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October / November 2001
Greetings friends Whew, what a hectic past two months I have experienced…. And it includes some good and some bad news! I enjoyed the exciting safari that was a "Mystery Tour" and then on return to Durban, we have encountered major computer problems and I have been fighting a chest virus and can't get rid of this cough. This cough is most irritating!! We are also changing a bit of our company operation and this will please some folks and others might not be so pleased.. more about these news items below:1: PAST SAFARIS -
Well, as I had mentioned in the last edition, I was about to embark on the Great Mystery Tour, with Elly, Arne, Dick and Joost - and off to Port Elizabeth I traveled, on the Greyhound coach. I enjoyed being able to sit back and relax whilst someone else did the driving. The journey was pleasant, as I was seated next to a very pretty young lady, who was on her way to East London to visit her boyfriend, but between each of the longer stops, they showed a video - so I watched 3 or 4 videos during the entire journey! The journey was a long one, with us stopping in Kokstad for a brief morning tea break, then Umtata for a shorter lunch break, then East London for evening snack time and finally PE at 9pm at night. I caught a taxi to the guesthouse I was staying at - and then 'hit the sack' for the night. The next morning being a Sunday, I strolled along the beachfront, visiting the Flea Market and the newly opened Boardwalk Shopping and Entertainment center. Eventually the late afternoon arrived and then my guests arrived - at long last I met Elly and Arne, after many e-mails going back and forth. Two of their friends, Dick and Joost were with them and so far they had spent the previous 10 days exploring Cape Town and the Garden Route and now they were here for a Mystery Tour. All they knew was that they were arriving in Durban about the 6 November.
It was Arne's birthday today, so we went off to a nearby restaurant for his birthday dinner and then after a good nights sleep, we enjoyed our breakfast, before having a brief 'tour' of PE. The fun began….. as we drove out of PE, I could hear them discussing amongst themselves and over the map books - where they thought I was heading - and then we took the first turnoff - Addo Elephant Park / Zuurberg. Elly was in her element - her favourite animal was an elephant - and as we entered the reserve we stopped at the main car park and there in front of us, at the waterhole were 50 or 60 elephants! Drinking, eating, wallowing in the mud - just having fun. We did a short drive before returning to the car park for lunch.. but there was not much on the drive, as it was a very hot day - but there was another 60 or 70 elephants at the waterhole now - so plenty of elephants!! We left the reserve and headed east, towards the little settlement of Patterson and a small country hotel there. We off-loaded our luggage and had a short siesta, before leaving for a private game reserve nearby for afternoon tea, cake, game drive and dinner. The reserve is divided into two sections, with the smaller 500 hectares being the home to a couple of lions, plus antelope, and we really battled to find the lions, eventually the owners arrived and located one of them for us. We returned to our hotel for the night and then after breakfast, we drove to the Patterson crossroads, and Elly decided we should turn left, towards Middelburg - thank goodness, as that was the way I had planned!! Well, long story short, we arrived in Graaf Reinet and the foursome explore the town center on foot whilst I went shopping, prior to driving out of town to The Valley of Desolation, where we enjoyed our picnic lunch. After lunch, we drove to The Owl House - which is a unique museum housing a ladies concrete sculptures of owls, camels and herself. A sort-of biblical and weird eerie atmosphere surrounded the area! We spent that night at a lovely guest farm, which offered traditional Karoo hospitality - with Karoo cooking! That evening, I wrote out my first cryptic clue for the group to solve and this was to give them the destination for the next day. It went something along the lines of: "you might wake up to the sound of thunder and the smell of your favourite beverage …. we avoid the Kings but visit the Queens…." - well, after a short while and armed with books, maps and tourist brochures, they solved it - and so after breakfast we set off for Queenstown and then Coffee Bay, along the Transkei Wild Coast! A lovely scenic drive.
We spent two nights here, which included a muddy drive to Hole-In-The-Wall along the new coastal road - and also a lovely walk along the ex-golf course. From Coffee Bay, we headed for Umtata and visited the Nelson Mandela Museum before driving back to the coast and spending two nights at Port St Johns - where we had a lovely relaxing time. During our stay, we visited The Gap, Magwa Falls and T-plantation, Fraser Falls and also the airstrip on top of the mountain where one of our ZFS planes was! The clue to the next destination did not take them too long to work out, as it was teamwork, but they could not find out the guesthouses name, until we arrived in the little hamlet of Rhodes. Rhodes probably only has 6 or 7 roads and it was as we were basically exiting the village that they spotted the signboard for our hosts house, where we enjoyed a lovely Dinner, Bed & Breakfast stay. Early the next morning, Elly and Arne went for a walk in the village, and as they were returning, Elly slipped and sprained her ankle - this was to be a small problem for her, as obviously there is always some walking on any trip. Well, they bandaged it up, had breakfast and off we went - on to our next adventure. Oh boy, what an adventure lay ahead of us!! Our host, Dave, had said that he heard that there were road constructions in the Lunden's Nek region, but not sure how far along they had got. There had been a fair amount of rain in this Eastern Cape region over the past few days and the gravel roads had lots of slushy and muddy sections - which proved no problem, until we neared the top of Lunden's Nek pass. They were still working on improving this section of the road - but there was very little stone/gravel on the road, so the sandy sections were MUD! We slide through the first section, the 2nd section we stopped facing the steep mountain above us - and the three chaps got out the vehicle and pushed me back to the center of the road, facing the correct direction. Elly and I continued down the pass, eventually coming to a halt with the left wheels sunk into mud about a foot deep - on the very edge of the road. We were STUCK!! Well, to cut a long story short, Elly took the photographs, (due to her sprained ankle) and then the 3 guys and myself 'played' in the mud, as we built a rock road in front of the left wheels for about 20 foot ahead of the vehicle, to help us get back to the middle of the road. Approximately 2 hours later, the first vehicle came past - a farmer with 8 labourers, who took half an hour to push us out and onto the 'new road' we had constructed! We continued down the pass, which was much drier in the lower sections and then through villages and settlements, until we reached the Lesotho border. Crossing into Lesotho was easy and we continued through this Mountain Kingdom, on a rural, but excellent gravel road, in the rain and sun… until we drove through the "Gates of Paradise" and arrived at Malealea Lodge and Pony trekking center. Boy were we exhausted, and dirty!!
We were here for 2 nights and a day - and during that time, we visited the local school - where we interacted with the kids, in the classroom and on the field, we visited a small local museum and then went walk-a-bouts into the local village to meet some of the residents - all with a local teenage lad as our Guide. We also visited a ladies handcraft shop - and this project along with our activities are all planned through the lodge, who have helped uplift this community but having tourists visit them for a small fee and thus over the past few years the income has seen the construction of 4 new classrooms, the museum building, the ladies handcraft warehouse, a babies crèche and a few other self-help projects - what a super idea that is successful. We also experienced some terrific lightning and thunderstorms on both evenings and then the peacocks at the lodge together with the one dog, kept us entertained! Did you know that there is not one part of Lesotho that is below 1000 metre altitude? The only country in the world with this claim to fame! We left Lesotho after visiting a weaving workshop, another women's self-help project, where we all bought some lovely wall tapestries made of Mohair. Arriving back in SA, we enjoyed a lunch at Fouriesburg, where Elly snuck away from us to get the hotel manager to assist her to solve the final part of today's clue! She sweet-talked him into phoning 8 or 9 lodges in Clarens to find out if they were expecting us! Elly knew we were going to Clarens, but did not know the lodges name - even though it was written into the clue. Boy it was fun (for me) and I believe embarrassing for her, when she walked into the tourist information office, next door to our destination guesthouse, and showed the clue to the lady and asked where we to spend the night! Sorry Elly, but well done on solving all the clues so far, I had to have a sneaky one sometime!! That night I had arranged to have some 'friends' around for dinner. My sister Gail and her friend Silke, plus a friend of mine for many years, Moesch - they all arrived at 7.30pm and we had a wonderful dinner. Gail had also done a superb presentation for the next cryptic clue, which they were to solve. I was so impressed with her clue that I think you should all try and solve it yourself. The answer is at the bottom of this diary!
From where you are,
Within the artists' mecca …
Look East
And spot the Gold Entrance
With Africa's calmer wild.
Experience the people
The Cuisine, the Lifestyles
Of Yester Year to date of the
Tribe from the mountains.
Perhaps the bones will show you
Your place of rest.
The highest spot of White,
With mountains, a chain,
Perhaps a vulture or two
And a view of two provinces,
Two countries.
So, those of you with a map book, get it out and work out that clue!
Well, I cannot tell you the next day's destination nor activities - just we had a nice time!
The following day, we drove through the Battlefields of the Anglo-Zulu war, enjoying a light lunch at Rorkes Drift and then pushing on to Umfolosi Game reserve, stopping briefly in Ulundi to repair a puncture. We entered the 96 000 hectare reserve and were not even 5 mins into the Park when Joost shouted with great excitement that there was a leopard on the right - yip, a leopard at 4 o'clock in the afternoon!! It walked away as soon as we stopped.. but this was all a great omen for our days to come. We stayed at one of the bush camps and thoroughly enjoyed our stay - which included bush walks with the armed field ranger and also game drives with me. We spotted nearly every species of animal there - elephants, buffalo, lions, rhino, giraffe etc, etc. What a great trip we had. Elly (plus the chaps and I) were so excited to see the lions, as it was a pride of 5 of them, and they walked across the road right in front of us, and into the dry river bed - and the one young male even walked to within 4 metres of my door - so have a super photo of him!! Well, we eventually had to bid farewell to our Zulu friends and we left for Durban and I dropped the 4-some off at the popular B&B in Umhlanga Rocks. The next day, I took them on a tour of Durban, with one of the highlights being the Victoria Market where a bit of bargaining took place! The following day my Dutch friends left for Pretoria - to spend a few days with their friends, before flying home. I have put their comments from my actual guestbook onto the internets Guestbook.. so be sure to read it! I did have an e-mail from Elly and Arne once they returned home and the following is what they had to say:
"Hi there, How we miss you!!! Back home for two weeks already and still cannot get used to it. We are both ill, the flu and also our dogs. We cannot tell you how sorry we are that we are not in the possibility to come back to SA immediately, what a beautiful and lovely country you have, do you realize that by yourselves?
By this mail we want to thank the both of you again for the perfect way you handled the organization of our beautiful holiday and Dean your accompanying during this " Mystery - Tour ". It was sublime, perfect, great, which cliché' s could we use more.
Okay, we did not do fly-fishing, bed shuffles, bungee- jumps and so on, what still is possible next time of course. Great it was to meet Gail, Silke, Moesch, Ian, Milton, Alice and of course you Dean, your mother, Milly and Didi (and all the others we can not mention on this moment).
Perfect it was to see the lovely views (Dean' s favorite places), the big mountains, the beautiful oceans, the enormous landscapes and last but not least The Big Five!
We enjoyed every day of our stay in SA and hope to be back soon. As you will remember Dean, the prediction is that we will be back within 2 till 3 years, but notice this: it will be sooner!!!"
So there you have it - very happy guests - so much so, that Arne and Elly are thinking of moving out here to open a B&B Guesthouse and live here!!
2. PAST SELF-DRIVE SAFARIS -
Remember I mentioned Dana last time saying she was coming to Knysna for a few months, well she has arrived and is really enjoying her stay. We've had a couple of e-mails from her since she arrived. Paul and Carey got married and then came to enjoy their Honeymoon that we had organized for them - they had a great time. Shortly after their return, they sent us a Thank You e-mail, which unfortunately, we had not printed out yet, and it was lost when we lost all our info on the computers early November. Paul & Carey, if you get a chance, please resend it. Thanks.
Tim was out with some family and friends and spent a few weeks exploring our lovely country. Over this same period, we hosted a TV Crew from the Netherlands, who were here to film footage for 2 x 25 minute documentaries on activities and especially flying activities in KwaZulu Natal. Our one guide, Shiney, was their hostess and personal Guide for the 10 days they spent here. Thanks to Satour for allowing us to organize and host the TV Crew. I forgot to mention last time, but during the later part of September, we also hosted a well know Turkish journalist and his wife - Mr & Mrs Ali Borovali, and Shiney was their guide for this trip as well. Shiney took them into the Drakensberg, into Zululand and Maputaland as well as a bit of time in Durban. Ali sent us an e-mail when he returned home to thank us:
"Dear Dean, Following a long trip in Southern Africa, I finally returned back home in Istanbul yesterday……. Indeed, we had a beautiful time in KZN with Shiney, and wish we had the opportunity to meet you too…… I would like to take this occasion to thank you for arranging us a pleasant stay, while certainly hoping that we'll have further collaboration over a more carefully designed visit that would include the real highlights of KZN sometime soon. Ooops, sorry! Just forgot to mention that beautiful scenic flight that took us to Hluhluwe. Thanks once again for providing us with one of the highlights of the whole trip. Kind regards, Ali Borovali" Unfortunately, we were only contacted by the Tourism Authorities a few days before their arrival and not provided with too much information, so we planned what we thought was required and once Ali arrived, Shiney had to do some minor changes to the itinerary, to give the journalists what they required. We are thrilled to have Shiney as one of our Guides, as not often can you rely one someone to have a cool head when the pressure is one, and with important people as well! Thanks doll !! Whilst I was with Arne and Elly, Alice was busy organizing a short safari for Jim into Kruger Park and then he went onto Cape Town for the remainder of his vacation. We look forward to having some feedback from him soon. At the beginning of November, one of mom's library colleagues had her family out from the UK - and we organized a short trip for them to Umfolosi game reserve, and the car rental. They had to extend their car rental by a day, as their 4-year-old daughter had made the keys disappear a few hours before they were due to return the car. It was only the following day the daughter remembered where she had buried them in the garden!!!
Also during November, Donal and his family explored Namibia and they hired a vehicle from us. Although we did not do his accommodation bookings, he gave us a tremendous feedback report on the various places they visited, which is really valuable. Thanks Donal. Namibia is one of my favourite destinations and I wish I could go there more often! Funny thing, over the past 2 or 3 years, we have had very few trips for Namibia, and now after doing two trips, for this coming year we have a possible 3or 4 trips - where people have enquired already. It really is a great place to explore, especially if you love open spaces, few crowds and starry nights!
Ana-Lisa and her boyfriend Carl, spent 4 nights at Sodwana Bay, Zululand recently and really enjoyed their diving there. This morning she e-mailed us her comments:
"We had an awesome time and thanks for all your help with directions and so on. … Thanks for the horse riding tip - what a trip!!! That comes highly recommended. We had an absolute blast! Thanks again. Kind regards, Ana-Lisa." And that is the news on all our folks who have been 'independent travelers' over the past couple of months.
3. FUTURE SAFARIS -
Not to sure who to blame - the Palestines, the Israelies, Mugabe, the Americans or the Afghans or who… but with this disaster in NYC on the 11 September, things have quietened down terribly. The Tourism authorities feel that we are going to get busier, as fewer people will travel to the USA and Middle East and rather come visit us down south. Well, our past clients are booking trips with us for the 2002 period, but few new enquiries.. guess the experienced clients know that there is nothing to worry about down south - and also with the devaluing of the Rand against the US$ and UK Pound, makes the travel in SA very cheap. Just two days ago I sent an e-mail around to many past clients telling them that the US$ was worth R10, then today it went up to R11.30 !! (STOP PRESS: The radio announced that Zimbabwe situation is causing the currency to change so much - in fact the GBP = R15.56 as I type this!!) This makes a huge reduction in price for the land arrangements here, just the airfare from your home country to SA is the most expensive part of your vacation. We do however have Janine and her new husband, Philip, are coming to SA for their HONEYMOON, and shall be staying at a super hotel overlooking the Atlantic Hotel in Cape Town, over the New Year period. Enjoy!! We have been busy planning for a number of repeat guests of ours, who are coming out in the New Year - Judith and Jim - will be visiting Namibia, Botswana and Mauritius, Nik and Angela will be coming out to get married at Thula Thula and then exploring Zululand and Maputaland. In June we have Paul and Kirsten from Denmark coming out for their Honeymoon. Over this Festive season, we are finalizing details for Henrik who will be visiting Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Kruger and Vic Falls. Ruth and her family are hoping to extend their stay and include a visit to one of the private game reserves, as the tour package is very rush and only includes one game drive in SA!! Dana has contacted us recently and decided to celebrate the old and New Year on a Botswana overland safari - so yes, we are still busy and we have still a number of enquiries where I think people are shopping around and trying to compare 'oranges with apples' .
4. OUR NEW ABS SERVCE -
Due to my personal circumstances, I have decided to cut down on the travelling that I do and concentrate on staying in the Greater Durban area. I wish to do some studying and at the same time, also wish to improve the marketing of African Bundu Safaris and the Zululand Flying Service. So, I have added onto our website, under Your Leader, a number of photos and text on a few of the Freeland Guides that we shall be using, to Guide our clients around SA. We have been using these folks for a number of years now, but we are now just making it official! This will not affect your price or the high standards, as these folks are in the same price-league as me and their standards are also of a high standard. Alice was offered a job with a friend, but is keener to remain with us, as she enjoys it so much, plus the hours are more flexible - so we are both here for now! If there are any major changes due to take place, I shall inform you all. (Maybe with me remaining at home for longer periods, I might find a future wife now!!)
So, when you book a trip with us and require a Guided trip, one of our expert Guides shall be thrilled to share their skills and experience with you. Right now, we have Guides positioned in Cape Town, Durban, Windhoek, Johannesburg, Vic Falls and Maun… and even though they do Guide for some other companies as well, they will dedicate themselves to African Bundu Safaris whilst they are with you. We are also using some of the larger Touring Companies for their packaged tours - these are tours that have virtually guaranteed departures and follow a set itinerary, visiting the most exciting and important attractions in that region. The advantage of these tours are, they are cheaper than a tailor-made trip, the include the main attractions in as short a time as possible and there are other people traveling with you of similar situation and normally in a group size of between 6 and 16 people. The disadvantage is that the itinerary is not flexible - there is a set route to follow, there are other people (strangers) that you have to travel with and the dates are set. The good thing is the price is the same, whether you booked direct through those companies or through us - we avoid marking up their tariffs, as they would have included a small commission for us in the advertised public rate. The huge advantage of booking through us is we have selected some of the better companies in SA, and all are South African run companies with local guides and vehicles, and so they have a great back-up system and infrastructure and thus experiencing very few hiccups. We have a number of these companies timetables, so if your dates are not too flexible, then we can find a tour that is closest to your arrival date, though we do not encourage people booking their flight tickets first, until we have finalized the tour date!
We have also noticed an upward trend in Self Drive vacations - and as we do pride ourselves in offering such a super service in this region, we will also not only be using Europcar for the car rentals, but swinging more and more of our bookings with Avis, whose rates and service are identical to Europcar, but they have a lot more branches countrywide, so there is a better back-up service, should there be any problems. Avis also now offers a 4x4 equipped with camping equipment, which is what a few adventurous travellers wish to have. We have yet to find another Tour Operator offering car rental rates as reasonable as us, especially with the detailed route description, accommodation bookings and a fast, friendly and efficient service as we offer! Our car rental service also includes a free mobile phone rental - you just pay for insurance and outgoing calls.
E-mails: As from March 2002, we will be unsubscribing from Mweb, so the main e-mail address to contact us is:
safari@dbnmail.co.za and for the Zululand Flying Service, is flyingzulu@dbnmail.co.za
5. WHAT'S HAPPENING AROUND US -
Zimbabwe - Oh Boy, yip, that is what best describes what's happening to our neighbour north of us! I have said before and will say again, the dictator of a president, Robert Mugabe, has lost his marbles! He has gone cuckoo, lost his nut, a lunatic. Yes, he does not know what he is doing!! Zimbabwe is a great country - super wildlife, scenery and people, but a totally rubbish leader and government. They are still pushing ahead with so-called "Land reform" where they are getting rid of the well established 'white farmers' and giving this flourishing land to peasants, who have no farming experience nor skills! It has been shown already that the crops are failing, that there is a food shortage and that these peasants are not capable of looking after land by themselves - they need the skilled and experienced knowledge of the farmers to maintain the crops! So, first there were job shortages, then there was a fuel shortage, and now a food shortage -and to top it all, the idiot has spent something like 4.3 million dollars on a fleet of armoured limousines for him, his deputies and his 21 car entourage, to carry them around Harare during the forthcoming April elections. We also hear that he had a 3 metre high steel wall erected around his house in Harare last week, to give better protection. If this clown feels so threatened, surely he and his right-hand people must realize that he is not doing things correctly? Surely the fool should realize that he has to step down - why can't he see this? Looking into the crystal ball, as to the future of Zimbabwe - boy it is hard to tell what might happen. I believe the elections are in April 2002, so I am almost certain that the few months leading up to the elections, will be chaotic and it would not be my choice destination for a holiday. I would love to say that it would be 100% safe - and I hope it will, as the radicals in the past have only targeted the farmers and the main city folks, in Harare and Bulawayo. If the push comes to a shove, we could use Livingstone instead of Victoria Falls - similar activities available. I sincerely hope that Mugabe gets kicked out of politics during the elections and that we never hear of him or his followers again. Africa does not need such radical people!! So, after the elections, we would be very happy to book your safaris in and around Zimbabwe, but for March and April, we are rather cautious.
On the news last night, it was announced that the ex-wife of our former President de Klerk was found dead in her flat - well, today it was disclosed that she had been strangled and stabbed. This is a great shame and we grieve with her family. President de Klerk and Nelson Mandela saw the New South Africa being realized and both received international recognition by being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a few years ago. I do know there is crime, murders etc in every country around the world, but we are very much made aware of it here in SA. Of recent, hitting the headlines is the abuse of children and especially babies - young babies under a year old, that are being raped by uncles and neighbours. This is shocking. One can understand how a rapist can consider raping (as wrong as it is) a beautiful young lady, but a baby or a young child… that is totally out of the question Our sympathies to those parents as well. I am sure the justice system shall work correctly, though one often wonders!
Whilst I was away on the Mystery tour, my mother broke the tragic news to me that one of my goldfish had died! She said she came to feed them in the evening and the one blackish one, a Shubunkin, was floating on the surface. The remaining 4 fish are getting bigger by the week and soon I am going to have to build them a bigger pond!! It is nice to sit in the office on a quite afternoon, looking out of my window, I can hear the waterfeature working and watch my little fish swim around with great joy. The have rocks and boulders to swim around and over and under, plus they have shelter to stay out of the mean old hot sun and they have two air pipes into their water that operate 24/7. The water feature only works for a few hours a day and circulates the water through a sponge filter.
6. FAMILY & FRIENDS -
My brother Sean was recently pressurized by his company to replace his vehicle and so spent a little over his budget and bought the new Renault Scenic Megane, 4x4. A very space-age looking vehicle, but it goes nicely and he seems happy (thrilled) with it! Mom and I visited them a few weeks ago, for his birthday, and my God-daughter Erin has grown and matured so much since I last saw her a few months ago - and even Mom said she had. She is a real little madam now! He and the family have done a super job on the small farm they own, and it really looks nice - but he is still talking of emigrating! She really enjoyed watching Sean open his presents as well! I am not 100% certain what is happening with my older sister Gail, as I know she is working as a broker for an insurance company now, but not sure if she is moving closer to town or staying on the farm. My mother is still working part-time at the local library, though her time has been shortened. They have appointed a young man to also be a 'panel' worker, and so she has been told to only work three days of the week and he will work the other three. If it was not for our affirmative action policy in SA, she would have a permanent job at the library where she has work for the past 20 odd years, and also be paid a realistic salary. It is really going to be up to me to ensure I work harder to bring in the money, to keep our bread with butter and jam on it! I have lost contact with Lloyd and his adopted father Steve - and at this stage my sympathies go with Lloyd - as per earlier diary entries, things are not well there! Karsten is doing well with his computer studies and should soon be a qualified web designer. Claudia completed her studies in Hotel Management and Tourism - and is now qualified and plans to spend until September in Germany with her family, working at their hotel, before moving out to SA. Over the past few months, I have been chatting to another lady, who like me, wishes to find a special friend. Penny is in Johannesburg and is going to visit relatives and family in Australia these December holidays with her mother, so maybe when she returns, I'll have to travel to Johannesburg to have a date with her - I am looking forward to that. Rowan is working here in Durban again, after having had a stint overseas, and is looking at starting his own tourism business. Congrats to Rowan on passing his local Tour Guide course. Jonathan, another ex-Scout, recently returned from spending the past 5 years overseas and he phoned me first and then came around for a chat - to get ideas on how to get into the tourism business here in SA - well, I gave him a few leads and I believe he will be trying his hand with one of the overland companies shortly. Carla is another lady I met, in June, on a plane whilst flying from Kariba to Hwange - and we have been chatting about her return from the Botswana bush and getting a job here in the tourism business as well. Unfortunately with the slump in this business at the moment, I could not offer her a job. I took mom to the newly opened Gateway shopping center over this last weekend, for lunch and also to see the new Wave-X pool. Gateway is meant to be the largest shopping center in the southern Hemisphere and it certainly is big. We spent about half an hour watching the youngsters on the artificially created waves and also the kids in the skateboard arenas, before walking through part of the complex and having what was to be a light lunch - well, it turned out to be dinner! It was a big helping and very tasty. There are all sorts of shops in the complex, including four IMAX movie screens, over a dozen other cinemas, probably about 20 restaurants and pubs, a very large and uniquely shaped climbing tower/wall inside, plus hundreds of shops, both big and small. I wonder if this is going to become a tourist attraction or not? I know that often when I am on safari with some of you and we visit various curio stalls/shops, and you would love to purchase something but for various reasons you do not, well a friend of mine, Steve, who used to be the Marketing Director of Federal Air, has started his own curio business, called African Stuff - and he is doing very well so far. He travels around Southern Africa, visiting various indigenous artists, negotiates prices and bargains with them to get the best price possible, and then brings the good to Durban, where he takes a photo of them and does a write-up of the item - and the puts it on the Auction website - www.ebay.com When you get to that site, then you go the search facility and search for "african-stuff" - and presto, bid on the various items that interest you. He will soon have his own website: www.african-stuff.co.za Steve will wrap and mail your selected items to you as soon as you have paid - and he has testimonials of happy customers, who you can contact if you wish. Enjoy!
To all past clients and friends - please, if you have not already done so, please send us an e-mail, so we can save it on our new computer system. To the same folks - have a truly HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS CHRISTMAS AND A MERRY NEW YEAR. To all new visitors to this site - thanks for visiting and reading all my thoughts and opinions - and may I take this opportunity to wish you and your family a very pleasant and Happy Christmas and I look forward to hearing from you shortly and planning your vacation for the New Year!
That's all folks!
Dean
Mystery Tour Answer: We left Clarens and drove through the Golden Gates National Park, stopping for lunch at the Basutho Cultural Village, before ascending into the Drakensberg mountains to Witsieshoek Mountain Resort, which has stunning views over the Royal Natal National Park and KwaZulu-Natal province. Well, did you get the answer?
Click here to view the previous edition of Dean's Diary
