Writing — Jess Nicholson

The jungle dwelling

Feature for House & Leisure

BUILD Vol. 4 Autumn 2022

Ntokozweni

Feature for the Mail & Guardian on Ntokozweni Centre for the Vulnerable

https://mg.co.za/news/2021-07-03-jabs-bring-relief-to-village-of-care/

Johannesburg

NGT City Life

July 2021

Nxaxo

Getaway Magazine

May 2021

The Life Savers

High Life Magazine

January 2020

Into the Blue

Halcyon Days

Halycon Days

Getaway

February 2021

Daily Maverick

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-10-31-barren-seas-once-teeming-waters-off-kwazulu-natal-show-few-signs-of-ocean-life/

The Human Factor

Feature for the DG Murray Trust on the relationship between parents and teachers in South Africa’s poorest schools

October 2019

Durban artists

High Life Magazine SA

November 2019

In the garden of earthy delights

Highlife

February 2017

Eight-page feature on Ardmore pottery

Lavish Views

12 lodges with lavish views

Getaway

June 2018

Contributor to 10-page feature on South Africa’s best views

Road trip

Road Trip

Getaway

January 2019

Vultures

I wrote about falling in love with vultures for safarious

https://www.safarious.com/article/14771-the-vulture-trail-a-story-of-mop-tops-and-unicorns

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Skirting around the Seletwane mountain, we headed up a ridge that separates the Free State from KwaZulu-Natal. Views to the right were of Sterkfontein dam and to the left, the little berg stretched out to the escarpment. And from this ridge, what this time I first identified as a small very quiet aeroplane, glided over us. Cape Vulture number one: wingspan approximately two metres.

We walked to the edge, and sat down. And when I say edge, I mean the type of place where you don’t say to anyone who is your friend “just move back a little bit more” while trying to compose a good photograph. When the wind blows, don’t go after your cap, even if it is your favourite, just lie down, hold the grass and try not to scream (this can perhaps upset or excite vultures).

Across from where we perched, nestled into the opposite cliff, sat our muses. With binoculars we were as close as window-cleaners looking into a ten-storey apartment block, and on each rocky floor, vulture parents went about their domestic duties. This seemed to involve mostly just staring at the youngsters (I can relate). The fluffy babies responded with an occasional nuzzle from an awkward kind of spatchcock position (which I presumed to be the fetal position for vultures). Those not babysitting, periodically launched themselves off the cliff face into the sky, to show us their enormous wings and dangly feet. We were transfixed vulture paparazzi. And I was back to being their biggest fan, one hundred percent loved-up.

We passed through a cave covered in rock art, some figures strikingly clear, others faded and abstract enough to inspire the type of debate artists always hope their work will provoke: arguments about painterly styles, graffiti, elephants versus elands, cubism, the creative merits of hallucinogens and whether the San knew magic mushrooms were a cure for depression.

Can you fight your genetics?

Can you fight your genetics

Men’s Health

July 2018

5 page feature on genetic testing

The End of the Earth

To The Ends of the Earth

Men’s Health

February 2018

8-page feature on the 2017 SkyRun and why people put themselves through 30 hours of non-stop running on the top of mountains

Training Day

Men’s Health

February 2018

5 page feature on running phenomenon Prodigal Khumalo and the gruelling training that goes into winning a Comrades’ Gold medal

Still Waters Run Deep

Getaway

February 2018

10 page feature on Kosi Bay and Jozini Dam

Picnics

18 Gorgeous places to picnic

Getaway

March 2018

Contributor to 10 page feature on picnics

Silly in the Snow

10 Spots to get Silly in the Snow

Getaway

May 2018

Contributor to 9-page feature

A trail of two halves

Runner’s World

October 2018

Break the code

Men's Health

September 2017

Feature on Kane Reilly. One of SA's fastest and kiffest trail runners

The wildling

Men's Health

April 2017

Feature on Monde Khanyana: winner of Race the Wild Coast 2016

One weekend

Getaway

July 2017

Feature on the KZN South Coast

Sky high

Men's Health

May 2017

Feature on Hylton Dunn and the SkyRun

Men's Health April 2017

Feature on Monde Khanyana: winner of Race the Wild Coast 2016

Second wind

Runner's World

February 2017

Eight-page feature on the SkyRun

Richard Monisi

Tragically Richard Monisi, who ran Comrades last year, was killed in a hit-and-run accident and so my story about him became an obituary. I was very very pleased to have spent a weekend with him. Roger Jardine took this amazing photograph