Winter Special!

Spectacular flowering of Aloes and Cacti

Winter is the time to see the spectacular sight of the various types of aloe and cacti in flower. The rolling hills of KwaZulu-Natal take on a tinge of orange during the flowering season. Literally 1000′s upon 1000′s of flowering cacti and aloes stand still, tall, like soldiers, as if on duty, waiting.

Flowering Season is June, July and August

This is a trip that should be on everyone’s ‘to-do’ list. Even if you’re local, from Durban, this will be a wonderful experience of really enjoying our beautiful nature.

winter special

Come with me as we take a full day out and go up into the arid, harsh but simply beautiful areas in Zululand and KZN where this show is on! This is a sight to behold and even though I am privileged to have seen this a good few times I am always in awe!

Tour details

We travel up the north coast and turn inland at the Dokodweni toll and then through Gingindlovu, Eshowe, Melmoth and Babanango. And beyond, into the Anglo Zulu battlefields areas where some famous battles were fought at Isandhlwana and Rorkes Drift in 1879. As an added bonus we will stop off briefly at these sites. From there we travel back through Pomeroy, Tugela Ferry, Keates Drift and Greytown either via Pietermaritzburg or Stanger.

And you won’t go hungry!

A breakfast pack and a picnic lunch are included which we’ll enjoy in a special place amidst beautiful scenery.

Times

Depart Durban: 06h00
Return Durban: 18h00/19h00.

A full but fantastic day out.

Giants Castle Camp, Main Cave

I had the privilege of touring two ladies – one local and a friend of hers from Japan up into the Drakensberg and more specifically, the Giants Castle area. They were keen to see the Bushman art and the best place to see this is Main Cave.

It was a beautiful, peaceful day – ideal for a nice drive. As always I drove up via Nottingham Road, Rosetta and down the Kamberg road – surely one of the most beautiful in KZN and SA – through the wetlands directly to Giants camp. We had lots of time so we took a casual walk stopping often to admire the views all around us. We even had time to sit quietly in the forest listening intently to the various sounds.

Thandeka, our guide arrived on time and proudly showed us the art that she is so familiar with. She has been there for 12 years! And then we chose to take the longer walk back along the river which was babbling away as Berg rivers do. Fortunately we had time to stop off to see the cranes in the wetlands of Hlatikulu. They have a similar breeding program in Japan as was explained to me by my client.

We also stopped off at the Mandela capture site on the midlands meander en route back to Durban. All in all a super day out as it always is.

Phezulu Cultural Village

I have been taking a number of our guests to Phezulu and they all love it especially the dancing. A recent couple had the following to say about a tour out there with me.

“Iain, many thanks for helping us with your suggestions (and arrangements) on places to visit around KZN. Your guided tour to Phezulu cultural village was excellent – the drive through Durban and up to the Valley of 1000 hills was a very pleasant, relaxed and informative introduction to the region – and the Zulu tour was, again, most informative and very well presented by the excellent Zulu hosts.

We hope to visit you again – and again, very many thanks.”

John and Elanie

UK/NZ

Touring with the Welsh!

I recently had a fabulous trip up Hluhluwe/Imfolosi way where I took 2 Welsh couples to Thanda for a night and boy, did they enjoy that. They saw the BIG 5 and enjoyed a super time out in the bush.

On the way back, chatting enthusiastically in the car, I lost concentration briefly and where on a particular part of the highway that I know only too well, I was pulled over by an officer who happily told me that I had been caught speeding and where I should have been doing 80kph I was doing 93! And he said, the fine was R500! He didn’t understand pure Welsh and after only a few minutes of listening to Huw and looking perplexed he asked me to go through.

Geraint, one of the group had the following to say about our tour which included Durban City:

“Handpicked tours which Scoutie leads with care, passion and incredible knowledge – a must for anyone who wants to discover KwaZulu Natal through the eyes of one of its most enthusiastic citizens”.

The smallest church…

Recently I visited the smallest church in the world. This unimposing little building is in van Reenen’s Pass between Harrismith and Ladysmith. The structure was built as a memorial by a father for his lost son, Llandaff Mathew who died while rescuing 8 miners in a mining accident in 1925. There are only 8 seats, representative of these miners. It is in active use to the wider van Reenen community and is a National monument.

I make a point of taking all clients who tour up that way to the church and without fail they are all astounded.