Many of the guidebooks brought out every year offer not much more than a generous serving of common sense, heartily seasoned with the blindingly obvious. The better breed will offer hard-won nuggets of wisdom from someone who’s been along the road less travelled and lived to tell the tale.

Good advice, after all, can make the difference between an enjoyable trip to an undiscovered gem and a hellish voyage into the unknown.

Although it’s rather nice to be able to avoid other people’s mistakes, there will never be a substitute for experience and the opportunity to learn on the ground. In this respect, a practical, observant eye is worth a thousand guidebooks.

The unwieldy title of Karin van Staden's guidebook — '4x4 Camping and Holiday Guide for the Whole Family' — is somewhat misleading. This is not a guide to great 4x4 outings, and if this is what you’re after you’ll be disappointed — I was. This, however, is the fault of the publisher, for simply assuming that anything with '4x4' in the title is bound to be more popular.

There is no information on national parks and game reserves, nothing on increasingly popular 4x4 trails or wilderness areas, and not a single paragraph on offroad driving tips. If that's what you're after, buy another book.

A better name would have been ‘Family Camping Holidays’, which is, in effect, what the book is about.

The guide offers advice on trip packing, essential documentation, campsite etiquette, and toys, as well as suggestions on appropriate clothing and first-aid kit. Parents of young children might find her tips for stress-free car trips something of a relief, but.

Everyone in love with their outdoor lifestyle dreams of sharing it with their children one day, so there clearly is a potential market for this sort of guidebook.

It's a fact that the bush is a dangerous place for both the ill prepared and the just plain foolhardy. Many serious accidents could be averted if people followed basic advice and their own common sense.

And if you are an inexperienced camper looking for advice of the "how to boil an egg" variety, you might well find that this book is just what you’re looking for — whether you’re a parent or not.

The book is also available in Afrikaans as '4x4 kamp- en vakansiegids vir die hele gesin'.

'4x4 Camping and holiday guide for the whole family' by Karin van Staden is published by Human & Rousseau. The book is available at most South African book shops.


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