UPDATE 11 – South Africa Tourist Season is here.
September 2005 to February 2006.
Hello from an ever increasingly very hot and sunny South Africa – summer is here and it’s a scorcher. 25 to 30 most days and it hasn’t rained for 10 weeks. Yeehaaaa!!!!
Check out over 40 new Percy Tours pictures at –
Over 80 amazing Percy Tours Photos
But b4 we get to that, lets start with cuddly animals – and we all know which ones are Percy Tours personal favourites –
Great White Sharks -
Richard E. Grant, Ruby Wax, Colin Jackson & Amy Nuttel starred in the “Shark Bait” tv program, which was filmed here and watched by 3.6 million people in the UK on Sept. 4th. (Now available on satellite channels).
Shark Lady Adventures, who were the dive operators for the program, got literally 1,000s of emails and had a UK newspaper, the Daily Mail, here the following Wednesday, who wrote a double page spread.
Then a BBC Nature film crew were here afew days later to do some filming.
Then the “Jet Set” BBC National Lottery tv program was filmed here 2 weeks later and was aired to 10 million people in the UK. With another huge torrent of email enquiries.
Check out the BBC website for images of the winners in the cage –
www.bbc.co.uk/jetset
Afew weeks ago one boat witnessed the rare sighting of a seal kill by a great white breaching right out of the sea for its lunch. On another day they saw an incredible 15 different sharks on just one dive trip.
I have also been on 2 amazing trips recently to see these fabulous creatures. They are not the frenzied man eaters we are led to believe. Much more purposeful and genuinely inquisitive. Shame that their only way to investigate things that interest them is with 7 rows of razor sharp teeth. I mean have you seen a shark (or dog or lion) feeling things with its body ?? No, is the obvious answer.
If you are as equally enthusiastic about these beautiful and graceful creatures, then you have got to click to this amazing site – http://www.whitesharktrust.org
They have a Brad Pitt exclusive from when he was here in 2004, as well as news on a small great white at Monterey Bay Aquarium, with live webcams viewing many huge tanks and viewings of many large marine beauties.
Oohh and this advert is so cool – click it now for a good laugh –
http://www.whitesharktrust.org/arenavideoadd.html
Wildlife aplenty -
While travelling around this incredible country recently, Percy Tours has seen some new sights and amazing eye openers.
Witnessed the majestic courtship displays of over 26 Blue Cranes in one field, jumping about merrily, flirting their stuff to prospective partners. Dangerous Puff Adder snakes lazily sunning themselves on the road (which can easily grow up to 2.5 metres long and the width of your forearm, and are very poisonous indeed); in November, the aerial survey microlight planes spotted a new record of 138 whales in the bay; I got within inches of some very timid antelope – Eland, Kudu, Bontebok and Oryx, as well as 2 Rhino only 30cms away from me and had my eyes jump out of their sockets when I saw over 100 flamingos in our local lake.
Wild Fires gut the Cape region -
In January there have been over 16 out of control bush fires that have swept through the Cape region.
2 huge fires have very nearly burnt all the sides of Table Mountain, leaving it bald and charcoaled (one started by a 32 year British backpacker – who was arrested for manslaughter after the fire claimed the life of an old lady).
Even bigger news than that - we had a huge bush fire near Hermanus last week - it started near Napier (near Cape Agulhas) and spread along an area covering 70 kms long and at least 10 kms wide - it raged for 6 days and the smoke went out to sea, straight across Walker Bay and over to Cape Point – the fires only stopped when it went across the road between Hermanus to Gansbaai and got to the beach and hit the sea - Die Kelders (a suburb of Gansbaai) only just about escaped, with about 200 metres of ground between the edge of the fire and the first row of houses. People had to be evacuated for a day from their houses and the road was closed by police for 2 days. It destroyed not only vast areas for farmland and Fynbos but also claimed most of the 5 star Grootbos Nature Reserve. It has now left a huge eerie, sandy and chard landscape that is very bear and empty, which experts say will take at least 5 years b4 it returns to some state of normality. Newspapers claim it was set off by a farmer welding an irrigation pipe. Nutter!!!
This all adds up to a lot of destruction but is even more complicated by the Fire Brigade being on strike for the past few weeks.
Percy Tours organises personalised tours -
Well what a fab time we have had recently – Percy Tours has over the last 4 months organised and delivered 5 outstanding VIP individualised tours for European clients.
Check our new “Testimonials” web page for a run down –
http://www.percytours.com/testimonials.html
Some covering the enormous distance of 5000 kms. From the Mother City of Cape Town, all the way to Port Elizabeth and all points inbetween.
One tour (thank you Chris and Davina – we had a great time showing you the many sights of Southern Africa) even started in Victoria Falls, with Percy Tours escorting our clients there on helicopter flights, a safari trip to Chobe in Botswana, colourful and buzzing markets, river cruise up the Zambezi and elephant back treks.
With all clients opting to do so many different activities from - paragliding, tree canopy rope slides 25 metres off the ground, great white shark diving, whale watching, sandboarding, quad biking, kloofing, bungee jumping - to the slightly more relaxed pursuits of - very scenic river boat cruises through 1,000 year old forests, elephant parks where you actually touch them all over – have you ever felt behind an elephants ears b4 ?? If not, then you will do on a Percy Tour as it defies belief; Safaris to see all manner of wild animals in their natural environments; many spectacular deserted beaches, Cape of Good Hope, lofty mountain tops, deep canyons and gorges, immense fertile plains and valleys growing every crop imaginable; wine tours of Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Hermanus, Bonnievale, Constantia, Ashton and Montagu; Eco rain-forest restaurant hide-aways; horse riding, pampered chilled out massages and 5 star luxury accommodation.
Cuisine decadence is never far away either – kudu, springbok in chocolate sauce, Kynsna oysters & champagne, warthog, ostrich, huge lobsters & prawns, cape salmon, eland, nouveau cuisine and a la carte, sushi, crocodile, all washed down with wines from the 1000 or so wine farms in the Western Cape.
It was great to escort by mum and her man Brian around for their 2 week non-stop tour. I think mum finished off over 8 rolls of film, crazily snapping away pictures of nearly every scenic view and wild animal.
My mate Roger (accompanied by his lovely lady Bev) came over for his 2nd time in a year to bask in the heady atmosphere of sun drenched South Africa. My kidneys needed some recovering after those hedonistic parties.
With my Dad and his fab girlfriend Judy, visited this fabulous country at Christmas to see what all the fuss was all about and left very elated indeed.
With Percy Tours having a further 3 tours booked & confirmed over the next 3 months, including 14 Italians for a 8 day trip and a group of 6 nurses from the UK.
18 Russians -
It was Percy Tours utmost pleasure to have escorted 18 fantastic Russians around the Western Cape over a 9 day period in early January. With 2 minibuses, 2 trailers, 3000kms covered, scuba diving amongst seals and cage diving with great white sharks. Visiting Oudtshoorn – Cango Caves, wildlife park (with it’s all new Crocodile cage diving facility), Ostrich farm and the magnificent Tsitsikamma for tree top slides and eco-tours of the forests.
And by heck did this lot know how to party – frozen bottles of Vodka drunk by the gallon, with the very best seafood of lobster and prawns and some mad dancing each night. Percy Tours was worn out just watching the utter mayhem unfold. Great fun!!
Currently Touring with -
In late January, Percy Tours zipped 2 friends from Devon (Tom & Sara) around Cape Town and the Overberg region for 2 weeks. Sun downers, big steak braais, township tours, dazzling markets, Table Mountain (luckily afew days b4 the huge fire engulfed the mountain), wine tours, on safari to see loads of animals, kloofing and sea fishing trips. They were so happy here that they kept insisting that they were going to stay forever. Fancy another lobster, a Amarula Dom Pedro or some more deep fried ice cream?
Time Out – Cape Town magazine -
Well it’s about time you went down to your local news agent, cos the all new Time Out magazine of Cape Town is on the shelves – and feast your eyes on page 22 as there’s an advert by Percy Tours in there. With a secret “Special Offers” website page for you to obtain some nutty bargains and freebies while here. Check it out folks!!
Percy Tours gives birth !! -
Well it’s a hearty congratulations to Percy Tours on the birth of our new arrival – yes we have a 2nd minibus, and not just any old minibus – this beauty has even more luxury than our 1st minibus. With even more power in the engine department and many more added luxury features – isn’t it about time you reclined into some real 5 star VIP treatment with us?
DJ sessions -
Pounding Purple Percy has immerged from a long slumber to rock 2 parties recently. Firstly a New Years Eve house party attended by over 40 adoring fans (cough cough !!) and a 30th birthday party on an isolated farm.
Needless to say much merriment and tom foolery was had by all, with not a single rotten fruit or vegetable being thrown at the stage thankfully, cos it’s a blighter to get off computer keyboards and amplifiers.
Percy Tours website continues to grow -
Latest additions to our website http://www.percytours.com are –
“Flights & Insurance” page with an affiliation with the much respected Ebookers.com, who now handle all our flights and travel insurance requirements for our clients.
“Testimonials” page with genuine comments from our past clients – honest :-))
“Partners” page with all our important business partners.
Many more luxury tours and activity schedules on our “Tours” page.
As well as over 40 new pictures on our "Photo" pages at –
Percy Tours Photos
Go on, spoil yourself with an incredible holiday with Percy Tours in South Africa.
See you here very soon :-))))
www.percytours.com
Designer Tours of Hermanus, Cape Town and the Western Cape region.
