces.
The maps are works of art which will be well used. And if you take some of the little known side roads you will experience the floral magic of Gysmanshoek Pass, the otters in the Gourits River, to name some.
These maps are ideal for people who want to really explore instead of trying to get from A to B as fast as possible. The maps are fully waterproofed in hard-wearing plastic sleeves.