GREETINGS FROM A LOVELY SUNNY CAPE TOWN,

After a rather hectic 3 days at the World Travel Market here in Cape Town, we are ready again with making appointments for Indaba which will be from 8th May – 11th May 2015, and we hope to see some of the clients we missed at the WTM. Hopefully it will also be as successful as we have just been at WTM.

Below is some interesting History from Namibia, which you may not  know about:
On the south-western coast of Namibia is a small German settlement called Luderitz, where the wind is just as busy as we have here in Cape Town and this settlement seems to have survived against all odds.

Nearly 400 years after Bartholomew Diaz planted his cross here on the rocky shore in 1488, the arid corner
played an important role in the destiny of the country. Many mariners who followed in his wake accorded
the Namibian coastline a wide berth. The waters were treacherous and the yellow shore of the Namib
Desert utterly desolate.

The land is attacked remorselessly by a raking wind that drives the stinging sand before it, and when it is
not being hammered by a savage sun, it is enveloped in a murky sea-fog. Only the hardiest  of desert
plants, sucking life-giving moisture from the condensate of the atmosphere, can survive. Yet, at some
 point, nature must have taken pity on the injustice, visited on this tortured stretch of coastland for she
sprinkled its sands with diamonds. These diamonds would constitute the richest deposit the world has ever seen.

 In the meanwhile, colonial fever was spreading amongst the competing powers of Europe in the 1880’s. The great   carve-up of the African continent was about to take place. In South West Africa, Adolf Luderitz, a merchant a
colonial adventurer who hailed from Bremen, paved the way to the raising of the German flag.   In April 1886  approximately, Luderitz managed to arrange a takeover of his South West African interests, including all property
and mineral rights, by the Duitsche Kolonialgesellschaft fur Sudwestafrika (DKG) founded in Germany in 1885. 
It is known that Adolf Luderitz had bought land from the Nama Chief, giving Germany a foothold in Southern Africa  and joining the European  powers in the scramble for Africa. How ironic that the sands across which Luderitz  trampled his last days hid riches enough to have answered his most entreating prayers. The wheel of fortune
certainly spun cruelly for him. In years to come the discovery of diamonds littering Luderitzland would transform into one of the most prized pieces of mining real estate in the world..

In 1888 Cecil Rhodes  amalgamated the major producers under the umbrella of De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd.
In May 1907, a German by the name of August Stauch arrived in Luderitzbucht and was assigned the task of
supervising the maintenance of the Luderitz-Aus section of the railway line to Keetmanshoop which the company
Deutche Kolonial Eisenbahnbau – und Betriebsgesellschaft of Stettin, had commissioned to build.

The track was constructed right across the Kolmanskop area, but who would have dreamt of looking for precious
stones in such a wasteland?  Bahnmeister  Stauch did! An outbreak of diamond fever was triggered off.   The desert
coast lacked fresh water sources, and water had to be shipped from the Cape Colony or procured from salt-water
condensers. World War 1 halted diamond production. The diamond towns were abandoned to the wind and
shifting sand.  Now a day’s Kolmanskop is known as a Ghost Town.

Visit Kolmanskop, on the outskirts of Luderitz only open mornings for Guided Tours
 Monday to Saturday 9.30 and 11.00, Sundays and Public Holidays 10.00. Call +264 (0)63 202 719/202 622.
For more latest stories about Luderitz and the diamond area, look out for our May 2015 newsletter.

                
               Kolmanskop Ghost Town - Namibia                                    Sand inside the front door - Kolmanskop
      
       
  We await  information about other wonderful historic areas here in South Africa, which we hope some of our
  Members will send us, or tell us what they would like us to write about. I am sure there will be more news
  after our visit to Indaba, and hopefully there will be time to chat to some of our Members and overseas tour 
  operators while I am there.. 
  We wish to inform our Members that our Newsletter goes to many countries overseas to Tour Operators and
  various Tourist Guides and previous visitors to our country, this is why from time to time we write about our
  country in detail, because interest has been shown by our overseas clients and  operators.
  Wishing you all an amazing month of May, and looking forward to hear from some of you. We take this
  opportunity to wish all the Mothers receiving our Newsletter a wonderful Mother’s Day, may you have an
  unforgettable Day.  Until next month …………….

  Warm Regards from us,

SOME OF OUR WONDERFUL PLACES YOU MIGHT WISH TO VISIT

                      
                       ‘ The Diamond Works’ - Johannesburg                           The  Organic Square Guest House- Namibia
                             www.diamondworks.com.                                        www.guesthouse-swakopmund.com    

                              
                   The Robertson Wine Valley Festival                               Nantucket Guest House - Hermanus       
                    www.robertsonwinevalley.com                                      www.nantucket-hermanus.com  

                   
                  The Bo-Kaap - Cape Town                                               Nieubathesda - Eastern Cape
                     www.bokaap.co.za                                                            www.nieubathesda.co.za
                    

ANOTHER ACTIVITY AVAILABLE FOR THE ADVENTURER  

Hippo and Crocodile Estuary Cruise in St Lucia,
      Kwa Zulu Natal  -  South Africa
100% GUARANTEE on HIPPO SIGHTINGS or you get ALL your money REFUNDED!!!!




The best way to explore the St Lucia Estuary is aboard the luxurious double decked passenger ferry, Advantage
    Cruiser, a legal concession holder within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.

    The start of the St Lucia Estuary, the estuary mouth, is situated within the town of St Lucia at the most
    Southern point of Lake St Lucia, within the province of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. This area was proclaimed a
    World Heritage Site in 1999, and recently (2007) the adjacent Wetland Park bordering St Lucia was renamed the
    iSimangaliso Wetland Park, meaning “Place of Wonder” or “Miracle”.

St. Lucia Tours, Advantage Cruiser Isimangaliso Wetlands Park Saint Lucia South Africa

The St Lucia Estuary is the largest estuarine system on the African Continent and boasts the largest concentration of Hippo in South Africa. The St Lucia, South Africa, section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, boasts a variety of
 activities within one hour proximity from the guest house you’re staying with. These vary from the whawatching just offshore from the town of St Lucia, to the always favored iSimangaliso Wetland Park and Cape Vidal  just 2km’s away, and to the oldest Game Reserve in Africa, the Hluhluwe and Imfolozi Game Reserves, which are just an hours’ drive from us.
 
St Lucia is the place that Danie Bennett, Riëtte Bennett and their partners operate their exclusive boat trips to
  view hippopotami, crocodiles, mangrove swamps, prolific bird life, oyster banks with stories of days gone by, the
  2nd highest vegetated dune in the world

1 McKenzie Street, Dolphin Centre, St Lucia, 3936
Phone: +27 35 590 1259 | +27 35 590 1180
Mobile: +27 83 487 2762
Fax: +27 35 590 1053
advantage@zululink.co
www.advantagetours.co.za
  .