Whenever I drive around Barberton, the little Mpumalanga nugget that lies at the foot of the Makhonjwa Mountains, I wonder what it really was like to be a gold digger here back in the old days.

Don’t give them money or stuff in return for their photographs, they say. It will spoil them.

They would actually hike up to this point from Graaff-Reinet town on a Sunday, dressed in suits and long, draggy skirts.

If you stroll about the fascinating East London Museum, you’ll come across some old military mementoes from the South African Anglo-Boer War.

As a travel journalist who concentrates most of his working energy on the byways and back roads of South Africa, the first week in every January is all about planning the year ahead.

Tonight, being New Year’s Eve, the lights are going on all over the world.