Percy Tours Adventure Reports

Cape Town - Film and Music Stars flock here.....

2011-12-18T20:21:00.000+02:00

Cape Town attracts the Movie Stars and the Music Stars of the world…..

Cape Town is fast becoming THE place to be seen and work by many international Rock Stars and Movie A-list Celebrities, with many new Hollywood block-busters being filmed here, while musicmega-stars are flocking here to perform in our new spacious Green Point stadium.

The recent opening of the ultra-modern andhigh-tech Cape Town Film Studios is the largest movie filming studios in thesouthern hemisphere (costing R5billion to build) and is attracting many American film studios with largebudgets to bring their projects here.

The 4 huge film studios cover 17,000 sqm,while located right next door are many film related companies offeringeverything from - set production, 3D film studio (where the 1^st 3Dmovie filmed in Africa finished production just recently – Dredd – the follow-upto Judge Dredd); costume design; editing suites; make-up; special effects;there are even luxury houses and accommodation for stars to chill-out, do someoffice work, rehearse their lines or cook a meal while waiting for their timeto be on the movie filming set – and a whole lot more are all here in thepurpose built huge complex on 200 hectares.

The list of recent movies filmed in CapeTown is most impressive – Halle Berry was here in late 2010 to film the sharkmovie “The Dark Tide” / “Dredd” finished filming it’s 3-D action epic in Feb2011 and cost R245million to produce / Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds werehere in March and April 2011 filming “Safe House” – while the next James Bondis predicted to start filming here in November and December 2011, especially asthe 25^th Bond book is set in Cape Town and scheduled for a Cinemarelease date of October 2012.

Before that we had - Clint Eastwood's “Invictus” in 2009 with Matt Damon andMorgan Freeman / the sci-fi “District 9” in 2009 – the follow-up “Elysium” ispredicted for a late 2012 production and will co-star Matt Damon, Sharlto Copley and JodieFoster / “Flashbacksof a Fool” in 2008 with Daniel Craig / “10,000 B.C.”in 2008 / HBO's Iraq-war series “GenerationKill” in 2008 / “Blood Diamond”in 2006 with Leonardo DiCaprio / “Lordof War” in 2005 with Nicolas Cage………..

"There are only a few places on theplanet that can handle this kind of movie," says Dredd's British co-producer AndrewMacDonald, whose credits include Trainspottingand The Beach. "Cape TownSouth Africa is comparable to any ofthem."

Nico Dekker, CEO of Cape Town Film Studios, is quoted as saying – ‘There is adirect correlation between the film industry and the tourism industry. Studieshave shown that for every unit of money spent on making a film in a countrythere is a 2½ times impact factor on the larger economy. So for a film likeDredd, the R100 million ($12.5million) spent has a knock-on effect of R250million ($31million) into the South African economy.’

All great news

Indian Bollywood movie stars utterly loveCape Town and South Africa too, after the IPL cricket tournament was held herein 2009, which brought loads of Indian celebrities and cricket fans here forthe 1^st time and they keep coming back for more holidays andbusiness visits – such as – Anil Kapoor, Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty, SuneilShetty and Karina Kapoor.

South Africa produced 23 films lastyear, with an estimated budget spend in South Africa of $3millions each;which directly creates 1,200 jobs and in-directly creates another 4000 jobs

International Music Stars can now performat the impressive Green Point Stadium, with recent concerts by Coldplay, Seal,U2, Neil Diamond, Irish rock band The Script, Kylie Minogue, James Blunt,Roxette, Justin Bieger, German rock band Rammstein, Earth, Wind and Fire,Esperance Spalding, George Benson and Fatboy Slim…………

And that’s not all – many internationalfamous Rock Stars and Movie Celebrities are flocking to Cape Town for holidays with their families.There are many reasons for this, with obviously our massive amount ofincredible activities, great restaurants, amazing wine regions, magnificentscenery and Safari wildlife being large attractions, but it is also the factthat famous Stars do not get hounded and pestered by the annoying paparazzifollowing their every move, meaning that they can relax fully and get on withenjoying being normal humans :-)))

These high-profile visitors are not onlyspending a lot of money on their holidays here by staying at luxury 5 starlocations, but by regularly updating their Twitter, Facebook and Blog pagestheir fans are finding out that Cape Town is amazing and are equally followingin their foot-steps by coming to Cape Town to see where their idols have filmedmovies or played their concerts.

Each set of Stars also have largeentourages of crew-workers and assistants following them and they also requireaccommodation, places to eat and enjoy the attractions that Cape Town has to offer

Many Stars love Cape Town so much that they decide to buyholiday homes here, with Brad Pitt and Elton John to name but afew, each owningplush mansions on the Atlantic seaboard.

Check out some of the Youtube video clipsof forthcoming Cape Townfilmed movies at –

Safe House - www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWzTOoOpFa8

Dredd - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv0JkODids0

Cape Town Film Studios - http://www.capetownfilmstudios.co.za/

ENJOY

Compiled and authoredby movie and music fan Percy Tours in Hermanus, South Africa – www.percytours.com

As ever we are all over the internet with loads of jovial and informative natterings – so why not check us out at –

Percy Tours Business Page on Facebook

Percy Tours Profile Page on Facebook

Percy Tours on Twitter

Percy Tours 100s of photos on Flickr

Percy Tours Youtube videos

Until next time, cheers,

Ronel and Percy at Percy Tours, Hermanus, South Africa.

www.percytours.com

Designer Tours (& transfers) of Hermanus, Cape Town and the whole Western Cape region.

Stanford evolves - (near Hermanus, South Africa)

2011-05-09T22:11:00.000+02:00

Quite obviously none of us can ever be in 2 places at once (however much we try or wish for) and within my profession as a Tour Guide, we escort tourists to many fascinating and wonderful locations within the Western Cape, that have changed since we last visited.

Things in life never stand still and the evolution of tourism attractions is no expectation, so when I did a little trip to Stanford (near Hermanus) recently I was very happy to discover many new delightful developments – the village Main Road has certainly transformed its once empty and drab business units into thriving colourful enterprises that brighten up the whole street.

Just outside the village, one such place that jumped out at me with original uniqueness was the Sir Robert Stanford farm where Madres fabulous country kitchen is situated. When I was last here, there was only Madres culinary delights to entice you, but now within 100 metres of her lovely restaurant there has sprung up a thriving little cottage industry of inter-related creativity and some very novel businesses.

Try the Grappa distillery for example, or the Glass art making foundry – when did you last visit one (or both) of those on a working farm? Never in my book of life, until now.

The Grappa is fermented and distilled in their wood-fired kettle, using the grape skins and pips left over from the estates wine making processes, which are then thrown into the vineyards as organic fertilizer (handy bit of re-cycling x 2), that now produces 3 types of Grappa and 4 types of Schnapps – yummy! The Glass-Works produce from scratch, funky multi-coloured one-off pieces of art, jewellery and kitchenware, plus offers courses on how-to-make your own designs.

And that’s not all – sandwiched between these units are – a new Wine Tasting room that proudly promotes 6 local wineries wines, (there can’t be that many tasting rooms that allow other producers wines to be tasted that are not made on its owners grounds) – and across the pretty water trough gardens is a Arts and Crafts shop offering all manner of locally produced items.

So the next time you go out towards Gansbaai on the R43, do yourself a favour and stop for a while and discover the evolution of quaint Stanford and the Sir Robert Stanford farm stalls – you will not be disappointed.

Madres Restaurant Kitchen – Madre Malan – 028-341-0647 / 082-901-4254
Stanford Glass Décor – Bradley Froud – 082-727-8000
Wine Tasting room – Alta Dempsey – 082-854-5078
Art and Crafts stall and/or Grappa / Schnapps distillery – contact Madre

Authored by – Percy Tours / +27(0)72-062-8500 / http://www.percytours.com/

Hermanus Activities, Tours and Adventures report - Update 22

2011-01-16T16:43:00.000+02:00

UPDATE 22 - October 2009 to January 2011

Yes a whole year has swiftly flashed in-front of our eyes and what a stunning year it has been, with many incredible events, crowned by the utmost glory of South Africa hosting a very successful FIFA 2010 World Cup.

World Cup 2010

The whole country got totally behind every football match and for 4 weeks national pride shone thro’ on the streets, with multi-coloured flags hanging from every building and nearly every car and person wearing a flag, t-shirt or banner of some country or the other; the country was awash with every colour of the rainbow. It was a month long party with smiles on every face – euphoria in huge abundance…… Ayoba - as we say down here :-)

The Vuvuzela horn was trumpeted everywhere, much to the annoyance of some watchers, but as Sepp Blatter stated early on – this is HOW South Africa celebrates football - some countries prefer to sing songs, some prefer to do Mexican waves, here they blow on horns….

Games very well attended indeed; the crowds were very enthusiastic, including at the rammed free-to-attend Fan Parks in loads of locations across the country, where there were gigantic TV sound systems, loads of food and drink stalls and musical bands - and everywhere the whole country was trouble-free, demonstrated very clearly by the huge lack of activity at the 56 special Magistrate Courts that were set up across the country to deal with any naughty boys and girls. These court officials were bored senseless and equally the same has to be said for the 26 countries that bought over their special Football Police detectives – they must have thoroughly enjoyed sitting around for 4 weeks of donuts and coffee, while watching every game on tv and doing absolutely zero work whatsoever :-))

South Africans are traditionally much keener watchers of Rugby and Cricket, but suddenly they found a brand new sport to support and they totally absorbed it in their millions. How any work got done during the 4 weeks is still a mystery :-))

South Africa’s 1st goal has been widely considered as being the best goal of any World Cup opening match by many sports commentators.

Percy Tours were busy and lucky enough to escort 4 separate groups to matches in Cape Town, while we sat at the very buzzing and crowded V&A Waterfront, where literally 1000s of fans packed the bars and restaurants, with 100s of massive flat screen tvs in all directions showing the footy. It didn’t matter who you supported, it didn’t matter how old or young you were and it certainly didn’t matter what language you spoke cos all that mattered was to celebrate watching the emotions, glory and spectacle of football.

Then in week 4, Percy Tours got a big wake-up call – literally – at the brain-shattering time of 02.30am on the 6th July we were rudely awoken by a 5 star hotel in Hermanus – “Please could you collect 152 Uruguayan fans from Cape Town airport at 08.30am and bring them to the hotel?” – “You are kidding, ain’t you?” we say sleepily – “NO, please can you help us, PLEASE” - SO we jumped into action and arranged a convey of vehicles…..the next 3 days are a massive blur of high octane action, adventures and laughter – that we enormously enjoyed and will never forget……with the last day crowned by escorting 52 of the group down to Cape Point and back again. We slept for a week after that. With Spanish not being Percy Tours' best of languages and English not being theirs, communications for a starter were “interesting” to say the least. This short mention of events over these 3 days is only the very tip of the iceberg and I could quite easily write a small book about the entertaining events…..maybe I will some day :-))

For those pundits who were stupid enough to predict that South Africa could not pull-off this world class event, they must have been sick to the back-teeth with having to eat SO much humble-pie.

Anyway there are loads of stories that I could easily tell you, but there is much more to fit into this newsletter………

We also got into the soccer fever that spread the country and started to do our-bit by sponsoring a group of young Township lads to start their own football team - initiated by one large-hearted lad Trevor, who wished to keep his friends busy, active and involved in something - other than lowering themselves into the negative effects of booze, drugs and crime - so he started Rangers FC.......after only their 1st season they achieved 7th place out of 16 teams and were reward by the Hermanus Township amateur football association with a nice prize which they will invest in new gear for their players - with so many items required they don't yet know what they will buy - 14 pairs of shorts / 14 pairs of socks, shin pads and a pair of goaly gloves / 14 pairs of boots......
However Percy Tours did think that we should slightly spoil them and reward them for their hard work - so we decide a little christmas party would be a good idea and so we supplied afew chickens for their Braai and afew crates of beers to wash it all down with :-))
So here's a little video clip on Youtube of their party - sing along everyone -

Rangers FC Christmas party

Whales in Hermanus

Someone obviously phoned the mermaids this year, because the Whales started to arrive at Hermanus 2 weeks before the World Cup started and they also came in amazingly large numbers too. The whole Whale watching season was one of the best ever, with them staying around until well into late December. Rare sightings of 2 albino baby Southern Right Whales in the bay at the same time also hit the head-lines.

Great White Sharks in Hermanus

Equally Great White Shark cage diving trips have been fantastic too – and on the day before the England vs. Algeria game at Cape Town, there were an unheard of before 7 helicopters parked up next to the shark boat harbour – that’s a lot of very rich people invading the sleepy port to get their fix of high-adrenaline-adventures, encountering big teethy fish.

After the World Cup.....

After all of this World Cup action Percy Tours decided it was our turn to go on holiday, so we packed our bags and headed north for a 2 week 4000 kms road-trip exploration to the enormous Kalahari Transfrontier Park – for some hot weather, empty enormous spaces and some intoxicating African safari game watching. To say that this place is huge is the under-statement of your life - 9000 sq kms is inside South Africa / and a further 28,000 sq kms is inside Botswana AND there is NOT a vehicle or human in sight for 100s and 100s of miles - just 1000s of African animals running around doing-their-thing in NATURE - and not a tarred road, telephone post or building for 100s of miles - it is utterly mind-blowing wilderness and nature, with the sun, the wind, the call of African animals - sure beats being stuck in a traffic jam in any part of the planet - the thought that springs to mind is magnificent open wildness.
Welcome to the wilderness of Africa - can you spot a car, building or anything human-made? NO, cos thats why it is SO amazing here - NATURE - it is truely awe-inspiring

We also stopping on the way, at Sutherland for some breath-taking star gazing at the southern hemispheres largest optical telescope. Check out how amazing the moon is at a magnification of just x75 -

Wines

In late 2010 a “secret” wine suddenly went on sale in Hermanus – Southern Right 2004 Sauvignon Blanc – nothing amazing there you might think but what set this aside was where it had been stored – 2 years ago 420 bottles were placed in big metal cages and lowered into the cool Atlantic ocean at the Hermanus New Harbour and left to “do its thing”; reappearing with all manner of sea creatures attached to each bottle. The optimum storage temperature had created a wine that was in fact extremely delicious and when the 420 bottles were released for sale, they were sold out in one day, not surprisingly. And here’s some of these rare and exclusive bottles in our possession – any offers? :-))

Along the very same lines (weirdly) – in Finland in late November 2010, afew very rare bottles of champagne were opened for the wine experts to sample. These bottles were found in 2007 under 45metres of sea water and all 168 bottles were from the wreckage of a schooner that had sunk between 1825 and 1830 – YES these bottles of wine and champagne had been submerged for nearly 200 years. Found were bottles of Veuve Clicquot and Maison Juglar. When opened, they were amazingly still very drinkable and hence will be worth an absolute fortune to the salvage team.

Before this event, the oldest bottle of drinkable champagne was thought to be a 1825 Perrier-Jouet / while also in Nov 2010 a world record was set for the selling price of one imperial sized bottle of Cheval Blanc 1947 which sold at auction in Geneva for a staggering $304,375.

Christie’s has reported that their wine auctions across the planet topped $71 million for 2010 and are thankfully back up to the same levels as 2007, before the recession. In early 2011 Sotheby’s will be auctioning off some of Andrew Lloyd-Webbers collection. While Chicago-based Hart Davies Wine reported annual sales of $40 million, an increase of 63% over 2009. New York Zachy’s reported sales of $56.5 million. There is quite obviously afew people on the planet with a huge amount of money who love to splash-out on high quality wines.

More down to earth – the new John Platter South Africa wine book arrived and proclaimed that South Africa had moved up to the 7th largest producer of wine in the world, with just over 1million litres produced.
Corporate clients, famous people and much more...

Percy Tours has over the last year entertained and arranged activities and tours for some pretty high calibre clients - we organised Kayaking with the Whales of Hermanus for a National Geographic film crew and their group of 8 international ambassadors - soon to be aired on National Georgraphic's TV channel - check it out; Wine Tours for a conference group from Unilever - who we next week saw on national South African TV; Whale watching boat trips for a conference group from Unitrans; did restaurant transfers for THE queen of South African estate agents Pam Golding herself; chartered Whale and Shark watching boats for a very rich Arab during the World Cup - for just him, his assistant and 5 body-guards; a Wine Tour and activities for a 110 persons here for a Fruit'n'Veg conference; and transported about over 25 wedding groups from church ceremonies, party receptions and back home safely at 02.00am in the morning.......plus many more we cant mention due to Confidentially Agreements hahahaha!! Yeah right, maybe next time :-))))

Hermanus Activities

Luckily for all who visit Hermanus there are always new and exciting activities to experience and one company has taken things to new levels, by offering – Quad Biking thro’ olive groves, vineyards and up onto the high mountain tops over-looking Hermanus; as well as introducing for the first time here a place to do – Archery; Wall-Climbing and Tree Top Canopy rope slides – with the last of 12 slides being promoted as the longest rope slide in the Western Cape at a length of 120 metres. Paint-balling army games and team building events are also available – so that’s one large dollop of fast and furious action in one spot.

To promote and market all that there is to do in Hermanus, Percy Tours has launched afew more informative and user friendly websites – so please check out –
Hermanus Activities, Tours and Adventures
Whales, Whale watching and boat trips of Hermanus
Tours, Transfers and Adventure in Hermanus and Cape Town
Great White Shark cage dive and Whale watching boat trips

and we will soon be launching 2 other websites that are dedicated to other singular Activities, more info when we have it :-))

High Praise indeed

While one past very happy client, with lady and 3 energetic youngsters in tow, SO utterly loved his holiday with Percy Tours that he just had to sing his high praises – being a free-lance Journalist and Writer, he decided to write on his local lifestyle magazine website – and without me even having to cross-his-hand-with-silver – so here is his and his family’s account of their 2 week holiday around Hermanus and Cape Town with Percy Tours –
Fran and Suzanne's report of their 2 week family holiday with Percy Tours

Thank you Fran, Suzanne, Oscar, Ellie and Annabel – see you on holiday in SA again soon.

Christmas 2010

This festive season brought to our pretty little seaside town the usual invasion of over 200,000 holiday-making South Africans who just utterly love our delightful and relaxed atmosphere. With families enjoying our sandy beaches, doing all sorts of fun-packed Activities, while partying, consuming large amounts of booze and braai-ing (BBQ) being the order of the day.

So until next time -

As ever we are all over the internet with loads of jovial and informative natterings – so why not check us out at –
Percy Tours on Facebook
Percy Tours on Twitter
Percy Tours 100s of photos on Flickr
Percy Tours Youtube videos

Until next time, cheers and have an outstandingly excellent 2011 everyone

Ronel and Percy at Percy Tours, Hermanus, South Africa.

www.percytours.com

Designer Tours (& transfers) of Hermanus, Cape Town and the whole Western Cape region.

Whale Talk magazine hits the Hermanus streets

2010-12-09T21:14:00.000+02:00

Hermanus has over the last year obtained a rather excellent monthly magazine - Whale Talk - so please check out their website and all the fabulous Percy Tours articles too - http://www.whaletalk.co.za/

While of course keeping a very good eye on our websites too - we have expanded -

http://www.percytours.com/
http://www.hermanusactivities.net/
http://www.whalehermanus.com/
http://www.hermanustours.com/

chat soon, cheers :-) :-))

Hermanus Activities, Tours and Adventures - what to see and do

2010-05-27T17:27:00.000+02:00

Hermanus Activities, Tours and Adventures website goes live

Please click here - Hermanus Activities, Tours and Adventures website

Yes if you are looking for loads of info on Activities, Tours and Adventures in Hermanus, then you now have a very informative, user-friendly and comprehensive website that tells you ALL about whats available, what it costs, accommodation, transport, tours, excursions, day trips and loads more info......

From Full-on Action to Laid-Back Pursuits, Hermanus offers you 100's of options on what to see and do while visiting our gorgeously pretty seaside town. Whale watching and Great White Shark cage diving are the major attractions, but there are loads more attractions to explore and discover....

Check out - Hermanus Activities, Tours and Adventures website

Hermanus activities and attractions with Percy Tours - mid 2009 - Newsletter 21

2009-10-27T20:44:00.000+02:00

March to October 2009

Well since our last Blog Newsletter (yes it sure was ages ago) we have had the end of summer, dived into our South African winter and straight out the other side into Spring and early Summer. Yes cold weather lasts a short time here thankfully. YEEHAA!!

Since being in Hermanus for 7 consecutive summers now, I have to say that this last summer was by far the hottest and longest, which we all totally enjoyed. Bring on the next heat wave please :-))

Percy Tours on YouTube (finally)

Yes it has taken Percy Tours alittle while to broadcast our Video Films onto YouTube, but we have got it sorted now, so please check them out and enjoy our short movies of this amazing region – Beaches, scenery, wines, Whales, Sharks, Safaris, Penguins and much more action and adventures at –
Percy Tours YouTube Videos
Percy Tours has loads of new photos for you to enjoy at our Gallery site, so check them out by clicking here at - See over 200 Percy Tours Photos

Whales are here in Hermanus

Hermanus is world famous for our Southern Right Whales and they are now here in great numbers, with last weeks aerial Whale count being 141 in the bay, 40 being new-born. The largest number of Whales ever counted in our bay in ONE day is 193 whales in October 2008. Let’s hope we can beat that figure this year. A brand new glossy and excellent coffee-table book called Hermanus Whales, was launched afew months ago by a local wildlife photographer, which took him 6 years to compile his excellent pictures.

Hermanus local Radio station

Percy Tours has now been broadcasting our weekly “Tourism Matters” radio show on Whale Coast 96FM since Feb 2009 and has discussed many important tourism related topics about our beloved town. Wines, Sharks, Whales, Art, Music, Festivals, 2010, sport, famous visitors, Restaurants, Accommodation, activities, places to explore and much more…..Our musical play-list is equally as diverse – chill-out, African, dance, rock, world and many points in-between. One day we might even get live-feeds of our shows onto the internet…….

SPORT -

WOW what an enormous amount of utterly excellent sporting events we have had take place in just afew months –

Cape Argus cycle race

Early March saw the annual and massive Cape Argus bike ride take 30,000 nutty amateur and professional cyclist from Cape Town city centre down to Cape Point and up the western coastline via Camps Bay. It was one heck of a windy day and it sure did blow the cobwebs away. Percy Tours transferred 6 cyclists from Hermanus to the start line, with them all surviving the cycle ride, where upon we celebrated by attending a rather excellent steak braai party held by local Cape Town celebrity chef – Peter Goffe-Wood

Matt Damon also rode in the Cape Argus.

Hollywood Movie filmed here

Matt Damon was here with a Hollywood movie film crew for 6 weeks, to film “The Human Factor”, which is due to be released across the planet in December 2009. The movie is described as “a look at the life of Nelson Mandela after the fall of apartheid in South Africa during his first term as president, when he campaigned to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup event as an opportunity to unite his countrymen.”

The film stars Morgan Freeman as Mandela and is being directed by Clint Eastwood. The film centres on South Africa’s 1995 Rugby World Cup win and Damon plays Springbok captain at the time, Francois Pienaar. They were all staying at the Cape Grace luxury 5 star hotel at the V&A Waterfront, Cape Town.

Clint Eastwood was also spotted entering the trendy Wafu restaurant in Cape Town, with a life-size blow-up doll under his arm, to celebrate the birthday party of cameraman friend Steve Campanelli. That must have been quite an entertaining sight.

Another Eastwood family member staying here with dad, also caused a stir at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival. Clint’s son Kyle played bass with his band – and has also performed and composed many film-scores, including for his father’s films of – Mystic River, The Rookie and Flags of our Father.

British and Irish Lions rugby tour

Rugby hit South Africa in a big way for 6 weeks, with the visit of the British and Irish Lions tour. Following them were over 50,000 energetic and enthusiastic British rugby fans who invaded every city that held games and injected into the South African economy over R1billion, which was a very welcome boast to our winter tourism market. With this influx, SAA had to organise 32 additional internal flights for travelling fans.
Percy Tours did a day tour for a coach load of 38 players from Royal College Oxford Uni who were here as part of the Lions entourage – we even had 2 of the Lions girlfriends touring with us too – 1st we did some scenic sight-seeing of Hermanus and then down to the Township to teach rugby to 400 delighted school kids – all fabulous fun.

FIFA Confederation Soccer Cup

At the very same time, the FIFA Confederation Cup was held over the last 2 weeks of June and show-cased the skills of Spain, Italy, Brazil, USA, Iraq, Egypt, New Zealand and South Africa. If you thought some of these lesser sides were going to be a push-over, then think again – South Africa and USA surprised everyone with their very much improved footballing talent; with South Africa only losing 1-nil against Brazil in the semi-final. USA made it all the way to the final, showing some outstanding talent and narrowly losing 2-3 to Brazil.

Each of the 4 match venues will be hosting 2010 World Cup games and the Local 2010 Organising Committee did an incredible job to bring these stadiums up to fantastic international standards.

The crowd attendance was equally as marvelous, with South African fans getting really into celebrating every single game that was played.

Judging by this show-case tournament, South Africa can be truly proud that the World Cup 2010 will be a world class event.

2010 World Cup

FIFA 2010 World Cup tickets have been selling-like-hot-cakes, with over 1million applications for the 1st 743,000 tickets and the second bunch selling faster than FIFA had predicted, probably after organising such a successful Con Fed Cup and the world watching these fabulous games on worldwide TV.

The draw for who-plays-who-where will be held in Cape Town Green Point Stadium on the 4th December, obviously after all the qualifying games have occurred.

We have it on good authority that the German national team will be staying permanently at the 5 star Arabella Western Cape Hotel and Spa, which is 20kms from Hermanus. The England team are rumoured to be staying at Knysna and Italy are viewing Pretoria as their camp. These are just gossip and rumours currently and we will confirmation more when we get it.

Carlos Alberto Parreira (Brazilian mega-star-coach) is back to coach the South Africa national soccer side Bafana Bafana – plus organising international training sessions to be held in Brazil for 4 weeks in January and another in Germany during April – both of which are designed to throw all manner of foreign teams against the South Africa players.

2010 Stadiums – all 10 are nearing completion – Green Point in Cape Town turned on its impressive lights last week and is scheduled to have – a soccer game in Jan 2010 with 20000 fans attending; a rugby game in Feb 2010 with 40000 fans and a gospel music night in March with the whole stadium full to the rafters with 70000 people.

Photo taken on 12th November, 2009 - this is one stunning Stadium, with the roof now on, the seats in place and the grass on the pitch - one amazing feature is that the sides act like a lamp-shade, so when all the lights are on inside, it shines and radiates thro', while illuminating the surrounding city - incredible :-))

For tons of excellent photos of how Cape Town Green Point stadium is coming along, then please check out this fab photo group on Flickr -
http://www.flickr.com/groups/southafrica2010/pool/
Loads more 2010 info when we have it, you can be sure of that :-)))

IPL Cricket

The Indian Premier League Cricket teams were hastily moved to South Africa, where they brought an amazing amount of Bollywood show-business colour and party atmosphere to every cricket match, during mid-April to the end of May. These matches were “bash-every-ball-as-far-as-you-can” events and so each match was utterly fast and furious entertainment.

Vodacom Challenge

Manchester City recently visited to play soccer matches against the Kaiser Chiefs and Orlando Pirates in the annual Vodacom Challenge. Man City received a right royal whipping of 2-nil against the Pirates one weekend, but finally immerged as the tournaments victors.

Ever wonder where un-used and old airplanes get moth-balled?

South Africa of course; deep in the hot and dry desert area of the north of South Africa is Upington airport which has turned itself into a massive “car-park” for planes. With the global down-turn, many airlines and the military can not afford to keep running loads of planes, so they “park” them here to be looked after. This has created a large amount of local jobs for this quiet town, as these expensive toys need constant attention.

The Upington air strip is SO large that it is one of 4 designated landing areas on the planet for the Space Shuttle, should it ever wish to land here. So it other words, it has a vast area in which to park airline and military jets who are lovingly looked after, to be ready for aviation action when (and if) their time arises again.

The USA already has the monstrous Sonora desert site, but it’s getting alittle too ram-jammed. Average total inventory value there is a whopping $27billion. Average value of all these planes in Upington is currently about $400million (and growing).

Hermanus Festival season

The Festival season in Hermanus fired-into-action, from the 2nd weekend of August, which presented not 1, but 2 major events at once.

The annual Hermanus Food and Wine Fair show-cased 70 local wineries and wine makers presenting over 270 wines for you to sample, while the Kalfiefees was 5 days of Afrikaan music, comedy and partying.

The food hall at the Wine Festival had budding celebrity chefs cooking-up-a-storm; local organic farmers selling their fresh produce; cigar and brandy lounge and local bands keeping our feet tapping. This years Wine Festival had over 5,000 people attending each day and was a roaring success.
Percy Tours was commissioned by the Wine Festival organisers for the 3rd year running, to be their official chauffeur transfer service, as they wished for no-one to drink’n’drive and arrive home alive. Very wise idea.

Flower festival at Fernkloof was a delightful show of our beautiful floral species, with the central flower display being designed and constructed by David Davidson who has won many awards at the Chelsea Flower show in London.

The annual weekend of the Whale Festival in late September attracted over 80,000 tourists to celebrate our majestic gentle giants of the ocean.

While the Stanford Bird Festival had “twitchers” all excited about our many bird species.

The 3rd Great White Shark Festival is soon to happen.

Recent media publications

Hermanus (and Percy Tours ) have had quite a lot of media exposure recently – you must check out a fabulous new book called “Route 62 & the Overberg” that is a 220 page glossy guide book all apart our region. Published by Getaway and Sunbird Publishers ISBN: 978 1 919938 91 2

Out There Travel magazine had a 2 page colour spread on Hermanus, our whales and tours with Percy Tours.

Whale Talk magazine – our monthly 8000 print, 36 page glossy colour publication hits the shelves with Tourism related articles written by us too :-)) – check out their fab website to read our articles, all laid-out like a real magazine in your hand, with each page flipping to the next pages (really lush) – Whale Talk magazine

And Royalty

As a last note – Percy Tours was utterly honoured to have escorted around our pretty, lovely seaside town, our 1st ever royal client – Prince Rana of Nepal.

Regards and love to all

Ronel and Percy Heywood – Percy Tours, Hermanus, South Africa.

Contact us for more details on how we can assist you on your perfect South Africa holiday, at - travel@percytours.com

www.percytours.com

Designer Tours (& transfers) of Hermanus, Cape Town and the whole Western Cape region.

Hermanus & Cape Town - Newsletter 20 - Percy Tours

2009-02-26T08:45:00.000+02:00

This Newsletter is rammed full, so happy reading it all or you will most certainly miss out on loads of interesting & important info :-))))

Hermanus wins the “Town of the Year” competition

After 3 months of frantic voting from across the entire country of South Africa, Hermanus has won the coveted award of “Town of the Year in South Africa” via the Rapport national newspaper, who’s readership is over ½ million South Africans.

The prize for this award is not only loads of media coverage but also that our local Tourism board will attend the DSTV & Gateway Magazine travel show in Jo’burg in September 2009, where they will be given a large stand for free to promote our delightful seaside town to the amassed crowds. (Last years attendance at this show was 535,000 people.)

Hermanus also won the prize, run by Cape Town Routes Unlimited, by being voted as one the “Top 10 must-do-events in South Africa”, for our annual Whale Festival, which is held in late September each year.

USA visits South Africa
In mid-September 2008, 110 NBC American basketball stars visited Jo’burg to bring “Basketball Without Borders” to inspiring & aspiring young South African kids to show-case that there are other sports out there on the planet than soccer.
South Africa’s Wines keep winning awards

South Africa swept the board at the Decanter World Wine Awards on September 1, 2008, reports Adam Lechmere.
In an evening full of surprises, South Africa emerged triumphant from the Decanter World Wine Awards. South Africa won 12 Regional Trophies & an amazing 6 International Trophies – among them the International Bordeaux Varietal Trophy (Under £10) & the International Rhone Varietal Trophy (Over £10), Cederberg Shiraz won in the Rhone category, while Amani Vineyards Cabernet Franc-Merlot took the Bordeaux Trophy.
Only 26 International Trophies are awarded. The only other region to come close was Australia with 4 – but it entered hundreds more wines.
Against intense competition South Africa swept the board in Chardonnay, winning the International Trophies in both the Under £10 & Over £10 categories with Paul Cluver Elgin & Rustenberg Five Soldiers respectively – beating the best that the Burgundy, Australia & Washington State could offer. Then South Africa took the International Sauvignon Blanc Under £10 Trophy – beating top Chilean & New Zealand wines.
South Africa is the fastest-growing category in the UK off-trade wine market, growing by 13% in volume, against a total market growth of only 1.1%. The country's value sales also grew by 13%, making it the 5th largest country in the UK market. The UK accounts for a ¼ of all South African wine exports, which totalled 300 million litres in 2008.

The new John Platter South Africa wine book came out in mid November & as always the wineries around Hermanus were awarded some very high accolades for their fabulous wine creations.
South Africa's grape harvest is just about to start now - 3rd week of Feb 2009.

2009 – looking at the year ahead & what an amazing one it will be

British & Irish Lions Rugby tour of South Africa

The British & Irish Lions will be visiting South Africa during June 2009, touring 7 cities over 6 weeks, with 10 matches including 3 test matches against the 2007 World Cup Rugby champions The Springboks. Percy Tours has teamed up with a specialist Rugby company to offer VIP hospitality seats to any & all the games. These amazing hospitality tickets totally guarantee a seat with loads of luxury thrown-in too & range in price from R1850 (£123) for initial games, to the final match tickets at R3995 (£266). For further info on this tour & all relevant match dates, please contact us at – travel@percytours.com so that we can discuss & organise your entire Rugby holiday in South Africa.

The Springbok rugby emblem must go due to political correctness gone wrong – so now all of South Africa’s international sporting teams will be called Proteas, how confusing is that going to be – crazy world we live on isn’t it?
Cricket matches

Australia & England international cricket tours all occur this summer, so prepare for these incredible sporting events.

Sailing

The Volvo Ocean Race is the F1 of yachting races, generating R275million to the local South African economy, which sailed into Cape Town at full speed in mid-November & WOW what a carnival of boats, parties on huge floating venues, high action & sexy male & female sailors loving to just wonder around in tight shorts & showing off their athletic bodies.
Oh & the Volvo new cars on display were worth looking at too :-)))

The Volvo TV film crew of 25 from Germany, Russia, NZ, UK & USA also visited Hermanus for a full day of filming the whales, meeting our whale crier, exploring the town, meeting the tourists & local people.
Knysna Heads, Garden Route, Western Cape

It's been a while since Percy Tours went to the Garden Route, so it was lovely to do a quick 3 day tour down there over Christmas with a bunch of Aussies.
FIFA World Cup 2010 Stadium at Green Point, Cape Town

The 2010 Stadium is coming along very well (as you can see from the photo below). The entire main building is now complete, minus a roof, which will be connected to the circular rim above the grandstands, and seats which will take no time to put into place. Oh and I guess they better put some grass on the pitch too :-)))

The first qualifying soccer games of the 2010 World Cup games were played around the planet in early Sept.

Home Affairs (SA govt dept.) is to reduce the red-tape requirements for African citizens who have tickets to watch the games & hopes that these efforts will reduce the time it takes to go thro’ passport & customs controls that are currently stringent for African continent people to enter South Africa.

The stadium construction at Cape Town’s Green Point is now up to the top of the grandstands & the roof rim is in place. The next job is to insert over 10,000 pieces of glass that will cover 5 hectares.

VARIOUS STRATEGY PLANS -Road closures around the FIFA stadium perimeter & precinct are not uncommon & are not specific to South Africa. This is the norm for most mega-events including the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games & other major sporting events. The transport plan for the Cape Town stadium & CBD in general is based on years of planning & consultation with international experts & previous World Cup Host cities. This level of planning, preparation & investment is unprecedented in South Africa & Cape Town.

Western Boulevard from the city to the stadium will be closed on match days, open only to general traffic for about 5 hours before matches. It remains open to the FIFA Family, Accredited Vehicles & public transport which includes the City's new BRT system & other shuttle services (and Percy Tours of course :-)))) for which detailed planning has been going on for over 3 years.
The BRT (bus rapid transport) system consists of dedicated lanes & modern new buses which will run from the Airport to CBD, provide an inner CBD circulation service & will provide a link from the city to the stadium, V&A Waterfront & Atlantic Seaboard.
The second link to be closed runs from the refurbished Cape Town Central Railway Station along Somerset Road to the stadium. This is termed the “FIFA Fan Mile” & provides entertainment & a fully pedestrianised zone. This was highly successful during Germany 2006 & allows for the separation of pedestrians & vehicles leading to the stadium. The closure of roads & streets is nothing new to Cape Town, as there are many festivals, night markets & shows that take place throughout the year.
Several sites just outside the CBD will act as park & ride areas for vehicles & buses & every constituent group has been accounted for. The summary of the Cape Town Host City Transport Operations Plan can be found at the following link.

The detailed version presented to FIFA is not available to the public -
http://www.transport.gov.za/2010/Documents/HostCities/2010%20WC%20-%20City%20of%20Cape%20Town.pdf

This graphic should help to make some sense too –
i129.photobucket.com/albums/p210/rfataar/Cape %20Town%2020...

The stadium is on schedule & perhaps even a few days ahead of schedule. It's completion date is 14 December, 2009. The completion date allows a 6 month time frame before the World Cup which is ideal. Beijing's Olympic Stadium was completed 4 months before the Olympic Games. The stadium will host 3 test events in 2010, in February, March & April. I assume the "opening" would be in February.

Percy Tours will be constructing a full 2010 World Cup Blog in the next few weeks, including how we will be supplying you with TICKETS, packages & tons more info………keep an eye out for this.
Confederation Soccer Cup

Between 14 to 28 June, 2009, the Confederations Cup (football) will be played in South Africa, between the national soccer sides of - Spain, USA, Italy, Brazil, Egypt, New Zealand, South Africa & Iraq!!?? - who will battle it out at 4 stadiums - Jo’burg, Pretoria, Rustenberg & Bloemfontein.
Percy Tours can also be of assistance to you for this event too. For those wanting more info, please check out - http://www.fifa.com/confederationscup/index.html

Kaapse Klopse Bands 2nd Jan 2009

The annual show of fabulous colour, music and festival splendid hit Cape Town's streets on the 2nd January for the Kaapse Klopse.
Miss World

Miss World competition was hastily moved from Ukraine to South Africa, giving a huge boast to local fashion designers.

112 of the worlds most beautiful ladies were in South Africa to compete for the title of Miss World. The organisers had to hastily move the competition from Ukraine after troubles in that country & this created a sudden & very welcome blast of action to the costume & dress designers of SA as they showcased their garments on all 112 ladies.

Major of the Year

Cape Town’s major Helen Zilla was named as "The Worlds Best Major of 2008", by an international judging panel & deservedly so, as she does exactly what she says she will do & spends the local councils money where is it most needed – township housing, education, hospitals & many other important social up-liftment areas.

Recent famous visitors to Cape Town

Music – Lionel Richie was here in mid Nov / Rod Stewart in Dec / Maroon 5 early Dec / Goldfish at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens on NYE.

Prince Harry & William were here in mid-October to participate in the 8 day Enduro Africa 2008 Motorcycle rally with 88 other riders, to raise R5million for charities in Lesotho & South Africa, which set off from Port Edward & ended in Port Elizabeth. The entire group helped build swings, a jungle gym & paint crèches at various locations including Morgan Bay on the east coast.

How can booze be collectible and worth so much

Booze really can’t get any more expensive than this (can it?) – on 29th October a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue whiskey from 1805 was auctioned in Jo’burg, with only 200 bottles ever being produced & this bottle being the only one ever put up for sale – I spose the others were drunk centuries ago :-)).
It started at a reserve price of R190,000 (£12,666) for the bottle or = to R5277 (£350) per shot, this must be the most luxurious bottle of alcohol on the planet. Well maybe not, according to Forbes the only bottle to beat this was a 1929 Macallan Fine & Rare valued at R437,000 (£29,000). Still – what a price to pay for a sip of booze and more importantly – what occasion really warrants you opening any of these bottles – & would you share it with your friends??
Banking survey

We all know the world is currently in a financial mess but a recent in-depth analysis of the worlds banking systems came up with some quite amazing results, with them stating that South Africa’s banking system is the 15th best in the world – USA 44th & UK 45th.

Canada has the world’s soundest banking system, closely followed by Sweden, Luxembourg & Australia, a survey by the World Economic Forum has found as financial crisis & bank failures shake world markets. But Britain, which once ranked in the top five, has slipped to 45th place behind El Salvador & Peru, after a £50 billion ($86.5 billion) pledge afew months ago by the government to bolster bank balance sheets.
The United States, where some of Wall Street’s biggest financial names have collapsed in recent weeks, rated only 44th, just behind Germany at 39 & smaller states such as Barbados, Estonia & even Namibia, in southern Africa.
(SOURCE: World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009 – Reuters.)
Mad Charity Bikers

28,000 motorbike nutters hit the roads of Cape Town in one massive convey that went on the Bear Run on 30th Nov, which is a toy charity drive to collect money & toys for the under privileged kids of the townships.
VW expansion program

VW plant at Port Elizabeth grows even further by building a brand new paint spray factory & components manufacturing buildings, at a cost of R2billion & creating over 1000 new jobs, so that will be a total of 7500 people being employed here.

South Africa is a bargain holiday destination

Don't take our word for it - check out what a Reporter for MSN pages says, which will inform you that South Africa is still an absolute bargain to go on holiday to – check out his report at -

http://travel.uk.msn.com/inspiration/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=12520796&imageindex=7

Percy hits the brand new Hermanus Radio Station - WHALE COAST 96FM

Yes we have a brand new radio station beaming out over a large geographically area & reaches over 100,000 people in & around Hermanus.
Whale Coast 96FM went live 2 months ago & Percy Tours has started DJ-ing an important 2 hour show called Tourism Matters on Monday evenings, which discusses every conceivable tourism topic, while also playing some very diverse music – check out what this local website page says for a full run-down about the show -

http://www.overberginfo.com/content/view/1048/601/

Oh and we are also very proud to announce the wedding of Ronel & Percy on 1st November which was attended by many friends & family.

Various new photos of the wedding and as usual many new Percy Tours photos are to be found on your Gallery site, so check them out by clicking here at - See over 200 Percy Tours Photos

Contact us for more details on how we can assist you on your perfect South Africa holiday, at - travel@percytours.com

Until next time - have a good one and keep an eye out for our World Cup 2010 Blog in the next week or so, cheers - Percy & Ronel :-)))

www.percytours.com

Designer Tours (& transfers) of Hermanus, Cape Town and the whole Western Cape region.

WORLD CUP 2010 - TICKETS & loads more info....

2009-02-19T07:28:00.056+02:00

WORLD CUP 2010 in South Africa
Ladies & Gentlemen roll-up for the worlds largest sporting spectacular, which is set to explode into action in less than 480 days time. (11th June to 11th July, 2010).

The soccer FIFA World Cup is going to be utterly massive & as it will be played for the first time on the African continent, you can expect the additional thrills of African adventures like - Big 5 Safaris, Whale watching & Great White Shark cage diving to entertain you between matches.

Percy Tours recently had a 2 hour face-to-face meeting in Cape Town with the official Ticket Issuing company, so that you (and I) know what's on offer & all the finer detail of how this process will work.

The most important question that people are asking is - How do we obtain tickets to watch the football?

This is a fair enough question, but there is quite alot of other information you need to digest before we get to that issue, so let's just look at what's what -

There will be 3 million tickets issued - 1 million to be sold in South Africa, 1 million sold in the rest of the world & 1 million will be allocated to all the FIFA officials, Corporate Sponsers like Coca Cola, Visa card, Adidas, Emirates & Sony, the 32 countries teams & their officials & families etc....

There are 10 stadiums & the start & final games will be held in Jo'burg.

Ticket allocation (for normal seats) will literally be a Lottery, by which people put their names forward for all the matches they wish to watch & then they will be pulled at random out of a hat. For the 1 million South African tickets, these are only limited to South African citizens at a maximum of 4 tickets per household & for a maximum of 7 matches.

On the 20th February 2009, there will be 800,000 tickets "released" to South African citizens & registering for these will be up to the 31st March. The 1st random selection will occur on 15th April 2009 & tickets will be issued 1 year later in April 2010.

The average price of these tickets is - $139 (R973) each, with the cheapest tickets for category 4 tickets being $20 (R140) each, while the most expensive tickets for the final will be $900 (R6300). The category 4 tickets will make up 15% of all tickets sold (450,000) & will only be sold to South African citizens.
(Source - Cape Times newspaper 19th February, 2009.)

So how the heck do we all avoid such a mad random Lottery process??

The easiest & simplest solution & the one that Percy Tours will be adopting is - offering Hospitality Tickets that we buy NOW & guarantee you a seat 100% of the time. These will obviously be a little more expensive, but due to the South African FIFA World Cup only happening once in our lifetimes, i think you will agree that it will be well worth spoiling ourselves :-)))

There are loads of different options available, so let's go thro' these -

There are 3 seperate Hospitality options -

Private Suite - the ultimate viewing pleasure, in a private suite, with waitress service, food, drinks, air-con, flat-screen TVs, comfy sofas & loads more absolute luxury - you walk afew metres from your dining table, open large glass patio doors & your seats are right there.

Shared Suite - as above, but Shared with other people, so perfect for large groups or Companies wishing to spoil their staff or business clients, etc.........

Executive Hospitality - these are massive air-con luxury marquees erected in a "Soccer-style-Village", literally metres outside the stadiums, where you will be dined & pampered in fabulous comfort. Then when the match begins you walk a short distance into the Stadium & take your seat for the game. These seats will be the closest to the pitch & are the first tier of seats up from the touch-line. Incredible viewing, I hope you will agree :-)))

N.B - Now FIFA are being alittle bit cheeky - many of these packages MUST be purchased in multiples of 4 for Shared or Executive, therefore meaning that if you just wished to watch the semi-final & final of 2 matches, you will need to buy a minimum of 4 tickets for each match - therefore meaning - 2 matches x 4 tickets = 8 tickets.

RECENT NEWS FLASH - NOVEMBER 2009 -
2 things were announced recently - the Executive tickets are now called Business Seats and more importantly - the prices for them has been discounted drastically from $1450 to $950 - thats about a 35% saving - good news :-))
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Ok, thats the seating arrangements, now to the ways you can watch the matches -

1. The Big 5 Series - this is the utter cream-of-the-cream product - watch a staggering 36 matches. This is designed for groups of 15 to 32 seats in one go & totals 850 tickets. This being the largest single ticket allocation, with SO many matches means that it is rather costly - are you ready for the price??? $1.5million, yes you read that right $1.5million - for a Private Suite. Phew-y that is quite abit of cash :-)))

Moving on swiftly :-)))

2. Gauteng Series - watch ALL the matches in the 3 stadiums in Jo'burg and Pretoria - 21 matches in total, 550 tickets for 15 to 32 seats. Private Suite is a total price of $962,500, Shared Suite is $31,500 x minimum of 4 ticket packages = $126,000.

3. Venue Series - watch ALL the matches at ONE stadium. As there are 10 stadium & each one has different quantities of matches being played, then this means that there are loads of options, but let's just explain one so you understand the logistics & pricing.

Let's say you wished to watch all the matches in Durban which will host 7 matches & you wanted a Executive seating package - then that would be 7 matches priced at $9,800 each, with a minimum of 4 tickets purchased = 4 x $9,800 = $39,200.

4. Final Round Series - there are 3 options here -

This product is ONLY available at an Executive Hospitality level, which means a minimum of 4 tickets must be purchased.

4.1. Series 4 - watch 4 matches - Round 16, 1/4 final, Semi final & Final, going via PE, Cape Town, Ellis Park & Soccer City. Cost - $14,000 x 4 tickets = $56,000.

4.2. Series 3 - watch Cape Town & Durban Semi-Finals & Final at Soccer City. Cost - $15,000 x 4 tickets = $60,000.

4.3. Series 2 - watch Cape Town OR Durban Semi & then the Final at Soccer City. Cost - $12,000 x 4 tickets = $48,000.

5. Team Specific Series - Follow your team from venue to venue, with 2 available products -

5.1. - Team Specific Series 3 - watch JUST the first 3 Group matches of your team - OR -

5.2. - Team Specific Series 7 - watch ALL 7 matches played by your team and if they are knocked out at any stage then you watch the Round 16 & Semi at Cape Town, before going to the Final at Soccer City, Jo'burg.

Costs -
Series 3 - minimum of 4 Executive tickets x $4,500 = $18,000.
Series 7 - minimum of 4 Executive tickets x $17,500 = $70,000.

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Other info -

To allow you to not be constantly packing & unpacking your suitcase, how about staying in one accommodation place in one city & get flown to each match in the morning & flown back again that evening? I quite like that idea :-))

Oh & on the accommodation side of things - get this - FIFA has taken EVERY room in EVERY 5 star hotel in Cape Town - that is not only a huge amount of people staying in absolute luxury, but a city where all the partying will be done by the rich & famous (it would appear)!!!

So forget 5 star hotels in Cape Town, if you were on the look out for that - because it will not be available. (Other Accommodation suggestions are mentioned below).

Large Fan Parks outside each stadium will allow those without tickets to watch each game at that venue on enormous TV screens, with many additional facilities.

FIFA has commissioned exclusively 32 jumbo jets from Emirates.

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To the nitty-gritty - PAYMENT conditions & rules -

Yes all this gorgeous luxury & enjoying yourself has to be paid for & FIFA is being VERY stringent in it's conditions - here's how it works -

Apply for tickets, with the Application process taking about 10 to 20 days - so as to make sure that Terrorists, Ticket Touts, Soccer hooligans & many other undesirables are not allowed to purchase tickets.

Then an acceptance letter is sent out - 30% deposit MUST be paid within 30 days.

Then another 30% is due before 30th June 2009,

and the final 40% is due before 30th November 2009.

If Application paperwork is presented after 1st July 2009, then 60% deposit is payable within 30 days & the remaining 40% before 30th November 2009.

ANY deviation from these payment terms & your application is thrown out - with a cheeky sub-clause stating that we might not get our deposits refunded ever.

Our Hospitality tickets will be issued in January 2010, 3 months ahead of the "normal" tickets.

Percy Tours is insisting with the Ticket Issuing company in Cape Town that Percy Tours will personally collect these tickets IN PERSON & no 3rd party is to handle our tickets.

Lost tickets are just like lost tickets to any concert - NO re-printed tickets, NO refund, NO entry to the venue - so NO fun basically :-(((

Each ticket will have on it - ID details, embossed, freud counter-strips & many other completely individualised & personalised details of EACH person / company that purchased the ticket. Therefore completely stopping Ticket Touts, or anyone selling-on tickets, or stolen tickets being used by the wrong person/s.

Plus FIFA will be strictly enforcing a policy of NO selling-on-for-profit for any tickets purchased. Minimal Booking Arrangement & Management fees are allowed at a very small add-on price.

ALL prices quoted above are the cheapest you will obtain & are the very same prices across the entire planet that FIFA has set in place & every official ticket issuing agent will quote you that exact same price, as we are all going straight to the official Ticketing company. Plus there will only be ONE totally official company in each geographically region issuing tickets.

So ladies & gents these are the rules of engagement & we had better play by their rules as they hold all the cards - or should that be TICKETS :-)))

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Percy Tours ideas and logistics (and big advantage to YOU) -

Personally we are up for the Executive packages. Obviously we can arrange ANYTHING you want, but so as to save you all a huge amount of time, hassle, heart-ache, stress and to obtain guaranteed tickets, Percy Tours will apply for all our required tickets in one go & "bundle" our ticket applications together.

"Bundling" tickets together helps YOU because there are bound to be people who will want quantities that are not divisible by 4. So let's say you want only 2 or 5 or 7 tickets etc.... Percy Tours will collect together all these odd numbers together & apply for all these tickets for you in one collective organised group. Meaning everyone gets exactly what they want :-)))

What also will occur is that Percy Tours will have all our seats together in one specially allocated area, so we all know where we are sitting for meals & the matches in the stadiums.

Just to give you a small understanding of the logistics from our side - we are currently sitting on over 35 enquiries from around the world, totalling over 470 people (currently), wishing for us to assist them with their ticketing, transportation, tours, accommodation & activity requirements. Now i would be a fool to dream that all these existing 470 people will finally book with us, but we also have to consider that these are the very organised ones and Percy Tours is bound to obtain many more enquiries as the clock starts to tick down to match day & if I were realistically modest I would guess we could be looking at about 1,500 people possibly wanting our help.

Percy Tours will also be booking all your Accommodation & Activities that you wish to do between soccer games.

Accommodation - we deal with every conceivable type of accommodation establishment, from - Backpacker Hostels, B&Bs, Guest Houses, Lodges, Wine Farms, Game Parks, City apartments, Beach side Chalets to Penthouse Mansions, 1 star to 5 star Hotels & everything in-between.......

Please inform us of your budget per person per night & your desired type of accommodation in which location & we will research, arrange & book it all for you too :-))))

Activities - Not only will all the football keep you very busy, but South Africa is an adventure play-ground offering 100's of diverse activities too. Please check out our websites "What to See and Do" page, where at the bottom of the page is a Clickable link to a comprehensive page of 300 different things to do -

http://www.percytours.com/what-to-see.html

Many Thanks everyone and chat to you very soon to discuss your desired wishes and requirements.

Percy & Ronel - Percy Tours / travel@percytours.com

www.percytours.com

Designer Tours (& transfers) of Hermanus, Cape Town and the whole Western Cape region.

Copyrighted by Percy Tours C.C. South Africa.
Please ask our permission before you copy any or all of the information in this Blog - we thank you every much :-))

Newsletter 19 - Hermanus with Percy Tours - March to August 2008.

2008-08-30T15:00:00.024+02:00

Hermanus Coffee-Table BOOK

After 3 years in the making, the glorious, glossy and full-on colour Hermanus lush coffee-table book is finally launched at the Marine Hotel and oh my is it a wonderful creation to keep you trance-fixed cover-to-cover.

This gorgeous hard-back book is a 210 page delightful creation that has only had an initial limited pressing of 5,000 copies, so get a copy NOW, because it is a treasure-trove of outstanding pictures, history and incredible stories of the lovely & pretty seaside town of Hermanus.

Nelson Mandela celebrates 90 years old
It is unlikely that you were able to escape the world’s phenomenal media exposure of South Africa’s giant-of-giants Nelson Mandela, who celebrated his 90th birthday at so many locations around the planet. The London Hyde Park concerts were televised on SA TV on his birthday and a week b4 the date. Happy Birthday.

Football
Man Utd were in South Africa in July 2008 to play in their 3rd Vodacom Challenge against the Kaiser Chiefs and Orlando Patriots. Alex Ferguson praised the South African sides for their much improved team strategies and commitment.

The national side Bafana Bafana beat Paraguay 3-0 as well as participating in many other soccer games over the last few months. Raising some hope that the South Africa national soccer team will do a good job at the 2010 World Cup, but they have their work cut-out, especially with Carlos Alberto Parreira deciding to leave as manager of the SA national side, so as to be with his ill wife who is back in Brazil. His replacement is little known Brazilian Joel Santana.

World Cup 2010
Everything is full steam-ahead for the 2010 World Cup with construction work at all sites working around the clock. The Cape Town Green Point stadium is now up to it’s second level of grandstand seating and is scheduled to be completed in December 2009. This monster 68,000 seater stadium, which will cost about R4billion to construct and will rise to a height of 258m and was only a golf fairway 18 months ago, so it’s amazing how quickly it has grown. See picture below, taken in July 2008.

Percy Tours has been working hard in all aspects to provide an excellent World Cup for all our future clients and has been able to obtain tickets to games in luxury seating. More information on this and much more when we have it all sorted.

Luxury brand NEW minibus joins Percy Tours

Percy Tours is extremely proud to announce that we have given birth to a brand NEW luxury minibus to escort all our clients about in. Please check out the report below this one, for a full write-up on this fantastic new vehicle, which has SO many comforts that you will feel like a Movie Star while you are transported in this limousine :-)))

The WHALES return to Hermanus
From about mid May, Hermanus has had it’s annual Whale migration of Southern Right Whales arrive at our shores. The aerial Whale count at the end of August was 114 Whales in Walker Bay. The experts are predicting that the record of 172 spotted in one day in 2006 will be shattered this year. Fingers crossed that occurs :-)))

New Shark deterrent
After a 2 year research project, the Natal Shark Board has finally yielded results for a modified Shark-shield which is an electric repellent device against sharks. Fitted to an inflatable rescue boat the device is effective for up to 6 metres and will be used to steer sharks away from bathers in immediate danger of attack.

When a shark siren is activated on the beach, the rescue craft will be launched to clear bathers from the water and be positioned between bathers and the shark, obviously with the new electronic pulsing system sending out signals to ward off the shark.

King Of Jordon here for his 3rd Great White Shark diveThe King of Jordon recently arrived in Hermanus for his 3rd time to go Great White Shark cage diving, with a large group of friends who equally wanted an adrenaline fix. They drove thro town on a mass of Hayley Davidson motorbikes.

Richard Gere was also here recently to do some Shark diving, between breaks in his film shots for a new movie Amelia. Richard Gere stayed at the 5 star Marine Hotel in Hermanus for a few days.

New Shark Research CentreIf a new generation of South Africans grow up thinking of sharks as warm and cuddly, it will be partly due to a mystery benefactor who wants to help the world’s sea life. He has pumped millions of rand into buying and equipping a prime sea-front property in Kalk Bay, Cape Town, for use as a research and education centre to spread the word that humans need to be nice to sharks.

The centre is funded by the Save Our Seas Foundation, which was originally set up 8 years ago by the benefactor, who is referred to in the organisation’s literature only as “The Founder”.
Chris Clarke, shark scientist and the executive director of the foundation, said the world’s shark population was now only 10 percent of what it had been in the 1950s.

“There’s a real need for the shark centre … to teach people about marine conservation and the myths about sharks.” Clarke said the threat of shark attacks on humans was highly exaggerated. “Last year, only one person was killed by a shark in the whole world,” Clarke said. “They might bite a human, but usually when they realise it’s not a seal they let go.”

Clarke said sharks, as the top predators in the ocean, played an essential role in weeding out weak or diseased fish. “If you take the sharks out … you’ll end up having a collapse of the food pyramid. If we remove them from the environment, it would be a catastrophic event.”

Clarke is a big fan of the great white shark cage-diving industry based in Gansbaai, south of Hermanus. “It’s a very good thing. It’s a way for the public to get up close and see the animals, while learning first hand what they are all about.”

Percy Tours escorts the Discovery Channel film crew

During late March, it was Percy Tours privilege to have escorted around our pretty region a film crew from the Discovery Channel, who were here for a week to film the Great White Sharks for a film called “Surviving Sharks”, so keep your eyes out for this program during aired on their Shark Week in afew months time.

Cape Argus & Pick’n’Pay cycle race
In early March 08, the Cape Argus & Pick’n’Pay cycle race took place from Cape Town city centre, travelling all the way down to the Cape of Good Hope and back up the western coastline, closing off many roads for this feast of peddle-power. A total of 39,000 riders took part and the mens winner was Robbie Hunter, who won last year too, finishing the 110kms in 2 hrs and 27mins (5 mins faster than last year.)

Cape Epic Mountain Bike race (sponsored by Absa Bank & Adidas)
Starting in Knysna on the 28th March, 2008 was what the organisers have called “the most gruelling and exhausting mountain bike race in the world”. With 2000 mountain bike riders competing; travelling over 1000kms; ascending a total of 18,500metres; over just 8 days. At the end of stage 6 the whole race rolled into Hermanus, including the massive logistical support teams supplying not only mechanical assistance, but also - a large village of tents & mobile homes, food, drinks & bar, evening entertainment in huge marquees, medical & massage facilities, media coverage, helicopters, 4x4 vehicles & quad bikes, and much more. It’s literally like a large town on the constant march.

Food Olympics
In October 2008, Germany will hold the Olympics, but not the Olympics you are thinking of, these are the Culinary Olympics and the South African team are working hard on their local ingredients of Springbok, Crayfish and SA wines for this forthcoming event. Competing against 42 other countries, each team has to prepare and cook a meal for 110 people in just 5 hours, judged by a jury of top international chefs. South Africa currently rank at 16 in the international league after the last event 4 years ago.

Abbey National competition winners, win a tour with Percy Tours
During April Percy Tours were delighted to have provided Abbey National (Bank) competition winners with a tour that they would never forget. Staying in luxury accommodation right in the heart of Cape Town, we zipped them off to savour the excellence of Cape Town - by visiting the must-see sights of Table Mountain, Signal Hill, Long Street, African markets, Camps Bay, V&A Waterfront, as well as dining like Kings and Queens on many ethnic South African culinary delights; going on an African Safari trip to see all the African animals in their natural habitat; a Wine Tour of Stellenbosch to savour all sorts of tasty alcoholic liquids and of course shopping for those unique items for the mantle-piece back home :-)))

Hermanus Festival Season starts

The 12th Hermanus Food & Wine Festival occurred on the second weekend of August and was a massive event showcasing over 60 separate Wine Estates of the local area. Additions to this year were the Brandy & Beer Lounge, a kiddie entertainment area with clown, Punch & Judy show and much silliness, Musicians performed all weekend long to keep your feet tapping, as well as a Gourmet Food Marquee. The organisers surpassed themselves once again by providing a massive marquee village.

Over the next few months Hermanus will hold the Flowers Festival; Whale Festival and Great White Shark festival.

As usual there are many new Percy Tours photos on your Gallery site, so check them out by clicking here at - See over 200 Percy Tours Photos

Chat soon,

Percy & Ronel xxxx :-))))

Contact us for more details on how we can assist you on your perfect South Africa holiday, at - travel@percytours.com

www.percytours.com

Designer Tours (& transfers) of Hermanus, Cape Town and the whole Western Cape region.

Hermanus based Tour operator (Percy Tours) provides utter LUXURY

2008-07-16T21:40:00.009+02:00

Percy Tours has some amazing news for all wanting an amazing holiday - by having our NEW luxury VW minibus arrive, that provides utter luxury to all our clients.

YES Luxury just became much more Luxurious. (Unbelievable but true :-)))

Percy Tours is extremely proud to announce to all our clients and the local tourism industry, the arrival to our fleet of our brand NEW luxury VW minibus, that will provide our clients with the highest in utmost luxury. Add to that our entertaining & informative Chauffeur Tour Guides and you have one incredibly professional Hermanus and Cape Town touring and transfer company that prides itself on delivering 5 star services to all, now at your finger-tips :-)))

This brand new vehicle is rammed full of the most modern technology, entertainment facilities and safety items.

Including – ABS brakes, Air-bags, Traction control, comfy adjustable head rests & 3 point safety belts for every seat, CD / Radio surround sound system thro’ 8 speakers, arm rests for the front passenger seat, individual air-con & heater over-head system, individual over-head lighting, all round sun reflecting tinted windows & screens (with anti-theft strengthen windows to keep all contents very safe :-)), fog lights front & back, drinks holders, mints & sweets holder, magazine pockets for every seat, tow bar for trailer and a whopping big boot for everyones luggage. :-)))

But the BIG entertainment extra is – a large screen DVD ceiling mounted system with a set of 6 individual infra-red passenger head-phones, plus a computer infra-red game console for the kids. :-))))

The sound-track from the DVD can be played thro the 8 speaker surround sound system - OR - thro any of the individual 6 head-phone sets, while a remote control unit allows added flexibility for all on board to easily control their viewing pleasures. This unit also plays CDs, so there can be 2 separate music systems playing at once, say - one cd for the kids thro the head-phones and one for the adults thro the 8 speaker system. :-)))

Percy Tours specialise in organising completely tailor-made and individualised tours (& transfers) of Hermanus, Cape Town and Western Cape regions, with a fleet of luxury VW minibuses with Chauffeur Tour Guides on board.

Each luxury minibus is able to transport 9 persons per minibus, which our clients will have exclusively to themselves, therefore allowing loads of space to spread out in comfort while on tour / transfer with Percy Tours. We also provide many comforts while on tour / transfer, including in each minibus - a large cooler box of free ice-cold soft drinks and water, air-con, refreshing mints and sweets, many books and magazines on all sorts of local topics, binoculars, DVD / CD player with surround sound stereo plus over 100 cds covering loads of musical genres (including, African, Classical, Chillout etc.), deck chairs and sun umbrellas for picnics at beaches & scenic locations, blankets and pillows for those who wish to sleep or relax further - as well as our chauffeurs are trained to be highly proactive in engaging clients with informative, interesting and jovial conversation on every topic imaginable, while clients enjoy the scenery un-fold around them. Conversing in English, Afrikaans and some French and German.

Percy Tours do all sorts of tours, (ranging from day trips – to – full-on 2 or 3 week explorations of this incredible region), including – Wine Tours of all 4 major regions, which are one of our most requested tours – (Hermanus, Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Montagu), Safaris to game parks in the Little Karoo to see African animals in their natural environment (only 3 hours away from Hermanus), Whale watching boat trips, Great White Shark cage diving, Quad Biking, Sandboarding, Horse Riding along our huge deserted beach or into the mountains, Kayaking in the bay with the seals and penguins, Light plane and Micro-light flights over Walker Bay, Paragliding, Penguins, Cape Floral Kingdom & Botanical Gardens to explore all the incredible plant species, Cape Town area explorations, scenic road trips and all sorts of adventure sports and much more chilled-out pursuits too. Further afield tours are available too – Namaqualand Flowers, Route 62, Garden Route, collections or drop-offs at George or PE airports, etc…………..

For a full list of over 300 different activities on offer, please click our “What to See and Do” page, where there is a Click button at the bottom of the page, that pops-up a comprehensive list.

http://www.percytours.com/what-to-see.html

We also offer local Restaurant and Cape Town International Airport door-to-door services any time of the day or night.

Plus we research, arrange and book accommodation across the entire spectrum of places and prices and book all tourist activities too.

All our tours are totally individualised, thus allowing our clients utmost freedom to do exactly what they wish to do and hence Percy Tours will devise a completely personalised tour schedule after we have discussed and finalised all our client wishes, this also means that our prices are dependant upon where we go and what we do.

We devise tours to be as fast and hectic or as slow and chilled-out as YOU want.

Percy Tours is registered and accredited with – SATSA, Cape Wine Academy, Cape Town & Hermanus Tourism Boards, Overberg Tourism, registered Tour Guides with DEAT and THETA, as well as is insured to the highest level and 1st aid trained.

Contact us for more details on how we can assist you on your perfect South Africa holiday, at - travel@percytours.com

www.percytours.com

Designer Tours (& transfers) of Hermanus, Cape Town and the whole Western Cape region.

Hermanus - Newsletter 18 - Sept'07 to Feb'08

2008-02-10T04:00:00.001+02:00

Hermanus Burns (literally).

The centre of Hermanus was engulfed in a large bush fire on 16th January 2008. Taking in its wake - 6 thatched houses which were burnt to the ground, the small hill of Hoys Koppie and a huge slice of the high mountain range, some 5 kms long and 220 hectares were completely destroyed. Hermanus Golf Club and our Floral reserve of Fernkloof luckily escaped.

One fire destroyed house.....and the mountain side alight.

Added to the mayhem for the emergency services was an electricity power cut, which meant that the traffic lights were out, so the entire town was in utter chaos and the traffic police had their hands full directing traffic to safety all day.

Wines of South Africa.

The new John Platter wine book hit the streets in Nov 2007 and the crowning glory for our local wine valley, Hemel-en-Aarde, was that the wine voted the best in South Africa, against 6000 other contenders, was Bouchard Finlayson’s Tete de Cuvee Pinor Noir 2005. Sadly for those wishing to get their hands on a bottle, they have already sold out, unless of course you are willing to offer Percy Tours a large bundle of cash for the 2 bottles sitting in my wine cellar :-))))

On one of our many Wine Tours we came across one rather aptly named wine -

Sir Percy wine from Bilton Wine Estate in Stellenbosch :-))))

Rugby World Cup, France.

Even tho’ it was afew months ago, the Rugby World Cup was a fabulous event, with many mighty giants being surprisingly thrashed by smaller up-starts, making this Rugby World Cup completely compelling watching. Title holders England started off badly and everyone had them down as having a very slim chance of getting anywhere. Even the UK “bookies” had them down as 80:1 to reach the finals. So to see them enter the final against South Africa was a dramatic transformation in their game play.

South Africa has always been a mighty strong Rugby side and England were in for some very hard work to try to topple them. All credit to both sides for making the final match such a thrilling game.

Being a Londoner who has now been living in South Africa for over 4 years, I was firmly sitting on the fence, with me waving a large South African flag above my head and waving a small George Cross under the table :-)))

As for the South African public, the entire country grew to truly appreciate their sides efforts, with the press doing a fabulous job at whipping up national pride and patriotic feelings. South Africans of all social circles were wearing their country’s green rugby tops, with flags hanging off buildings and plastered all over cars and lorries.

Huge screens were erected at 100’s of locations across the country, with the Hermanus open-air auditorium having a massive screen and sound-system, which over 1000 people attended to cheer their side on.

The party atmosphere obviously got to fever-pitch when South Africa won.

South Africa’s booming economy.

If you thought South Africa was a 3rd world country with no money – then boy did you have that wrong.

South Africa still rockets-on as a power-house emerging world economy. It illustrates this clearly in the famous Jo’burg township suburb of Soweto, which is home to over 900,000 people and where the largest shopping mall in the southern hemisphere has just opened its doors on 27th Sept, 2007. Maponya Mall houses stores such as Levi’s, Woolworth’s (South Africa’s version of up market Marks and Spencer), Nike, Puma and many trendy restaurants serving up Sushi, Italian, French and Thai cuisines.

Queues of eager shoppers slept outside the mall nights before its official opening, so that they could snap up big 1st day opening bargains. Even at 9pm that day, people could be seen walking home with brand new TV’s or stereo systems in their arms; the traffic queues were so large that 100’s of extra Traffic Police had to be called into direct it.

This 3 year-to-build and R650million project was officially opened by Nelson Mandela, who has this year started to reduce his public appearances.

If this wasn’t enough of a show of economic boom, then you should see the housing market in Soweto. It is estimated that there are many new estate agents starting businesses here to cater for the large demand for houses and that a standard “matchbox” house is fetching as much as R70,000 (£5000). While larger houses in the Diepkloof area of Soweto are reaching astonishing prices as high as R1.5million. (That’s about £100,000 to you and me).

Gob-smacked? Yes you should be, it’s truly incredible how fast this “new” country’s economy is growing.

TV advert, assisted by Percy Tours.

In mid-January, Percy Tours was honoured to chauffeur around the film crew of brand new Marks and Spencers TV adverts, at their official end-of-shot party. The adverts featuring Twiggy and Jade Jagger are to launch the UK summer range of ladies clothes and were all filmed around Hermanus, with it’s pretty scenic back-drops. So keep your eyes out for these.

As usual there are many new Percy Tours photos on your Gallery site, so check them out by clicking here at - See over 200 Percy Tours Photos

2010 World Cup update.

In Durban in late November 2007, the FIFA 2010 World Cup preliminary qualifying knock-out groups were announced.

For a full listing of who is playing who, please check out their website. The top tabs of the page have each of the 4 continents/regions – Africa, Asia, N&C America and Europe -

FIFA 2010 World Cup Qualifiers

Also available is a pdf file that lists every single match during the 2010 finals and where each match will be played in South Africa. Please check out –

FIFA 2010 Match Schedule in South Africa

It is predicted that ticket sales should start in early 2009.

As for the building work, everything is going to plan, which is all good news.

Below is Cape Town’s Green Point stadium in late Dec 2007, with the new stadium now sitting where the Golf course used to be. It's foundation work now completed and the first tiers of grandstand supports are clearly visible under the yellow cranes. Quite a transformation in 12 months, I think you will agree.

Gold Miners rescued, after being trapped a mile under ground.

3,200 Gold Miners who were trapped under ground on 3rd Oct 2007, at Elandsrand mine, owed by Harmony Gold Mining Co., were finally rescued a few days later.

Their rescue high-lights the vast dangers they face working in South Africa’s gold mines which are the world's deepest, with 113 workers killed last year by rock falls, tremors and gas explosions. About 180,000 people work in gold mines in the country.

Declining output from South Africa's mines has forced companies including Harmony to dig deeper to tap the Witwatersrand Basin, the world's largest gold deposit, underneath Jo’burg. Harmony has plans to deepen the shaft to 3,566 metres to tap richer seams of gold and extend the life of the mine. While South Africa is the world's largest producer of this precious metal, production fell 7.5% to 8.85 million ounces last year, the lowest level in 84 years.

The magic of Red Wine.

Patients suffering from a number of diseases could soon be trying a new drug that has been found to be in Red Wine. SRT501 (or Resveratrol) could herald a whole set of new drugs that have been found to slow down the effects of ageing and diabetes. Trials are to start in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and India very soon. SRT501 apparently has the power to considerably reduce glucose and weight gain and if taken with another diabetes drug Metformin, amplifies these benefits greatly.

So our advice to you is – keep drinking red wine because its scientifically proven that it is good for you. Bravo we all shout :-)))

Morgenster Olive Oil does it again.

Morgenster, the Somerset West wine and olive estate, has once again been voted “The Best Extra Virgin Olive Oil in South Africa” at the recent 2007 SA Olive Awards held in Paarl. They also collected the gold award for “The Best Table Olives” with their Spanish style Nocellara green olives. These just add to their already impressive list of awards, including Italy’s L’Orciolo d’Oro winner for 8 consecutive years and gold medal winner at the Los Angeles County Fair.

Other winners at Paarl were – Hamilton Russell (from Hermanus) for their “Intense Fruity Extra Virgin Olive Oil” and Hermanuspietersfontein (from Hermanus) for their “Medium Intensity Olive Oil”.

So get down to your local supermarket and try these amazing South African products.

Shark diving nutter to be filmed free-swimming with the worlds most dangerous sharks.

A recent Discovery Channel documentary showed a South African, Craig Ferreira, free-diving (in other words WITHOUT the protection of a cage) with a 5 metre Great White Shark at Gansbaai, Hermanus, South Africa.

This first program was such a huge success when aired in USA, that the Discovery Channel has now commissioned him to free-dive with the worlds 12 most dangerous sharks known to man, dubbed "The Dirty Dozen."

The extra ingredient to these shows is his family are also filmed and they are most definitely in 2 minds as to whether it’s safe and whether all this dangerous swimming is a good thing or a bad thing. So this adds a full and comprehensive dramatic to this new series.

Certainly makes for interesting television watching :-)))

“Mr. Build-It” is back in South Africa.

Millionaire Irish builder Niall Mellon is back again in Cape Town for his 5th year in a row, to do his utmost to transform the townships, by building as many inexpensive and solid houses as he can in a short space of time.

In 2002 his team built 150 homes. In 2007 he planned to build over 5000 and has a target of 7500 new homes in 2008. Incredibly ALL this building work gets done in one week each year. Yes that's right, just one week.

In October 2007 he organised a huge army of 1350 building professionals from Eire to spend one week to construct as many houses as possible. This army give their time for free and paid for their air tickets and living expenses by fund-raising in their home country.

He also has plans to start tackling the housing shortages in Gauteng (Jo’burg & Pretoria) when he bought a South African commercial building company that specialises in low-cost housing and turning it into a not-for-profit organisation.
His aim with this company is to start a mass production of factory-made homes that can be erected quickly and has all the comfort and facilities that all normal homes have.

Music tours by local and international stars.

As it’s summer, South Africa has enticed quiet afew international music super stars to visit here, including - Mary J. Blige, Enrique Iglesias, the Black Eye Peas, Elton John, Celine Dion, Jethro Tull, Isaac Hayes, Foreigner, Gladys Knight, Seether and Dj Tiesto, with home-grown talent like Freshly Ground, The Parlotones, Watershed and Johnny Clegg doing the rounds too. South African stars Shaun Phillips, Tony Cox and Steve Newman performed at the Acoustic Earth Concert, Waldorf School in Constantia with 3000 people coming to watch.

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens are set for their large list of summer out-door musical treats, as is the winery of Vergelegen in Somerset West.

Jazz, Rock, Pop, Dance, Rave and Trance, Soul, Folk, Classical, and a huge dollop of African sounds are all catered for.

Fatboy Slim arrived in South Africa on 2nd Dec 2007 and was not only spinning loads of tunes at trendy night clubs across the country, but practised his football skills with Township kids. He was also here to announce the opening of a youth soccer training program in Cape Town with the international charity that he is involved with - Coaching For Hope.

Fatboy Slim has recently been announced as the official DJ for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Thanks all and we’ll be in touch with another Newsletter in 3 months time.

Cheers Ronel and Percy :-)))) XXXXX

PS. We will be on holiday to London in late May 2008, for those of you wishing to catch up and our wedding is planned for November 2008 in Hermanus. :-)))) XXXXX
www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus - Update 17 - June to Sept. 2007

2007-09-15T03:06:00.000+02:00

Nelson Mandela's 89th Birthday.

Nelson Mandela celebrated his 89th birthday in Jo’burg, on 18th July, 2007, which was attended by the group now being called “The Elders”.

This fine, upstanding group of elderly statesmen and women is the brain child of Richard Branson and Peter Gabriel, who approached Mandela afew years ago with the idea of bringing together a group of elder world prominent figures. This group, have no active political affiliations or ties to big business (as they are funded completely independently), are able to speak freely and openly about many issues facing the world and will work publicly and behind the scenes to address many world problems. This group now includes – Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former US president Jimmy Carter, former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, former Irish president Mary Robinson and former Chinese foreign minister Li Zhaoxing. The group is chaired by Tutu, with Mandela only taking a consultancy role.

A football game to celebrating Nelson Mandela’s birthday was also attended by past and present world soccer stars, including Pele, Ruud Gullit and former Leeds United captain Lucas Radebe. 52,000 fans crowded into Newlands in Cape Town to watch the match, dubbed “90 minutes for Mandela”. Earlier in the day the football greats, with past political prisoners, kicked 89 goals against racism into the nets set up on Robben Island, to celebrate Mandela’s birthday.

Western Cape Film industry.

Following on from last years report stating that the Cape Town city council issued over 48,000 Filming Licences in 2005, this years official report issued recently states that the film industry in the Western Cape generated a whopping R3.5 billion to South Africa’s GDP in 2006, while also employing over 8500 local people. This important industry also helps to generate jobs in many other spin-off industries, such as catering, accommodation, machinery & equipment hire, financial & insurance and transportation.

Recent movies filmed here have been “Blood Diamond” with Leonardo DiCaprio, who shot scenes in wineries near Stellenbosch (and enjoyed a day of Great White Shark cage diving near Hermanus between filming days); a Bollywood movie and only last month James Bond Daniel Craig was here filming a new movie called “Flashbacks of a Fool”, which includes Helen McCrory, who played Cherie Blair in “The Queen” and Miriam Karlin who starred in Stanley Kubrick’s notorious 1971 movie “A Clockwork Orange”. Daniel Craig braved the cold Atlantic Ocean while fully dressed in a suit for one scene. Other locations for this movie included Camps Bay, Llandudno (a seaside suburb of Cape Town) and Bantry Bay. The entire cast and crew stayed at the luxury 5 star Mount Nelson Hotel in the Gardens suburb of the city bowl.

Percy Tours gets published in the London press.

For those of you in London, check out a brand new magazine called SQUARE. Percy Tours will be writing articles in every publication about all aspects of South Africa, Cape Town and Hermanus. Square is a FREE magazine with a 50,000 print run and i would guess that your tube journey to work will now be much more entertaining, now that you will have a copy of this fine magazine under your arm. :-))))

Music and Entertainment news.

Altho’ we at Percy Tours are not the greatest of fans of her music, it was recently publicised that Celine Dion will be gracing us with her presence at Vergelegen Winery in Somerset West (40 minutes from Cape Town) on Feb 23rd and 24th 2008. Slightly more-rock’n’roll, it was also confirmed that Sir Elton John will be performing here on 13th Jan 2008.

The spectacular stage show of The Lion King is being performed in Jo’burg, in a purpose built theatre and has attracting loads of press interest and big crowds, including Oprah Winfrey who spoilt all 149 students of her new school she started in South Africa to see the show recently. Many of the shows songs have been adapted to feature African languages, like Zulu and Xhosa.

The Soweto Gospel Choir, which was only formed 4 ½ years ago, continue to tour the globe to sell-out crowds, with their outstanding vocal harmonies, while collecting many music awards along the way, including a recent Grammy. This inspirational 25 piece choir have performed at the Edinburgh Festival and many concerts in USA, New Zealand, Australia and across Europe. They also sang Happy Birthday at Nelson Mandela birthday celebrations in 2005 and have performed with Diana Ross and Christina Aguielera. Their first album topped the USA gospel charts for many weeks. Check them out because they are amazing.

World Cup 2010 and Football update.

An incredible R1 billion was paid in late June 2007, by Supersport to PSL (Premier Soccer League) in South Africa, so that Supersport will be able to exclusively televise South African league matches on satellite tv for the next 5 years. This has led some local critics to say that this predominantly black watched sport, will have now completely marginalise the poor of the country from watching their favourite sport, as it will be outside the affordability levels of the lower working classes of the country.

The proposed Jo’burg to Sowato mono-rail link is set to cost R12.5billion and aims to be completed by 2009, in time for the World Cup.

Recent press reports have suggested that some 2010 World Cup tickets could be as cheap as R150 (£12), so that local South Africans will be able to afford tickets to see the matches. Allowing some in the media to comment that this could easily lead to ticket-touts buying loads of cheap tickets in one go, but the authorities have afew plans for limiting the amount of tickets purchased, either by - cross-referencing peoples ID numbers and passport numbers to each ticket bought, or by a Lottery system, which would require the public to apply for tickets and if they are drawn out-of-the-hat, then they are eligible to buy tickets, or by issuing Named vouchers which are then redeemed for a ticket. Only time will tell as to which system will be implemented. The cheapest German 2006 World Cup tickets were R450.

The highest price for premium tickets for 2010, could be approximately R3000 (£220).

Also announced was that the World Cup tickets will be on sale from late 2008. 3 million will be issued – 1 million internationally, 1 million for the teams, officials and corporate sponsors and 1 million for South African fans. So watch this space for much more 2010 World Cup info.

The photo below, taken on 1st Sept, 2007, shows the continuing building work of the Cape Town Green Point stadium for the 2010 World Cup, with foundation work well under way and many cranes now in place.

Tottenham Hotspurs won the Vodacom Challenge at the end of July, which was a 3 team event featuring South African sides the Orlando Pirates and the Kaiser Chiefs - the football team, not the music band obviously :-))).

South Africa & Western Cape -Nature update.

Africa’s stock-piled ivory, which police and security forces have confiscated from illegal smugglers over the last few decades, is being considered for re-sale onto the international markets. Currently valued at $850/ton, the held 60 million tons, has a total value of $51,000 million.

If this sale goes ahead it would obviously stop the illegal slaughter of elephants in Africa, as this amount of ivory would flood the international markets for many years.

Fish Eagles are being breed and released back into areas where they are a very rare sight. These majestically large eagles have a wing span of 2 metres and The Breede River valley in the west of the Western Cape is one such region where their re-introduction back into the wild, is being seriously considered by the conservation teams. While in the Kogelberg Nature Reserve (only 20kms from Hermanus) there has just started a Black Eagle conservation project. With only afew breeding pairs left in this area, these large eagles need all the help they can get.

The Whales are here in Hermanus – the weekly aerial surveys have recorded numbers of 3 times that of the same time last year, with 50 or 60 whales being spotted in mid July, compared to only 20 or so Whales being spotted in July 2006.

And even better news today (10th Sept, 2007) was that Iceland has announced that it will be stopping whaling very soon. About time too we all shout.

South Africa Tourism figures continue to grow.

Following on from our last report about South Africa’s tourism, a new industry report has mentioned that, incredibly tourism here generated nearly twice the income generated by the country’s big gold industry, allowing some to call tourism the “New Gold” of South Africa. Also the total year-on-year increase of tourists holidaying in South Africa is up 13.9%, which is an incredible growth rate, when you consider that the global average increase is only 4.5%.
Long may that continue we say :-))

Check out our new photos.

Percy Tours loves to snap-its-camera of the local wonders, so please check out our new pictorial collection, including Great White Sharks, Southern Right Whales, Safaris and much more, at our online gallery of over 200 photos at Flickr –

Over 200 amazing Percy Tours Photos

Hermanus Festival season is underway.

Hermanus sure does know how to celebrate, with the August and September months being Festival time.

First up, in early August, was the highly successful Wine and Food Festival, now in its 11th year, which attracted over 4000 people to the 45 local wine producers stands. The show has now grown so large that a huge marquee, next to the main building, had to be erected to house the Food and Beer stalls, with a local Marumba band performing their catchy tunes. Percy Tours was proud to be the organisers designated transfer company for the weekend.

Then the following weekend we had the brand new - Great White Shark Festival. This is not only a first for Hermanus but is the only Great White Shark Festival in the world.

All 7 shark diving operators offered the public cut-price journeys to swim with these fabulous creatures. There were many international Researchers and Scientists conducting educational talks and film shows on this much mis-understood species; a large marquee housed the stage for local bands to perform; the market stalls did a roaring trade, as did the bar; the kiddies had bouncy castles to entertain them; and all-in-all over 6000 people attended, with the press, radio stations and TV film crews reporting on this celebration. After such a successful event, you can guarantee this will be an annual feature in the local calendar.

Percy Tours was equally as proud to be the organisers designated transfer company for the whole event and we also sponsored the transfer of 2 of the Township bands which performed at the event. With a mention of thanks to us, from the organisers, in the local newspaper a week later.

This coming weekend we have the colourful Flower Festival, which show-cases our multitude of amazing floral plant species. The next weekend Hermanus hosts the very hugely successful Whale Festival which attracts over 10,000 people to our picturesque seaside town and the following weekend there is the annual Stanford Birding Festival which also coincides with the 150th birthday of this small neighbouring town.

Ok I appreciate that it’s not quiet the Glastonbury Festival, but at least our local people get off their back-sides and love to put on a show (or 5) to celebrate our town and it’s many natural treasures.

Recent Percy Tours fun and adventures.

With the tourism season now in full-swing, Percy Tours loves to equally explore this marvelous region. A light-airplane flight over Walker Bay was a first for us, so that we could enjoy the outstanding beauty of the coast and farmlands, which was made even more brilliant by us flying over Dyer Island, Shark Alley and Geyser Rock, all the Shark Diving boats and to see over 30 Southern Right Whales frolicking in the sea. We even saw 2 rare grey Southern Right Whales which our pilot said he had not witnessed before.

Afew weeks before we ventured up to the spring Flower region of Namaqualand on the West Coast, which did not disappoint, as this winter it has rained quiet abit and therefore this has produced huge carpets of multi-coloured flowers. Infact it has rained so much over our short winter period that Cape Towns reservoirs, are for the first time in 6 years, now 100% full. The farmers will be jumping-for-joy I am sure of that. :-))

While we conducted a fun-filled 2 week tour with 2 fabulous clients (Dave & Tessa, from Cornwall) "Action-Lady" Ronel enjoyed with them, some exciting Horse Riding trips into our magnificent mountain ranges and along our huge deserted white sandy beach. As well as enjoying a Shark diving trip, a Whale watching boat trip and an African Safari at a fabulous 4 star Safari park in the remote Little Karoo region; while Percy enjoyed our airplane flight over the whales :-))

Many thanks all, chat soon,

Percy and Ronel :-)))

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus - Update 16, March to June '07

2007-06-13T03:52:00.000+02:00

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.

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 and Ronel :-)))

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus, South Africa - Activities & Personalised Tours of the region.

2007-06-12T04:19:00.000+02:00

Hermanus is a delightfully pretty seaside town, only an hour and half from Cape Town, which is sandwiched between the very scenic coastline of Walker Bay and a high lofty mountain range, afew kms inland.

Regarded by WWF and Greenpeace as being one of the world's best locations to watch Whales, it holds the annual week long Whale Festival at the end of September, which attracts over 100,000 eager Whale watchers. Southern Right Whales, Humpbacks and Bryde Whales are spotted, with the highest number of 172 Whales ever being viewed in one day in October 2006. (Whale watching season is from June to December each year.) Boat trips will take you out to sea to meet them up close, but cliff top viewing spots are everywhere, allowing you many very good vantage points to witness these huge gentle creatures slowly swim by.

Another major attraction is Great White Shark cage diving, which is based 50 kms around the coast at Gansbaai. This is THE place in the world to do this once-in-a-lifetime activity and has attracted many famous Movie Stars, Royalty, Music Stars and nature film and TV crews. It is extremely safe and an exhilarating experience to be really so close up to these large creatures. The best visibility is during the South African winters (May to August) with the sea sometimes allowing you up to 20 to 30 metres of clear water to view them slowly glide by. The sighting “hit-rate” is 99% all year long, with some trips having been known to witness up to 15 different individual sharks in only afew hours out at sea.

Set in a World Heritage site, the Cape Floral Kingdom is amazingly colourful and has 1000’s of diverse plant species, collectively called Fynbos. Hiking and walking in the mountains and the Fernkloof Nature Reserve is also a high delight.

With over 70 restaurants, 3 night clubs and many cafes in the town means that you will never go hungry, thirsty or bored. From - steaks, lobsters and prawns to sushi, Portuguese, Italian, French and many other culinary pleasures. Try Springbok steaks with chilli chocolate sauce, or Bobotie (a spicy Malay curry) and finish off your meal with a Dom Pedro alcoholic milkshake. Delicious!!

Hermanus also boasts its own Wine route in the valley called Hemel-en-Aarde (meaning “Heaven & Earth” – which is rightly named), where there are 28 wine farms and 7 amazing tasting rooms to quoff well over 40 different wines, which range from soft white wines of Sauvignon Blanc, thro’ harsher whites like Chardonnay, to smooth Rose, to mellow reds like Pinotage and Pinot Noir and into “peppery” reds like Merlot and Shiraz.

There is even one venue that has over 1,600 different types of wines, champagnes, ports, brandies and all manner of South African liquors available. Pinotage is a grape that is only grown in South Africa and is most definitely worth tasting, as it is a lovely mellow red that is easily quoff-able. Percy Tours conduct many wine tours of our local valley and will introduce you to many special wines and pretty locations to sample them all.

Hermanus offers so many other activities too, including - Sandboarding; Quad Biking; Micro-lighting over the Whales in Walker Bay and the spectacular tapestry of farmlands and open countryside; Paragliding off the mountains; Canoeing the vast lagoon areas; Kayaking in Walker Bay to meet up with Seals, Penguins, Whales and occasionally Dolphin; Horse riding into the mountains or along the long deserted Grotto Beach; Art and Craft Markets full of African crafts and souvenirs; Boat cruises on the sea or along rivers; Golf at our 2 large 18 hole courses; Bird watching and a great Safari park is only a short distance away so that you get your African animal fix, plus many more activities.

Accommodation establishments are very good and ranges from 5 star hotels, Guest Houses, Lodges, B&B's and Backpacker Hostels.

For those wanting a scenic and relaxed (or action-packed) holiday in South Africa, Hermanus has alot to offer and is well worth a 3 to 7 day stay.

So to explore this incredible region contact - Percy Tours - who specialise in designing completely individualised and personalised tours of Hermanus, Cape Town and the Western Cape regions. We also research and book accommodation across the entire spectrum as well as all sorts of adventure sports and chilled out pursuits too.

email Percy Tours at - travel@percytours.com - for a personalised tour schedule and quotes.

See you in amazing South Africa soon. :-)))

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus Summer Madness with Percy Tours - Update 15

2007-02-20T05:40:00.000+02:00

DECEMBER 2006 – FEBRUARY 2007
Yes I know, I know - Christmas and NYE were ages ago, but we haven’t sent you an Update since mid December, so therefore - Happy New Year everyone and hope you had a great festive time. :-)))

Percy Tours has had a very very busy 3 months, as the South African summer season is here in total full swing, with afew days last week blasting us completely when it reached 35 and 36 degrees. We obviously dived for shaded cover or into the nearest swimming pool to cool ourselves down instantly. The good weather has been non-stop too, without a drop of rain for 8 weeks. So our gardens are now looking rather parched. (Well I lie, it did rain for 5 minutes on one day :-)))

Hermanus was literally rammed with tourists from mid-Dec to mid-Jan, when we were invaded by a staggering 220,000 people, which quadrupled our pretty and small seaside town of only 70,000 local residents. So to find a bed for the night, a parking space or a restaurant table during this hectic time was damn near impossible.

Antartica bound.
After 6 months of constant sex our Whales are now well and truly worn out, as well as very hungry, as there is no food for them here, so they have all now left our shores to swim back down to Antartica to gorge themselves on tons of krill, shrimp and plankton.

The record number spotted in ONE DAY in Walker Bay still stands at an astonishing 172 whales, in mid October 2006.

Summer swimmers.

Due to the warm summer, we have had our usual swimming visitors turn up, with pods of dolphin regularly playing in the bay. Other species recently spotted that you don’t really want to be swimming with have been Zambezi and Hammerhead sharks. Colonies of African Penguin have been molting their coats and are now back in the sea catching their dinners.

Interesting tours.

Tours with Percy Tours are never-ever boring and we can certainly say that about our fabulous clients too, that have jumped into our luxury minibuses for full-on adventures. We have been honoured to have escorted members of the Austrian royal family; 2 families of lords and ladies from Belgravia, London and a famous artist from Amsterdam who has organised art exhibitions for David Byrne from The Talking Heads, the flamboyant Vivian Westwood and David Bowie.

Other less famous but still extremely entertaining clients have included – many Russians, who’s tourist numbers have certainly increased this season and who most definitely know how to live life to the very fullest; many Irish, German and British golfing fanatics; 16 cycling crazy Americans and Canadians; shark diving nutty Australians and horse riding Norwegians. We also arranged a 21 day overland tour from Cape Town, via Namibia, the Skeleton Coast, Etosha safari park, Windhoek, Botswana, Okavango Delta, Chobe safari park, to Victoria Falls.

I even had a great surprise phone call from a friend from London who was staying at the plush 5 star Bay Hotel Camps Bay, who called me completely out-of-the-blue, so that I could take him and his lady on a Cape Point exploration – great to see them (hi John and Karin).

New ground covered has been numerous (as usual), but what sticks in my mind are – a Crocodile farm where there were over 10,000 of them lazily basking in the sunshine; discovered the delights of the South African Gold Museum (anyone got a huge credit account they wish to burn?); the National Gallery with some very weird and out-there art installations; explored more deeply the vibrant townships for totally ethnic African living, whos school kids are so funny to watch when a camera gets point their way; Wine quoffers by the lorry load, who have all enjoyed the delights of our incredible wines, while sampling olives, olive oils, wine drenched salami, cheeses and gorgeous honey. And to cap it all, there was the amazingly pretty wedding up at Moggs Country Cook House that laid on a spectacular spread, a Bedouin tent village with huge comfy lounge suites and kick-butt DJ dancing session.

Global Underground party.

Talking of kick-butt DJ sessions, we had a great time at the Global Underground party in one of Cape Towns monstrous warehouses, with that nutter Lee Burridge spinning tunes to a highly enthusiastic crowd of pretty and sexy Capetonians (including Ronel and myself :-))). This was all part of the Global Breakthrough events of 2 weeks of full-on clubbing nights that were arranged by Lovecapetown.com. A very well done to them for starting a new night clubbing destination to totally rival Ibiza. Winter sunshine clubbing anyone?? :-))) What with beer at £0.75 a bottle and so many outrageous activities between night clubs that you will be shattered and smiling from ear-to-ear for years to come? :-)))

World Cup 2010 – update.

Things are progressing slowly but steadily for the South Africa 2010 World Cup, with the final go ahead for the demolition of the old Green Point stadium to make way for the brand new 68,000 seater soccer stadium, as well as in Jo’burg big construction is still happening to construct the new Gauteng railway line which will run between Pretoria and Jo’burg, for footy fans to commute between games.

On another side issue, Fifa announced the exact dates that the 2010 World Cup will be held. Starting - June 11, 2010. Ending - July 11, 2010.

Absa / Barclays has, in partnership with local government and the Grootbos Foundation, made a huge contribution to starting work on the brand new soccer facility and stadium at Gansbaai.

This is the first ever Barclays Space for Sports project ever to be sited outside the UK and will form part of the Absa / Barclays Corporate Social Investment programme.

There are rumours about that this purpose build soccer stadium may be home to one of the 2010 World Cup countries. That will be very interesting if it is true.

Gansbaai is only 2 hours from central Cape Town and accessed by driving thro the beautiful seaside town of Hermanus, some 35 minutes away from Gansbaai.

Ship Wreck.

Please could we have all our belongings back? Thank you!

As you may have heard, the container ship Napoli ran aground off the UK coast last week with many tons of products destined for South Africa. VW South Africa had to announce that it will be reducing its work forces working hours from 5 days per week to 4 days per week, for the next 4 weeks.

This is due to the plant at Uitenhage, employing some 6500 workers, being now obviously unable to have enough raw materials for full scale production to occur, as the ship was carrying many VW parts on board it.

The plant produces 400 to 500 new cars daily, so this reduction of man hours will now mean that they will have a loss of some 1600 to 2000 units.

It was also carrying many oak barrels for the South African wine industry, as we are now in full scale grape picking and crushing here, so we desperately need all these oak barrels to put this years harvest into.

New Photos.

Percy Tours is always very busy taking loads of new photos of this incredible country. So please check out over 190 corking pictures at -

Over 190 amazing Percy Tours Photos

Enjoy!!!

Our website is going thro’ a huge amendment presently and will feature about 30 brand new pages and over 100 new pictures. So check it out in a week or 2 to see the new sexy looking website.

Thanks all and chat again soon,

Cheers Percy and Ronel :-)))

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus, South Africa, Percy Tours. Update 14

2006-12-11T08:41:00.000+02:00

Update 14 – SEPT to DEC 2006.
Summer is most definitely here.
Thankfully the winter passed us by quickly and we are now in the middle of a full-on hot sunny summer, with daily temperatures hitting 25 to 30. Phew!!! :-)))

This has brought to Hermanus, Cape Town and Percy Tours, a bumper amount of tourists flocking to our spectacular part of the world. (And we still have at least another 4 months of summer to go) :-))))

Even the Whales joined in the action and were here in record numbers, with a monstrous 172 Southern Right Whales being counted on one day in Walker Bay in mid October (shattering last years record breaking count of 138).

The Hermanus Wine Festival in mid August brought coach loads of wine quoffers to the Wine Village. Local produce such as - olives, cheese, chocolate, meats and many other culinary delights were also on offer to all. Yummy!!! :-)))
The Fernkloof Flower Festival in mid Sept. delighted us all with its floral masterpieces.
The Hermanus Whale Festival brought over 20,000 fun loving and whale spotting folk in late Sept.

Recent nutty famous great white shark cage divers this month have been – Monica Seles and Barbara Windsor. (That would have been an interesting boat trip, if they went diving together) :-)))

World Cup 2010 update.

07/12/2006

It’s Green Point Common for the stadium, or Cape Town loses 2010 World Cup, the Cape Town city council said today.

Cape Town could easily lose hosting altogether any of the 2010 World Cup games, if it doesn’t build the 68,000 seater stadium at Green Point and start right now.

There is and has been, so much political rantings and arguments over this and that, that sadly no-one has agreed anything yet and if the “warring” decision makers don’t agree upon a plan immediately there is a possibility of Cape Town losing ALL its World Cup games to another city in South Africa.

There were light-hearted thoughts by Fifa that Newlands Stadium could take on the games but it’s got many disadvantages, including being too small.

The Executive Mayor, Helen Zilla, said today that “the provincial and national government have said that we must host a semi-final or we (Cape Town) lose 2010.”

On another side issue, Fifa today announced the exact dates that the 2010 World Cup will be held.

Starting - June 11, 2010.
Ending - July 11, 2010.

The continents that will have teams here are – 6 African, 12 European, 5 Asian, 1 Oceanic and 8 from the whole continent of the Americas. This effectively gives Africa one more team and Europe one less.

African qualifying games will start in October 2007.

More 2010 World Cup news from Percy Tours next month :-)))

Silly Season Tours.
Needless to say Percy Tours has been working manically on providing tours of absolute professional quality to many tourists.

We have satisfied many thirsty wine quoffers, with plenty of enjoyable Wine Tours of Stellenbosch, Hemel-en-Aarde in Hermanus, Franschhoek and all points inbetween.
Loads of new wines have just been released on to the market, some being extremely rare, been given high accolades by wine critics and are now very collectible. (With me buying some of them. Who would have believed it, I now collect wines, I must be getting old). :-)))

The new 2007 John Platter wine (bible) book, which reviewed over 4500 wines this season, is now on the shelves too.

With our fleet of luxury minibuses, we have recently completed over 12 individualised tours that each lasted over a week or longer, with one lasting a monstrous 3 weeks for an English lady living in Saudi Arabia, (Hi Louise); visiting all the sights and part-taking in all sorts of adventure sports, including - Micro-lighting over the whales, Dolphin watching boat trip and tree canopy rope swings - travelling from Cape Town, thro’ the Overberg to the Garden Route of Kynsna, Plettenberg Bay and Tsitsikamma.

Organised many events, all sorts of tours and accommodation for - a lady from Bombay, India; 3 nurses from New York; 2 Jordanian gentlemen; 3 great American ladies from Chicago who bought half a jewellery stores diamonds; a delightful couple from rural Somerset; 2 British sailing fanatics who embarked upon a 5 day yacht sailing trip around the Cape of Good Hope & across False Bay and then a 5 day zip around Hermanus; 2 nutty English ladies living in Dubai for a full days wine tasting; a family of 5 Swedes for a 3 week exploration of the Western Cape in November; escorting wives of international professional golfers taking part in the Nelson Mandela Golf Tournament in November at Arabella, Hermanus and chauffeured a wedding party of 40 South Africans in early December.

We zipped up to Clanwilliam on the West Coast in early September, to escort a family around the mind-blowing wonders of the West Coast Flower region, where at that time of the year the wild flowers bloom to create a huge natural carpet of colours and visit the ancient San rock art paintings.

We have conducted over 10 Safari and game viewing trips, including a big 3 day Safari tour in German, (for a couple who spoke very little English), witnessing many African animals jumping about in their wild environments of the Veld.

With the Ysterplaat Military Air Show in full swing, international Generals and Air Marshals wives decided to leave their husbands to play boys-with-toys and required some relaxation and recreation; so with 2 armed body guards in a dark windowed limo and an ambulance of medical staff in convoy; Percy Tours took them on an action packed journey with the Whales, explored the incredible local scenery, enjoyed much fine wine quoffing and indulged in great food at Heaven restaurant in the wine valley.

Royalty even graced Percy Tours, as we chauffeured Sir David & Lady Barbie Plastow, (who once represented Rolls Royce in South Africa), to a days whale watching boat trip.

We certainly enjoy a crazy and speedy team building Treasure Hunt and were more than happy to accompany a group of energetic young aspiring Cape Town solicitors last month.

In early November, Percy Tours took a group from the WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature) on a whistle-stop tour of Hermanus and the surrounding countryside. We even did our bit, by donating R3,200 (£300) to their very worthy causes.

We also helped to sponsor a local adventurer to climb to the peak of the highest mountain in Africa - Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.

(Apologises if we have left anyone off this run-down, who toured with us recently. It’s been one heck of a season.) :-))))

Friends aplenty.
In mid September, my mate Martin arrived for a 6 month stay. Then in mid November, we were visited (or should that be – were descended upon) by my mate Roger, his lovely lady Bev and his son Ben for their annual 3 week stay. Also at the same time, my friend Louisa arrived to experience South Africa too. (We first met on my 16 month world tour, back in 2000, on a 4 Land Rover trip of Frazer Island, Australia.)
This just gave Percy Tours an excuse (as if one was ever really needed) time to do some serious socializing and exploring the Western Cape with them all. The Backpacker bar didn’t know what had hit it either, as we arrived mob-handed and over ran the pool table for many crazy nights of silliness. This also coincided with my birthday party in my garden, attended by 20 mates who rustled up a feast on the braai. Yummy!!!

Eventful proceedings ensued – Great White Shark cage diving, Whale watching, Quad biking, Safari, 2 Wine Tours, a Brewery tasting, Sandboarding, Cape Town city centre visit, Cape of Good Hope & Cape Point day trip, Boulders Beach penguins, Betty’s Bay and many beach visits to sunbath & swim in the cooling Atlantic.

My first experience of Quad Biking was not only great fun, with everyone zipping along and creating a dust cloud after themselves, but as we were high up on a mountain range, the views were utterly incredible. I will certainly be enjoying this fab activity again. Roger enjoyed it SO much that, as soon as he got back to the UK, he went and bought himself a Quad Bike on ebay. If that isn't a seal of approval of a great day out, then i don't know what is :-)))

As you can probably gather, there really has been very little time for us to just chill-out, what with all this utter lunacy occurring at such a frantic pace. :-)))

Please feel free to view more than 170 photos of this incredible region at our photos website -

www.flickr.com/photos/51084760@N00/search/tags:percytours/

Percy Tours – Chauffeur guided tours in our luxury minibuses, Transfers, Airport & Restaurant door-to-door services, Wine Tours & tastings of all wine regions, Safaris & game viewing, Whale watching, Great White Shark cage diving, Quad biking, Kayaking with the whales & seals, Micro-lighting over Walker Bay, Penguins, Cape Floral Kingdom, all types of adventure sports and much more relaxing pursuits.

Over 300 tourist activities to choose from………..

Plus all sorts of day trips and longer tours – Cape of Good Hope & Cape Point, Cape Agulhas, Cape Town city centre, the Little Karoo, Garden Route, West Coast, etc……...

Corporate and Team Building events organised.
Accommodation researched, arranged & booked.

Have a fabulous Christmas festive season and Percy (with lovely girlfriend Ronel) will raise a glass to you all, while we sit sunning ourselves by the swimming pool, zipping cocktails and munching on big Prawns, Ostrich and Springbok steaks.

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus & South Africa Winter has gone. Percy Tours Update 13.

2006-09-07T08:52:00.000+02:00

UPDATE 13 – APRIL to SEPTEMBER 2006.

World Cup –

Even tho’ we at Percy Tours are not the greatest of club football fans, we sure do enjoy our 4 yearly indulgence of World Cup footy action, supporting the under-dogs to overthrow bigger footballing nations.

Being in Africa, we cheered on the African teams and much praise must go out to our 4 teams, who put some serious scares into the more established teams. So a big cheer goes out to Ivory Coast, Ghana, Angola and Togo.

With Germany hosting their perfectly organised games, many here in South Africa suddenly thought we had better get our skates on if we are to be ready to host our own World Cup in 2010. The South African press has (sadly) been slating its own country, by scare mongering, saying that we won’t be ready, but this Ladies and Gents is just sensationalised media propaganda aimed at doom and selling newspapers; when infact South Africa is already doing a mighty fine job at delivering infrastructural facilities – now!!

For example – South Africa already has its own World Cup logo designed and using it to full effect worldwide – when Germany only had its logo design ready 2 years before their games. South Africa 2010 merchandising is already on sale in many of the stores here too.

In Jo’burg, the Finals stadium is already very close to being finished, with official announcements stating that the doors will be to open for action as early as OCTOBER 2006. It’s a marvellous state-of-the-art complex, with the facilities being extremely ultra-modern and high-tech.

2010 South Africa World Cup info

The new Gauteng railway is already under construction, (a full year ahead of schedule) – this is the high-tech railway between Jo’burg and Pretoria to assist the transfer of football fans between games.

ALL the major airports are in full construction of new terminals and facilities – with Cape Town airports big new multi-story car park just being opened last month.

Cape Town is also constructing a brand new train link from the airport to the city centre, covering the distance of 30kms. This is some achievement as South Africa has a diabolic public transport system (ie. its non-existent) and roads are, for the majority, the ONLY mode of transport. So we all commend this project.

Cape Town has decided to build its brand new 68,000 seater stadium on the site of the current Green Point stadium, which will host many games, including one of the semi-final games. Located within a short (and safe) 10 minute walk of the magnificent V&A Waterfront complex – with its multitude of top-class hotels, (like the award winning 5 star - Cape Grace, Table Bay and Arabella Sheraton), 100’s of shops, restaurants, bars, a large craft market, cinemas, open air amphitheatre, access to Robben Island and many other tourist attractions.

However South Africa’s national side (called Bafana Bafana) is another story altogether and are currently a miserable shower, in comparison to other mightier African footballing nations, but we have a plan – South Africa has just employed the fine services of ex-Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira (4 times manager of a World Cup team, including Brazil who won under his managership).

He will certainly have his work cut out, but we are all urging him on to do a stunning job at turning around South Africa’s team. As a matter of fact there are many South African team members playing in major European clubs and this can only be extremely good for the sides training, skills, experiences and enthusiasm to be able to develop the national sides competitive edge fast.

More information when we have it.

And Percy Tours now has its own World Cup page up and running –

Percy Tours 2010 South Africa World Cup page

See you here for some excellent footballing and partying in 2010 :-)))

Cape Town – A world class Movie destination? – Definitely!-

Cape Town has, for the last 5 years or so, been a mecca for the film and advertising industry, with over 48,000 filming licences being issued in 2005. The amazing scenery, long warm sunshine hours all year round, magnificent architecture and cosmopolitan cultures has attracted many to use the city and its surrounding countryside as back-drops for movies and photo shoots.

This is all about to explode into further attention with the proposed construction of the monstrous Dreamworks Film studios, about 15kms outside the city centre.

And on that note - Cape Town has been recorded to have the 5th best sky in the world, following the 1st expedition to measure the planets bluest sky. Measured by the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, readings were taken in 22 countries over a 3 month project to establish the place whose heavens had the best hue, brightness and colour.
Rio came 1st, Bay of Islands NZ 2nd, Ayers Rock Australia (Uluru) 3rd, Fiji 4th - San Francisco and London came last.

Great White Shark Attack -

Afew weeks ago, while on life-guard practice at Muizenberg beach, a young man had his right foot devoured by a rather hungry Great White Shark. He has recovered very quickly and has had many offers of medical help from prosthetic limb companies and physios.

Well, as we all know, if we humans continue to invade the territories (ie. the sea) of many of gods marvelous creatures, then we can hardly blame them for “reacting”. I mean, would you get out of your car if you suddenly spotted 20 lions in Kruger Park?

NO – should be your answer, unless you are stark-raving mad.

Needless to say, Muizenberg beach now employs a team of shark spotters along the nearby mountain range, equipped with walkie-talkies and all important remote control siren alarm activators.

Flowers in the Cederberg mountains -

Percy Tours has been on “walk-about” and recently explored the mind-blowing area of the Cederberg mountain range, where at this time of the year the wild flowers bloom to create a huge natural carpet of colours.

Not only is this area blessed as a Botanists heaven, but also there are San rock art paintings dating back to 6,000 years old.

These intricate and elaborate designs are beautiful and show “hunter-gatherer” drawings, ancient cave life and African wildlife.

Whales on their summer holidays -

Hermanus is THE place in the world to get really up-close and personal with Whales. Greenpeace and WWF have stated that here is the best spot to view Southern Right Whales. Last weeks aerial count spotted 100 in the bay and last years record-breaking count was a staggering 138 whales.

Please check out Percy Tours new article on our Whales, on our “What to See and Do” page, by clicking the “Read More…” next to Whale and Dolphin watching.

Percy Tours Whale Article

Percy Tours is also now listed on the Hermanus Whale Festival website as being the ONLY tour company to assist you in your Whale watching endeavours -

Hermanus Whale Festival

This years festival happens between 22nd September and 30th September.

Wines of South Africa -

Over the winter period, Percy Tours enrolled and successfully completed the Cape Wine Academy wine college course and is now accredited as professionals in the Cape wine field.

Not only that, but many new and award winning wines have just been released onto the local market, making our Wine Tours a very popular activity for many tourists. :-)))

In fact mention has definitely got to go out to 3 Canadian ladies recently – who between them managed to buy a whopping 26 bottles on a one day Wine Tour with Percy Tours – that has got to be a record by any-ones standards, the minibus was choke-a-block :-))) – and guess what, they took the entire lot back to Canada (in newly purchased suitcases) safely and with a minimum of added tax at Halifax airport by the Canadian customs police. Not one bottle smashed. That’s a mighty achievement. Happy quaffing ladies. :-)))

And infact on that day we also added our other minibus in convey to Stellenbosch, with 6 crazy Brits on board, who also bought an astonishing load of wine too. The Wineries utterly loved us that day :-)))

Percy Tours also has written a Wine article, to keep you all informed – check out our “What to See and Do” page and click the “Read More…” next to Wine Tours.

Percy Tours Wine article

New Photos gallery -

As you can appreciate, with all this intense action going on, we have been clicking our new 8 mega-pixel camera at everything imaginable – so check out our ever increasing excellent montage of South Africa by clicking our photo gallery website, where there are over 150 stunning pictures for you to consume – throw it onto “View slide show” mode for a full and delightful display –

Over 150 amazing Percy Tours Photos

Tours have exploded into action -

Yes, it may be only the start of spring and the tourist season but by heck has it been manic, with Percy Tours already completing 5 full-on tours in just 4 weeks (and many day trips too).

We are also starting to see a growing tread too – Single ladies on long holidays.
All power to them I say, as we have escorted 5 ladies around this marvelous part of the world on their own whirl-wind adventures. With just recently – one nurse from New York – Hi Amanda - one lady from Bombay – Hi Khushnuma and 3 ladies from Newfoundland, Canada – Hi Michelle, Carol & Christine – and recently booked, for a huge 3 week mammoth exploration of this incredible region - one lady from Saudi Arabia – Hi Louise.

But where on earth are all the guys? Do all the guys just consume way too much time spending their hard earned cash on cars, music, dvds, clubs and getting rat-arsed?? I have no idea.

Weather in winter -

Rain, rain, rain and some hot sunny days is what has occurred over the last 4 months, but this week has been much warmer and hit the 25 degrees mark today, so summer is here at last.

Our reservoir is now 100% full, so we are ready for the next 8 months of hot weather to arrive.

Other bits and pieces -

Hippos are now on the Red Data Books endangered species list, after 100’s have been shot and eaten in Zimbabwe.

On the Zimbabwe front – anyone travelling there should take note that the Zim dollar has suddenly just deduced 3 zeros off all their currency notes, so an old 250,000 note now equals 250.

Ginger Baker, ex-drummer of Cream and the Eric Clapton band has just bought a farm in Tulbagh.

Music – on my stereo at full blast are - Kasabian 1st album (can’t wait to hear their new album) , Arctic Monkeys (well done for winning the Mercury Music Award) and Hard-fi.

Percy Tours has now expanded its merchandising range to include - new t-shirts, jackets and sweatshirts and the new 2006 Percy Tours flyer is going down a storm at all our tourism partners establishments. :-)))

And a new and gorgeous addition to Percy Tours is the fabulously lovely professionism of - Ronel - who has taken over the duties of our tours in the Hermanus area. She is a Wine specialist and enjoys the incredible landscapes of South African nature and scenery.

Where are you now - For anyone that keeps getting constantly pestered by very annoying notifications and emails from www.wayn.com, I humbly apologise. Please delete these messages as this site has got to be one of the most un-user friendly sites in existence. It’s a complete nightmare to navigator or understand and I therefore apologise profusely for any inconvenience this site may have caused you. Please throw any emails you might get from these useless sods into your “block sender” folder, cos I want nothing to do with them, sorry, thank you and Cheers – DOH!!!!

That’s the lot for the moment troops – loads of love to all and chat every soon – Cheers :-))))

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus, South Africa. More action with Percy Tours - Update 12

2006-04-30T03:59:00.000+02:00

Hermanus and Cape Town exploits.

Leopards in Hermanus -

Over the last few years scientists have spotted the paw prints of 4 separate reclusive leopards roaming in the vast and scenic Hermanus mountain ranges.
During March 2006 they released another 5 leopard into these hills.
These beautiful creatures have been released to breed with the other 4 and (hopefully) reduce the number of the local baboon troops, who regularly terrorise the dust bins of the Hermanus outer suburbs – hay that’s mans intervention into nature (once again) :-)))

Electricity Blackouts -
Cape Town and the surrounding area are currently under-going a period of electricity blackouts. The reason for this is that the nuclear power station, that has 2 generators, recently had a bolt “accidentally” thrown into one of them, which shattered its turbine. This means that only one generator is supplying electricity to the entire area, when 2 should be doing the job. The replacement turbine needs to be built and exported from France and will take about 6 months to be fully operational. When that is fitted, the other generator needs to be shut down, serviced and refuelled with new nuclear fuel rods. (The current ones are “apparently” the wrong type) DOH!! Square peg in a round hole any body??
So it’s all abit silly here presently. Candles, gas cookers, torches and petrol driven small generators have sold out in milli-seconds from local hardware shops, due to everyone exploring other forms of power. I am even considering solar panels to be put on my roof.

Wines to be savoured -
With the grape harvest well and truly complete, we only have afew more months to wait before the first wines of this season hit the shelves. With over 1,000 wineries in the Cape region, we are in for another quoffing bonanza.

A local wine tour with Percy Tours, would never be complete without experiencing the new and quite excellent “Heaven” restaurant. Bruce from the outrageous and highly acclaimed B’s Steakhouse, conjures up a lunchtime menu with so many mouth watering delights. Try his Babotie or Malay chicken curry or chilli steak – stunning!! Set on a high view point that’s so mind bending and beautiful, that you wish you could stay for eternity. (Should I start a local eatery review page??)

Cheese, wine, olives and food Festival -
Last weekend we investigated and indulged in the heady atmosphere of a food festival. Cheese was the main produce, but many other incredible delights were on offer, including wines, olives & olive oils, meats, champagnes, oysters, herbs & spices and much much more. Obviously we had to sample as much as possible - there's nothing quite like wondering around with a glass of excellent Pinotage, while munching on loads of delicious foods. Our cupboards are now full with our many fabulous purchases too. :-)))

Ground breaking Great White Shark journey -
Nicole the shark (nick-named after Nicole Kidman) recently was satellite tagged and tracked swimming from Gansbaai, (near Hermanus) South Africa, to the western shoreline of Australia and back again in 99 days. That’s an epic journey of over 22,000 kms. Scientists speculate as to why she did this (the shark that is, not Nicole Kidman – dopey!!), but as this was the first satellite tagged great white from here, then this can only mean that this species regularly makes this incredible journey.

Famous shark cage divers who have recently been here are -
Robbie Williams and Leonardo DiCaprio, with the King of Jordon partaking in his second diving session.

A new shark diving adventure, without the use of a cage in the open ocean, has just started. Viewing blues, makos and many deep continental shelf species. Its mad and a fabulous experience.
There are now over 100 fabulous pictures to entertain you at this site.

Even more beautiful photos of South Africa - Check Percy Tours new pictures at –

Over 100 amazing Percy Tours Photos

Musical excellence -
Cape Town was the place to be last month, with a full day concert of over 15 international bands playing over 12 hours, on 2 enormous stages. We were graced by the mighty Metallica headlining, Fat Boy Slim, Stereo MC’s, Collective Soul, The Rasmus and many more.

With over 10,000 music hungry nutters attending on a very warm day and a 3 hour queue for the over crowded beer tent, it certainly made for a mad day :-)))

Cuisine extravagance -
One evening we went to the fabulous Spiers (wine village) and had a highly indulgent meal at their Moyo restaurant – dining capacity of 1,800 people at one time, with a great range of foods served buffet style. Ethnic dancers and bands in all sorts of colourful costumes performed and played acoustic African sounds. The atmosphere is further enhanced by tree houses with large platforms and tables, water fountains and sculptural modern art features, huge sofa and cushion crash out areas, large oak trees draped in tiny lights and English rose maze gardens. A great evenings entertainment.

Running the gauntlet -
With over 20 or so forest fires in the region during the summer months, I actually witnessed one at very close quarters near Hermanus. High winds pushed the fire along at great speed and flames rose 100’s of metres into the air near a Shell Garage. A police escort drove us thro’ the flames and I was very glad to see the other side of that mayhem. All rather scary and damn hot. Phew!!!

Poor old Table Mountain had another fire hit it in February, which swept right across the cable car route and thankfully stopped at Devils Peak.

Ever changing weather conditions -
The Capetonians have a saying - that you can experience many different weather conditions in one day here - and that has certainly been true recently. With one very hot day hitting the 35 degree mark in early February and the next week it’s down to 15 degrees. Completely barmy.
Winter is on its way now tho’, with wind and rain starting to be a regular feature and the sudden need to get out the space heater and fleeces, to start up my little fire place and drink some corking red wines. For those in the northern hemisphere - Have a great summer everyone.

Extra curricular activity -
This month I decided it was about time I did some extra studying and enrolled to do the Tour Guides course. It’s a complex set of exams and covers (nearly) every South African topic imaginable – history, culture, politics, economy, health & safety in the work place - right thro’ to tourism, animals, geology, plants, climate – and all points inbetween. This is no easy walk in the park either, as they estimate it should take about 8 to 12 months of hard home study to complete. Fingers crossed all.

Recent Percy Tours designer tours -
March was quite a month and over a 12 day period Percy Tours escorted – a group of 6 UK nurses; a group of 3 UK Uni students and a Canadian lady around the many delights of the Western Cape. A trip last week involved chauffeuring a birthday party up to a game reserve, with champagne on ice for all. Wine tours have been very popular too – 4 crazy British people, 4 Dutch student teachers and a party of bonkers Swedish students. Another exploration of the spectacular Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens was a fab walk around, with the amphitheatre stage being fully constructed by the road crews, for 4 concerts by the king of soft pop rock Bryan Adams.

In addition to -
Percy Tours is always active in finding new ways to promote itself and this new addition to our marketing armoury will please those with an inquisitive mind and with absolutely no time at all to do all that searching for info. Please may I present to you all a one page hit of Percy Tours –

http://www.squidoo.com/percytours/

If you go down to the news agents today, you’re sure for a big surprise -
Yes Percy Tours has another juicier that hell advert in a gloriously glossy magazine – check out - Explore South Africa (issue 10) and fest your eyes on page 39. This magazine also goes into every SAA and Cathy Pacific airplane, is sent to over 300 travel agents in Europe, every foreign embassy in South Africa and given out free at the Durban Tourism Indaba in early May.

Cape Epic mountain bike race -
Just last weekend Hermanus was thrust into the international lime light, with the arrival of over 1,000 international mountain cyclists riding into town, for the Cape Epic Challenge. With their whole entourage of support staff, caterers, T.V. film crews on motorbikes and in helicopters, physios and following village of supporters adding another 3,000 people, the town was a buzz. The finishing line at the Hermanus, Old Harbour resembled a Tour de France spectacular. The whole race covered a distance of 921 kms over 8 days.

Come on – you know you desire an amazing holiday in South Africa with Percy Tours. Email us NOW!!!! :-))))

Cheers all, chat soon,

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus & South African summertime. Percy Tours Update 11.

2006-02-08T03:10:00.000+02:00

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.

Hermanus & South Africa madness - Percy Tours Update 10.

2005-09-08T09:47:00.000+02:00

PERCY TOURS in South Africa.

Hello all.

It’s been ages since I last wrote and theres a very good reason for that - the tourists (and the film crews, whales, elephants, lions and great white sharks) are here in big numbers - so yeeehaaa!!!

Percy Tours has been working SO hard that I have forgotten when I last ate or slept, let alone know what day it is. :-)))

NATURE FILM CREW - with a Shark with NO tail -
Firstly we had a fabulous Nature Film crew here for 14 days - they were a great bunch of lads and we had loads of laughs. Here to film the Great White Sharks and with an incredible 20 metre sea-water visibility, plus using the new Shark Lady see-thro cage, they got some unbelievable footage. Including a massive shark that had only a half eaten back tail fin and very bitten dorsal fin. God knows how it has survived to grow to 5 and half metres long, but it has – so if you see a National Geographic or BBC program with a monster great white shark looking unable to swim, then you know it was filmed in these waters and is very capable of looking after itself.

We will be linking to this Film Crews website when its up and running but watch out for any amazing underwater films by SHARK BAIT TV PRODUCTIONS, cos these guys are destined to make a big splash very soon – pun definitely intend :-)))

Helicopters were a-buzzing over head today due to the arrival of the King of Jordan – who decided that a shark dive was on the cards. So the list of VIP shark swimming nutters continues to grow day-by-day.

ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY -
And Percy Tours doesn’t just stop there when it comes to mingling with the VIPs of this planet, as we had one of the Directors of the Royal Shakespeare Company in one of our minibuses for a 3 day zip around the lovely sights of the Western Cape. And what a fabulous woman she was too. We laughed & nattered about everything and certainly sorted the world out many times. Our musical and art discussions were highly enlightening.

JAWS - the Movie -
Richard E Grant & Ruby Wax’s recent visit here was to film the 30th anniversary of the Jaws Movie, so please check your TV screens cos it was ALL filmed here and will be broadcast worldwide on SEPT 4th on ITV1 at 9pm.

And by heck get your hands on a copy of this months Africa Geographic magazine cos its got a 12 page article on sharks at Gansbaai – THE best place on the planet to see great whites – 1000 individuals have now been identified here over 5 years.
Check out our photos web pages for a look at a madman in a 3.5 metre kayak being stalked by a 4.5 metre great white – incredible what these scientists will do these days. - http://www.flickr.com/photos/51084760@N00/search/tags:percytours/

PERCY IS PREGNANT -

Well of course I’m not BUT my little minibus definitely IS pregnant – as she’s expecting another jazz blue minibus with Percy Tours insignia in the next few weeks - we are growing into a little family of luxury minibuses – so all together now - RRRRRRR bless her :-))))))) We are not too sure if it’s a girl or a boy minibus but its full of the joys of spring and highly energetic !!! With even more luxury accessories on board.

Saying that Mummy minibus didn’t feel too well last week and decided that she would give up the ghost - and after 3 days at the doctors we finally found out that she needed to have afew electrical wires moved about - kept cutting out at 100kph on the highway - which was well worrying at night - but she had a damn good doctor and is now fighting fit - yyyeeeeee!!!!

LONDON BOMBINGS -
Dunkirk spirit everyone !!!

It has to be said that my heart goes out to all Londoners (and to EVERY civilised person on the entire planet) that 07/07/2005 was a shockingly terrible day.

There really is NO excuse for such outrageous behaviour - EVER.

Use the tongue and brains god gave you and don’t ever fall to the lowest common denominator.

Freedom of speech YES. Freedom to kill innocent people NO.

Maybe Mr. George Bush needs a jolly good talking to as well.
Uuumm !!! Controversial………but true folks.

I could easily go on forever but know that 99.99999% of us all agree it was a revolting and horrific act.

And anyway, Percy Tours is here to reinforce that we should all be living a hedonist lifestyle of immense fun, sun, frolicking, holidaying and enjoying life to the very fullest – cos life is a full-on adventure playground and to be utterly savoured!!!

So horrendous stories aside lets concentrate on happy times and realise that life is well worth living to the utmost fullest.

So damn well get on with it !!!

GLASTONBURY -
Well I watched the net (clicking like a demented loony) for as much Glastonbury action as my little computer could muster. And Ooohhh how I felt for those poor sods who had to endue metres of water wash them down the hillsides of a farm in south-west England.

My mate Geoff and I have experienced 9 Glastonbury’s in a row and were rained upon for 2 Glastonbury’s in a row – and in those 2 years it never stopped raining for the whole 3 days that we were there. So you think you had it bad kids??

“Youngsters today, they don’t know they were born” – said the senile, grey haired old git in South Africa – severely worried he sounds just like many generations before him - hahaha!!!! Bring on the wheelchairs someone :-)))

Hope you all had a corker - if you were there - or watching it from the comfort of your armchair (with all mod-cons, like hot water and a flushing loo).

GET ON WITH IT - YOU FOOL!!! -
“So come on - what’s been happening down the other end of the planet Percy ??” - I hear you all shout.

Firstly the weather has been non-stop sun for the last 5 weeks – been hitting the 25 degree mark and of course we have been enjoying it - just like the summer in the northern hemisphere. (but obviously involving a lot less rain)

Secondly the Whales have arrived in large numbers to play, jump about and have some very large sex action off the coast of our lovely seaside town. You should see how frothy the sea is!! Hahahahah!! With 60 of these marvelous creatures being spotted in one day last week.

Thirdly I have finished my house extension – “What??” You all shout. “That’s quick.” And yes it is quick but with me being here, watching them nearly every second, they soon got the message that they were not here for some daft teddy bears picnic in the sun. So I (or should that be WE) now have a palace in paradise, which we can all enjoy, totally abuse, party in and chillout. Big new kitchen, 2nd bathroom and a huge 6 metre by 6 metre lounge/guest bedroom. Book your air tickets NOW folks!!!

I even fancy being a flash old git and installing a huge plasma screen TV and monstrous surround system – so I dare you, to dare me and it all might come true :-)))

MUSICAL BLISS -

Well WHAT a bumper month of excellent music – new albums by - Oasis (good) / Gorillaz (fab and a grower the more you listen to it) / Coldplay (another fab grower) / Limp Bizkit (mad rap-core at its finest) / Deep Dish (another grower) / Bloc Party (average) / The White Stripes (incredible as usual) / Thievey Corporation (fabulous chillout/house) / Supergrass (great pop/rock); with the latest Global Underground offerings by Sasha and Danny Howells being SO great – check out Playgroup’s excellent cover version of Depeche Modes “Behind the Wheel”)

AND this months shining star has got to be - Royksopp (always great) – with Track 8 “Circuit Breaker” AND Track 9 “Alpha Male” - BOTH having to be singles of such monstrous potentials that they have got to hit EVERY top 10 singles chart around the planet soon – watch them become classics of our times ladies and gentlemen - as they are both bound to get some outrageous remixes – amazing and I absolutely love them – play them VERY LOUD - NOW :-)) and that’s an order from DJ Pounding Percy.

For the mad & crazy Drum’n’Bass crew – get your hands on Fabriclive 18 - Andy C & DJ Hype - it will literally blow your head off your shoulders!! Incredible listening at 300,000 mph. “BBOO YYAAKKKAA and TING!!” Flipping BRILLIANT!!

While I have also been stocking up on some old classics by The Ramones (1,2,3,4 everyone), AC/DC and other throw back bands from the 1970’s and early 80’s (which makes me feel like I either LOVE and know alot of good music when I hear it, or I am an ageing rocker, who should curl-up rather rapidly. I think the former applies :-))

Ooohhh and I can totally recommend you get your hands on a fabulous chillout album – check out - Felix Laband “Dark Days Exit” – a brilliant South African export – (some dark and moody tunes, some serious smoking music and some down-right weird, with toilet flushing sounds) – but all very great and worth obtaining – so search it out. Been obtaining some amazing reviews across the planet too.

FIRST OFFICIAL BOOKINGS FOR PERCY TOURS -
Champagne in hand everyone – Percy Tours has not 1, not 2 but 3 individualised tours now booked with 3 groups from the UK, thro our website - www.percytours.com.
10 days each tour – one in Sept, one in Oct and one for March 2006.

Plus we really are giving the 5 star treatment to our customers these days, as we are obtaining a very large amount of business from the 5 star Marine Hotel in Hermanus, which has been the resting place for such rich humans like Brad Pitt.

WEBSITE FRANTIC ACTION (and Marketing) -
And our website has been having some amazing hits recently too – 13500 hits in July and 11500 in August.

Plus on the 1st October go down to your local newsagent and get your hands on a copy of the brand new Time Out Cape Town 2006 magazine, cos we have a big advert in there – as well as being the only Tour Operator in the Western Cape advertising in it too – check out our new Special Offers new web page for great activities at crazy silly prices (or even FREE – yeah free)

While we also now have up 7 new Tour Packages that cover many great things to immerse yourself into while you are here. http://www.percytours.com/tours.html

And if you go to our Security and Safety page you will see that we have enlisted Netcare 911 for instant medical air evacuation assistance (god forbid we ever need it)
http://www.percytours.com/security.html

Next month we will be joining forces with EBOOKERS, so that all your clients flights and travel insurance requirements are well and truly catered for.

And if anyone can get their hands on any email databases, then we would be very grateful, as we are about to hit our database with a lush and sexy newsletter.

Even more pictures on our Flickr website too - http://www.flickr.com/photos/51084760@N00/search/tags:percytours/

AND JUST TO CROWN A GREAT FEW MONTHS -
We have just been on an incredible Safari.

This park is a massive, covering a whopping 540 square kms (54,000 hectures) of animals jumping about.

Elephants with little babies that are oohh so cute that they still don’t know what the heck their trunks are for and keep stepping on them; loads of antelope like zebra, springbok, kudu and giraffe; hippos; rhino; lions; cheetahs; tons of huge eagles and water birds, and accommodation of 5 star splendour, with spas and pampering, infinity swimming pools and food to make you just want to live there forever.

More nuttiness from this end of the planet soon.

Loads of love to all.

“South Africa explorer” Percy

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus and a slightly cooling South Africa. Percy Tours Update 9.

2005-06-03T04:07:00.000+02:00

Mid April to 3rd June 2005.

Hello everyone around the world,

Hope you are all very well and mighty fine.

It’s that time again for some more silly antics and daft stories from Percy Tours down at the bottom of Africa, which now has afew chilly and windy days mixed with some warmer sunny intervals in the Western Cape.

Durban Tourism Conference Indaba.

Well Percy Tours thought it was about time that we went on our 1st business trip, so off we jet to Durban and a massive Tourism trade show. This enormous Expo showcasing all of Southern Africa’s major tourist attractions, from Safari lodges and game parks to wines, helicopter trips, adventure sports, many amazing accommodation establishments and all points in-between.

It took us afew days to explore the whole show, while collecting a monstrous bundle of information brochures that will take us weeks to read thro. There were many parties where the free food and booze just didn’t stop being offered and being a complete gentleman, it would have been very rude to have declined their kind invitations, wouldn’t it? While venturing out to afew of the city’s night clubs too – all in the name of research and networking you understand :-)) Needless to say we met many interesting and important future contacts.

Even tho' we are only an hours flight from Cape Town, the weather and scenery are vastly different - sunny, warm and humid, with enormous fields of banana plants and sugarcane. On one day we decide to drive down the coast and admire the views; then cut inland to venture thro the amazingly pretty Valley of 1000 Hills, with small homesteads scattered across this most picturesque landscape.

In Durban there is a marked difference in cultural mix compared to Cape Town, as in the 1800 & 1900s many Indian workers were employed in the sugarcane fields. Their descendants are now the majority of the population in this part of the world, so some damn fine curries are to be had here and I have to say that curries are about the only thing I really miss from London. Spicy poppodums being the top of the list. Yummy!!!!

Tours.

Even tho' the tourists are a slightly rare sight nowadays, we have been kept busy with day trips to Safari parks, wine tours, Cape Town excursions and another corporate team building day, which involved us zooming around the staff of a South African medical company for 6 hours, on a Treasure Hunt of Hermanus. Wickedly funny, especially the blindfold food tasting and them having to decorate a cake, then go and sell it for as much money as possible to some unsuspecting punter down Hermanus main road. With that money then having to be used to buy as many items as possible in a super market which we then took down to the Township kiddies charity shop. The quad biking session on a wine farm was just as entertaining with everyone burning rubber and throwing up dirt into competitors faces.

Safari Drive.

I totally love Safari drives and relish the times I am able to do them. The game park we visit have some new arrivals – with many baby giraffe, zebra, springbok, buffalo and wildebeest hopping about. They have also just introduced a new species of antelope to the park, called Lechwe which are already breeding very successfully and originate from Botswana’s Okavango Delta region.

They are also eagerly awaiting the births of some cute cheetah and the slightly larger arrival of a baby rhino. These will be fabulous to see, as we all love baby animals and instantly go AAAAA!!! The baby cheetahs will have to be hand reared at the lodge, as they would be killed by the male adults if they were left inside their enclosure. So I am really looking forward to seeing them being bottle feed and hopefully being allowed to stroke these little cuties. Many photos to be will be taken at that event, you can bet.

Percy Tours recent developments.

Life never stops here as we have just had delivery of our 1st batch of Percy Tours official merchandising – some very wacky and eye-catching t-shirts.
Our merchandising range will expand over the next few months as we have some great ideas to put into practice. The minibus will have its sides splattered with corporate insignias next week and we have been busy with updating a very useful website for a pictorial montage of Percy Tours. Enjoy!!!

So please feel free to click the following link for a good look –

Flickr.com with 38 new pictures, spread across 4 pages - http://www.flickr.com/photos/51084760@N00/search/tags:percytours/

The "View as slideshow" button on the top right of the page, is an excellent way to see them all in their utmost glory.

One major item that will be ready in a week’s time is a fun, informative and hard-hitting Percy Tours promotional DVD, which has been put together by one of Cape Towns most respected Production Editors. Pumping music sound track, fast flowing and covering many different activities, which will also be available for download too.

Computer misery - Trojan Horses.

We all think our computers are safe – especially us at Percy Tours who weekly update Nortons, Windows Updates, Microsoft anti-spy, Spybot and many other protection programs, but 3 weeks ago I got hit by a Trojan–bloody–Horse, that turned into 3 – arse is all I can say. It’s all been fixed now but it seriously slowed down my computers running speed for afew days.

Sucking on a plastic manikin anyone??

As part of becoming a registered tour company and official tourist drivers, we have to perform mouth to mouth with a plastic torso. Uumm not my idea of fun as 1st aid courses and blood are not my most joyous of activities, but we made it thro the 2 day course and came out with shining colours for being able to practice life-giving kisses.

Lets Rock!!

It’s fairly rare to have big international rock stars grace this part of the world, so when Avril Lavigne decides to rock-up I jump at the change to practice my air-guitar moves. With me is a South African friend who has a small entourage of 5 highly excitable 13 year old girls; so we all bundle into my minibus and zoom off to have our ears blasted. Upon arriving it seems that the whole place is a wash with tons of young teenagers being escorted by their mums and dads, so the screaming and squealing are more ear-piercing than the bass speakers on stage. Great fun and very entertaining. Avril was booked to do a shark dive but cancels at the last minute because she is worried about getting a cold and does not want to spoil her singing voice.
All together now – “aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!! Poor diddums!!!”

New Listening Pleasure.

As with every month i do my best to keep up with the new album releases that hit the high street shelves. So off i go to CD Warehouse in the Victoria & Albert Waterfront and purchase - Mylo - fabulous house (track 7 is the one that got me jumping) / Queens of the Stone Age - marvelous rock / Hot Hot Heat - more chart friendly rock but still damn good too.

Trying to find “Love” in paradise!!

We should always make time to do something new and this month has been no exception. One of my mates introduces me to an internet dating website called Thunderbolt City. This is my very first time at this ever increasing popular global activity, so it’s with trepidation that I boundly step forward.

And oohhhh my, what incredible fun this new past-time is. There certainly seem to be a large number of single ladies in the Cape Town area and after filling in all my personal details I start to search for a “match”. Within about 3 days I have 10 “fans” who all like what they see in my details - I mean are they all mad or desperate – or just blind drunk?? Hahahahahahah !!!!! So I start to have ever increasing longer and longer email chats with afew that I find equally attracted to.

One lady totally stands out from the crowd – nicknamed London Girl – we have a right laugh writing to each other, being highly witty, sarcastic and damn right daft and after about a week I pluck up the courage to ask her out on a date.

She is 36, tall, from London, been living here 18 months and started her own charity to help disadvantaged children with special educational needs, who have been effected by Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (which is when the mother drinks alcohol all the way thro the pregnancy and therefore seriously damages the baby). This is very brave work indeed I am sure we will all agree.

So we arrange to met up for a coffee and take it from there. After about an hour we suggest it’s about time for a proper drink, so we go to a nearby comfy hotel bar and slowly start sipping some fabulous South African white wine. We can’t stop talking and natter on and on and on for 6 hours, with us getting on like a house on fire.

We say our good-byes and know we will be in contact very soon, although she is off to London for a month very soon.

More on how this develops in next months Update. :-)))

Press Launch for a new Tourist Product.

One Friday evening we are cordially invited to The Gecko bar for the press launch by The Shark Lady, who originally pioneered shark cage diving here in Hermanus in 1992, which has now become the worlds Mecca for all enthusiasts of this incredible activity.

Tonight she is presenting to the local press and important people in the tourism trade her new concept – a totally circular plastic cage. Now you might think that’s not that ground breaking, but as all the other 7 dive operators are still using square metal cages, this is a new idea. One of the unfortunate things with square metal cages are that they are not that shark friendly, as one of the sharks many senses is to detect magnetic fields and obviously metal plays havoc with this sense. Being circular there is no way that a shark will ever injure itself on any part of this new cage. There is also another important aspect for us humans who will venture into this cage – you now have no visible protection from a 6 metre shark that is coming at you like a speeding train, as you are suspended in the water looking thro' clear plastic. This will greatly enhance the thrill of shark diving and I can’t wait to get in it myself.

The following day she has a movie film crew and 4 famous UK entertainers arriving to try out this exciting new piece of kit.

Ground breaking news. 3rd June, 2005. Roving reporter in the area.

Today I was wondered around the town centre, just going into a shopping centre when who should be going the other way – Richard E Grant, Ruby Wax & Colin Jackson – the 4th member of this filming session was not with them……so more on this world exclusive when we have it.

In fact there is more - they are all here to film Shark Bait, a program to be aired in the UK on 4th Sept (the 30th anniversary of Jaws movie). They will all be diving with Shark Ladies new see-thro' cage.

Good News.

Afew weeks ago I got a great email from my mate Cicely, who I first met in Cape Town in 2001. She’s been back in Newcastle, UK for the last year, but is on her way down to Cape Town in early July. So that will be great to catch up with all our gossip.

Building Work.

And on the 13th June I start to have my house extension started. This could be hampered by the rains as it seems to be not the warmest or driest weather down here at the moment, but that won’t stop me cracking the whip.

That’s about your lot for now, so chat soon and for those of you up there - enjoy the summer and festivals in the Northern Hemisphere.

Cheers

Percy “Intrepid Explorer of South Africa”

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus & South Africa partys. Percy Tours Update 8.

2005-04-15T08:29:00.000+02:00

20th March – Mid April 2005.

Well things here have been busy as hell, been running around all the local important tourist businesses - hostels, wineries, hotels, adventure shops and restaurants distributing my lovely new flyers and presenting them in individualised Perspex holders that fit very nicely on reception desks. Have had many enquiry calls, with afew turning into business, so fingers crossed that theres more.

Recruitment drive.

Percy Tours are actively recruiting forward and lateral thinking people in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and NZ.

So if you or maybe you know of someone with good organisational skills and want to earn some extra notes in your spare time, then please get in contact with me.

percytours@hotmail.com

and please check our website for a good idea of what we are all about –

http://www.percytours.com/

Many thanks :-)

Business, starts slow and then goes crazy :-))

Didn’t have that many shark transfers during late March, as it appears that the shark diving was going thro a very slow period (for 2 weeks). As well as Hermanus Backpackers being quite empty too.

Then in early April we had a mad flurry of business, so it appears that tourists turn up at all different times of the year. And things can only get better as the May to August season has by far the best visibility for sharks (up to 25 metres of clear water) and of course the whales will be returning then too (June to Dec) to frolic, mate and give birth in Walker Bay. As well as a number of international wildlife documentary companies are booked with some of the shark operators here. So Percy Tours hopes to be transferring them around for their whole time here.

Late News Flash.

We might have a 5 day Movie Film team to transport about at the end of May. 4 famous actors from the UK and an entourage of 35. Not confirmed yet but that will be marvellous if that it comes off.

Hyped rubbish??!!

One bit of worldwide news has been that a guy from Cumbria in UK (Mark Currie) who went on a shark dive afew weeks ago (we are not too sure with which company in Gansbaai yet) has been selling his story of his dive to the worlds press (very probably a huge sensationalised story), but he claims that when he was in the cage a 6 metre shark attacked the cage by biting into it and destroying one of the floatation buoys, then it came back to take another huge bite out of the same side of the steel cage, (yeah right of course it did mate - NOT!!!) then attempted to jump into the top of the cage and tried to attack him from the open top, missing him by cms.
(Utterly laughable!!!)
The boats captain then (it’s claimed) hit the shark repeatedly on the head with a metal bar. The story and some of the early footage is on film and available at the BBC website, but it (very handily) doesn’t show it jumping on top or the captain hitting it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/4382621.stm

Well as you can imagine the other local shark operators have gone absolutely mad over this story, as not only does this go against all the very strict safety practices but the captain of the boat should never have to hit a shark with a metal bar for starters and to allow the shark to jump onto the cage with someone in it is just madness. A shark would have to leave the side of the boat, circle around and come back again & again for each activity that’s been claimed happened. It’s not one single movement.
This gives the worlds press even more ammo to kick this lucrative tourism attraction in the teeth.

Late News Flash.

We found out 2 days ago that the Head of the official Great White Shark Wildlife Protection agency here in Hermanus has gone to the UK to actually start legal proceedings against Mr. Currie. Uuumm very interesting!!! Be that a warning to all you quick buck earning hopefuls.
More when we have it.

Percy Tours Photo Site.

And how’s this for a corking photo sharing website – Flickr – Please check out Percy Tours enters on this site for a great view of what it’s like to be in the very BEST playground on earth –
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51084760@N00/search/tags:percytours/

Well all this comes to you from a very select bunch of news and internet savvy gents.
So if you ever want to know something about anything??

Well sod asking that useless git Jeeves – cos lets be honest he knows sod all about anything really and he takes 6 years to get to the right answer – come ask your friendly Percy search engine – and by god we will give you exactly the answer you want to know. Need to know how many litres of milk a baby whale drinks per day? No!! Well how about – which lucky creature orgasms non-stop for half an hour? Or which mammal has sex non-stop for 24 hours? Or how does an elephant really die and do elephant grave yards actually exist?? Or which creature actually has 2 penises?? Or which creature has the largest sexual organs compared to its body size?
Ask and we will tell you straight.
Or maybe not, as we are too damn busy doing other much more important things :-))))

More Shark Action.

The local shark diving businesses continue to get even more famous people visiting this lovely part of the world – new arrivals recently have been – Colin Farrell, Christopher Lambert, Sting, IT Tycoon Mark Shuttleworth, Stefi Grafi, the lovely Cameron Diaz and her toy-boy Justin Timberlake. While Brad Pitt on his recent visit started property hunting for a mansion, and we found out today, has actually bought a new “hut” on the beach – so I spose Ms. Jolie will be organising the house maids now, seeing as he has stupidly thrown in the towel with Ms. Aniston. I mean which one would you lads rather have curled up with you at night – and the wrong answer is not both of them!!! :-))))

And the heavens opened.

I know what the UKs weather is like – rain, rain and more rain – well get this – last Friday it started to throw it down – and didn’t stop until Monday morning – this was not your usual drizzle but horizontal rain drops the size of ball-bearing. And good god it was relentless. We received over 2 inches (4cms) in this short space of time. The official average rainfall for the whole month of April is 41mm – the local reservoir increased from 45% full to 70% and many roads were closed due to landslides – I went along one of these roads a day later and you should have seen the debris – 100s of rocks the size of cars and trees up rooted everywhere. The huge Hermanus lagoon was so full that the army had to be called in to remove a 50 metre section of Grotto beach so that the overflowing lake could escape into the sea.

This huge storm knocked out the town’s electrics, the phone and internet systems. So I frantically unplug the entire office just in case we get a lightning strike at PT HQ as we could easily lose our whole network and its valuable equipment. Yeah we do have surge protectors but its better to be safe than sorry I say. Thankfully these storms only hit once every 2 or 3 years.

My garden had 2 lakes suddenly appear and I thought that I would have ducks and geese making a home here. The roof just about held up – but at 6am one morning I had to get afew buckets and cooking pots out to catch some drops.

Very welcome surprise.

My fab mates from the UK send me a parcel for my 40th birthday (which was last Nov). I have no idea what it is (which is always the best type of surprise). And upon opening it find an excellent video camera lense, which connects up to my Sony digital camera.

This beauty is a small cylinder with a long lead that can be strapped to a helmet or mounted to a bike frame, a riders arms, legs or any body part, with the Sony video camera being carried in a rucksack, but that’s not all – this fab camera can go under water to depths of 12 feet too – so shark videos will now get a great shoot in the arm and will never look the same. I intend to get a long steel pole to attach it to for some great new shoots.
Check their website for a look – http://www.viosport.com/

And another (nearly) equally welcome surprise was the delivery of 4 huge bags of Twiglets and 2 big pots or UK Marmite – Yummy!!! – Yeah, we do have Marmite over here but it’s not the same.

Corporate Business.

Well it does appear that our Percy Tours flyers are finally doing the trick as we start to get some genuine enquires during the middle of April.

Afew weekends ago we were very busy with a group of 32 clients in 4 minibuses, (plus another tour company had 2 more minibuses of 8 clients each too). They are all on a corporate event from an Asset Management company in Cape Town.

During the morning we zoom them around to do kayaking and sailing, while in the afternoon we have a “treasure hunt” where each group of 8 were given clues to places to discover around Hermanus – 1st stop - a blind fold taste and smell competition at a restaurant. After completing each task correctly they get their next clue to solve.

This was amazing fun and some damn right dirty tricks were played by all sides – from calling other minibuses to say that there were police speed traps around the corner, to completely blocking the other minibuses in at car parks so that their bus could zoom off quicker. One minibus decided to totally cheat at one location by saying that they had completed the task of viewing various famous landmarks without actually seeing them. All our drivers got right into it too – with some hair rising driving – one nutter overtaking a slow moving Police car at about 80kph in a 40kph zone. Lucky he didn’t get a ticket. I came 3rd.

More business in the pipe line.

This week we get a call from the manager at a local retirement village that only opened at Xmas and are literally 300 metres away. They also have a corporate seminar building that regularly has events held there, with 40 bedrooms decked out in a Holiday Inn style. 2 swimming pools, a snooker room, gym, big restaurant and beauty spa.

So I go off for a meeting with them and after a chat they decide they want us to do 2 major jobs for them – 1st is take their residents on weekly tours – these will involve many different activities, from cooking courses, pottery, painting, bird and wildlife viewing, photograph courses, wine and beer tastings, fishing trips, scenic road trips, river boat cruises, golf courses, craft markets, art festivals, tours of the local abalone hatcheries (huge business as the Far East consume tons of the stuff), tours of flower farms (that’s another huge business here, as that’s what you see in your local supermarkets), hikes in the local mountains and nature parks etc. Thankfully all their residents are very sprightly, with the average age being about 55 to 65. This is a retirement village not a frail care home, so absolutely no pushing wheel chairs around for us – phew!!

The 2nd job is to take their corporate clients on much more adventurous pursuits – and there is literally tons to choice from – shark dives, abseiling, mountain biking, canoeing, paragliding, scuba diving, sailing, kayaking, sandboarding, horse riding, quad biking, 4x4 trails, yachting, sky diving, shooting ranges, microlight flights etc.

So there’s loads to be achieved there.

Business trip to Durban.

Every year for 5 days, the city of Durban holds a large conference & trade fair called Indaba, to promote tourism in SA. Well Percy Tours are right up for some of that, so on 6th May we jet off to promote ourselves. There is rumoured to be a 4 fold increase of foreign buyers from Europe, North America and Oz turning up this year.

We are currently printing up Percy Tours t-shirts to parade around in as well as taking the laptop armed with loads of our details to showcase to prospective clients, DVDs, digital camera and as many flyers and business cards as we can carry.

Should be great to met and network with a myriad of new contacts.

Sightings along our shores.

This month there have been a few dolphin sightings and some Bryde Whales around and behind Dyer Island.

Pods of 20 to 30 Humpback Dolphins and 2 to 10 Bottlenose Dolphins have been sighted, with both species being near the surf zone where they hunt small fish.

Afew Southern Right Whales has also been seen but it will be several months before they return in greater numbers. Recent bird sightings have included – Sub-Antarctic Skuas, Sooty Shearwaters, Giant Petrels, Cape Gannets, Oystercatchers and Swift Terns. The African Penguin (Jackass Penguins as they were called until recently) and Swift Terns have taken to their new man-made artificial nests on Dyer Island, with breeding numbers up from last years survey.

Over the last 5 years scientists have also counted over 1000 different individual Great White Sharks. This fantastic animal was recently classified as an endangered species and has therefore put this animal on a NO hunting/fishing list by humans anywhere in the world.

And today’s Shark Divers saw 10 sharks – which is an amazingly high number.

Plus I am not sure if you are aware that the Western Cape has just been elevated to World Heritage status.

While today I had to invest in a big space heater and an extra duvet to wrap around myself. BBBRRRR!!!!!!! Well Antarctica is the closest land mass after all.

Hope you have enjoyed this edition of Percy Tours Updates – more in a month’s time.

Cheers

Percy “Swimming around in so much rain water that its time to invest in some big wellie boots and an 8 mm wetsuit”

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus & South Africa craziness. Percy Tours Update 7

2005-03-19T09:25:00.000+02:00

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8th Feb – 19th March 2005

Hope those of you in Europe have been enjoying the pesky SNOW – been thinking of you all and what an utter nightmare it must be to get from A to B – especially knowing how useless the UK highways agency is at clearing it out of the way on the roads and pavements.

So what has been happening here ???

This month I have mainly been..........working my butt off actually - AAAAAAA!!!

So no more sitting on the beach picking the sand out of my butt – PERCY TOURS is well and truly up and running in a big way, like a greyhound of out the box catching the preverbal hare.

Check us out at – http://www.percytours.com/

Shark Transfers.
After answering an advert in the local newspaper for - "transfers to Great White Shark cage diving urgently needed."

And insisting upon being the 1st to get an interview from 35 applicants, I blow them away and they signed us up on the spot. YYYEEEEHHHAAA!!!!!

So now every morning I wake up at the ungodly hour of 6am to collect and drop off mad humans that want to be breakfast for Great White Sharks. I have also taken tourists on wine tours at the local Hermanus wineries, a tour down to the southern tip of Africa (Cape Agulhas) where we saw Ostrich, Zebra, Springbok, loads of eagles and many sea birds; and afew airport collections and drop-offs. So at bloody last the business has started and some cash is coming in. :-))))

Have had 10,000 colourful flyers printed up and bought some wicked Perspex flyer holders to put onto hotel reception desks, so over the next few weeks we will going around local businesses to sell our executive services.

Music Listening Pleasure.And this month I have mainly been...........listening to (VERY LOUDLY) Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit and anything hard and pounding (well I wouldn’t be me if it wasn’t pounding would I ???) so I have been pumping it all thro the minibus cd stereo or thro the 300 watt speakers I now have installed in the house.

And not a word of noise complaint from the neighbours. Haahahahahahaahh – love it…

Been trying my best to catch up with music new releases – and have purchased the new Chemical Brothers album (ok-ish) / Trickys new one (ok-ish too) / Fatboy Slim (very average) / Depeche Modes 3 cds remix album which is utterly excellent – some brilliant tunes / Thievery Corp / Groove Armadas best ofs…/ Eminem / The Hives (which rocks like a bar-steward). And have just got some tickets for Avril Lavignes show in May in the huge Bellville Velodrome in Cape Town. We don’t get too many international acts over here so it will be good to see what this venue is all about. We have standing tickets so a scrum down is bound to engulf us. Mosh pit anyone ??

Now that I have ADSL installed at my house/office – I have been listening to XFM and BBC Radio 1 online so as to keep up with new stuff too. OOHH the beauty of the internet – don’t know how we ever survived without it years ago. Same goes for Mobile phones too. :-))))

Extra Earners!!!
As a little extra earner I have been installing computers at various places – the 1st big customer is Hermanus Backpackers where I have just put a computer into their bar with 3000 songs on it, as all their old cds were so scratched that the music always always skipped (which was very annoying) so those that know the bar will be very relieved to hear that we can now party all night long without skkkkiipping music – and then yesterday I and 2 other gents installed ADSL and another computer for them to offer the services of an internet café in their quite lounge.
As well I am now teaching people here how to use their computers much more efficiently – and have already got 3 customers who I spend afew hours a week with and I would hope that as word spreads I will have quite afew more people to train up.

Trance Party.
In South Africa there is a large following for Trance music and psy-trance dance festivals, so we went to see what it’s all about at an event called Alien Safari. Situated in the most idyllic remote location – a huge mountain range in the distance with little fluffy clouds floating by; the sun beating down at 30 degrees; set on the banks of the Breede river which is extremely shallow and therefore allows all to splash about in the cooling water wearing very little and some revellers not giving a damn and swimming in their birthday suits :-))) – very entertaining viewing; and an enormous Olympic sized swimming pool for those that prefer to not get sand all over them; a large market selling all sorts of food, drinks and all those items you thought you’d never need until you see them i.e. jewellery, clothes, sun hats, tattooists, piercers, tarot readings and much more.

They had a large stage with loads of psychedelic multi-coloured painted huge backdrops, amazing sound system and a dance floor that’s just a lightly sloping big field filled with over 2000 punters wearing very little indeed in the screaming heat. The sun is so hot that there’s absolutely no need at all to erect a marquee. The crew had installed a garden hose that had a watering sprinkler attached that kept the crowd cool, which also made for very entertaining viewing. People trying to catch water in cups that they held over their heads. God people are crazy :-)))

Now as luck (or not) would have it I decided to drive the minibus in as close to the stage and dance floor as possible, this I thought would be very handy to get back to and wasn’t miles away in the large campsite. And so it was very handily positioned about 50 metres away and made convenient for us to keep going backing to, to get cold beers out of our cooler box but when we decided to eventually try to get some sleep, the bus would act like a large bass bin and vibrated as if we were connected directly to the soundsystem. With the music playing non-stop for 24 hours, we didn’t get much sleep so there was really only one thing for it and get back on that dance floor. There’s some mad DJ from Israel there called Skuzi – doesn’t he realise that Skuzi in the UK means rubbish – idiot!! :-)))

School silliness.
My German friend Steffi is currently doing a degree to be a school teacher (at a German Uni) and is here to experience and learn how other countries teach. So one day she asks if I can video film a class room full of 7 year olds doing a task that she has set them to do. Utter chaos :-)))

Cricket Match.
The men from Hermanus Backpackers engage in some utter silliness and organise 2 games of cricket against the high schools "A" team.
What fully grown men trying to trash a bunch of school boys who can’t even shave yet – what a challenge – not :-))))
I go along with my video camera and edit a full dvd of action set to mad music.
Sadly for this big butch of men they get totally trashed TWICE!!! I don’t think they will be doing that again in a hurry as their huge egos have been well massacred.

It’s a long while since I had a soothing massage – so I call up my favourite masseuse and get totally pummelled. RRRRR and relax!!!

Off tonight to a friends Braai, so will be fun – hopefully some of those outrageous huge crayfish will make an appearance on the fire – YUMMY!!!

Well that’s about it for this month of hot news on the bottom of the planet. Keep warm all those in Europe and hope to talk to you soon –

cheers and a bucket load of LOVE to you all. XXX

Percy “Suffering from over work and Ravers knees”

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus & South Africa adventures. Percy Tours Update 6.

2005-02-07T09:23:00.000+02:00

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Dec 26th 2004 – 7th Feb 2005.

Firstly, I hope that you all have had a fabulous Christmas & NYE celebrations.
(And I spose now it’s a far off memory, but a happy one all the same……….)

Christmas in South Africa.
Needless to say I had a corker too – there really is nothing quite like 30 degree heat, swimming in a cooling pool and eating huge crayfish on the braai with 25 other fellow xmas revellers at the Backpackers Hostel; which I took long my lap-top with all its music, so a large and long party was enjoyed by all.

Christmas away from UK is such a breath of fresh air – no crowds of moody people pushing you about at the shops/pubs/clubs/restaurants for 2 months; no spending £1000 on a load of useless rubbish; no 3 weeks of continuous hang-overs; no Christmas carols being played everywhere; no naff Christmas TV adverts for 2 months that are so rubbish that you are ashamed for the poor sods that had to film the damn things; no piles of wasted food and no turkey or sprouts. Yyyeeeehhhaaaa!!!!!!

Present to myself !!!
Afew days b4 Christmas Day I had finally found myself some decent wheels and proceeded to obtain a car loan from my bank, only to be told 5 days later that due to the fact that I am not yet a permanent resident of South Africa, then I will not be allowed a car loan. Well why the bloody hell didn’t you tell me that b4 I filled in all the bloody forms and wasted a whole week chasing it up – stupid gits!!! Anyway it all ended happily and I am now the proud owner of a 10 seater VW minibus that’s got all the mod-cons – central locking, alarm, immobiliser, anti hijack alarm, kicking cd/radio stereo, valeted inside and out, alloy wheels and best of all – Air-Con – rrrrrrrrr luxury in this heat.

Boxing Day. More Sandboarding.
On Boxing Day we head off with 9 others to the large sand dunes to spend afew hours Sand Boarding. Then partake in some mad Gorge Jumping into a very deep river of cooling water. There are afew lunatics jumping off the road bridge which is at least 20 metres above the river; head back to the bar at the Hostel to wash all that sand away with afew splendid beers.

Lets Rock.The day after we drive over to the small seaside village of Gansbaai to see a rock festival. Yeah a rock festival!!! We had to go to that just to check out what exactly happens at a South African rock festival. When I say village I mean a village – so only about 1000 people maximum live here full time. There was of course a large beer tent – excellent start, a crowd of about 300 or 400 people, as well as a pretty impressive stage with lights, big sound system and an engineers tower about 50 metres back into the crowd.

The best bit for me (and the rest of the male audience) was that there was also a large jacucci bubble bath on the stage. Well it being a rock festival it was bound to happen.
Yeah you guessed it, there were also 10 very pretty women writhing about in all the bubbles, dancing provocatively in bikinis.
Highly entertaining :-)))

The ladies in the audience had to put up with long haired, tanned, muscular and tattooed sexy rock stars strutting their stuff on stage. Oh shame !!!!! :-)))))

Some enterprising locals had bought along a huge paddling pool which they filled from a handy hose and wallowing in cold and muddy water. That made for a pretty picture too. Every single song was in Afrikaans so we really didn’t know what they were singing about, but who really cares when you have a beer in your hand and scantily clad ladies are gyrating in bubbles in front of you? :-)))

New Years Eve.New Years Eve was a fun packed evening at a local restaurant/ bar called Marumba. Can’t remember much after about 11pm, but can just about recall a Soca band of 20 gents dressed in blue & white suits turning up to parade along the walking street outside and some silly sod letting off 2 distress flares that he held in his hands. What a load of smoke and bright red glow that was.

Well by now we all know the result of England visiting South Africa for a test match of good old cricket, but if you are not that well informed, England just about won the series. I won 100 Rand on that bet.

Here they have 2 New Years Days as public holidays. Yeah 2, weird, but apparently it’s because it was the only day of the year that the slaves/workers had as a holiday. Uuummm one day in ever 365, how generous!!!??? :-))))

The local rock venue, The Gecko, has a really good Cape Town band called The Boulevard Blues Band play once a fortnight, so we go for a jump up and down on the dancefloor to their fine tunes.

Downhill Biking.For 2 Sundays in a row I go off to witness and video, one of the most extreme sports there can be - Downhill Biking. This is not your light weight mountain biking, this is jumping off 5 metre vertical walls of dust, rock, trees and bushes; flying and flipping in the air off crazy rams, while doing stunning aerial twists and turns at VERY HIGH SPEED. The crashes are amazingly spectacular, that’s why they all wear body armour made from light weight but extremely tough plastic. Hand to shoulder; foot to hip; around the rib cage, plus space age helmets, all in multi-colours.

There have been 2 collar bone breaks, one big toe smashed, 2 twisted ankles, one broken knee cap and load of cuts and scraps to take to the hospital that have happened at these 2 meetings and this isn’t even the season yet, this is just practice sessions. This all makes for some great video action and with a sprinkle of Metallica and Slayer thrown into the film soundtrack, makes for some entertaining dvd editing and viewing.

In about 2 weekends time a massive meeting happens about 50 kms away, which lasts a full 5 days and includes every single biking discipline that there is – from marathons, to sprints, circuit, cross country, bmx stunts, slaloms, downhill, rally, road, endurance, etc. It’s all catered for here. That will all be worth videoing for inclusion on a mad DVD.

Road Trip and Safari Game Drive.
Now that I have a fabulous vehicle I think it’s about time I take this little beauty for a road trip, so my German mate Steffi & I take off to Cape Town to collect one of her friends Julia and we drive to the northern towns of Tulbach & Ceres. The girls are going to visit a childerns home that they worked at for 3 months last year to surprise the kids and take a huge suitcase of xmas gifts that Julia has bought all the way from Germany.

While I go on to 2 wildlife safaris in the nearby Karoo, staying in a B&B in the small town of Ceres.

These 2 safari parks are the nearest and the most advertised Game Parks in the Cape Town area and as they are within only 3 hours drive, they are an easy day trip from Cape Town for all tourists. Both are about 3500 hectares each, have been open for about 7 years, as well as both offering a 2 to 3 hour game drive and more. So it will very interesting to see how each operates and how different they are.

Aquila is the 1st one. It’s on land that can only be described as fairly barren, i.e. there are only about 5 trees, the rest of the land is covered in thigh-high shrubs and bush. This obviously makes spotting the animals from the Land Rovers easier, but you do think that it would be nice to have a few lorry sized plants about for the animals to hide amongst, especially to provide shade in the screaming heat of the day.

There was a large watering hole which had 3 hippos in it, (hippos kill more humans than any other wild animal – the insect equivalent is the damn mosquito) as well as spotting many different water birds like storks, Egyptian geese, spoonbills and heron. The antelope species seen were – springbok which apparently breed like rabbits; zebra, 3 giraffe, some blue wildebeest, eland (the largest antelope) and 3 white rhinos (from quite a distance). We also visited an enclosure that had 3 white lions in it that Aquila had bought from the Atlas Mountains region of southern Morocco. Why they did that is a very good question cos these lions looked well out of place – not your usual golden brown colouration or size that you would expect to see on a safari. And next to them were 3 other white lion cubs. They will be separated for another 6 months b4 they are all placed in one huge enclosure. If they were placed them together now then the younger ones would be immediately killed by the adults.
They also say that they have buffalo and leopards but we didn’t see either.

Leopards obviously being extremely difficult to ever spot as they are nocturnal and hide in high mountain ridges and canyons.

The buildings were in lovely classic African design of thatched roofs and orangey walls, with a good pool, bar, rest areas with sofas and a big restaurant.

This 3 hour safari (plus a compulsory supper) cost R625, which is about £60.00.
Worth it?? We will see.

Day 2 Game and Safari Drive.So the next day I zoom off to Inverdoorn Game Park.
Positioned on an old fruit farm, the land is fairly flat but the 1st thing you see are loads and loads of high trees and thick high shrub and bushes – this is more like it. This game park is owned by a lovely French couple.

The main buildings are extremely well decked out with lots of room to spread out & relax under trees and large umbrellas. The overnight chalets are very tastefully equipped – air-con, satellite TV, small kitchens and lovely linen. There’s a secluded swimming pool, an aviary and afew decorative water features. While the food is outstanding – had to be didn’t it as they are French. Yummy!!!

So we jump into the Land Rovers and off we go – 3 more lions in an enclosure the size of a football pitch but at least these are golden brown and have some trees to lie under. These have been saved from an utterly horrid process called Canned Hunting. A barbaric way of breeding them so that someone can have them killed and stuffed as a trophy. So it's very good to see that they have been saved from that horror.

Next to them are 7 cheetahs which they are breeding and will hopefully be release into the park to chase all the small antelope about. That will be very interesting to come back and witness, as “kills” are a rare sight, but at least there will be the potential to witness one taking place one day.

When I go wildlife viewing I want the safari sightings to be as close to a David Attenborough documentary as possible, so to see 14 giraffe all together, marching majestically along was a lovely sight. Herds of zebra, springbok, eland, wildebeest, oryx, duiker (small deer), 2 white rhinos that we were so close to that we could have touched them; a herd of big buffalo with 2 baby calves, kudu (another large antelope), some eagles and goshawks near the water holes.

The dust roads were in a good condition, so the Land Rovers were able to go along at a reasonable pace too.

And the price for this – R425 = £40.

I know which one I will coming back to again with my minibus full of tourists. :-))))

Last Years Questionnaire Winner.
Plus the winner of the competition for filling in my tourism questionnaire late last year, that 120 very kind people completed, is – my Mum……
So a FREE adventure sport like - great white shark cage diving, abseiling off Table Mountain or paragliding off Hermanus mountains is awaiting you when you come to visit. Hope that’s cool with you Mum??

Des-Res.
And to completely round off one of the most amazingly active months of my life –
I am now a land owner in South Africa and moved into my new house on 24th Jan. 2004.
So now none of you have any excuses whatsoever for not coming to stay.
2 double bedrooms, bathroom, a large lounge/diner/kitchen that’s 7 metres by
7 metres and a garden that’s 20 metres by 20 metres. My architect has just finalised the latest plans of how the buildings will look when I start building later this year.

All I need to do now is fill the place with a massive stereo system for all those parties we’ll be having here. The neighbours are going to love me. NOT!!! hahahahahahhaaa!!!! :-))))

Up The Creek Festival. Late Janruary 2005.Once a year there is a large rock festival called “Up the Creek” which is held on a farm in the nearby town of Swellendam. So 10 of us from Hermanus pack up 3 VW minibuses and off we go for 3 days of utter silliness on a large site that holds 5000. The Breede River flows thro the grounds of the festival, with a large beach and is swallow enough so that you are able to wade all the way across the 200 metre wide river to the other side. Most refreshing in the 30 degree heat of the day.

As with every festival I have ever attended everyone is very friendly and good humoured; the food stalls produce some mighty fine cuisine; the bar has freezing cold drinks and the markets stalls are selling aload of stuff that you never knew you ever wanted, but you spend your money there for some weird reason.

The bands playing were all South African, with the majority performing rock (with a good sprinkling of Folk, Blues, Reggae, Ska, Punk and all points between). There were 2 marvellous bands who got us all dancing – one band of 8 musicians throw out some very fine Soca / Caribbean tunes called - Freshly Grounded. While another band blasted us with some furious sounds that were a cross between Rage Against The Machine meets The Clash meets The Beastie Boys meets The Police - a fabulous mixture, called - Bed on Bricks.

There were certainly some facilities at this festival that I have never encountered b4, the most notable being flushing toilets WITH toilet paper and the crowning glory – HOT SHOWERS – while my comfortable nights sleep were on a double blow-up mattress with pillows and duvet in the back of the minibus – rrrrrrr!!!! Luxury.

So it’s all full steam ahead down here folks and that’s about the lot from this part of the planet.

Percy “Safari Ranger” Heywood.

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus Happy Christmas from South Africa. Percy Tours Update 5.

2004-12-25T06:58:00.000+02:00

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26th Nov. - 25th Dec. 2004.

Well firstly – A BIG Happy Christmas & Mighty Splendid NYE to you all.
Hope it’s a right corker & all your dreams come true.

So after all the fun, games and many stupid kappers spent with Roger holidaying here for the last 3 weeks, I thought it was about time I finally pulled my finger out and started doing some sort of work.
(Of course if it’s sunny – then I have to keep the sun tan topped-up and I only do any real work when it rains – which on current counting is 5 days out of 91, so uumm!!) :-)))))

Abseiling.
And within 10 minutes of Rogers departure I am already abseiling down the cliffs of Hermanus Harbour. Abseiling could easily be my new sport, as it’s quite a thrill to be falling down the side of a cliff face to your sudden death, when the rode suddenly stops and you realise that death thankfully is not on the cards. There’s quite some skill and technique in being able to push off the cliff face with your legs, let go of the rode, free fall for awhile and bounce back onto the cliff face again without injury.

Film Editing.I have collected well over 5 hours of video film of all sorts of sports & adventures from the last
3 months, so I set about constructing & editing the footage so that it is all action and no boring bits, with added music and credits interlaced onto the film.
Each finished DVD of say 25 minutes of cut & edited film, can easily take 6 to 8 hours to compile, add music and edit; with the burning and arrangement of menus taking a further hour. This whole process takes a good days work to finally come up with a highly presentable, polished & professional looking movie.

More Housey bits.
Go over to my future house with my Architect in tow, so that we can do loads of measurements of the existing structure and the plot, so that we have a fair idea on what new buildings will fit onto the available space. Go and see my Geologist to discuss afew major foundation issues.
See my mortgage broker, my mortgage solicitor, my house solicitor (yes 2 solicitors, they do things abit weirdly over here – I’ll explain one day if you are interested) and a local surveyor to kick them all in the right direction.

Sandboarding.
And then zoom off to the smaller sand dunes at Vermont, as the Hostel has called me to say that there are afew people wanting DVD films of their action on the slopes. It’s a screaming hot day and one where a hat and sun block are most definitely required. Thankfully we go off to Onrus beach to be pounded by the cooling sea & massive waves. Excellent fun.

CivAir.
On the odd occasion that I do read a SA newspaper, I find out that the new cheap ticket airline run by CivAir in Cape Town, has sadly gone bust, stranding afew unhappy customers at the wrong end of the planet. This company’s demise is a right blow as they were looking like serious competition to the major carriers and had done their utmost to really hammer down flight prices by a third of what was already on offer.
Just goes to show that cheap is not always best and there’s a business moral for us all to ponder on there.

Business Visa.Well the big news this month is that after all the running around and mucking about –
I finally get my Business Visa thro’ which means that I can now stay here for 2 years – which is a huge relief and now means that all my future plans can now really start to get off the ground.
Including - finding & buying a vehicle so that I can finally get rid of this expensive £500 per month Hertz beauty I presently have. As well as obtaining the many mod-cons that will go into my new pad, like beds and sofas. Open a South Africa bank account and a PO Box for all that post.
After some waiting at my Printers, I finally obtain my first business cards, which even tho’ I say so myself, do look rather excellent – colourful, very informative and lamented.

The Vehicle Hunt is on.So off I go looking at motors that might fit my requirements. As we know, buying a vehicle is not an easy task. Many are too expensive, many are complete wrecks and some are just the wrong colour to match with what I am wearing today lovey !!!! hahhahhaaa !!!

I first start thinking that a cheap little zoom-around car is what I need, but finally go for the idea of a minibus so that I can have double usage from it - for the tourist tours that I will arrange with my new company Percy Tours - www.percytours.com and also use it to move about loads of bulky items that are bound to jump up in the next few months, like tv, fridges, cookers etc.

Minibuses however are very very expensive so it’s off to the bank to get a car loan (this is still to be agreed – so more info when I have it) And off I go to visit as many garages and vehicle dealers in Cape Town as possible. I see over 30 and test drive afew, b4 deciding on a tasty little VW Microbus. Which has only got 75,000 miles / 115,000 kms on the clock (these buses can easily go onto 250,000 miles / 380,000 kms, b4 things start to go wrong), plus central locking, alarm, immobiliser, cd player and the luxury of Air-Con, but it also has a very nifty anti-hijack immobiliser – which on the test drive certainly worked a treat – this works along the lines of – if you get hijacked or the vehicle gets nicked, then after about 200 metres the alarm starts making a right racket, the lights start flashing and the engine starts to stutter and cough and after about 1 km the engine completely dies. Which means all you have to do is walk up to your vehicle, bang the thieving "bar-steward" over the head with a rather large stick, while you calmly get back into the vehicle, press the magic hidden button and hay-presto you are off and motoring again – result!!

So hope to take control and ownership of this beauty in the next few days. Nice xmas pressie to myself – well if you don’t spoil yourself nowadays then who the hell will. Haven’t decided on a nick-name for it yet, so any suggestions from you guys will be most welcome.

Temporary House Move.As if all this wasn’t quite enough to be getting on with, I had to move house again – this time into a flat, as the house I was living in suddenly has its rent going up by 3 times as much - it’s the summer school holidays and rental prices go thro’ the roof in this holiday town by the sea.

My Architect has suggested that I obtain the official building plans and dimensions of the house from the council, so that we have accurate measurements of what’s already on the plot and also suggests that I start to draw up afew basic floor plans of how I would like to have my future house. This is great fun and after afew days and many pads of graph paper, I finally have what looks like a good shape and a functional house.

On one of my many zooms thro’ to Cape Town to look at vehicles on garage forecourts, I have the misfortune to see my 1st dead person. He was a right bloody mess as he’s been run over by 3 minibus taxis on a fast & busy 4 lane stretch of road. Yuck !!!!

Hostel Kappers.At the Hostel one evening, I bump into 3 very excellent humans – Nick & Jacqueline and Steve. All fellow Brits in their early 30s and we get on like a house on fire. Steve is going up the east coast and intents to drive up to Vic Falls, while Nick & Jacqueline are on a year out and off to Oz in afew days – (Nick amazingly has been travelling for the last 9 years and has many fine stories to tell)

They are all off on a Shark Dive and after much salesmanship skills from myself, I finally persuade them to buy 2 Shark DVDs from me of their dives and sharky action. This deal is only concluded after me losing many games of pool (on purpose of course) and some pretty major piss-taking and haggling.
Very entertaining.

Great White Shark Cage Diving, Gansbaai.The wind was full on and our boat has to jump thro’ some pretty big waves b4 we are out onto the open ocean and even then the boat is constantly rocking backwards and forwards. Thank goodness for travel sickness tablets. The visibility in the sea is therefore only a metre because of this continuous swell, so many divers decide to just view from the top deck of the boat.

We have 3 smaller great white sharks of about 2 metres each, visit us fairly swiftly, but they only stay around for half an hour b4 we are left with a very patient (and boring) waiting game and the arrival afew hours later of a monster 5 metre shark. This magnificent creature stays around for at least an hour and is the crowning glory for the day. The film footage is excellent, even if the waves make it alittle rocky. Later that evening I purchase the video footage from a fellow cameraman and now have 2 completely different view points of that todays action.

And while we are on the subject of great white sharks – the Press over here summed up the possibility of being eaten by a shark in South African waters as very very rare (1 death in every 1 ½ years).
Compared with 350 people drowning in South Africa last year & Worldwide over 150 people die from coconuts landing on their heads. Sobering thoughts.

Music Overload.
I find out that one of my local restaurants has a huge collection of music of some 10,000 tunes, so I do abit of bartering and obtain their entire collection for just afew 1000 of my tunes. That currently makes my music collection some 100GB and 25000 songs. Cool, lets party!!!

Info on South Africa.For those of you wanting to know tons more about this completely outrageous part of the world, should hop down to their local newsagent and purchase a copy of the new and fabulously informative - Time Out – Cape Town 2005, available at the very reasonably price of £4.99 – bucket loads of fab info and pictures…………Tho’ there’s not a Percy Tours advert in there just yet. I will be having afew angry words with my marketing team in a second :-)))

Looks like I will be putting on a few kilos this Christmas day as I have been invited to 3 xmas dinners. So guess I better start that abseiling hobby pretty soon, so that I start to burn off all those calories.

That’s about the lot for this month – apart from me wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a joy fine New Years Eve celebrations.

Loads of love to all, cheers

Percy “Abseiling down a cliff, with a Great White Shark biting at my butt”

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus & sunny South Africa. Percy Tours Update 4.

2004-11-26T06:57:00.000+02:00

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21st Oct. / 26th Nov. 2004
Hello everyone, hope you are mighty fine in which ever part of the world you are in.

Hell what a busy old month – I’ve been so busy that I haven’t even had time to emailing all you lovely people with my latest adventures – so it’s about time I did, right ??

My friends from London - Tom and Kathryn, arrive back to Cape Town after venturing up the coast to Durban and Kruger, over the last 15 days. So I jump in the car for some more Cape Town action with them, but not b4 I fill the car up with 3 lovely ladies from the Backpackers, who are all fellow Brits and want to go clubbing in Cape Town for one last time b4 heading up the coast to Durban. So with Pippa, Rachel and Ali in tow, we arrive at the fabulous Ashanti Lodge backpackers for much fun and stupidity.

Abseiling Table Mountain.
Ascend Table Mountain, for Pippa to be mad enough to suddenly decide that she wants to abseil off the mountain edge – I mean come on – Table Mountain is 1083 metres high and made up of totally shear vertical cliffs – down !! (that’s a drop of a Kilometre – aaaarrrr!!!!!) So she holds on to a small rope and descends into the abyss – nutter!! The DVD is in the post Pippa.

Go Clubbing.
Put on our best outfits and off we go to set the dancefloor alight with our monstrously fashionable hip swings and best John Travola impressions – and hit “Opium” which is a long and fairly big roomed venue, with House of all genres hitting our diaphragms, while the very hottest & sexy Capetonians shake their stuff around us until the weeee early hours. Then drive back to Hermanus in the early morning, after very little sleep indeed, and arrive back to my house for many card games, listening to some pounding Drum’n’bass, sipping gin’n’tonics, while sunbathing and jumping in the pool.

The ladies get the Baz Bus early the next morning - Ali has another 2 months in SA, while Pippa + Rachel have a further mind-blowing 11 ½ months travelling thro SA, Oz, NZ, Thailand, Fiji and USA – excellent onward travels ladies – come back to see Percy soon – the party is awaiting your arrival.

Ill in Paradise.Awake afew days later to find that I feel as sick as a dog, with a huge sore throat and a chronic fever that makes me feel that I either need 20 blankets on top of me or that I need to have no material next to my skin at all. This is a horrid feeling and I spend the next 96 hours in bed sweating like a pig. No food, just water. After a week of lemon and honey drinks, I eventually immerge from the house feeling extremely shaky.

House things.
Met up with me Geologist to discuss what land my new house is built upon and also met a builder, who is a fellow Brit, to discuss my ideas of construction.
Sort out a mortgage on the house and afew weeks later get confirmation that the loan has been approved. So I’m very happy about that.

6th November. Roger arrives.Today I have my very first full time guinea pig arrive for Percy Tours – my mate from UK – Roger.
He will be with me for a whopping 3 weeks. So plans are made to get to some new places and explore this huge country. Roger is Windsurf mad, so a new adventure centre is top of the list.

But first stop - the pub for a welcome beer or 2……and why not spoil the guy and throw in a big juicy steak and an elevated sea view, so as to watch Whales jumping out of the sea, only 30 metres away from us ? ………….Welcome to South Africa Roger.

Relaxing is Rogers initial requirement, so a massage is organised for afew days time; book a river evening cruise; explore the mellow town centre, its markets and generally get to show him the sights around Hermanus. While of course slowly ticking off as many local restaurants as possible.

For our more active moments we book ourselves for – Sandboarding, Gorge Jumping & Paragliding in Hermanus and into the Langabaan Adventure Centre for Windsurfing.

Roger also shows a great affiliation with water and jumps into the pool at every opportunity as well as wanting to get thrown about by the forceful waves at the beaches. Everyone…we have a mad water-baby in our midst.

Snow in UK - ohh shame!!!
I must say that I was deeply saddened to hear that there was snow in the UK last week and can only apologise deeply for my continual use of flip-flops, shorts and shades. You see its rather warm here and must at this juncture also say that my tan is coming along very well – a nice olive brown !!!!
Only had 4 days of rain in….ohhhh……68 days. Where as I’d guess its been 64 days of rain for you and 4 days where its grey clouds…………Nice!!!!

Oh and also I have no clue at all what’s going on in the world and have absolutely no intention at all of finding out either, as I have not read a newspapers since getting here apart from the stimulating Hermanus Times every Thursday and the only TV that I watch is of adventure sports, nature programs, shark DVDs and MTV………well apart from hearing that some guy called George Bush won an election somewhere and a 70 year old lady got eaten by a 5 metre long Great White Shark off Cape Town.
(More on shark attacks later in this bulletin, folks)

Now where was I ???

Loads of food.
One Sunday Roger and I decide that we fancy a huge braai meal. So on this screaming hot day we buy 4 kgs of tiger prawns and 4 ostrich steaks and procede to cook ourselves a monster feast. The prawns are HUGE – please get your left hand in front of you and look from the tip of your index finger all the way down to the end of your thumb, so that you make a “C” shape – well these prawns where 3 inches longer than that “C”– and we have 50 of the damn things to consume. Obviously we need help eating this – so in come our trusty Backpacker staff - Gordon and Tolli, and 2 lovely ladies & a gent from Cornwall - Hayley, Vicki and Kelvin. With Hayley looking like the doppelganger of Sarah Beeny off the TV house buying programs.

After many hours of sunbathing, drinking afew cold beers and splashing around in the pool, we get around to the important topic of eating this monster feast.

A big Thank You must go out to Kelvin for his outrageous video footage of a monster Great White Shark of 5 metres long, that he filmed afew days ago. That folks is a damn big fish that you never ever want swimming next to you. Its like a bus – slow, purposeful and nothing gets in its way.

More Sharky stuff.While we are the topic of sharks again – Hermanus last week was graced with the rather gorgeous Brad Pitt (no sign of Jennifer sadly), who was here for 10 days to do some Great White Shark diving. All the kids were taking afternoons off school to try and get a glimpse of him at the 5 star Marine Hotel.
As well as Brad, other notably equally famous recent shark divers in Hermanus have been – Michael Schumacher, Nicholas Cage, Prince Harry & Jamiroquai.

As for the old lady that got eaten last week – she was bonkers enough to have swam in the sea every day for 50 years and decided that going out 150 metres from shore was as safe as houses. Well unfortunately for her, that day her number was up.

Over the following week the press went into panic overload about sharks – the Cape Argus newspaper hired a helicopter and within only 4 ½ kms of sea around Cape Town they spotted 11 large sharks. For the first time in history, Hermanus beach got closed one day, after 3 sharks were spotted off shore.

This all means nothing tho’, because since 1990 there have been only 9 fatal shark attacks in Cape waters, that’s a tiny figure and obviously that’s less than 1 per year - so from that fact you would guess that this lady thought that the odds were stacked in her favour and was fairly alright to be swimming so far out to sea.

And lets be honest here – if sharks really wanted us all for supper then they would be eating us at the rate of 100s per week, not one meal every other year, as every day along the enormous coastline of South Africa there are literally 1000s of surfers, kayakers, divers, canoeists, fishermen, spear fishermen and swimmers who are in the water ready to be eaten.
So sadly this lady was just highly unlucky that day.

Massages in Heaven.
At 2pm that Monday we are graced by the presence of our own masseur Vanessa.
So that’s the rest of the day (and every Monday for 3 weeks) being a very chilled out and laidback event and for those of you with very prevented minds (so that’s all of you then)……NO there were no “under the counter extras”– this is a respectable establishment thank you ever so much, not some Bangkok seedy bar.

Go exploring.
Take Roger on a whistle stop zoom into Cape Town for a day and zip around the Atlantic beaches, go up Signal Point to watch the Paragliders gently fly around Lions Head and the city centre. To arrive back in Hermanus for a highly relaxing river boat cruise, braai and sundowners in the nearby village of Stanford. Our boat slowly potters along at 2 mph. The scenery is gob-smacking, with white puffy clouds covering the tops of all the high peaks of the surrounding mountains and the sunset creating a varied myriad of reds and oranges across the entire landscape. There are tortoise in the water, large colonies of nesting herons & egrets and 100s of weaver birds making small nests in the rivers wide read beds.
While all this stunning scenery is slowly floating by – the screaming kids on board are being slowly pulled along behind us in big inflatable truck tyres.
Best place for them I say :-))))

Up early to go off Sandboarding at the big dunes at Bettys Bay, with 7 other speed freaks. The sun is full on and after 4 hours of zimming down the dunes, covered in sand from head to toe, we all go off to a river for some Gorge Jumping.
The cliff sides are sheer vertical and there are many different heights to jump from. The highest being some 5 metres up, which made for some very entertaining splashes and excellent video camera work - as I have been filming all this days action and am able to sell 2 DVDs of the days events.
Well a man has to pay the rent somehow you know.

Fame goes to your head ??
One evening we walk into the hostels bar and I immediately stop in my tracks with my tongue on the floor and my eyes popping out of my head, cos in front of me is the most gorgeous lady I have seen in years – this is mirrored by another 8 guys equalling agog and are all swarming around her like bees to the honeypot.

For the next 3 minutes I am transfixed cos not only is she incredible gorgeous but for some weird reason she looks very familiar indeed – is she an actress, a singer or a model?? After my mind working over time I hit the jackpot – she’s Vanessa from Big Brother 5 – the pretty South African one who got kicked out half way thro’. Now at this stage no-one else had clocked her for this and everyone is amazed when I suddenly blurt this out to all and sundry that she’s been on TV. At the time of seeing her on TV in England I was transfixed but having her stand next to me, she was even more beautiful.

Off to do adventure sports.
Spend the next few days at the beach, watching whales and dolphins and eating out at some fabulously tasty restaurants, b4 setting off to our next journey of discovery – Langabaan and the adventure centre, 3 hours north up the west coast.
The landscape changes dramatically after leaving Cape Town, from mountainous to huge flat expanses of sandy fynbos bush and scrubs.

The adventure centre has a warehouse full of Kite Surfing, Wind Surfing, Kayaking, Canoeing, Land Kiting, Diving and Mountain Biking gear. Roger is in his element and finds that they have the most modern Windsurf boards and a particular design that is his favourite back home. So he dutifully jumps into a wet suit and goes zipping across the 2 km wide lagoon……………bye Roger see you in the bar mate.

I, on the other hand, have never in my life stood on a Windsurf board and book an hours lesson for later that afternoon. Now for wind surfing you need wind – obviously, and what Langebaan has is loads of wind. Great you might think but when you are a total novice you want things to go from slow to medium tempo. This is not really possible when it’s a force 5 gale outside. Put that together with having to lift a huge sail out of the sea to get going, as well as balancing your weight on a tiny board, then this all becomes a balancing attack to the senses. Needless to say I was in the water for about ½ the time, but when I did get going I was zooming off into the middle of the lagoon, having difficulty in turning around and getting back to shore.
Was a great laugh tho’ and well worth doing.
Our accommodation is marvellously comfortable with a large lounge and kitchen area, fridge in our room, tv and ensuite, we felt like kings.

What Now??The next day its raining and what - no wind…. Oh drat …..what to do now?
So we pack our bags and drive off to the nearby West Coast National Park.
This 200 square kilometres of unspoilt land is home to over 250 different species of birds, including loads of ostrich and eagles; many antelope like Oyrx and Steenbok and 1000s of land tortoise called Angulate Tortoise. These little gritters have absolutely no road awareness and this makes for a great game of rally driving over the top and around them.

The scenery is breathe taking rolling sand dunes and hills covered in green Fynbos bush and shrubland, with an eerie and very relaxing silence of only nature getting on with live.

For those not up on their flora – the Cape region has over 25,000 plants that can only be found here and was very recently awarded the status of a World Heritage Site for its unique biodiversity. Fynbos consists of many of these differing coloured plants.
This region runs down from Langebaan south to the Cape and east across to the Garden Route.

More Sandboarding.
Return home to be immediately phoned by the Backpackers that there is another Sandboard trip going out in ½ an hour, so immediately jump in their mini-bus with Roger and all my camera gear. This time we go to the smaller dune at Vermont with 4 lovely ladies from Ireland and Austria. This dune is very pretty as it is surrounded by a Nature Reserve and the bottom of the dune runs straight into the sea, which is mighty handy for cooling down in. After that we go to the nearby beach of Onrus and jump in the sea. This is great fun as the breakers are huge and the beach descends very quickly into the sea. So for the next half an hour we body surf the waves and get thrown up onto the beach like dead fish, which made for hilarious entertainment and we immerge with our bodies totally exfoliated and our pockets full of sand.

My 40th Birthday.
The old saying that time flys by when you are having fun is very true indeed – as its my 40th birthday and those 40 years have literally zoomed by faster than a rocket.

The hostel kindly allow me to hold a party in their large patio area and Gordon masterfully cooks up a spit-roast 15 kg lamb. The entire fridge of booze is consumed by the 35 guests and quite obviously after 10 hours of stupidity, I have absolutely no recollection of how the hell we got home.

The next morning is a complete blur and we all know the best way to get rid of hair of the dog don’t we?? Yes that’s to start slowly drinking again – Help, where’s a detox clinic please :-)))

Paragliding.The following morning, we get a phone call from the Paragliders who are ready to give us for a flight off the 300 metre high mountains that surround Hermanus. Oh dear I don’t feel too good.

Slip on a crash hat and get myself harnessed to my pilot and with a large amount of faith I just jump off the mountain edge for an outrageously fantastic flight.
The thermals are very active today and we rapidly start rising…….and we start rising more……and continue rising until we are over 600 metres above the take-off pad. The view is incredible, with everything looking so very small, gently fly over wine farms and over lofty peaks, while the Overberg mountain range disappears miles and miles into the distance inland. We actually start hitting the cloud base for afew minutes. After an incredible hour we land expertly back on the postage stamp sized take-off pad. That was brilliant and I recommend that everyone gets themselves airborne one day as it was truly amazing.

Crystal Pools.The following day, Roger and I drive 100kms around the Gordons Bay peninsular to explore The Crystal Pools. This involves an hours hiking in the roasting sunshine, up a large mountainous gorge, with streams washing along side us and plantation surrounding us. Feel like we should have bought a machete to get thro some of it. Troops of Baboons appear occasional and these creatures can get quite aggressive, so we do our best to avoid close contact. Immerge out of the foliage to discover 4 small, deep and pretty pools separated by 3 great waterfalls. There are some nutters Gorge Jumping into the pools from some very stupidly high ledges. And a group of equally mad Abseilers descending from a rock that is shaped like an upside down triangle, 100s of metres above us.

Roger leaves for cold London the next day but not before we have completed another zoom around Cape Town for one finally time.

Been amazing fun to have him here and he has vowed to return next November.

Cheers xxxxx

Percy "Action Man"

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus & South Africa exploring. Percy Tours Update 3.

2004-10-20T03:58:00.000+02:00

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One Saturday night I venture out to explore the night clubs in Hermanus. There is a marked difference between them all – one very trendy, plush, marble floored and serving up all manner of costly cocktails; to the dark and dirty big roomed venues that are for your “off your head” nutters; to one with a rock band playing cover versions on a small stage, in a very comfy and spacious cliff top bar.

All this I of course do in the name of research !!!! :-))))

Having now collected (and slowly read thro’) over 1000 different leaflets, magazines, flyers, brochures and adverts for local tourist businesses, I can now see more closely what’s on offer here for the discerning tourist.

Met up with a few South African friends and go to where they are camping under the stars with 30 other mad South Africans. Right on the beach, with fabulous views of the sea and surrounding mountains. The camp site evening air is filled with the delicious smell of braai cooking of all manner of meats and all handsomely washed down with afew beers.

As is traditional here, any and all sports are a very important aspect of life – so we zoom off to watch a game of rugby on TV at the local crowded pub – where the Western Province are playing against The Sharks from Durban – Western Province are from the Cape Town area and therefore the team that we all want to win – so there is much merriment when they win by 32 to 24.

For a few mornings in a row I go down to the cliff tops to spot whales (which seem to be more prolific in the mornings for some reason) – also watch many seals playing in the kelp forested sea shores, and shoals of dolphins flying thro the sea and air, which is all very humbling and magical.

Behind me on the cliff faces are a number of mad Abseilers, slowly descending over the cliff edge to the rocky shoreline below.

Well I have now been living in Hermanus Backpackers for the last 2 weeks and although its been great fun and you meet loads of interesting people, its all working out to be very costly indeed, so after a small amount of research I find myself moving into a lovely 2 bedroom self-contained cottage that has a swimming pool only 10 feet away from my front door. So organise to rent it out for October and November. This thankfully is less than half what I would have paid at the backpackers, so I am very happy about that. Plus when you live in a backpackers, you never really have any space to spread out properly; noise can be a problem when wanting a full nights sleep, as well as sometimes when you decide to leave things in the fridges, food can occasional do a magic-vanishing-act, which is obviously quite annoying.

Keep up the house hunting in the nearby areas of Fisherhaven, Onrus, Sandbaai and Vermont with the many estate agents.
It’s quite amazing how varied each house is here – every single one is completely different from the last one seen. All are detached but it’s the variety of their construction and design that is so different that makes looking around them so fascinating. Many seem to have en-suite bathrooms for all the bedrooms as a matter of course. One I looked around was currently being rented out to 11 policemen who are here to catch the Abalone poachers. So most houses are quite roomy.

Find out from the Traffic Police Dept, that I am legally able to drive a 20 seater mini-bus on my UK driving licence, without having to take any extra driving exams.
It takes about 4 lessons for someone to be ready to take the exam and these exam places are fully booked all the way up to 2005, with a new waiting list starting in Nov. for next years places. So I am relieved that I don’t have to go thro all that silliness.

As well as doing Sandboarding and Paragliding a few weeks ago - I have visited - a Quad biking company; the local beer brewery – Birkenhead Brewery; driven to the most southern tip of Africa (Cape Agulhas) to see what’s happening there – not too much really apart from a light house and a shipwreck of a Japanese trawler that rumour has it was an insurance claim job; enjoy a marvellous massage to the very posh Caledon Spa, that has a Casino, Hotel and Restaurants attached; have 2 meetings with “The Shark Man” and will be on his boat for my very 1st Great White Shark dive on Friday 15th Oct. Which I cheekily blag for free – so thats £100 saved - I will be filming and photographing that trip for certain.

Visited and have now eaten at 6 local restaurants that were recommended to me – so that leaves only another 24 to go to then; gone to 3 of the 6 wineries; the Hermanus Flower Reserve/Park; taken over 300 good pictures that will be certainly vetted b4 use on the website + videoed over 2 hours of all sorts of things.

Weds 6th OctoberWeds last week was not a good day or night as we had a storm visit that proceeded to rain non-stop and we had rivers flowing down every road. I also suddenly found out that my lovely cottage has a few holes in the roof, which made for an interesting game of run-around-for-the-biggest-saucepans-possible, for half an hour.
Luckily I discover that it is all coming thro’ one part of the roof and am thankful that none is landing on my bed, as it was in the other bedroom.
This monstrous down pour was most welcome by the locals, as the local reservoir needs to be refilled urgently and this storm made the front page of the weekly local newspaper.

2 days later it starts raining again and we all run for cover – but this only lasts half the day, for which we are most grateful.

While all this water is descending from the sky there is very little reason to go outside, so I camp myself round at the Backpackers to take on the staff at games of golf and rallying on the Playstation2 and a huge session of pool in the bar.

Eventually finish off editing and compiling the Sandboarding DVDs that I have sold to 3 customers and zoom off to Cape Town to deliver them and collect my cash.

Take part in a Pub Quiz at a local restaurant, with our team coming second and rewarded with cocktails of our choice.

Tuesday 12th OctoberWell the big news today is that after many manic days of looking at over 35 properties, I eventually find something that fits the bill, and proceed to put an offer in and get it accepted a few days later. The house buying process here is a lot less complicated and slightly speedier than the UK.

It’s a clean and tidy small-ish 2 bedroom, one bathroom with open plan kitchen/lounge/dining room detached house, which covers about 75m2. Situated on a large plot of 714m2, that has the potential and enough space to put another 3 or 4 bedroom house and a swimming pool.

Completion is planned for Jan 2005. So its now official - you ALL now have a pad to stay at when you come and visit.

The mountains are visable from the front of the house and are an ever continuous range that sweep from left to right called the Overberg.

The sea and beaches are about a 5 minute walk from the front door and the nearest shop is a 2 minute walk.

As you can imagine there’s quite a bit of space around it and an empty plot next to it. Just by complete coincidence the house behind it is owned by the owners of Hermanus Backpackers which will make for some highly entertaining evenings I am sure of that.

Wednesday 13th October
My friends Tom & Kathryn arrive from London – so they are the first “guinea pigs” for a spot of Percy Tours. So off we zoom to explore Cape Town and the local area – The beaches around Cape Town; down to Hout Bay for a great seafood lunch of lobster and monster prawns; drive down the very scenic Chapmans Peak Drive, where we spot over 14 whales swimming in Hout Bay; down to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope and thro to Boulders Beach to swim with the Penguins; while enjoying games of pool at Stones on Long Street, and good meals of ostrich, crocodile and kudu steaks at Mama Africas.
We then head over to Hermanus to stay at my place.

Friday 15th OctoberWell today’s the day that Tom & I decide to become a small snack for a few big
Great White Sharks……….aaaaaaaarrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!

So it’s up early for us – 5.30am – not our best time of the day.
So with blurred vision and fluffy heads we jump into a minibus with 4 other potential “victims” and arrive at Gansbaai half an hour later.
The boat is quite big (thankfully), with 2 decks and therefore giving you a higher angle of vision of the action. As well as a solid cage that houses 5 divers at once.

After about 30 mins the first great white shark turns up – and my are they big, graceful and fast.
Within an hour we have 6 different great whites circling the boat and the action is continuous. Saying that tho’ it is quite difficult to film them, as not only is the boat swaying about non-stop, so that you have to permanently hold-on to something solid, but each shark attack on the bait is fast and from different directions. I have therefore concluded that wildlife photography is a very patient game. Even tho' - this is one tourist activity that i will do again and again. Great fun and a marvelous experience that everyone should do.

There were 4 British scientists on board our boat, who have been surveying and studying these fabulous animals and over the last 5 years they have viewed over 1000 different Great White Sharks here – each identified by individualised markings on their dorsal fins. Their diets are not just seals, as I first thought. Seals only account for about 10% to 20% of their food. Any other slightly smaller fish, like tuna, other sharks, or rays make up the rest of their menus.
The sharks we saw were only babies of 1.5 to 2.5 metres long, as these are less experienced than fully grown adults that can reach lengths of up to 4 or 6 metres.

Also as of 3 days ago, the Great White Shark has now been listed as an endangered species, which means that every single country in the world is now banned from fishing them (but thats obviously extremely differcult to police.)
They have been protected in South Africa and Australian waters for over 15 years and are very much appreciated by the local sea-fishermen as they keep the seal numbers down. Seals as we all know love to eat tons of fish that we humans also like to have on our plates, so fishermen are all for Great White Sharks munching on a few seals.

I will most definitely be doing many more shark trips as I find them such fascinating creatures.

Hope you are all very well, Love to all and more adventures from South Africa soon.

Cheers

Percy “Shark Bait”

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus, South Africa adventures. Percy Tours Update 2.

2004-09-25T03:15:00.000+02:00

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.

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

2004-09-15T01:29:00.000+02:00

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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.