Red List, Sh*t List

It seems like good old South Africa is finally off the Red list shit list and the global community can once again visit South Africa and enjoy the most beautiful country in the world, well, I personally think it is but I am biased, but aren’t well all? And anyway, you are going to have to be pretty special to beat Cape Town.

South Africa as a country has suffered enormously since March 2020. Tourism is one of the biggest employers in the country (along with mining) and the global lockdown has devastated the economy and peoples individual livelihoods. South Africa just does not have the welfare state capable of underwriting the population on furlough schemes. It has also been bad news for South Africa’s wildlife. Safari’s and the income they generate not only create jobs, they fund the protection of Rhino’s and Elephants that are under threat because a minority of human dickheads think that Rhino horn and ivory are useful (well they are to the animals but not to you chum)

The really great thing about South Africa is that it has everything. Cape Town is magical, anyone who has been there will tell you that, she also has the best Safari’s, all the wildlife, Table Mountain, great food and friendly, welcoming people.

With luck, South Africa will get back on her feet, I have to believe she will, the country has come through and survived worse in the past.  Flights are very cheap at the moment hotels can be snapped up at great rates. I suggest staying at the Waterfront area or Camps Bay if you’re planning on visiting and Hotels are better if you’re planning on coming and going at all hours so you don’t have to worry about waking other people up (guesthouses can be tricky in that respect)

With luck, South Africa will get back on her feet, I have to believe she will, the country has come through and survived worse in the past.  Flights are very cheap at the moment hotels can be snapped up at great rates. I suggest staying at the Waterfront area or Camps Bay if you’re planning on visiting and Hotels are better if you’re planning on coming and going at all hours so you don’t have to worry about waking other people up (guesthouses can be tricky in that respect)

Peace

Rob

https://convoytours.co.za/garden.html

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Garden Route Glory – The glory of the ride!

Good times and bad times are like the weather, ultimately they are fleeting and they pass. The Impermanence of all things can be sad, I mean everything has to come to an end, children grow up, holidays that we look forward to come and go, so do relationships. But am grateful for that because it works both ways. Crappy times also pass, I broke my wrist years ago and it stung like a bastard but I don’t remember the pain now. Life, for many of us in 2020 has not been great, some people have really suffered. Those who have lost loved ones, jobs, businesses. Those who are lonely, it’s tough, life is tough. As David Brent says, life is a struggle with beautiful surprises

But it passes, I have written on this blog before that Cape Convoy is just myself and a website now, so what? that is what is was 13 years ago when I started running tours. life is swings and roundabouts. I read that the vaccine is on it’s way. If that is the case then sooner rather than later South Africa will reopen and when it does, I will be ready. I am offering huge discounts on private Garden Route tours for folks that book early, 40 % discounts, until September 2021

Cape Convoy Tours, why you should book! Come join me

I am massively excited to start running the tours again, I love being a guide, I love South Africa and I love the Garden Route. So I am sending this out to the universe, if you’re looking for a Garden Route tour and looking for a guide to take you then hire me. It will be the best tour you will ever take. That’s my commitment to you!

Here are some links for the tours, when you book the Garden Route I include a free, private Cape Peninsula tour to the Cape of Good Hope via the Penguins. It doesn’t get any better than that chum!

4 Day 3 Night Garden Route tour with a FREE Cape Peninsula tour https://www.convoytours.co.za/garden.html

The Full Day Cape Peninsula Tour

https://www.convoytours.co.za/capepoint.html

We gotta go!

2020 & Beyond

Hello all, I hope that life is being kind and that you are finding a way through the new world we all find ourselves in. The new normal is not exactly great is it? Gloves, masks, no school, no sound of children’s laughter, no sport, pubs or hugs! When times are tough I always think of it as the weather. Good bad or indifferent, it passes. Everything is ultimately fleeting and Covid 19 will be no different. Acceptance is the key and I feel that we should not waste this opportunity to come out the other side of this thing a kinder, nicer, fairer world.

Tourism globally has been smashed and the job losses will be awful. In Cape Town we have had one of the strictest lock downs in the world. No exercise and a smoking and drinking ban although all that seems to have achieved is make the black market thrive. Every smoker I know is still smoking but I digress..

I am re-training in another field but Cape Convoy will go on and I will run the tours. Cape Convoy is now just me and a website. I have no buses or cars anymore. They have all gone. I will rent them as needed. The sector is just too vulnerable to invest long term in and I doubt this will be the last pandemic. I hope this causes  humanity to have a re think about how we treat our animal brothers and sisters. If nothing else this proves we are all connected and live in a connected world. There is also little difference in Asian wet markets and the factory farming in a western city. It’s not sustainable and its cruel. We are destroying the natural world that rely on for out own survival.

On a more cheerful note, I have made the best of it Meditating every day, exercising, learning Spanish, walking my dogs and online training. I have also started to take a few bookings for April 2021 so that is great news. I don’t have any fear in my heart. Everything happens for a reason and as the Buddhists say. Every grain of sand is in it’s perfect place. Anyone who is struggling should do themselves a huge act of kindness and read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. A very important book and I also suggest watching his You Tube videos. He has helped me enormously in my life and can do the same for you

I made a small video to try to drum up a bit of interest in the tours for 2021. Any action is often better than no action. Cape Convoy will survive, it has too much heart and soul. As Shakespeare said in his play As you like it “This poor virgin isn’t much to look at, sir, but she’s mine”

Wishing you and your family good health and good fortune

Your Pal

Rob