World Cup 2010 preparations and Football fixtures.
Cape Town’s Green Point World Cup 2010 football stadium site is certainly taking space. Check out the pictures below – the 1st one taken in December 2006 and the 2nd taken in April 2007. As you can see, the old stadium is just about demolished and the digging of the foundation works of the new stadium are clearly visible, taking over a huge piece of land from the oldest golf club in South Africa, much to the annoyance of the clubs golfers. This stadium is designed to hold over 68,000 supporters and will be 16 stories high, which will dwarf the surrounding buildings when finished.
Stadium, airports, roads and many construction sites across South Africa, for the World Cup have now all started in earnest and are really taking shape fast.
We have had visits by FIFA officials, as well as 2 members of the German national side - Bayern Munich's Philipp Lahm and Piotr Trochowski from Hamburger SV visited Soccer City in Johannesburg on 11th June 2007, before attending a press briefing at SAFA House, the already finished headquarters of the 2010 World Cup. Both were here to see the progress being made by South Africa, in planning this footballing extravaganza and they are very happy with what they saw.
The Africa nations pre-qualifying games are continuing to happen, with South Africa winning its last 4 matches in a row. Carlos Alberto Parreira is happy with progress so far, but realises that much more work is still needed, as well as he is trying to organise games with afew South American sides in the near future, so as to give the South Africa national side something to really think about by play against much stronger opposition.
South African Premier Soccer League champions Mamelodi Sundowns will get the chance to test their skills against one of the world's most famous clubs when they face Barcelona at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria on 20 June, 2007. Whether or not Barcelona will bring a full strength side to South Africa remains to be seen. The team is loaded with world class stars, with none bigger than Ronaldinho, who was named Fifa World Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005. It is rumoured that the cost of bringing Barcelona to South Africa is somewhere in the region of R25 million.
This follows recent news that Tottenham Hotspur will also be visiting South Africa to take part in the Vodacom Challenge against local sides Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates - an annual three-way mini-tournament sponsored by Vodacom. Last year Manchester United were here for this mini-tournament and games were very well attended by South African fans.
Amazingly Percy Tours has already received 3 tour enquiries about the 2010 World Cup, all of them from USA, so we are not too sure which advertising campaign has hit the USA T.V. stations but it seems to be working. As we have exactly 3 years to go before this incredible footballing festival, it’s all alittle too early to be totally confirming things, with Hotels and Airlines not committing to anything just yet either, but Percy Tours does have a plan. That is to buy a Corporate Suite at the Cape Town stadium, so that Percy Tours are able to accommodate a good number of our clients in one go. These will have air-con, t.v’s, dining area and waitress service, so that we are able to enjoy each game in utter luxury. We have already made enquiries with 7 sporting event organising and hospitality companies and will be keeping in constant contact with them so that Percy Tours is at the top of the list when these suites become available. More news when we have it.
Wines, Olives and winter arrive.
Over the last 3 months the local wineries and olive farms have been in full swing, with harvesting and crushing grapes and olives, which certainly made our Wine Tours even more interesting for all to observe. Harvesting is done in our autumn months, with the vine leaves taking on magnificent shades of red and brown colours across the wine farms hills. Afew weeks later they shed their leaves and the entire wine valley takes on a very plain and bald appearance, so quite a contrast in a very short space of time.
Percy Tours website gets a face-lift.
After 3 months of very hard work, Percy Tours is proud to announce that our website now has a sexy looking upgrade, with loads of new photos, loads more colour, brand new flash film at the top of pages and much more. To be added next week, will be a menu page with over 30 different Articles on all sorts of relevant tourism topics. Check it out at – www.percytours.com
And don’t forget to check out our monstrous collection of over 200 photos of this incredible region, with 35 brand new photos -
Over 200 amazing Percy Tours Photos
Much needed holiday. Phew!!
Well even we at Percy Tours need to relax and have a holiday too, so we decided to venture into the interior of the Western Cape and explore the pretty Route 62. This was the original road that the colonial explorers took by ox-cart way back in the 1700’s. Thankfully we travelled by luxury minibus and stayed a delightful B&Bs, so we were way more refreshed and pampered than the early explorers were. This scenic route is also one of the Western Cape's major wine regions, so much sampling by us was heartily enjoyed too.
Massive increase in Tourism numbers to South Africa.
It sure has been an amazing year for the South African tourism industry, as the total number of tourists had a big increase of 21%. There were 7.5 million visitors in 2005 and 9.5 million tourists in 2006. The vast majority arrived overland from neighbouring countries, but we still had over 2 million arrive by plane.
Business conferences, concerts, shows & festivals of art, food, wines, fashions and music and all sorts of gatherings have also helped to swell these figures too. Cape Town is THE destination in Africa for conferences, accounting for over 70% of the continents business to business meet-and-greet events.
Recent and new discoveries by Percy Tours.
We love this Province so much, as nearly every day we find a new discovery.
One that the ladies will most certainly love too was our recent visit to a chocolate making shop. All their fine creations are made there on the premises and we certainly over indulged ourselves by buying loads of assorted flavours. Yummy!!!
Then there was the day that we discovered by complete accident - a sex shop....that sadly isn’t a sex shop at all. Shame really!!! Ronnie’s Sex Shop is actually a bar and restaurant stuck in the middle of nowhere, on the Route 62. So indulgence of another kind all together :-))
Hidden away in a quiet suburb of Hermanus we discovered quite the most fabulous new restaurant, the Hornbill. Run by a young and enthusiastic head chef called Jon, his culinary venue not only has delicious delights but is surrounded by huge glass walls that look into an African art gallery. The large patio garden at the rear has a cascading water feature, sculptured clay totem-poles and tables set amongst all sorts of exotic plants and trees, making the whole experience a marvelous feast for the eyes and the taste buds.Cape Town’s Green Point World Cup 2010 football stadium site is certainly taking space. Check out the pictures below – the 1st one taken in December 2006 and the 2nd taken in April 2007. As you can see, the old stadium is just about demolished and the digging of the foundation works of the new stadium are clearly visible, taking over a huge piece of land from the oldest golf club in South Africa, much to the annoyance of the clubs golfers. This stadium is designed to hold over 68,000 supporters and will be 16 stories high, which will dwarf the surrounding buildings when finished.
Stadium, airports, roads and many construction sites across South Africa, for the World Cup have now all started in earnest and are really taking shape fast.
We have had visits by FIFA officials, as well as 2 members of the German national side - Bayern Munich's Philipp Lahm and Piotr Trochowski from Hamburger SV visited Soccer City in Johannesburg on 11th June 2007, before attending a press briefing at SAFA House, the already finished headquarters of the 2010 World Cup. Both were here to see the progress being made by South Africa, in planning this footballing extravaganza and they are very happy with what they saw.
The Africa nations pre-qualifying games are continuing to happen, with South Africa winning its last 4 matches in a row. Carlos Alberto Parreira is happy with progress so far, but realises that much more work is still needed, as well as he is trying to organise games with afew South American sides in the near future, so as to give the South Africa national side something to really think about by play against much stronger opposition.
South African Premier Soccer League champions Mamelodi Sundowns will get the chance to test their skills against one of the world's most famous clubs when they face Barcelona at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria on 20 June, 2007. Whether or not Barcelona will bring a full strength side to South Africa remains to be seen. The team is loaded with world class stars, with none bigger than Ronaldinho, who was named Fifa World Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005. It is rumoured that the cost of bringing Barcelona to South Africa is somewhere in the region of R25 million.
This follows recent news that Tottenham Hotspur will also be visiting South Africa to take part in the Vodacom Challenge against local sides Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates - an annual three-way mini-tournament sponsored by Vodacom. Last year Manchester United were here for this mini-tournament and games were very well attended by South African fans.
Amazingly Percy Tours has already received 3 tour enquiries about the 2010 World Cup, all of them from USA, so we are not too sure which advertising campaign has hit the USA T.V. stations but it seems to be working. As we have exactly 3 years to go before this incredible footballing festival, it’s all alittle too early to be totally confirming things, with Hotels and Airlines not committing to anything just yet either, but Percy Tours does have a plan. That is to buy a Corporate Suite at the Cape Town stadium, so that Percy Tours are able to accommodate a good number of our clients in one go. These will have air-con, t.v’s, dining area and waitress service, so that we are able to enjoy each game in utter luxury. We have already made enquiries with 7 sporting event organising and hospitality companies and will be keeping in constant contact with them so that Percy Tours is at the top of the list when these suites become available. More news when we have it.
Wines, Olives and winter arrive.
Over the last 3 months the local wineries and olive farms have been in full swing, with harvesting and crushing grapes and olives, which certainly made our Wine Tours even more interesting for all to observe. Harvesting is done in our autumn months, with the vine leaves taking on magnificent shades of red and brown colours across the wine farms hills. Afew weeks later they shed their leaves and the entire wine valley takes on a very plain and bald appearance, so quite a contrast in a very short space of time.
Percy Tours website gets a face-lift.
After 3 months of very hard work, Percy Tours is proud to announce that our website now has a sexy looking upgrade, with loads of new photos, loads more colour, brand new flash film at the top of pages and much more. To be added next week, will be a menu page with over 30 different Articles on all sorts of relevant tourism topics. Check it out at – www.percytours.com
And don’t forget to check out our monstrous collection of over 200 photos of this incredible region, with 35 brand new photos -
Over 200 amazing Percy Tours Photos
Much needed holiday. Phew!!
Well even we at Percy Tours need to relax and have a holiday too, so we decided to venture into the interior of the Western Cape and explore the pretty Route 62. This was the original road that the colonial explorers took by ox-cart way back in the 1700’s. Thankfully we travelled by luxury minibus and stayed a delightful B&Bs, so we were way more refreshed and pampered than the early explorers were. This scenic route is also one of the Western Cape's major wine regions, so much sampling by us was heartily enjoyed too.
Massive increase in Tourism numbers to South Africa.
It sure has been an amazing year for the South African tourism industry, as the total number of tourists had a big increase of 21%. There were 7.5 million visitors in 2005 and 9.5 million tourists in 2006. The vast majority arrived overland from neighbouring countries, but we still had over 2 million arrive by plane.
Business conferences, concerts, shows & festivals of art, food, wines, fashions and music and all sorts of gatherings have also helped to swell these figures too. Cape Town is THE destination in Africa for conferences, accounting for over 70% of the continents business to business meet-and-greet events.
Recent and new discoveries by Percy Tours.
We love this Province so much, as nearly every day we find a new discovery.
One that the ladies will most certainly love too was our recent visit to a chocolate making shop. All their fine creations are made there on the premises and we certainly over indulged ourselves by buying loads of assorted flavours. Yummy!!!
Then there was the day that we discovered by complete accident - a sex shop....that sadly isn’t a sex shop at all. Shame really!!! Ronnie’s Sex Shop is actually a bar and restaurant stuck in the middle of nowhere, on the Route 62. So indulgence of another kind all together :-))
And continuing with the food and drink theme; Percy Tours attended the grand opening in Hermanus, of a new winery, restaurant and deli in the Hemel en Aarde wine valley – La Vierge. With commanding views of the valley from its panoramic windows, Rabbit on its menu, local farm produce in its deli and the only winery in Hermanus to produce a champagne – then this venue will go very far in a very short time we think.
For those for us in Hermanus who love our chilli, we are now in deep shock to discover that not only has our favourite and only Chinese restaurant now moved to Somerset West but that our Thai restaurant has also shut-up shop. If anyone wants to make some seriously big money, then you could do no better than to start up a restaurant catering for Chinese, Thai and Indian foods, because this large seaside town is now gagging for these styles of cuisine, as we have none available. Save us from KFC and Wimpy, hit us with oriental munchies, please.
And we even found the only Tequila factory in the world outside of Mexico, so we obviously had to explore that and do some tastings of their amazing liquor.
While we were on Safari, we were privileged and over-joyed to see a family of 10 cute little Meerkats playing and jumping around, about a metre away from our safari jeep.
While exploring during our holiday we found a very rare sight – SNOW. Yes snow in South Africa is very rare indeed, so when we found complete mountain ranges covered in the stuff, we had to investigate first-hand and throw snow-balls at each other.
Plettenberg Bay in the Garden Route was also hit by snow and their beach was covered in the stuff for one short day. The last time it snowed there was way back in 1957.
Cycling madness.
The Western Cape holds many cycle races each year which attract loads of locals and foreigners alike. Take the Pick’n’Pay race, which this year had 38,000 mad people cycle from Cape Town city centre down towards Cape Point and return up the western coastline thro’ Camps Bay and back into the city. That’s one heck of a lot of people zipping around on bikes.
Then afew weeks later there was the Cape Epic - a mountain bike race over 1,000kms and 8 days of hard racing, which starts in Knysna in the Garden Route, heads inland and finishes at Stellenbosch. The nearby town of Kleinmond hosted one of the stop-overs, so we went to investigate this huge biking event.
Recent visitors to Hermanus.
One of our most recent “famous” visitors to Hermanus were the male strippers – the Chippendales from USA. Stripping off during the winter can’t be that much fun, so I truly hope that the lady audience were not too disappointed with what they witnessed,...or didn’t witness :-))
Only afew Southern Right Whales have been spotted so far, but over the next 6 months we will be again rewarded by the majestic sights of these massive gentle giants of the sea coming to Hermanus and Walker Bay. Last years record number spotted in one day was 172 whales.
That’s it for now folks.
As a side line, please read the report below this one, for a quick run down about what Hermanus (and Percy Tours) has to offer you.
Many thanks all, chat soon,
Percy :-)))
www.percytours.com
Designer Tours of Hermanus, Cape Town and the whole Western Cape region.
