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Greetings from a beautiful winters day in Cape Town,
My dear Members of CTC Marketing and friends, how we
missed hearing from you in the last 15months although
the lockdown has been much longer. We had promised to give you news from
Kwa Zulu Natal, which never happened and the Eastern Cape, which never
appeared. That was due to us not being able to travel or visit
anywhere, but we have managed to slip in an extraordinary visit to
Kimberley in the Northern Cape toward the end of 2020 amazing
experience. I was also on a Tour with Ezet-Exclusivetours to
another part of the Western and Northern Cape together with 5 other
clients here, from South Africa. For the moment myself and Ezette are
putting various tours together for our locals to travel their own
country.
Chris and I, have been working hard under lockdown to find
different ways of changing our Marketing, planning and decided to
concentrate on self-drive tours, where we can put tailor-made tours
together and visit our various Members, and for clients who would be
interested. We can now offer you 4x4 vehicles to hire, a transport
company with Quantum’s and various other available transport, to take you
on any of our tours. wherever you would like to
go, and even overseas tours when permitted. These we will introduce in
our newsletters at a later stage..
We thank you for your loyalty, friendship and fabulous
Guest Houses, Lodges and Activities and Adventure that we have been able
to share with so many people all over the world. Because, without your support and
presence we would not have been able to run our Tourism and
Marketing business. We appreciate all your confidence in us, and
hope that you will also be staying with us for many more years to come,
as we all will be growing again, in the near future. Our CTC
Adventure and Activities Face Book that Chris shares with this part
of CTC Marketing will be a year old in August 2021. So any people
interested to have their Activities or Adventures marketed please join us
as a Member, Contact Chris at adventure@ctcmarketing.co.za
We have had many changes on our website if you have looked
lately, and have many new Members, which we are very thrilled to
have. We have also upped our Marketing on our Face Book Pages which
are now 4 altogether. I will list them towards the end of our newsletter.
We would like you all to welcome our new Members and also have a look at
their websites. I will be writing about some of them below, and would
also like you to join our Face Book Pages, so that we can keep you
updated on what they all provide for the local and overseas tourist when
they can come again.
I will now introduce you to our 1st Tour for
2021, which took place in May 2021. Our first stop was in Beaufort
West where we slept over @17onbird Guest House. A very
well-known guesthouse which was such a delightful home from home
establishment. We were right in the centre of the town and could
walk to most of the places we wanted to see. Their bedrooms were
beautifully furnished and very comfortable. The meals were out of
this world and they served the most delicious Karoo Lamb Shank in the
country, I am sure. Also very tasty Indian Curry which some of our
clients enjoyed. While in Beaufort West we managed a visit to Dr
Christiaan ‘Barnard’s home where he grew up and had a look at all his
memorabilia in the local Museum, which is next to his father’s Mission
Church.
 
After a wonderful breakfast we set off for Three Sisters,
the next morning on our way to Richmond that is situated in the
Northern Province. A lovely old worldly village, with so much
history. Here we stayed for 2 nights as we had so many things to
see and visit. Our visit as usual is to see what happens in the
Information Centre and then across the road to see what the American
Saddle Horse Museum was all about. Here we met Johan a
delightful gentleman who just could not give us enough history of the
town and all the beautiful interesting things they had in their museum.
It is really worth visiting should you be in Richmond, we could have
stayed there all day. We did much walking about and took may
photographs. Here were wonderful restaurants and we did try and pop
in wherever we could to support the locals .Food was excellent where we
had our meals, and we even managed to add in a Ghost Walk the evening,
and visit the local graveyard where many stories were told on the way by
the Curator of the Museum. Richmond is of course known for their
wonderful horses.
 
Leaving early the next morning we had breakfast at Karoo
Padstal just the other side of Richmond on our way to Hanover.
Here we had a wonderful breakfast and spent some time looking around all
the beautiful crafts and pottery,
and so much for sale. A must stop if you are in this area.
.With a stop for lunch at Three Sisters we then travelled to Hanover
where we have a walk around their small Karoo town and had a look at
their wonderful Dutch Reformed Church. We set off for the Karoo-Gariep
Nature Reserve where we were going to spend the evening at a
wonderful guesthouse in the Reserve called New Holme Nature Lodge.
We arrived around 5pm and were ready for a delicious Karoo meal prepared
by the owners of the lodge. The lodge offers amazing accommodation,
excellent food and we also had a Game Drive, and visited the Hippo’s
with our sundowner next to the Gariep River and watch the sun go down. If
you have children they would love the farm as they will see many lambs,
cows, horse and of course Buck in the area. We were fortunate to see a
little lamb being feed his morning bottle of milk by one of the owners
daughters. After breakfast we set of for Vanderkloof where
we were going to have canoe rides on the big Vanderkloof dam, This
everyone was looking forward too, as I think none of the ladies had ever
been in a canoe. We were also lucky to meet up with Rob from Flyfishvanderkloof
so next time we can perhaps try our hand at fly fishing. After a
fabulous lunch and a glass of red wine we set off to the dam. It was a
wonderful afternoon and thanked Adventure Kayaking for the lovely
experience, and straight after that we set off to Orania.
 
We arrived at Orania just as the sun was setting
and went to find our accommodation. The group stayed at the Orania
Resort and I went off to meet one of our CTC Members, Orania Bed en
Ontbyt where I was going to stay. They only have 3 double rooms, so I
managed to get one and was most delighted to meet Magda and Tim her
husband who own this lovely guesthouse. It was not far from the Resort
either, and en route to where we were going the next morning.
Their rooms are large and comfortable, the breakfast was wonderful and I
was welcomed with rusks and coffee before settling down to sleep the
evening. Orania was started about 30 years ago and has approximately
2,500 permanent people living there. We had a very informative tour with
one of their local Guides from their information centre, who took us
around the town and showed us what they were doing and what they were
still going to complete. Everyone living there has a job, there is no
unemployment at all. They are very advanced with their technology and
have 2 schools and busy building their own University, and have a very
modern Hospital which has only 6 beds, but they are adding on another
wing. They have a vet, medical doctors, music teachers, art and ballet,
and much more.. The people are very friendly and only speak Afrikaans,
but a perfect Afrikaans. Even their Menu in the coffee shop and restaurant is all in
Afrikaans. It was really a pleasure meeting all these lovely people. I
will be writing more about Orania, here in the Northern Cape in one of my
Blogs which you will find on our website.
 
After spending two days and nights in Orania our next port
of call was Britstown. This small Karoo town of Britstown is situated at the crossroads
of the Upper Karoo on the N12 highway linking Beaufort West and Victoria West to the south, with Kimberley
to the north. Off the main road the town is a typical sleepy Karoo
village with its fair share of old Victorian and Edwardian era buildings, quietly
reposing in the brilliant sunshine of the Karoo. Our stop for the night
was @Transkaroo Country Lodge, a beautiful and interesting
building with a French feeling about it. When entering we were welcomed
by their Manager and staff and taken to our rooms. There was an
unbelievable Buffet dinner waiting for us in their lovely Deli Café /
restaurant. Britstown is a quiet town and the gateway to many other towns
so visitors or business people just seem to slide through the town onto
their next destination. Our bedrooms were lovely and they have a lovely
courtyard where one could also have your dinner or breakfast. I think
Sundays they would be rather busy with many farmers in the area coming to
Church, and then have a lovely Sunday lunch before going home again..
 
After breakfast the next morning we set off for Victoria
West where we were going to stay over at one of the oldest homes in
Victoria West @De Oude Pastorie Guest House that dates back to
1846 where the first Dutch Reformed Minister lived. We arrived before
lunch as we had an appointment with Ricardo who was going to be
our Tourist Guide for the day. His knowledge of the town was
unbelievable and everyone on the Tour was most impressed. We also met very interesting
locals who could
give us
more information where it was needed. We would recommend any
visitor to contact Ricardo at their Tourism Office and arrange a time for
your tour. Our rooms at our Guest house guest house were lovely and
we were close enough to walk to town very safely. Many of the roads are
still gravel, except for a few main roads that were tarred. The town is
very old and has beautiful homes that all seem dating back to the late
1800s or early 1900s. One could easily stay longer than our 2 days to be
able to see everything. Our Hostess Elize who is also the owner was very
friendly and helpful, and laid on a lovely spread for us for dinner.
After a lovely breakfast the next morning we set off for Sutherland
which was quite a long drive from Victoria West. There is also safe
parking in the grounds of the Guest House.
 
Setting off to Sutherland we had much to talk about and
then one of our clients suggested that we stop over at Merweville, a
hamlet not far from Beaufort West, where she lived many years ago and
they had a wonderful Book Club Restaurant where we could have lunch
although it was a Sunday. Well, that we did and duly arrived at
Merweville just in time for lunch, as that had been ordered en route.
What a lovely village and so neat and friendly people. The
restaurant was full and lunch was delicious plus some coffee and
Milkshakes. After lunch we went to visit @Karoo Blessings,
Storie van Hoop, Jesus se Sweets Fabriek. Where a young mother
started a sweet factory making handcrafted Nougat in different
flavours. What an amazing surprise, she even opened up for us to come and
taste, which we did and also bought some. Then had a look at their
beautiful Dutch Reformed Church before leaving for Sutherland. We decided
to take the gravel road from Merweville through to Sutherland which was
quiet an adventure, with magnificent views all the way.
 
A few hours later after driving on stones and dust, as the
sun was setting we arrived at Sutherland safe and sound. It was
quite a drive, up dale and down dale, but with magnificent views of
mountains and hills. Watching the sun set over the mountain was
absolutely beautiful. I ended up at the Whitehouse Inn where we
were going to have dinner and the rest of the party slept in
self-catering accommodation. The town was accommodating many
workers from the Wind Farm outside town, hence the splitting of the
group. The Whitehouse Inn is one of the many eateries in
Sutherland, We found their food delicious, well prepared, great
service and pleasant staff. In the morning I had my breakfast there, which was lovely and had
my rooibos tea served in a proper English bone china tea cup, which I
really thought was great. The rest of the group all went to visit
SALT and the Planetarium in the town and also did a walk
through Sutherland. I in the meantime, met up with the local
Information Centre young lady, by
the name of Alta, who took me on a round trip outside town to visit some
farm self-catering cottages for our 4x4 clients. This I found most
interesting and met a gentleman that does 4x4 tours through to the
Gifberg and various other routes. He also has camping facilities on this
farm for the 4x4 clients to spend a few days if needed. The group had
Breakfast and lunch in town which they enjoyed and we all met for Dinner
in the evening again at the Whitehouse Inn. My accommodation was
wonderful and I even had a garden in front of my room, they also offer
camping facilities at the lodge, and will make a spit braai if you have a
large group.
 
We will definitely like to do this tour again, as both
Ezette and I enjoyed all the places we stayed at, and the amazing people
we met.. Our group was a fun loving group, so had many a laugh and we all
met as strangers and left as friends, who asked when is the next
Tour? One actually joined Ezette on her flower tour which they are
doing at the moment. I will be doing another newsletter in 3 months’
time again, and might be telling you about our flower tours. These flower tours are run
every year during July to mid-September and can also go over to October
depending on the rain during the winter months.. Please look at our
Website if you are interested to visit any of these places for their
email address or Mobile numbers.
https://www.facebook.com/WCTTM
https://www.facebook.com/elaine.corbett.9889
https://www.facebook.com/CTC-Adventure-and-Activities-586253225401415/
https://www.facebook.com/elainectcmarketing
We would be interested to hear from any adventure company,
Guest houses or Lodges in the Eastern Cape as we are thinking of running
a tour for the local South Africans from Cape Town through to the Eastern
Cape. We have found that many locals are interested to travel on
tour, or self-drive through our country as overseas tours are not
possible at this moment in time. If you think you have what we are
looking for, please send us an email.
We wish you all a wonderful few months’ ahead until we are
in touch again. Keep well and stay safe.
Warm Regards,
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