New Tour, New People into New Year

I never finished the last tour (blog) for you. Sorry.

Now I have a new tour with new people. BUT the weather in UK and Europe is playing havoc here in Cape Town. Itinerary states that the tour will start with 32 people on 22nd December.

Forget it!

The flight arrives, late - 25 minutes (a big margin in aviation time), an hour after landing I have 10 wonderful (but slightly disgrunteled) guests plus one (very) worried Tour Manager - Where is the rest of the group?

Answer: They never left the UK to catch the flight out of Europe!

So, what do I do?

Nothing! Do the itinerary as printed until I am officially advised that the rest are not going to be with us.

Now the fun startS. I have tickets for 32 people(for various tourist attractions - NO, NOT THE EYE OF EXCELLANCE-) and only 10 arrive. Can I fill the rest. NO!!  So I decide to play with the guests.Seat wise.
Here we have a (fully payed for) 44 seater coach, 10 (paying) passengers - so they get 3.6 seats per person per day!!!!(My maths is right, you fogot about the Tour Leader and the Guide{me}) How do I rotate seats?  Lets make the men move 2 (two) seats Anti-clockwise and the ladies 1 (one) seat clockwise! The men may never sit next to their wife again!! (on this trip). The best fun is going to happen when we go overland to the Garden route, there I will only have 7 guests - that will give them 6.29 seat each per day!!!!!!
I'll have to be very vigelant on my head counts!!

What this realy means is that each guest will have much better personal attention than a larger group. I love it! Smaller groups, more personal attention, more enjoyment for the guests and ultimatly greater satisfaction to me for having been able to make their(the guests) experience of South Africa that much more fullfilling and enjoyable

It's now x-number of days down the line!!!

The group arrived safe and sound on Friday 29th, although their flight left Heathrow 1 and 1/2 hours late, as they were travelling "down-hill" they were only 24 minutes late into Cape Town. My first question was "Who is interested in going up Table Mountain?" Eight hands went up and almost in unison the reply was "Yes Please". After the mountain it was a quick stop at the Cullinan Hotel for check-in then off to the V and A to catch the ferry to Robben Island. The "new, fast" ferry was out of service (again!!) so they had to travel on "the slow boat to China" - aka DIAS, the slowest ferry in the fleet. Eventually they got back to the V and A at 19:45 as opposed to 18:00.

The next morning, right on time, they were on the coach ready for the Peninsula tour. This started off with a trip to see the seals on Duiker Island on board Nauticat, then over Chapmans Peak drive and all the way down to Cape Point via Cape of Good Hope and lunching at Two Oceans Restaurant. The afternoon was filled with a visit to the Penguines at Boulders Beach and a walk through Kersenbosch Botanical Gardens.

Sunday morning saw the collection of our vehicles from Maui and then off to our first stopover - Mountain Breeze outside Stellenbosch. Monday morning it was off to Hermanus via Clarens Drive with a stop at the Dick Dent Bird Sanctuary (which we failed to find the parking area for!!!) and Harold Porter Botanical Gardens. Saw some whales in the bay at Hermanus on our way out to Swellendam and the Bontebok National Park the next morning.

At 07:00 on Wednesday morning we did a short "Game Dive" in the park before heading off to Montagu and the Tractor drive up the Lageberg followed by a 'potjie' then we were off to Oudtshoorn. - Watch this space for the next installment!!

Camper-vans next

Having just finished back-to-back tours and rested for 4 days it is now time to start preparing for the next big one. Totally new to me, leading a group of Camper-vans. The nice thing about this tour is that I was told Caretha has to accompany me. When I was hired for the job I was informed that I am not allowed to travel alone in the Camper-van. My question was, who travels with? The reply was your wife of course. Luck will have it that she was able to take leave.
We pick up the vans (Maui) this week-end and head out on Sunday. This is a great tour with only one stressful day, just short of 600 kms, all the rest are between 100 and 300, nice and easy.
Tha basic itinerary is leave Cape Town and head for Stellenbosch on Sunday, then we drive down to Hermanus the next day. From there we head up to Swellendam, overnighting at the Bontebok National Park. The next daywe travel to Montague to do the 'Tractor Ride', then after lunch we continue on to Oudtshoorn for a 3 night stop. Here we explore the Swartberg, Cango Caves, Safri Ostrich farm and possible the Cango Wildlife Ranch. The next drive is on to Tsitsikamma via Knysna and Plettenberg bay. From Tsitsikamma is a short hop ot the Addo National Park for 2 nights. After the Elephants we go inland by driving to the Gareip Dam, from the dam its the long haul to Drakensville, about 600 km, with a 2 night stop. From Drakensville we explore the Royal Natal National Park. From the mountains its back to the coast with a drive to Balito, we then swing back in land the next day and go through Zululand and the Battlefields to Dundee. The next day we are driven around with a guided tour of the battlefields with an expert local guide. The last day of the tour is the drive from Dundee to Johannesberg.
After dropping off the group Caretha and I start the long drive back home. We have decided to come back via Upington.

Months flying by......

Her we are in the middle of September!! The World Cup has been and gone, tours have been done. I was fortunate to have had a contract for the full duration of the Soccer World Cup. It was not a guiding job, just being a Coach Host and Customer Services Operative (CSO), no realy hard work just odd hours like going to work at 2 in the morning and then waiting around for a few hours, acompany the overseas guest from the hotel to the airport, return to the depot and go home by 7:30 or 8:00.

When that was over I had another Grand Tour, this time with 7 passengers. A Indonesian family, parents and son, now living in Holland, an American couple, a New Zealander and a Columbian now living in the USA. Boy with a mixed bag it was fairly trying some days and got a bit unballanced. We made it to Cape Town without any one commiting murder as had been threatened a time or two!!

I only have 4 more tours this year, unless I can pick up some more. The nice one will be in October into November, more about that later.

The next one starts tomorrow. Pick up at the airport late in the evening then off to Cape Point on Sunday, winelands on Monday, Garden route from Tuesday to Friday - end of tour. Stories of this one will be posted next week.

Another tour ends

Left here (Cape Town) on 8th May at 06:30 to drive up to Jo'burg. I had a 6 speed 2.5 Kombi (diesel) as the tour vehicle. The trip up was uneventful and I made it to Bloemfontein by just before 18:00, no rush just a casual drive. The next morning I carried on to Jo'burg, leaving the hotel at about 09:30 and arriving at my Guest-house at around 13:15. I could not book-in as they were only expecting me at 17:00,(being Mothers Day, the family was having a braai (barbecue)) so I left the vehicle in the parking area and Andrew (my son) came to pick me up for some lunch in Rosebank.

Sunday night is the official start of the tour with a welcome dinner at a set venue. Here we meet the guests and generally try to get a feeling of the group. This time I had a group of 5, a British couple from London/Gillford and 3 Irish (a couple and their friend) form County Curlow.

The laughter and quips at dinner set the tone for the tour, it was a whole lot of fun with jokes, funny stories and ribbing the whole time, from early morning to late at night.

Monday morning we set off in perfect weather, clear blue sky's and just a few clouds to make the photographs interesting. On the way to Mpumalanga there was a change in the weather and the "good old Transvaal" thunderstorms could be seen brewing to the east. Most of the time we only saw the storms off in the distance or came across wet areas in the road where they had passed but near Belfast we went through one. The temperature dropped the sky went dark grey with thunder and lightning all around us, then the rain started, big drops hit the windscreen and splattered, it got more intense until I could only see about 2 meters in front. This lasted for about 5 minutes and the rain got lighter, all of a sudden we were out of the storm which continued on its path away to the south east.

After the storm the sky cleared a bit but we could see more clouds brewing to the west. As we got to the top of Long Tom Pass the sunset was unbelievable, turquoise blue sky on the horizon, fluffy clouds turning yellow in the dying rays of the sun and the foreboding dark grey of the storm clouds. If I had been on my own I would have stopped for a photograph, but none of the guests were interested in sunsets, pity!

A day later the group was on a game drive in the Kruger and the first sighting of any interest was a leopard walking up the road at about 06:30 in the morning. That set the tone and they saw all of the BIG 5 by lunch time.

Our next "fun" part was on arrival in Durban at uShaka Marine World. There was the threat of rain all the way   down from Mkuzi, as we get to within 2 blocks of the parking area the heavens opens up with a deluge of gigantic proportions, nothing to do but sit and wait it out. A break in the rain comes so we hop out og the vehicle and area making out way to the entrance when the heavens opened up again and we all got soaking wet.

These are the moments that make the fun parts of the tour, when the guests laugh at themselves and each other.

Another wonderful time was at Storms River Mouth, Tsitsikamma. I was walking with the Irish, as John & Hazel had decided they would do their own thing for an hour, on the board walk to to swing bridge when a Knysna Turaco flew past and landed on a vine about 2 meters away from us where all were able to take some amazing photos.

All the way along we had incidents of fun and laughter with everybody enjoying themselves and appreciating a great tour.

My next tour is only after the Soccer World Cup, but I am working during the tournament.............

R & R leave.............

The last tour was 2.5 weeks and finished on last Tuesday night. Now it a bit of rest and relaxation time!!! Ha Ha Ha!!

The tour went fairly smoothly with only one or two minor glitches, mostly due to time and weather. The first days drive from Johannesberg to Misty Mountain Lodge in Mpumalanga was unpleasant due to the very high number of fatal and near-fatal accidents on the highway. I can only assume that some drivers think that by driving at 120+ kph in driving rain will stop their vehicles getting wet. We came across or were stopped (by the traffic police) at no fewer that 6 multi-vehicle pile-ups. Anyway enough of that. Here is the funny bit of my trip.

I had the misfortune of getting my legs covered in mud at Mbotyi on the Wild Coast. I decided to take a walk along the coastal path to look for photo opportunity's not knowing that during the rainy season there had been a massive mud slide and half of the hillside had come down. Where the mud slide had happened the path was non existent so I climbed high above to cross, all was well. On my return I decided to go through the area of the mud slide and noticed some seepage of water above where I was making my way through. OK, lets go a bit higher to miss any soft ground, I managed to negotiate through some trees and down a bank of about 1 meter. In front of me at this stage is an area of dry soil and about 2 meters to the firm path ahead. I tested the smoothest looking area by throwing a stone at it and the stone just bounced off, there were no decent sized stones or branches that I could have used to really test to see if it would take my weight. Step off and the ground just gives way under me, the crust was no more that a few centimeters thick, underneath was soft oozing mud, I went in up to my knees. I extracted myself and carried on to the river, took off my boots and socks, washed them and then went back to the lodge to put them out to dry. Luck was on my side that afternoon as the sun was really hot and everything dried out for packing the next day.

On my next trip I think I will pick up a piece of drift wood from the beach then go for my walk! Lesson learned.......!

My bags are packed and I'm ready to go............

"My bags are packed and I'm ready to go, the taxis waiting, he's blown his horn....."

Is that not how the song goes, well here I am on the eve of another Grand Tour of South Africa. In the morning I will leave Cape Town and head north to Johannesburg (flying of course!) There I pick up my car and negotiate the roads from OR Tambo Airport (thats the new name for the Johannesburg International Airport, used to be known as Jan Smuts) to Rivonia where I will stay for 1 night only! (Phew). There I will meet up with my international travelers and the next morning we head out for a long drive, 14 days worth, to arrive in Cape Town on the 18th having seen, tasted, smelt and experienced a very good portion of the country.

The one thing that I did not reckon on was the fact that my camera bag is so heavy, all 10.5 kg and SAA will only allow 7!!!!!!

The answer lies in tomorrow morning!!

Next trip is a big one!

The next tour I have been booked for is a lovely one, 17 days driving all the way from Johannesburg to Cape Town. The basic itinerary is to go from Jhb to the Kruger Park, through Swaziland to the northern section of Kwa-Zulu Natal, down to Durban, through the south coast to the Wild coast of the Eastern Cape, on to East London, Port Elizabeth, Knysna (The Garden Route), Oudtshoorn (Little Karoo) and in to Cape Town. I love doing this trip as some of the stop-overs are for 2 nights, this takes the pressure off and gives everyone the chance to explore the area, meet with the locals, get a feel for the culture/traditions in the area and most importantly to relax and enjoy their holiday. Lucky me as I should be doing one in April and then again in May.

March Tours

Well here I am the 15th of March and 2 tours finished. Tour 1 was a gas, I had a great bunch of Canadians. We did the usual around Cape Town then went off up the Garden Route. For me the Highlight was the ocean cruise with Ocean Blue in Plettenberg bay, 2 hours of Dolphins and seals. Our first encounter was with a small pod (school?) of Bottle Nose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) near Keurboomsstrand, there were about 10 in the pod. They were playing in the surf zone where we followed them for about 10 to 15 minutes when the skipper of the boat spotted a much larger pod of Common Dolphins (Delphinus delphis) out in the middle of the bay. This pod was about 75 animals strong with a large number of calves. We followed the pod for more than half an hour as they moved across the bay towards the Robberg peninsula. I tried to take some photos but only realized later that I had set my ISO too low, I should have set it at 800ISO and not left it at 100 or 200, hence the shutter speed was too low. One can only learn by ones mistakes. A few shots are reasonable, Oh well, maybe next time I will do better.

Tour 2 was dealing with a very large group from USA. They arrived on Saturday, did their thing of going to Cape Point on Sunday, even with the Cape Argus Cycle Race on, flew down on "Choppers" met by the coaches and after lunch came back by road. I played the role of 'Taxi-Taxi', driving the guests to and from the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront for the morning, then when all had been sorted out we were told we can go home BUT DO NOT forget to be at the coach depot at 05:45 for the transfer to the airport for their onward flight. Home by 09:30 with a days work finished!