Saturday, September 25, 2004

Hermanus, South Africa adventures. Percy Tours Update 2.

September and October 2004.
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Saturday 25th Sept. 2004.

The morning starts raining but then slowly clears up to a sunny afternoon.

The town is into the full Whale Festival swing - with my backpackers lodge and every other accommodation bed being taken – there are 50 beds here at Hermanus Backpackers, all taken and I have never seen it so busy. Makes for a lot of fun as you are always bumping into someone new and friendly – and the evening Braai & pool matches in the bar have become legendary for their good spirited competitions.

Spend a few days wondering around the festival with its many craft stalls, mobile sound systems blasting out all sorts of sounds – eat your heart out Notting Hill !!!!! Theres loads of roads closed off and every single piece of available land in the small town centre has suddenly been turned into a temporary car park. The Capetownians have arrived and have totally taken over the place.

I discover that there are some new restaurants and bars, since i was here last (Jan. 2004) – theres an extremely trendy new bar called Shimmis with its 2 x1210's and pumping JBL sound system. Lovely décor, comfy seats and cos its on the 2nd floor & positioned on the cliff top, you get an excellent view of the whales and the people walking around the streets below you.

Lovely evening drive out towards Stanford for a great sunset and visit the 25 km long Grotto beach.

Sometime last week I was offered to go into business with an internet shop and a brand new idea (and yet to be built) mobile internet long-caravan that will be taken to all sorts of out door events – not a bad offer at all but I have other plans – so had to politely decline.

With one of the guys from the Hostel we go Sand Boarding up a huge sand dune, with 6 gorgeous ladies – 3 from Slovenia, 2 South Africans and 1 Austrian. After afew slow down hill attempts and many falling over sessions, we soon get into the knack of how to do it and are at least moving rather than falling onto our butts every 2 second.

The views are fabulous – with the sea and beaches only afew 100 metres away and the Mountain coastline background being stunning.

After 4 hours of zooming downhill we drive to a deep river gorge with high rock cliffs – and proceed to dive & jump into the freezing cold water – very much needed as we are totally covered in sand and very warm. Most refreshing.

The weather has suddenly turn out to be sunny every single day and averages about 25 degrees in the midday heat. Today (thurs) its 27. So slowly the tan is coming along – well seeing as I originally started with that famously pastey colour of “English Grey”, I then need to proceed thro into the white zone, then pink, then salmon pink, then red, then finally slowly increasing darker shapes of brown. I think I have now achieved the off-white colour successfully.

With tanning you can also easily go thro the stages of what the South Africans call
“a Farmers Tan” – tanning on your arms (below the t-shirt sleeve) – above the neck upwards – and your lower legs – with the rest of you being as white as a sheet. A highly comical look I am sure, but that’s one look I will be trying my best to avoid :-)))

Went Paragliding off the local mountain top – about 300 metres high, with absolutely amazing views of the whole of Walkers Bay and at this height you can actually see the whales a lot easier, as from the cliff tops down at sea level you only really see their humps. Even saw one whale do 12 monsterous leaps in a row out of the sea and was able to catch it on film.

Visit Hermanus Golf course, which is a very prime and proper place, with very manicured grass and dress codes that are strictly enforced – so me arriving in flippies, shorts and t-shirt means I was lucky not to get kicked out instantly. In those situations I adopt a strong posh English gents accent of Lordism and pretend I am looking to buy the whole place – soon gets people running for cover :-)))

Zoom over to Cape Town for a day – to look at loads of cars at my friends Anthony dads work – he works for the Govt dept that sells off old Govt vehicles – so over 50 different motors - police cars, ambulances, mini-buses, jeeps, bmw, vw, range rovers, opels, audis, masdas. All sold off at auction once per month at rock bottom prices, with about 200 buyers turning up – only thing is that they don’t allow you to test drive them or even start the engines. UUMMM not ideal for my first car purchase, but one contact well worth bearing in mind for the future.

Looked at loads of houses to buy and rent – unbelievably house prices have gone thro the roof and are up by 20% since Feb 2004 – that’s £10,000 more in 7 months – absolutely outrageous.
Plots of land have tripled or quadrupled – from £7500 or £10000 to £30000 or £40000 – even more outrageous. With the prices continuing to grow and bank interest rates are still set to go down – so anyone wanting to invest in a property over here had better buy NOW.
So I need to get a house immediately but obviously wont be doing that until I get confirmation of my 2 year business visa – same with buying a car – pointless spending money on items when I might not even be let into the country. Immigration takes about 6 to 8 weeks to process, so I haven’t got too long to wait and gives me quite abit of time to look at everything on the market.
Estate agents are weird here – as its such a small and close knit town – every house is on with every agent – most strange. There are afew sole-agency properties but they seem to need to be hunted down.

Have been meeting loads of friendly locals and travellers alike – even bumped into a UK actress who has been in Eastenders and is one of the girls who works in the office in “The Green Wing” that mad comedy series set in a hospital on Channel 4.

Have already sold 3 dvds of people Sand Boarding and Paragliding – so Percy Tours has already started trading – which I am much relieved about as it shows that there are many business opportunities out here especially when I haven’t started trying to get any business yet.

Well its now Thurdsay 30th Sept, and to be honest it has all been so surreal that I am finally here after working so damn hard in UK for 9 months, that I have to keep pinching myself.

Anyway that’s it for now folks.

Cheers and loads of love xxx

Percy "The Sand Dune King"

www.percytours.com

Designer Tours of Hermanus, Cape Town and the Western Cape region.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Hermanus, South Africa 1st arrival. Percy Tours Update 1.

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Mid - SEPTEMBER 2004.
Its 4 days since landing in Cape Town and after a mad few days I am now in Hermanus.

OK quick run down of events so far –

Got to Heathrow to be told that they would NOT let me on the plane – “oh bu##er”
This is cos I was being a cheeky swine and only bought a single / one way ticket into South Africa and the immigration in South Africa require a return ticket or exit ticket to be shown upon arrival.
So over I go to the SAA ticket office and buy a £100 single ticket from J’burg to Manzini – Where ??????
This is of course much cheaper than a return ticket to Heathrow and luckily is refundable in UK – so not a disaster really.

Cos I am so early to check in I am able to blag a wing seat with lots of room –
result !! – only to board the plane to find that yes I have a wing seat but I am sitting on the window side with my legs being right up against the emergency exits life-raft that is housed in a huge plastic container that’s part of the door and unmovable – this means my right leg can spread out forward for about 15 feet (thats one long leg!!!) but my left leg has my knee up at my chin – as you can imagine this is not conducive to utmost comfort.

Watched afew movies – Troy - with Brad Pitt taking his clothes off right, left and centre, which you girls will obviously love and probably be rewinding over and over again when you get the video out (good for ½ hour and then boring) / then a great action packed and CGI vampire film with the guy who was Wolverine in X-Men, and the guy who was the rich Count in Moulen Rouge, who plays Dracula. (good plot twists and tons of action and flying Vampires and Werewolves) / then had to see the fabulous Shrek 2 again – hilarious and a modern day classic.

Arrive after little sleep to a much warmer day than the BBC weather website had predicted the day b4 – they said some cloud and 16 degrees – and it turned out to be - no cloud, full-on sunshine and 26 degrees – well bring it on I said, so glad I was in shorts and t-shirt not trousers and a jacket as original planned.

Go to the Hertz counter to get my car – to be given a brand new Opel with only 4000km on the clock and brand new tyres – excellent!!! Zoom off to Cape Town centre to the amazing Ashanti Lodge hostel, chillout for afew hours and then straight down to a restaurant at the Waterfront to met my immigration lady – have a great 2 hour natter to go thro everything. After that I asked her - what are her thoughts to the business plan and the ideas? – which she gives me an immediate 9 ½ out of 10. Well that folks, to me is a very high score and I am therefore all smiles and zoom off immediately to get the very best steak in Cape Town at the Nelsons Eye to semi-celebrate (can’t count those chickens too quickly)

Fall into bed at 8pm and sleep like a log.

Then up early to zoom off to Hermanus, watching out for those pesky mobile police speed cameras that they hide at nearly every straight road (god they are everywhere and I mean everywhere – saw one on a huge tripod in a storm drain with just the lense sticking out at ground level); while also getting stopped with another 20 vehicles at a big police check point, for driving licences checks and quick road worthy check to see if I have 4 wheels on my car. Pass with flying colours and zoom off, telling those pesky coppers to eat my dust buddy!!!!

Arrive at Hermanus Backpackers and get the best room in the place, as I am now a fully signed up resident of the place – huge result!! And coincidentally the rooms called “The Love Chamber” - uuuummmm!!!! not too sure if that’s a good sign - either the management have a few lustful surprises already arranged for me later or its just wishful thinking :-)))

Full-on beer, steak braai and pool thrashing session of the locals by me and a fellow Brit, b4 crashing out for the night.

In a hostel its impossible to have a lie-in if you are a light sleeper like me, cos there is action from 7.30am every morning – people getting collected for Shark Dives or shuttled to the Baz-Bus collection point or the loud reception phone going off every 5 minutes or the cleaner with a hoover smashing into your bedroom door – so up early and straight down to the coast path and there straight infront of me – ½ a mile out to sea are 6 Southern Right Whales splashing about.

I was only able to get afew tail photos so far and realise that wildlife photography is a very time consuming activity b4 the animals actually do anything.

The whole town is in full Whale Festival action, which lasts 4 days, with huge marquees taking up afew car parks – with food, ice cream, steaks & braais roaring and as many beer tents as you can stagger to and from; with a big market that’s selling drums, masks, sculptures, t-shirts and African craftwork. The towns busy but not rammed, although all the accommodation venues are full so there is certainly a few people here.

Ok that’s the lot for the last 3 ½ days – more roving reporting in the next few days.

Percy African “Love Chamber”

www.percytours.com

Designer Tours of Hermanus, Cape Town and the Western Cape region.