Where's North from Here?

The Bakers escape the biting cold of autumn in the Highveld and find relief at the ruins of South Africa's oldest kingdom ... Mapungubwe!

- MICKY BAKER

For untold millennia, since life itself sprung up on Earth, all manner of creatures have sought warmth and the lifegiving comfort it gives. We see it in the migration of birds, which are often observed to head 'southward' for winter.

In reality, many bird species that breed in the Northern Hemisphere migrate southward to 'winter' in warmer climates. In some cases, this involves mind-boggling distances - the Arctic tern travels between the Arctic and Antarctic twice a year, covering around 38 000 km in that time.

But then again, there are many birds that are completely sedentary, also known as residents. They've adapted to specific ecological niches, are warm and happy exactly where they are.

That's because unlike the frosty Highveld, the bitter Karoo, and the wet, windy Cape, some parts of South Africa remain relatively untouched by winter's wrath throughout the year like Mapungubwe National Park, an ancient, baobab-strewn kingdom that's as far north as you can get in our country.

Mapungubwe National Park has twofold significance to South Africans. Not only is it a sanctuary for birds and wildlife, including rhinos, lions and the elusive Pel's fishing owl, but it's also a museum dedicated to our country's first kingdom: the Kingdom of Mapungubwe.

Nearly a thousand years ago, the ancestors of the Venda people inhabited Mapungubwe Hill and the surrounding area. The hill itself was the domain of the royal family and other nobility, representing the first example of a class-based social system in Southern Africa.

These same people would later abandon the hill and found the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, but not before trading gold, beads, pottery and jewels with civilisations as far afield as China, via the African east coast and the Indian subcontinent. Some of these treasures were buried with Mapungubwe nobility atop the hill, including the famous golden rhinoceros of Mapungubwe.