Willie Olivier’s essential reference work deserves a place on every South African’s shelf. And it certainly ought to be in every tourism professional’s library.

You see, the only way to really see a place is to walk - and South Africa must have some of the best walking in the world. (I’ll never forget the 10 minute telephone conversation I once had with a friend who’d just come back from ten days tramping in New Zealand: “Martin,” he told me, “in ten days walking I only saw ten species of birds.” I’d been sitting on my swing - and in my garden counted more than 20 species while we talked. Which says a lot: both about South Africa and about our conversation).

Walking is a growing activity and in these difficult times, I predict it’s going to grow even more. It’s cheap and you get huge bang for your bucks - and I’d say that on the scale of totally stressed to totally relaxed, an hour’s good (and not necessarily even difficult) walking is equal to a whole weekend away.

And what’s good about this book is that it makes walking accessible. Of course it begins with all the obvious dos and don’ts, and of course there aren’t nearly enough illustrations (but how can their be?), but the meat of the book is in the description of the trails. Mr. Olivier has described over 250 of them, each beginning with a summary of things like length, facilities and activities. And don’t be fooled into thinking that all walks are days-long slogs with a heavy and unpleasant pack on your back: many of the entries describe shorter walks that should appeal to everyone.

The attraction of this book is finding the walks that’ll suit you: I love kicking back and paging through Hiking Trails of South Africa and dreaming about my next adventure…

It’s published by Random House Struik. Buy it here.