The little scout who’s already been there.
A Cape Town dassie, a white Land Cruiser, and a mission to make sure no family wastes another weekend.
Born under the mountain
Rekkie was born on a sun-warmed rock on the slopes of Table Mountain. A dassie — a rock hyrax — the kind you’ll spot lazing on every koppie in the country.
His whole world was the mountain behind him and the sea in front. Mornings in the fynbos, afternoons in rock pools, evenings watching the fog roll over the top like a tablecloth. He didn’t know it yet, but he was already scouting. He just called it playing.
The big move
Then one day, work called — the way it does. The family packed everything they owned into a trusty white Land Cruiser and pointed it north.
Rekkie pressed his nose to the back window and watched the mountain get smaller and smaller until it was gone. Fourteen hours later, the sea had turned into highveld grass and the mountain into mine dumps and city lights. Hello, Jozi.
The weekend problem
Jozi was big and buzzing and kind. But Rekkie’s new corporate job was demanding — early starts, long days, the laptop still open after the pups were asleep. Week by week he felt more lost: cut off from nature and the outdoors, from the adventure that used to live in his bones, and from the time with his family that mattered most.
And the weekends? Every one started with the same question: “So… what do we actually do today?” And every one ended the same way: the same mall, the same movie, the same nothing-much. The pups were growing up fast. Weekends were short. Rekkie missed the mountain and the sea so much it ached — and he could feel the precious days slipping away.
The first rekkie
One Saturday, Rekkie had had enough. He put on his bush hat, knotted his green scout’s neckerchief, loaded his wife and their two pups into the white Land Cruiser, and pointed it at the dirt roads. If the city had swallowed his adventure, the 4×4 would dig it back out.
They ended up at Bass Lake, just south of Joburg. A spring-fed lake you could actually swim in, cliffs and water and big open sky, a 4×4 track to test the Cruiser, kayaks bobbing at the edge. Rekkie stood on the shore and couldn’t quite believe it. It felt like another country — nothing like the Gauteng he thought he knew.
The beauty hadn’t stayed behind in the Cape. It was right here — you just had to go looking for it.
That was the first rekkie, and the bug bit hard. The next weekend it was a hidden gorge, the weekend after that a farm stall with the best roosterkoek in Gauteng. The Land Cruiser became the family’s adventure machine, and Rekkie never looked back.
The scout’s code
Friends started asking: where should we go this weekend? So Rekkie made himself a promise — a scout’s code — and he’s kept it ever since:
- Go first. Rekkie visits every spot before he’ll send a family there. No guessing, no copy-paste from the internet.
- Tell the truth. If it’s overpriced, overcrowded or not worth the drive, he says so — gently.
- Share the catch. Get there before 10. Bring cash. Closed on Mondays. The small stuff that saves a day.
- Keep it current. Places change. Rekkie goes back, and pulls the ones that have closed.
- Never sell out. Nobody can pay Rekkie to say something nice. Trust is the whole point.
Here’s something most people don’t know about dassies: their closest living relative is the elephant. So Rekkie may be pocket-sized, but he has an elephant’s memory for a good spot — and an elephant-sized heart for the families who go there.
Pin by pin
Every spot Rekkie scouts goes onto his Adventure Map. Swimming holes and secret trails. Reserves and 4×4 tracks. Farms, markets, braai spots, rainy-day rescues — fourteen kinds of adventure in all.
Today there are 240 pins across Gauteng and the Magaliesberg, and the map grows every week. Every pin is a field report from a scout who’s already been there, so you can just show up and have the day.
And he isn’t scouting alone. When a family finds a gem and shares it, Rekkie goes to check it out. If it’s the real deal, it goes on the map — with their name on the pin as an honorary Rekkie.
Every spot he’s scouted, pinned.
240 family outings and counting — tap through to the full illustrated map and pick your next rekkie.
Open the full map →Fourteen kinds of adventure
Pick a chapter and see where Rekkie’s been.
The long way home
Rekkie loves Jozi now. But part of his heart still lives under that mountain by the sea.
So the dream is this: to scout his family all the way home. Out through KwaZulu-Natal, down along the Eastern Cape coast, and back to the Cape — pinning every family gem along the way. Every new region is a new chapter, and the map is never finished.
Pack the cossies. Check the weather. Let’s do a rekkie.
Start with Rekkie’s scouted places near Joburg — then tell him where to go next.
Open the Adventure Map Share a gem