DEAN'S DIARY DECEMBER '98
The millenium is drawing closer as another Christmas has ended and New Year celebrations are a thing of the past. Business has been physically quiet over this festive season, but administratively very busy! Just prior to Christmas I disappeared down to the Cape Town area to assist on the National Senior Scout Cedarberg Adventure and when I returned, Alice took two weeks leave. I then bought my own Christmas present which Santa Claus forgot to deliver, and I then went to the Drakensberg for a 3-day hike. During this period we have had nearly 90 enquiries, so have been VERY busy with e-mails. My entry should therefore be relatively short, but newsy, interesting and informative!Firstly, thanks to the many friends and guests for replying to my requests for confirmation to remain on my mailing list. Sometimes I am never sure if the e-mails reach their destinations as we never have a reply, acknowledgement or even a "thank you". It is essential for the receivers of any e-mail to just click on "Reply to Sender" and say a short word or three - then I know you have received it. Obviously a longer letter would be more interesting (hint, hint.)
I drove down to Cape Town with 2 Zulu Scouts and a Scouter, who had all applied too late to join the main KwaZulu-Natal contingent of Scouts travelling down on the bus. We overnighted in Port Elizabeth and then Cape Town, where my good friend Theo put me up, or was it put up with me? Good to see Theo, Morag and the kids again. We left Cape Town and headed for Clanwilliam where I met some of the Scouting staff before heading around the back of the mountains to a small village, Kleinvlei and had a cup of coffee with my friend Pieter and his wife, before continueing to my base centre at Sandrif, where I woke up a young Scouter from Cape Town, David. Well, over the next 10 days I was assisting on the Electronics base with Charles as the leader and then assistants Deepesh, David, Ian & Mark. Also situated at our base was the sub HQ, where old Scouting friends Colin, Buzz, Errol, Denzil, Desmond were based plus a few other scouting folk who all played an important role in the smooth operation of this exciting Senior Scouting Adventure. Basically the Scouts were allocated a wide selection of routes covering an enormous area of mountains and valleys, where they hiked from one activity centre to the next. Activities included rock-climbing, waterskiing and other water activities on the dam, flying a 2 seater plane, astronomy, shooting, diving, dutch-oven cooking, 4x4 driving and many other exciting activities. I also assisted with the movement of patrols at night and also from far-away bases to our base, to save on time. All in all, a great time was had by all. We drove back to Durban, overnighting at a caravan park in the Karoo.
I had an e-mail from Carol and Ned on my return - the family who I took on the safari through Botswana and Zimbabwe in September - well, they have now crossed the Atlantic on their yacht, having stopped for a few days in the Canary Islands, and are now on the American coast. Good to hear from you guys - looking forward to your next newsy e-mail.
For Christmas lunch I travelled up the the Natal Lion Park with my mother and met my brother Sean and family and sister Lynn and family there and had a lunch in their restaurant - a basic Xmas lunch served by a waiter who was a father of one of the local pensioners I am sure! Boy was he slow! Well, we won't visit them again in a hurry. That evening on our return, my friends Tom and Johness invited my mom and I around for the evening - so it was good to see them and their parents and grandmother, whose 91st birthday lunch I went to a couple of months ago.
I received an e-mail from the Lenzi family who we assisted with some of their holiday here - and they had arrived in their next country and reported that they really enjoyed their stay here and admired the beauty. I also had the pleasure of talking to Wilfred a number of times during his travel around the country, again where we assisted with portions of his holiday, and he and his family were really enjoying themselves. I look forward to hearing from them both when they return home.
Benny and Bente who I took on a short safari in October have been actually marvellous - they scanned all their photos, printed them out and then posted them to me, for me to use - wow, how kind - thanks folks. I did not realise I had featured in so many of your photos and you have some great animal shots and also of the floating chalet at iPhiva.
My old pc is an upgraded 486 and has been giving me problems for the past few months and 'Murphies Law' whenever I depart on a trip, it gives Alice lots of uphill, so I have now invested in a new pc - a Pentium 2 Celeron 300A - which my webmaster, Matthew says - "welcome to the cutting edge of technology" - it is a vast improvement and has greater storage space which is what I really need. Its colour quality is 500% better and it even has sound, so now I know why people compliment me on my website often - thanks!
On my enquiry form I have allocated space for folks to enter their tel and fax number, plus various other details - a number of people seem reluctant to complete the form - why? As I mentioned to one lady recently, all of my guests become friends, so it is good to get off to a good footing. Likewise, if your pc breaks down, then at least I have another method of contacting you. If you have another e-mail address, please mention it as well at the bottom of the enquiry form - occassionaly folks have problems with their servers and I battle to reply to e-mails which are faulty. The main idea about having an enquiry form is to gain as much information from my prospective guests as possible - so folks, the more info you supply, the better your safari, tour, holiday shall be.
One big disadvantage of doing business on the internet is that folks generally send enquiries to 10 or 20 other Tour Operators and then play you against the others - not only is this fustrating but when one works flat-out getting the best quotes, tariffs etc and spending hours on each enquiry which is replied to, then to actually not even have a kind note of thanks or some excuse why they have not chosen us, it is very disheartening. Some folk do realise that I offer tailor-made itineraries, meaning that these are not normal tours or safaris where you are controlled by time and by a fixed set route. I will design the route to suit you and your family or friends. By travelling in smaller groups obviously the cost is greater than going on a coach tour and also a lot more time is spent in compiling your itnerary, so I cannot give you an accurate quote immediately - I need for you to confirm an itinerary and then for me to calculate the quote.
Some of my past guests have commented that my tariffs are not high enough for what I offer, well, I am always open to donations! Joking aside, I do not mark-up all the prices of the places we stay at, like any honest Tour Operator, we rely on commissions from the lodges, hotel or guesthouses and that is how I survive. Luckily more and more establishments are realising that Tour Operators do not like marking up prices, so they have Gross and Nett prices, so the tariff you pay if you book direct is the same as if you book through me - except with me you have the advantage of only making one payment and then I make all the payments to the various establishments.
One major advantage of booking a self-drive itinerary through a local Tour Operator like myself is that I have the local and recent knowledge. I visit many of the lodges and establishments through the year and am regular contact with them, plus I know most of the roads and routes in Southern Africa, so can give a good description of where to go and what to see. The cars we hire out are all less than a year old, so are in good condition, assuming the previous driver has not hidden some damages! A 4-wheel drive is not really needed in South Africa - it is more of a macho image. One is not allowed to drive off the road and into the bush in our game reserves, and permits are required to drive along the beach, and then all the other roads, surfaced and gravel are in a good condition. If one wishes to have a vehicle with high ground clearance and also good viewing height, then a Toyota Venture is ideal, or more comfortable is a VW Microbus - these seat 5 and 6 people very comfortably and then up to 10 with a bit of a squash!
I have a customised 4-wheel drive which seats 5 adults very comfortably and its idea to to get my guests off-the-beaten track to the more remote areas along the Wild Coast, into Lesotho, along the Mocambique coast, into Botswana and Namibias more remote areas. I use routes and roads that the average Tour Operator would not or does not even know about.
Over these past few months, we have been enjoying the summer heat and battling with the typical coastal summer humidty - which means I often swim in our swimming pool. Didi has learnt that when she hears the velcro of my sandals or costume, it is swimming time and she really gets so excited. She grabs her tennis ball and then runs out to the pool waiting for me. Once there she loves to fetch the ball which I throw to the side of the pool. If I am able to catch her, or trick her, I throw the ball into the middle of the pool and then place her in the pool and she then swims to her tennis ball, grabs it in her teeth and the swims straight to the steps and climbs out - followed by running around the pool 5 or 10 times and I have to try and catch her, or at least make as though I am! Well, that is my daily exercise!!
Now a bigger exercise that I did last week was a 3-day hike in the Drakensberg Mountains. Rowan and his brother, Jonathan decided that I needed to lead them and some friends on a hike visiting caves and bushmen paintings in the Injasuti area. Well, the friends dropped out before the hike like dead flies and it only ended up with the three of us. A bad start - then half way there I discovered that I had left my hiking boots at home - tough! We arrived at the main camp and set off on the hike - a short distance on the first day to Grindstone Caves - we settled in the first one, had lunch and then moved to the bigger one - much quieter as it did not have a big waterfall across the entrance. The next day we set off as the sun was rising and starting to shine on the nearby peaks - a good move - as the temperatures soon started to climb as we climbed out of the valley and up to the 2000 metre level. We spotted some Mountain Reedbuck, some Eland and a number of baboon troops on our way to the next valley, which we descended to have breakfast at Marble Pools. Enjoying a refreshing swim after breakfast, we left that valley and headed past Battle Cave and made our way to Lower Injasuti Cave. It was actually a blessing that I had left my boots behind as I was hiking in my Rocky sandals and they were great for the many river crossings we had to make. Some of the rivers were flowing very strongly and provided some quite exciting crossings! We swam a number of times in the various rivers and pools as the day was really hot and humid. A good nights sleep in the cave and another night of hillarious card playing. After packing up, we set off down the valley, past Battle Cave walking through the dew-sodden long grass, again a blessing that I had forgotten my boots as they would have been saturated! We had breakfast near Fergies Cave and then continued down to the main camp, where I enjoyed a good shower, proper toilet and then a drive back to Durban. All in all, a good break from the office and to get some good mountain fresh air.
For the future - I have many, many enquiries, and only a few bookings, at this stage. I have one important one where there is a vacancy for another couple to join in. From Friday 1 October until Wednesday 20 October, I shall be taking a couple on a safari including Victoria Falls, Hwange National Park, Bulawayo and Matopos National Park, (all in Zimbabwe) and then Chobe National Park, Linyanti, Savuti and Moremi Game reserves in Botswana. It is mainly a camping safari, though there are a few nights spent in lodges and hotels. If there is anyone or a couple interested in joining us, please contact me urgently - full details on application! The main concentration for this safari is game viewing and enjoying some of the best game-viewing in Southern Africa. This is not a luxury camping safari, but a participation camping safari with a lot of good company and fun to be enjoyed by all.
I am in the process of planning something different for Old Years night/New Years eve - millenium celebration - more details later - a truely different safari to welcome in the New Century!!
Well, that is all my news for now. Hope to hear from you soon.
All the best
Dean
Manager - African Bundu Safaris cc.Click here to view the previous edition of Dean's Diary
