Racontours

29/11/2019

Bo Kaap how beautiful!

28/03/2018

Today Racontours joined Fair Trade Tourism, and we'll be doing all we can to follow and share their principles. Starting with no disposable plastic.

Ocean Basket is the first major South African restaurant chain to implement a ban on plastic drinking straws.

15/03/2018

Where humankind first walked, in the Cape

While more and more astounishing finds about our pre-human ancestors are coming out of the Cradle of Mankind near Johannesburg, the Southern and Western Cape coastlines offer up archeaological gems about our own past as humans.
Casts (the negative mould of the imprints) of footprints have been found in the ceilings and on walls of caves in sandstone deposits dating from around 90,000 years ago.
Visiting South Africa and the Cape should not be only about seeing the obvious. We like to show our guests some of the less obvious wonders and avoid the crowds.

09/03/2018

When I'm not reveling in the amazing Cape landscapes or slaving over the keyboard writing my next book, I pen dispatches from Africa for Bushtracks Expeditions website.
I have renently written a batch on how to bear the crowds and the cosmic prices of the Okavango Delta. This is number four.
Next will be an overview of the southern Tanzanian safari circuit including the Selous Game Reserve and Zanzibar archipelago (read: Mafia and Chole islands).

In the final installment by Bushtracks guest blogger David Bristow on alternatives to the Okavango Delta, we explore the great parks of the lower Zambezi River: Lower Zambezi and Mana Pools.

13/02/2018

One of my gigs is writing blogs about safaris and travel in Africa for splendid California-based safari outfitter Bushtracks Expeditions, this and the next two to follow about how to beat the crowds and the big bucks of the Okavango Delta.

Looking to avoid the safari crowds in Southern Africa? Bushtracks Expeditions guest blogger David Bristow recommends a Zambia safari at lesser-known Kafue NP.

04/01/2018

Last year something 180 climbers/walkers had to be rescued from Table Mountain last year. This year started with the tragedy of two climbers and their guide falling, two fatally so, directly under the cable car.
People were stuck on top of the mountain all night while rescue attempts were undertaken in sight.
Just saying, take care up there. Take water, a warm top and NEVER take a path you are not sure of.

Two people fell to their death on Table Mountain on New Year's Day. It serves as another reminder that the the mountain can be incredibly dangerous.

13/12/2017

Kirstenbosch is consistently a major highlight of all my guests' Cape Town experiences...

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is acclaimed as one of the great botanic gardens of the world. Few gardens can match the sheer grandeur of the setting of Kirstenbosch, against the eastern slopes of Cape Town’s Table Mountain. Read More...

14/11/2017

SHARE OF THE DAY
While visitors and their children frolic in the Cape winelands at places such as Babylonstoren, Kanonkop Wine Estate, Dirtopia Bicycle Workshop and numerous other estates surrounding the Simonsberg, it is gratifying to know that wild leopards are still roaming free on the mountain above.

Update from The Cape Leopard Trust: This is a beautiful female leopard known as BF15 - aka Stella, who has been photographed a number of times on the Simonsberg since 2012.

Captured by one of our residents on on the farm at 5:05pm this evening 😲A beautiful leopard with a porcupine dinner!!!

24/10/2017

A visit to the penguins at Boulders Beach (or Stony Point if we're heading to or from the Walker Bay area) is one of the most popular activities among our guests.

After reading this charming, informative post you'll be in no doubt as to why... 'African penguins are an excellent example of something conservationists call "charismatic megafauna": big, lovable animals that inspire people to support conservation, which aids the species' entire environment and the "less adorable" species it shares this environment with.'

Read the full post on Two Oceans Aquarium's blog here https://www.aquarium.co.za/blog/entry/african-penguin-awareness-day-10-things-a-penguin-can-do-better-than-humans

11/10/2017

Thoughts are with our friends at Bushtracks Expeditions affected by the ongoing California wildfires... and good luck to the firefighters. We well know the challenges you face.

California Wine Country Wildfires Impact Bushtracks Office October 2017

10/10/2017

This is a Wameru man I met in the Company Gardens, outside the House of Parliament, while doing a history tour of Cape Town. He comes from the Arusha region of Tanzania and plays only his own songs. We swapped stories about climbing Kilimanjaro (he worked as a porter on the mountain).

10/10/2017

We heard news recently that prison tours by former Robben Island political prisoners will soon be discontinued. Even though these tours are something very special and affecting, they are taking a heavy physical and emotional toll on the few remaining guides who are former inmates of the island prison.

Read the rest of our Spring 2017 news from Racontours' unique Cape Town tourism offering - always on roads less travelled http://mailchi.mp/73909264d5c6/4lrcle6as1-2490401