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The Story of Earth & Life – A Southern African Perspective on a 4.6-billion-year Journey by Terence McCarthy and Bruce Rubidge

If you’re going to explore South Africa, two things: the people and the landscape.

There’s plenty of easily accessible information about the people, and lots (and lots and LOTS) about the animals, birds, insects and plants that populate the landscape. But what about the geology that underpins them all?

I’ve always had a problem finding out about that – especially from a South African point of view. And if you’re travelling in South Africa – well, that’s the point of view you need.

I took both this readable, useful, informative, incredibly well illustrated and beautifully designed book as well as the equally excellent Geological Journeys on my recent trip to the Swartberg – and they made all the difference. In an area where the geology is so overwhelming, where the landscape is so magnificent, it was good to know at least the basics and to begin to understand what I was seeing.

The Story of Earth & Life is a more general introduction than Geological Journeys, but it offers a foundation by explaining things like geological time, how the earth works, why South Africa is so rich in minerals and why the modern world looks like it does (and it discusses the sexy stuff, too – like dinosaurs, fossils and the arrival of man).

It’s a necessary volume in every guest house and guest lodge library.

Buy it here.