Bonello Justin - The ultimate braai master: Road tripping with Justin Bonello

First published by Penguin Random House South Africa (Pty) Ltd
Company Reg. No. 1953/000441/07

The Estuaries No. 4, Oxbow Crescent, Century Avenue, Century City 7441
PO Box 1144, Cape Town 8000, South Africa

www.penguinbooks.co.za

Copyright Cooked in Africa Films 2015
Copyright in published edition: Penguin Random House South Africa (Pty) Ltd 2015

All rights reserved
The moral right of the author has been asserted

ISBN 978-1-41520-876-2

Written by Justin Bonello and Helena Lombard
Photography by Louis Hiemstra, Daniela Zondagh and Sunel Haasbroek
Food styling by Caro Gardner

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Braaied Brandy
Banana Splits

Braaied Lamb
& Tomato Potjie with Gnocchi Moms Chicken
Potjie

Spicy Chicken
Wings

Parmesan
Crusted Chicken Burger

Hot Smoked Trout
with Rsti, Poached Eggs & Velout
Ostrich Steak with
Barnaise

Smoked Mackerel &
Yellowtail Samoosas

This book is dedicated to my late and dear friend Kai. Sometimes in our journeys we meet kindred spirits who are as we are, who become friends that wed like to carry for the rest of our lives a late dear friend of mine once said to me that were lucky if we can count on our hands those who we consider good friends And Kai, you were one of those who I counted.

Youll always be in my mind and heart. RIP.

How do you survive almost 9 000 kilometres of travelling dirt roads? Nine thousand kilometres of new adventures, misadventures, old friends, new friends, badly behaved friends? What does it take to be away from all your creature comforts for two months? For 70 days and the 1 400-odd hours that fly by in a moment?

We like to think it takes a very special breed of human. The dust-kickers, crazy hearts and adrenalin seekers. The runaways. The hippies-in-the-making. The accidentals and the newbies. The type of people who suit-and-tie-wearing-9-to-5-ers are secretly envious of. Those who celebrate new friendships in endless car rides, with endless playlists. Those who talk around blazing fires late into the night and early hours of the morning. The ones who do impromptu langarm dancing and drink disgusting shooters in another dodgy bar and in another nameless small town all in the name of sanity. The type of people who can get up at stupid-o-clock and graft hard (really hard) for 15 hours straight, party for six and sleep for only three. Then do it all over again the next day.

Being on the road is a place where time becomes an afterthought something that is laughed at because, after a while, you no longer know what day of the week it is, because, lets face it, out here, it doesnt really matter. The only things that matter are the sunsets and sunrises, and how we try to steal time because sleeping feels like a waste.

This is where we all lose our heads a little. Some of us lose our hearts and others find them. Where we all gain new perspectives and some discover new directions. But we celebrate this.

We feel alive when it becomes so quiet at night that we get back into touch with every sense of who we are. Life on the road is not reality. Its a many days, many weeks, many months dreamscape where we create our own version of what is real, and recreate ourselves.

Being on the road and doing the work that goes into filming a 13-part reality TV series is not for just anyone and its definitely not for the faint at heart. But in a sense it is no different to a large group of friends who live and travel together for a while. In our industry, its for the lucky, crazy few. For some of us, and after long enough, returning home to our family, dogs, chores, responsibilities and to our people is celebrated.

But never for too long. After a couple of weeks of enjoying those man-made creature comforts and having the quiet of the wild replaced with the quiet of the city, the itch starts. Its the familiar burn to get in your car and drive into a landscape where there are no fences and no rules. This is the curse of the traveller and the life of a road tripper. And we embrace it with arms wide open every time we get to pack up and set out on a new adventure.

This is your invitation to get in your car and take a ride with us. But fasten your seatbelts. It gets a little bumpy.

Weve been on enough road trips to know what to pack and what to toss out the car last minute. Use this as a guideline for what to have in your car forevery and anyroad trip youre going on.

1. Passport and Drivers Licence. Make sure these are valid and not from 19-voetsek! Youll be really bummed if you get to a border and youve either forgotten to pack your passport or the one you have was the one you got when you were planning a trip overseas in an act of rebellion back in varsity. And you definitely dont need a traffic fine from a smug-looking spietkop because your drivers licence has expired. These things can ruin a road trip! On that note, if youre going to cross the border, take some copies of both to hand out to trigger-happy traffic cops that are looking to get a buck out of you.

2. Decent Music and lots of it! Check out for one of our road tripping playlists, and make it one of yours!

3. A Pillow. If youre planning on driving for more than six hours, which we often do, its a good idea to have a road trip buddy and to take turns driving. The pillow is for the passenger not the driver, should they want to have a little impromptu nap it might as well be comfortable. A good pillow is especially handy if youre going to go camping.

4. Layers. Long pants. Short pants. T-shirts. Sweatshirts. Hats. Beanies. Swimwear. Gloves. Underwear. All terrain shoes, or hiking boots. Flip-flops. Raincoat. Socks. (You dont need five of each except maybe for underwear and socks if you do, youre doing it wrong and youll drag along a lot of things that will never see the light of day.) In short, pack stuff that will prepare you for all kinds of weather.

5. Cooking Utensils. Should you decide to go camping then these sure come in handy to stir the potjie, chop the veggies, open that last can of beans, braai on. Check out the camping checklist on for more details.

6. Alcohol.