bryan chitty

The first day started out looking a bit bleak, it looked as though it would rain any time which is not great as we were going to !Khwa ttu a San cultural centre on the R27 out towards Vrendal, and the visit is mostly outside. Oh well Western Cape weather can be extremely uncooperative at times. However when we arrived the rain stopped and the visit was really worthwhile. If you have any interest in the cultural development of Africa this is a good place to start. You are shown a typical San village, with a san lady showing us how to make beads from ostrich shells, followed by her showing typical san woman attire. After, one of the other guides pointed out the different between the various animal footprints made by using plaster models in ... read more

Cultural Tours For guests who want to find out what really makes Cape Town and it environs tick we offer the following one-day and half-day walking tours. Each of which will be conducted with a highly experienced guide that lives in the area: Tour of the Bokaap “Malay Quarter” This is a two hour tour through the history and scenery of the Bokaap. You will learn about its founding, varied history, and many stories associated with the heritage site, starting at the Bokaap museum and walking around the area. You will have a chance to meet the locals, and take photographs of the kaleidoscope of colours that form the front of the houses, You will also visit a local shop and taste some of the local snacks produced by the Muslims. We will collect you from ... read more

BOEERGOE TRAIL The Boeergoe trail is one of the mountain 4x4 trails in the western cape near the Cederberg we drive it in Land Rovers but also do tours to this area as part of adventure tours. The Boeergoe Trail started bright and early for me at 6.00am on Friday - I had read the instruction sheet and saw “Drivers meeting 9.30am”As their was quite a long drive, I set off only to find that the drivers meeting was 9.30am on Saturday. Still I got the best camp spot! On Friday afternoon 9 Landies set off for the short trail. Unfortunately the sandstone quarry was a closed so we were unable to visit this. There were however a couple of trial sections to attempt and somewhere along the way Barry Wood broke his drive shaft on ... read more

After some 1300kms drive from Cape Town we arrived at the Border between South Africa and Namibia (Noordoewer). A short interlude and we are through the Border controls. Namibian soil, we drive the B1 until the turnoff to the campsites on the Orange River (Gariep River). A goodnights rest and we start off early the next morning. The road is like a switch Back but we follow the D212. This lovely dirt road follows the Fish River through the Ai-Ais national Park eventually bring us to Rosh Pinah famous for its zinc deposits and mines. From Rosh Pinah a tarmac road C13 takes to Aus and then to Luderitz where we refuelled and meet the rest of the travellers and slept in a comfortable bed. The garage supplying Diesel does not accept credit cards! we have ... read more

It was the water cascading down from the mountain which made Table Bay the Aguada and it was the same water which persuaded the Dutch to set up a refreshment station there. Wouter Schouten, who tasted the water on the mountain in 1665, said “we found it exceptionally sweet in taste…..our heavenly liquid now tasted better than ordinarily does the most exquisite drink in the world”. There are five streams flowing off the mountain: to the north the Vasche River, to the east the Liesbeek; south-east the Diep and Spaanshemat River, whilst the Disa River emerged from Orange Kloof and ran south-west. Each was to play its part in the development of the country. The most important river, certainly to the Dutch East India Company, was the Versche, for on it depended the little settlement ... read more