Percy Tours Adventure Reports

Percy Tours, Hermanus gets a huge upgrade to their website - www.percytours.com

2013-06-11T12:49:00.000+02:00

After much hard work over the last 2 months, Percy Tours in Hermanus, South Africa is extremely proud to announce that our website has had a massive upgrade and is now live for you to check out - so please have a look at - www.percytours.com - for loads of amazing things to see and do around Hermanus and Cape Town, South Africa.

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

Great White Shark cage diving in Hermanus is incredible - for loads of info, please check out our dedicated web page at -

www.percytours.com/great-white-shark-cage-diving.html

Whale watching boat trips in Hermanus have just started for the new season – check out - www.percytours.com/whale-watching-boat-trips-in-hermanus.html

Our All Activities page has a myriad of activities listed for you to explore.

See you soon in amazing Cape Town and Hermanus – PS. the Whale watching season has just started too, so from early June to early December each year you can view literally 100’s of whales in Hermanus

Many thanks – Percy – www.percytours.com

Percy Tours featured in new 2013 John Platter Wine book of South Africa

2012-11-16T12:26:00.001+02:00


Percy Tours listing in new John Platter wine book of South Africa

Percy Tours is extremely happy to be listed in the new 2013 John Platter Wine Book of South Africa (for the 2nd year running) as the ONLY Wine Tour Guides based in Hermanus that John Platter recommends :-))))) - check out our websites for loads of info -

http://www.hermanuswinetours.com/

http://www.percytours.com/

http://www.wineonaplatter.com/blog/page/1219

See you on a Percy Tours wine tour of Hermanus, Cape Town and the wine regions of South Africa soon :-))

Luxury NEW minibus joins Percy Tours, Hermanus

2012-09-08T14:47:00.001+02:00

Utter luxury just got even more luxurious at Percy Tours, Hermanus

Yes, luxury just became even more luxurious, as Percy Tours is extremely proud to announce that we have just obtained a brand new high-end ultra-luxury H1 minibus to add to our already luxurious fleet.


Percy Tours luxury fleet of minibuses

Fitted with all-mod cons, this state of the art minibus is another excellent addition to our Tourism products.

Fantastic features include –

Leather seats and head-rests for utmost comfort; with all seats being able to recline fully into “sleeping position” and move-able middle row of seats that allow passengers to fully relax, offering an enormously huge amount of leg room.

Leather (reclining) seats all around

Entertainment suite - a DVD player with a whopping big 12 inch wide-screen – that’s bigger than any i-pad or tablet screen and larger than most laptop screens :-))) – plus it also has over 50 computer games for the kids too, with 2 hand-held controllers – plus inputs for – SD camera cards to view all your holiday photos; AV jacks to plug in your video camera and watch your holiday videos and a remote control unit – and not only that, we have 4 sets of infra-red head-phones too; so the kids can watch The Simpson’s, while mum and dad watch the incredible scenery of the Western Cape in utter silence, without having to listen to the DVD sound - or - the DVD sound can go thro the stereo sound system speakers.

12" wide-screen DVD player and games console

The Surround sound stereo system has an i-pod cable and socket, plus USB and AUX cable socket, so that you can plug in your i-pod (or any device) and listen to your music collection too; while offering all the usual facilities of CD and Radio system.

And there’s more…..sliding doors on both sides; enormous boot you could fit an elephant into :-))) magazine and drinks holders all around; steering wheel audio controller; 2 x Air-Con units – for front and back climate control with many vents; tow bar for trailer; over-head individual lighting; 2 glove compartments; electric front windows and easy-to-use sliding windows on each sliding door.

Additional safety features include – front Air-Bags; ABS brakes; Traction control; all round Anti-smash and grab tinted windows; anti-hijack central locking which automatically locks all doors after we reach 20kph; anti-kid tampering switches to stop accidental opening of doors while in transit; massive front and back fog lights; all seats have 3 point seat-belts.

So now Percy Tours has TWO ultra-luxury minibuses, each fitted with DVD and games system and a multitude of high-quality extras for everyone to totally enjoy their holidays in South Africa.

Percy Tours fleet of luxury minibuses, Hermanus

Happy holidaying and see you soon in Hermanus, Cape Town and the Western Cape!

PS. also please check out our various websites that have loads of info and prices for all sorts of activities, tours and adventures in and around Cape Town and Hermanus –

www.percytours.com

www.hermanusactivities.net

www.whalehermanus.com

www.hermanuswinetours.com

www.hermanustours.com

Many Thanks

Percy

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus Association of Transport and Tourism (HATT) - Hermanus Association of Transport and Tourism (HATT)

2012-07-01T11:12:00.002+02:00

Hermanus Association of Transport and Tourism (HATT) – has been set up to legalise, assist, facilitate, regulate, manage, market and promote all the legal Tour Operators, Tour Guides and Tourism transfer transport companies that operate in and around the Hermanus and Overstrand region.

Tour Guides, Tourism Transfer transport companies and Tour Operators are the ones that spend the most time inter-acting with Tourists on a constant day-by-day basis and are the frontline ambassadors that promote our incredible region to tourists. They are a direct reflection of our country and therefore it is HATTs mission to make 100% sure that all of its members provide outstanding, fun, educational, jovial and amazing tourism services all of the time, so that Tourists return again and again.........

With so many incredible Activities and Attractions that the Hermanus region has to offer Tourists, it is vitally important that ALL those that provide Tours and Tourism Transport services not only give incredible excursions and impeccable service, but are also totally legal, trained, insured and conform to all the South African tourism and road transportation laws.

So for loads of info and interesting Tours, Activities and Excursions in and around Hermanus, check out their website at

http://www.hermanusatt.com

Hermanus Association of Transport and Tourism (HATT)
Providing incredible tourism experiences to all the tourists that visit our wonderful region

Leopards in Hermanus and beyond (part 2)

2012-06-01T09:25:00.001+02:00

Leopards of Hermanus (and beyond…) (Article 2)

In the good old bad old days, mankind had very little regard for the natural wonders that the planet had and would wantonly plunder its resources without a moments thought as to what damage we were causing. Thankfully in these much more enlightened times, humans have realised that we have to actively save and conserve these dwindling splendours or they will be lost forever.

From the 1960’s many successful campaigners have pushed the boundaries, by highly informing humanity of the plight of many species, which has in turn made us all think a lot harder about helping to save the planet from our own destructive powers, by turning bad into good – from Sir David Attenborough and his amazing BBC nature documentaries; Jane Goodall (Chimpanzees); Dian Fossey (Gorillas); Jacques-Yves Cousteau (Oceans); WWF (Pandas, Dolphins and Whales); Greenpeace (stopping pollution, nuclear and actively pursuing Whaling fleets in their ships); many helping to save the Rhinos and Elephants; TV channels like BBC, Discovery, Animal Planet and National Geographic and now-a-days 1000’s of international conservation NGO’s, charities, UN organisations and local heroes.

Following on from our last article; Hermanus and the Overberg region has it’s own resident Leopards, which are being studied more and more closely by the Cape Leopard Trust (called the Boland Leopard Project). What their research has shown is that each male Leopard has a huge individual territory, which never over-lap with another male; while female Leopards occupy much smaller ranges that over-lap the boundaries of 1, 2 or 3 males ranges, therefore meaning that in reality there are fewer Leopards roaming freely than was first thought. Before this research information was known, farmers used to think that there were many more Leopards occupying tiny ranges.

Due to human expansion into the once remote and isolated regions, there have been many Human-Wildlife conflicts – especially between Farmers of cattle, sheep, goats and poultry and the carnivore cat species of Lions, Cheetah, Leopard, Hyena and the smaller Jackal and Caracal

The Cape Leopard Trust (and a number of other conservation organisations) are doing their utmost to stop these Farmer verses Cat conflicts, with many recent success stories.

Thanks to the large amount of research conduct by the Cape Leopard Trust, via GPS collars and camera traps, they are now able to accurately know how many Leopards there are and where they venture to. This important data obviously shows when and if Leopards are going onto Farming land where there are livestock.

One highly reassuring piece of data regarding the Cederberg Leopards is that 80% of their diet is made up from just 2 of the 30 wild prey species – Klipspringers and Dassies

These cats were once shoot, poisoned or gin-trapped by farmers, but thanks to the Cape Leopard Trust’s hard work over the last decade, they have actively engaged farmers with much important information, dispelling the myths with hard facts and implementing many novel and simple ways to co-exist.

These include – Leopard proof kraals. For small kraals, then the simple and effective way is to place chicken wire over the kraal; for larger kraals, then fencing that is over 2.5metres high and has an outward facing lip, is more than adequate to stop a Leopard from entering. Electrifying the fences also helps.

Throat protectors / collars for each sheep or goat are plastic, cheap, easy to fit and highly effective.

Anatolian shepherd dogs are also an excellent way to protect flocks. These amazing dogs are actively breed by conservation organisations and given away free to farmers. However for the maximum protection of any flock it is best to have a human Shepherd who stays with the animals, protecting them during the day, while the Anatolian shepherd dog protects them at night. This combination has an excellent success rate.

To supplement many farmers incomes they have started to diversify their revenue streams, with Tourism being the major player, as farmers have realised correctly that city dwellers love to escape the concrete jungle and to explore the open spaces of the countryside. The more eco-friendly the better, so conservation of wildlife has also taken centre stage, which has allowed many farmers to actively embrace the ideas put forward by the Cape Leopard Trust and others, by safe-guarding the Leopard and the many wild creatures that share our region.

Long may positive and inventive ideas continue to allow co-existence of humans and wildlife.

For more info on the Boland Leopard Project, please go to - http://capeleopard.org.za/research/leopard/boland

Authored by Percy Tours – www.percytours.com / 072 062 8500

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 Youtube videos

Until next time, cheers,

Percy at Percy Tours, Hermanus, South Africa.

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus info Training Lectures, June, July and Aug

2012-05-30T20:08:00.000+02:00

Leopards in the Hermanus mountains

2012-03-21T18:08:00.002+02:00

Leopards in the Hermanus mountains (and beyond)

On a recent tour to the Cederberg, I was honoured to have met the owners, organisers and field researchers of the Cape Leopard Trust and was awe-struck at how much they are doing for conservation.

The Cape Leopard Trust aims to facilitate conservation of the Cape's predator diversity through implementing conservation strategies, research projects and tourism initiatives, while also educating and encouraging the youth to have a vested interest in the environment, plus doing major work to find solutions to human-wildlife conflicts, with especially farming and habitat loss.

4 major locations are constantly being researched and studied – Cederberg, Swartberg, Namaqualand and the Boland mountains from Hermanus up past Worcester.

In the past, 8 leopard were killed per year in these areas, but thankfully since the Cape Leopard Trust started it’s amazing work, there have been no leopards killed since 2007, which all comes down to the great work of constantly informing the local communities and the importance of public awareness about the plight of these magnificent creatures.

The adult Fynbos Cape Leopard is much smaller (20 to 30kgs) than the Karoo Leopard (up to 50kgs) and Savannah Leopard (which can reach 50 to 80kgs) – which all comes down to their prey species – 78% of a Fynbos Leopard’s diet is Rock Hyrax and Klipspringer.

The Boland project is only 2 years old, covering over 3000 km sq and is split into 3 areas, with the southern most one equipped with 82 camera traps at 50 spots and has so far successfully counted 18 adults, 2 cubs and identified 25 different prey species.

Camera traps are a very important research tool as they take photos of every animal that walks past them and so the entire bio-diversity can be analysed and population figures can be calculated. GPS collars are also very useful at accurately measuring the movements of 1 individual creature and vastly help in working out the exact “home- range” of each Leopard, with males having much large ranges (350 to 1000km sq) which overlap with afew females ranges.

Hermanus has certainly had its fair share of recent sightings and encounters with our local Leopards. In June 2011 a young male Leopard was caught in a hi-tech trap and fitted with a GPS device so as to monitor its movements in the mountains near Tesselaarsdal in the Hemel-en-Aarde valley. Grootbos (near De Kelders) camera-trapped a Leopard in October 2011 only 4 days after they had set up the camera; while next door the Flower Valley camera-trapped 2 Leopards (a male and a female) in Jan 2012. Further inland, the Platbos Forest and Farm 215 have also reported that Leopard tracks and spoors have been spotted.

It is highly encouraging and an absolute delight to know that these wildlife conservation organisations are doing such incredible research work to conserve our amazing natural wonders.

Credit and thanks must go to the Cape Leopard Trust, Quinton and Liz – www.capeleopard.org.za

There are many African animal encounters close to Hermanus for you to enjoy – from stroking Cheetahs, African Birds of Prey, Whales, Sharks, Seals, Penguins and an excellent Safari park 2½ hours away, for loads of ideas check out - www.hermanusactivities.net

Authored by Percy Tours – www.percytours.com / 072 062 8500

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,

Percy at Percy Tours, Hermanus, South Africa.

www.percytours.com

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

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

2011-12-18T20:21:00.003+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 music mega-stars are flocking here to perform in our new spacious Green Point stadium.

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

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

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

Before that we had - Clint Eastwood's “Invictus” in 2009 with Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman / the sci-fi “District 9” in 2009 – the follow-up “Elysium” is predicted for a late 2012 production and will co-star Matt Damon, Sharlto Copley and Jodie Foster / “Flashbacks of a Fool” in 2008 with Daniel Craig / “10,000 B.C.” in 2008 / HBO's Iraq-war series “Generation Kill” in 2008 / “Blood Diamond” in 2006 with Leonardo DiCaprio / “Lord of War” in 2005 with Nicolas Cage………..

"There are only a few places on the planet that can handle this kind of movie," says Dredd's British co-producer Andrew MacDonald, whose credits include Trainspotting and The Beach. "Cape Town South Africa is comparable to any of them."

Nico Dekker, CEO of Cape Town Film Studios, is quoted as saying – ‘There is a direct correlation between the film industry and the tourism industry. Studies have shown that for every unit of money spent on making a film in a country there is a 2½ times impact factor on the larger economy. So for a film like Dredd, the R100 million ($12.5million) spent has a knock-on effect of R250 million ($31million) into the South African economy.’

All great news

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

South Africa produced 23 films last year, 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 perform at 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 international famous 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 of incredible activities, great restaurants, amazing wine regions, magnificent scenery and Safari wildlife being large attractions, but it is also the fact that famous Stars do not get hounded and pestered by the annoying paparazzi following their every move, meaning that they can relax fully and get on with enjoying being normal humans :-)))

These high-profile visitors are not only spending a lot of money on their holidays here by staying at luxury 5 star locations, but by regularly updating their Twitter, Facebook and Blog pages their fans are finding out that Cape Town is amazing and are equally following in their foot-steps by coming to Cape Town to see where their idols have filmed movies or played their concerts.

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

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

Check out some of the Youtube video clips of forthcoming Cape Town filmed 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 authored by 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 Youtube videos

Until next time, cheers

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

2011-01-16T16:43:00.001+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

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

2010-12-09T21:14:00.001+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

2009-10-27T20:44:00.003+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

Percy – Percy Tours, Hermanus, South Africa.

Contact us for more details on how we can assist you on your perfect South Africa holiday, at -

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus & Cape Town - Newsletter 20 - Percy Tours

2009-02-26T08:45:00.001+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 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.

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.

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/

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 :-)))

www.percytours.com

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

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

2009-02-19T07:28:00.058+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 - Percy Tours

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.

2008-08-30T15:00:00.026+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 :-))))

Contact us for more details on how we can assist you on your perfect South Africa holiday, at -

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

2008-07-16T21:40:00.010+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 -
www.percytours.com

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

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

2008-02-10T04:00:00.002+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, 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

2007-09-15T03:06:00.001+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 :-)))

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus - Update 16, March to June '07

2007-06-13T03:52:00.001+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 :-)))

www.percytours.com

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

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

2007-06-12T04:19:00.001+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.

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

2007-02-20T05:40:00.001+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 :-)))

www.percytours.com

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

Hermanus, South Africa, Percy Tours. Update 14

2006-12-11T08:41:00.002+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.

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 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.

2006-09-07T08:52:00.002+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.

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.

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

2006-04-30T03:59:00.001+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.

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.