Relaxation has become a sought-after luxury sold by five-star hotels, unbelievable spas, magnificent health farms and the like. It means different things to different people, obviously depending on many factors. To Danny Jordaan (the man at the head of FIFA's South African organisation committee), for instance, it means catching up on 16 years' worth of sleep.

I've often heard that getting in touch with nature is a certain remedy for relaxation and just as often have found it effective. But recently I decided to get my hands dirty and do a little digging. I was trying to harvest some earthworms for the compost heap my father has going in our back yard. I found the digging and the feeling of soil between my fingers immensely relaxing. The earthworms, even though they are dirty and wormy and, let's face it, not the most magnificent creatures on earth, reminded me of high school biology and the wondrous workings of nature. Add to that the strange and splendid creatures that can be seen on the various nature-oriented television programmes these days and I am, once again, in awe of Mother Nature and her many, many children. From snow-capped mountains to quenching rain in the Karoo to earthworms and snake-lizzards and killer ants, there is nothing and nowhere I've found to be as relaxing as a return to nature.

Snow-capped mountains in the Northern Cape.

A spider's web next to the breakwater in Lambert's Bay harbour.

A busy bee doing it's thing. Photos taken by Lelanie de Roubaix.