How time flies - Christmas has gone, Easter has gone and winter is approaching us here in South Africa! At long last the hot humid and sticky weather is disappearing and the lovely autumn climate is around us - just one problem, the leaves are all falling off the trees and into the swimming pool!

I have some exciting news, about really special trips and safaris through Botswana - both now during winter and also a Millennium special, plus I have news about past trips, a KZN Tourism Summit conference, Mandela and our elections, Ship cruises, Namaqualand Flower tours and a few other items of interest.....read on!

The front lawn is looking ever so green now - the compost really has worked well and I have already applied one dose of weed-killer, next week another dose goes on and then I can cut the grass - hopefully this will return our front lawn from is desert status to a green field! I even planted two Fever trees on the front pavement - having huge thorns means that the neighbours cats won't try and catch the birds that sit in the tree - in a few years time when they have grown bigger. I also planted another tree next to the office and also in a few years time it would have grown high enough to give some more shade over the roof for the hot sunny days!

Recently we had two couples from Scotland touring from Cape Town to Durban on a self-drive - and they nick-named themselves "The Wrinklies" as they were all retired! Well, Bill phoned me from Durban where they attended a relatives wedding and told me how well the trip had gone so far and how they had really enjoyed the different tours and accommodations that we had organised for them - thanks for the call Bill, really appreciated. STOP PRESS: Just as I was typing this I received a feedback letter from them - I have copied a few sections below:

I have had a really excellent feedback e-mail from Simon and Jane on their self-drive through Botswana, Zimbabwe and to Kruger - Here are some comments:

It is so nice to have feedback - we thrive on it, so after a trip, please let us know the good, the bad and the ugly!

I have not heard from Maurits of Brasil or Wim and his wife yet - hopefully soon and then I can get some feedback on their trips they did - we rely on feedback from all our clients as this assists us to improve our services.

Gerri went on a self-drive to Zululand Tree Lodge and Dumazulu - they really enjoyed their stay at the Tree Lodge - which is a luxury camp - rooms have huge windows looking into the bush and wildlife. Unfortunately they did not see any lions on their drive into Hluhluwe, though according to the records, there were 3 lions stalking an impala in the same area they were in on the same day - just gotta be at the right place at the right time - remember, NOWHERE can you be gauranteed a lion sighting (except in a zoo!). They were not impressed with Dumazulu, as they were the only occupants that night and were not satisfied with the conditions and to top it all, on their early return to Durban in their own car, they broke down - not a good vacation! They then flew down to Port Elizabeth and had a nice stay at a Guesthouse I use there, and when they arrived at Addo Elephant Park the next day, a large portion of the park had been cordoned off as they had experienced severe rainstorms and many roads had become impassable! The following day Shamwari's staff went out of their way to show them the Lions during the 3 hour game drive and the cultural village visit was one of the best they had experienced ever. I met them in East London, where we were served a lovely breakfast overlooking a bushy valley. Gerri's sister and nephew flew back that morning to Durban and then I continued with Gerri and Ray to Coffee Bay with a detour to Hole-in-the-Wall - boy, was that detour-road shocking - they had 128mm of rain over a two hour period and the road showed it! Anyway, we had a warm welcome at the Coffee Bay hotel, a great dinner, with the local Xhosa maidens dancing for us during the meal. After a good nights sleep and hearty breakfast, we departed back to Durban. The beautiful Transkei is a safe area to drive through and even stay in - you just have to keep your wits about you, as the roads are not fenced and cows, goats, dogs and sheep wander onto the road! The tar roads are in a good condition with only about 20 kms of potholes or uneven surface. As you can read on Dave & Bernies website (linked on page two of my website) - it is a stunning part of South Africa to visit and undeveloped as far as the commercial Tourist Route is concerned - if you want something different, with warm hospitality and stunning scenery, this is the place to go!!

I had a great e-mail from my pal Kevin who I mentioned last month was making his way back to the UK after having spent 3 months in the Antarctic - his story of his adventure makes exciting reading and even more exciting is their planned visit here in April next year - to Cape Town. I shall have to make a plan to be in Cape Town then! At least he will be able to visit Theo.

Piet and WP completed the Argus cycling marathon, with WP flying up to Durban the next day and going straight from the airport to school! Honey sent me lots of info about their recent trip to Mocambique and the latest info and changes taking place there.

Last month my mother went into hospital for an operation to remove the left thyroid - the op was a success and the lump was not malignant - thankfully. She has recovered well - thanks to all those who sent best wishes and prayers.

South Africa - our president, Nelson Mandela retires from politics at the beginning of June after having run the country successfully since the first democratic elections on the 27 April 1994 and when I was with Gerri and Ray we drove past his new retirement home - I actually feel sorry for him as this home looks like a prison - it is situated 20 metres off the main road, has two barbed-wire fences surrounding it, a 10 foot brick wall, a long line of trees, two rotating video cameras, a fortified lookout security tower and spotlights along the roadside wall!! I sincerely hope this is just the property for his security guards and not for him - I do realise he is an exceptional and remarkable world leader but to retire into such an environment!! I would have rather built the house over the hill, away from the main road and on a larger piece of land. I can imagine all the Tour buses stopping on the side of the road for passengers to take photos!! But, I wish our President, Madiba, a happy retirement and I must congratulate him on his method of keeping the country away from a civil war. Hopefully his presumed replacement, the much younger Thabo Mbeki, will be able to keep the peace and even improve the situation. We have a constitution which was compiled after many weeks of talks amongst all the political parties in 1994 and that Law is the highest in our country - even so high that the prisoners (criminal prisoners) won their case to be allowed to vote in the upcoming elections!! (Human rights and all that stuff - personally I feel they have created so much harm to human beings they should not have such rights!) If the ANC win a two thirds majority election there are major fears that they will re-write the constitution to include more communism practices and ideas, and fighting against them are 43 other political parties!!! Why some folk waste their money, I do not know - they should join forces. We would all expect the "Gravy Train" to expand into a fleet if they change the rules! The police and Pagad have been quiet for a while, hopefully they have sorted out their problems. Hitting the headlines recently was the case of the Johannesburg crack anti-hijack unit who caught two hijackers shortly after the hijacked a BMW from a gentleman. The BBC was there to record "our police-brutality" - the unit has been disbanded.I know it is wrong to violate human rights and all that, BUT what the BBC did NOT report was that the one hijacker had held his gun to the gentlemans face and pulled the trigger - it jammed, he shock the gun around and tried again - still nothing, his pal told him to get in the car and they drove off. They had, and were prepared to kill the gentleman in cold blood, so they deserved what came to them. If hi-jackers knew they would receive no mercy from these cops, maybe there would be a decrease in the hijacking - which Johannesburg is well known for. Then just a couple of days before this incident, a young girl was raped by 5 teenagers in one of Cape Towns townships, they were caught and released later by the police - minors and parents supervision etc - well, the young girl went to the taxi association who live in the township and they found the boys, stripped them, tied them to a pole and allowed the girl victim to sjambok (whip) them - the SABC filmed this - those boys shall surely never rape another girl again! Some communities are assisting themselves by taking certain aspects of the law into their own hands! One of our up and coming Development cricket players from the "previously disadvantaged" community has really kicked his supporters and believers in the guts - he was charged with raping a minor girl, and has now lost his case despite his plea of not guilty, and then yesterday there was accusactions of him offering the girl R100 000 to drop the case!! Idiot - when he had so much going for him, why could he not control his hormones - it will now make future sponsors reluctant to develop the undeveloped! Please don't take me wrong, we do not all go around raping everyone, just these are hitting our headlines at the moment - lots of dramatic items, just before our elections!

Folks, please, I am still having such brief details when you enquire with me - please complete the enquiry form and under "Other Information/comments" - please supply me with as much extra info as possible - such as, how flexible your dates are, if there are children in your group and ages, a maximum amount you are prepared to spend or approx budget - remember, your version of "cheap" or "expensive" will be different from my version - give me a figure in Rands, UK Pounds or US$ - I average on 2.2 new enquiries a day and have an African Bundu Safari Enquiry Form completed every 2.3 days - so we are busy, very busy and the more info we have the first time around, the quicker and more helpful will be our response. Alice only works for me in the mornings and when I am away personally on a trip, her workload is trebled. We try and answer all enquiries within 24 hours and reply to all other e-mails within 48 hours - if you have not had a reply in that period, we did not receive it - please try the other e-mail address, something has gone wrong - this year alone we have had 12 people submit incorrect e-mail return addresses - we cannot afford to phone the USA or UK to tell you your e-mail address is incorrect - please be careful when submitting information. My name and telephone number also appears on our webpage - I am not a secret agent, please don't treat yourself as one - the more I know about you, the more pleasant our correspondence.

We have a small administration fee which is levied for all self-drive vacations, as we spend a great deal of time and phonecalls on such itineraries. If we book you with another Safari company then you pay the same price anybody else would be paying.

REFERRALS: As mentioned before, my guestbook reflects some of our past clients who do not mind being contacted should you wish to get a referral, PLUS, you can contact any Satour office or SA Embassy or consulate anywhere in the world. I belong to the Tourism Durban association (which is changing its managment and name in July), I am also a member of TASA and an accredited Satour Tour Guide - # 4172. Most of the major hotels, lodges and resorts around Southern Africa would also know of our existance and we have been in business for 3 years now, so we are not a fly-by-night company. Dave and Bernie also kindly allowed us to put a link to their website of their 1998 honeymoon trip - this appears on the webpage "Your Leader". So, there are plenty of referrals.

We also are booking agents with SA National Parks, KZN Nature Conservation, Sun International, Protea Hotels, Holiday Inns, plus we deal with numerous other private lodges like MalaMala, Conservation Corporation Africa, The Blue Train and Rovos Rail, Victoria Falls Safari Lodge,...etc.

We are getting more and more enquiries for the December / January Millennium period - please, hurry, accommodation is at a peak and MANY hotels and lodges are full. Also, many places insist on spending a minumum of 5 nights with them, so do not plan on 1 or 2 night stops.

I attended the Kwazulu-Natal Tourism Summit last week, which was an important meeting where the KZN Minister of Enviroment and Tourism, Mr Jacob Zuma and the Zulu King Goodwill Zwelethini were both speakers - a number of new and exciting developments were discussed and revealed, plus progress reports and marketing areas were disclosed. An inspiring meeting with the full backing of our Zulu King - who I stood next to during the tea break!!

Now the exciting news - future trips on offer:

NAMAQUALAND MAGICAL WILD FLOWERS

We have arranged with a colleague of mine who is based in Cape Town to accommodate small groups on these popular tours - prior booking is necessary and quickly as many places have been occupied already! He has the following tours :

4 & 5 Day Tours - Departure Dates

Tour 1 4 Days Tuesday 10 to Friday 13 August

Tour 2 4 Days Tuesday 17 to Friday 20 August

Tour 3 5 Days Monday. 23 to Friday 27 August

Tour 4 5 Days Monday 30 August to Friday 3 September

Tour 5 4 days Tuesday 7 to Friday 10 September.

Tour 6 4 Days Tuesday 14 to Friday 17 September

Cost: 4-Day Tours R1695.00pp 5-Day Tours R1995.00pp

So if you are interested in such a great and economical tour - e-mail me quickly for more information!

ROCK STAR SAFARIS !!!

We have managed to secure ability to book our clients onto these unique Botswana safaris with none other than the famous.....Tom Jones...plus ...Madonna and her pal Bjork !!!!

These exciting trips take you into the remote and isolated, yet beautiful area of the Makgadikgadi Pans and you drive quad bikes to Kubu island and back. So we are offering 5 day quad bike trips (leading you to Tom Jones & Madonna ) across the pans to Kubu Island on a Set Date Departure basis. Guests sleep under the stars in bedrolls attended to by our ever-willing Kalahari pixies who rustle up steaming bucket showers and three course, five star meals...
We have trips departing on the following days:
17 - 22 May (6 spaces left)

7 - 12 June
9 - 24 July (8 spaces left)
25 - 20 July
Costs for this safari are : Doubles : US$3 805.00 Singles : US$2625.00

If you would like more details, e-mail me quickly!!

visit the beautiful rocky outcrop of Kubu Island - and there are thousands of stars there - choose your own!!)

The safari starts in Victoria Falls on the 19 December..fly to the Okavango Delta, then stay at two different safari lodges prior to camping on Nxai Pan and later in the Central Kalahari prior to returning to Maun on the 2 January 2000.

It will be a truly international safari and clients will be spoilt with a sumpteous Christmas luncheon at Crocodile Camp and New Years Eve will be spent camping under canvas in the Central Kalahari, home to the San Bushmen, who have lived there for 30 000 years pursuing a hunting and gathering lifestyle well into the 20th century - so a good place to see in the millenium, in a place where time has stood still ! On millenium night clients will be treated to a tasty bush gourmet dinner, traditional band and dancers and bonfire - all "al fresco" under an amazing umbrella of stars. The African nightime sky is truly spectacular with many shooting stars.
Price per person sharing US$ 3,500.00 Single room supplement US$ 525.00

SHIP CRUISES

We are offering cruises on cargo liners that plow the oceans between South Africa and Europe, Canary Islands and also the Far East. Coastal cruises from Cape Town to Durban are also available and very popular. Read on - a bit of extra info:

Dean