Cape Town and Cape Peninsula

I was fortunate as I get to organize my own trip and travel with the group.

Two years ago, we have a total of 10 people travelling to South Africa, and we went to Cape Town, and the Cape Peninsula. We actually stayed at Hout Bay, which was lovely and it was easy for us to proceed for the cruise to see the seal colony. Thereafter, we flew to Johannesburg, and stayed at three different National Parks and game reserve.

Kruger is the largest and most popular of the South Africa, and needless to say, it was included in our itinerary. We went to Imfolozi-Hluluwe National Park, which is the oldest in South Africa and last of all, we went to Pakamisa Private Game Reserve.

We all had wonderful times at the three parks, driven in the open top vehicle for our game drive- trying to spot the different wildlife - rhinoceros, cheetah, lions, Buffaloes, zebra, impala, elephants, and many other birds, as our ranger guides went around hunting for them. As it was winter, it gets dark early. We went for both the sunrise and sunset safari, and the sunset in the African bush was mesmerizing, when the whole horizon was painted in fiery red or orange.

The stay at Pakamisa was memorable as the lodge is located right on a hill top. At night, I could see millions of stars right above me, just outside my room, which is named zebra. The Milky Way and the Southern Cross were both so distinct to me, with easy identification. 

We missed out on one of the main highlights - Shark Cage diving at Gansbai, as there was heavy rain for that week when we arrived in Hermanus, and thus all shark cage diving activity was cancelled for the entire week. 

Below - I am providing some information on Cape Town and Cape Peninsula, and the text was taken from the Wikipedia site. 

Cape Town (Afrikaans: Kaapstad [ˈkɑːpstɐt]; Xhosa: Ikapa) is a coastal city in South Africa. It is the second most populous urban area in South Africa, after Johannesburg.^[7] It is also the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape.

As the seat of the National Parliament it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. The city is famous for its harbour, for its natural setting in the Cape Floristic Region, as well as for such well-known landmarks as Table Mountain and Cape Point. As of 2014, it is the 10th most populous city in Africa and home to 64% of the Western Cape's population. It is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, reflecting its role as a major destination for immigrants and expatriates^[9] to South Africa. The city was named the World Design Capital for 2014 by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design. In 2014, Cape Town was named the best place in the world to visit by both the American New York Times and the British Daily Telegraph.^[12]

Located on the shore of Table Bay, Cape Town was first developed by the Dutch East India Company as a victualling (supply) station for Dutch ships sailing to East Africa, India, and the Far East. Jan van Riebeeck's arrival on 6 April 1652 established the first permanent European settlement in South Africa. Cape Town quickly outgrew its original purpose as the first European outpost at the Castle of Good Hope, becoming the economic and cultural hub of the Cape Colony. Until the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the development of Johannesburg, Cape Town was the largest city in South Africa.

Cape Peninsula

The Cape Peninsula (Afrikaans: Kaapse Skiereiland) is a generally rocky peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. On the northern end is Table Mountain, overlooking Cape Town, South Africa. The peninsula is 52 km long from Mouille point in the north to Cape Point in the south.

The Peninsula has been an island on and off for the past 5 million years, as sea levels fell and rose with the ice age and interglacial global warming cycles of, particularly, the Pleistocene. The last time that the Peninsula was an island was about 6000 years ago. Soon afterwards it was joined to the mainland by the emergence from the sea of the sandy area now known as the Cape Flats. The towns and villages of the Cape Peninsula and Cape Flats now form part of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality.

The Cape of Good Hope is sometimes given as the meeting point of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Thus the west coast of the Peninsula is invariably referred to as the "Atlantic Coast", but the eastern side is known as the "False Bay Coast". It is at Cape Point (or the Cape of Good Hope) that the ocean to the south is often said to be divided into the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Indian Ocean to the east. However, according to the International Hydrographic Organization agreement that defines the ocean boundaries, the meeting point is at Cape Agulhas, about 200 km (120 mi) to the southeast.

Similarly, Cape Point is not the fixed "meeting point" of the cold Benguela Current, running northwards along the west coast of Africa, and the warm Agulhas Current, running south from the equator along the east coast of Africa. In fact the south flowing Agulhas Current swings away from the African coastline between about East London and Port Elizabeth, from where it follows the edge of the Continental shelfroughly as far as the southern tip of the Agulhas Bank, 250 km (155 miles) south of Cape Agulhas. From there it is retroflexed (turned sharply round) in an easterly direction by the South Atlantic, South Indian and Southern Ocean currents, known as the "West Wind Drift", which flow eastwards round Antarctica. The Benguela Current, on the other hand, is an upwelling current which brings cold, mineral-rich water from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean to the surface along the west coast of Southern Africa. Having reached the surface it flows northwards as a result of the prevailing wind and Coriolis forces. The Benguela Current, therefore, effectively starts at Cape Point, and flows northwards from there, although further out to sea it is joined by surface water that has crossed the South Atlantic from South America as part of the South Atlantic Gyre. Thus the Benguela and Agulhas currents do not strictly "meet" anywhere, although eddies from the Agulhas current do from time to time round the Cape to join the Benguela Current.

Credit - Wikipedia (Cape Town & Cape Peninsula)

November will still be a lovely time to visit South Africa but December will be busy with the local tourists.

January to March is the summer time but it is enjoying 23degree on average, thus a very good time to be spent in South Africa. 

We have the following trips for 2017

26May - 09Jun 2017 Botswana Camping Safari (Okavango Delta, Chobe, Victoria Falls)

05Jul-21Jul Kilimanjaro Trek & Migration Safari

11Jul-21Jul Migration Safari

To go for your next game safari, contact me - inspiritjourneys@gmail.com

Anyone keen to learn to make money from Social Media, watch this webinar online
https://goo.gl/XxONyV
Contact me should you need more information. 

Botswana Camping Safari - Okavango Delta

Upcoming Trips

2016
15-26Oct Croatia in autumn

2017
13-25Apr Istanbul & Greece
03-10May Tibet - Roof of the World
07-16May Mongolia & the Wild West (Mt Altai)
26May Camping safari to Botswana
05-20Jul Kilimanjaro Trek & Migration camping safari
Sep - Trekking in India

I am excited as I look forward to visiting the famous Okavango Delta in Botswana，and this is a special itinerary as you get to experience the wilderness, marvel at the millions of stars above you, and get the opportunity to observe wildlife in Chobe National Park.

The information below is taken from

whc.unesco.org

This delta in north-west Botswana comprises permanent marshlands and seasonally flooded plains. It is one of the very few major interior delta systems that do not flow into a sea or ocean, with a wetland system that is almost intact. One of the unique characteristics of the site is that the annual flooding from the River Okavango occurs during the dry season, with the result that the native plants and animals have synchronized their biological cycles with these seasonal rains and floods. It is an exceptional example of the interaction between climatic, hydrological and biological processes. The Okavango Delta is home to some of the world’s most endangered species of large mammal, such as the cheetah, white rhinoceros, black rhinoceros, African wild dog and lion.

Outstanding Universal Value

Brief synthesis 

The Okavango Delta is a large low gradient alluvial fan or ‘Inland Delta’ located in north-western Botswana. The area includes permanent swamps which cover approximately 600,000 ha along with up to 1.2m ha of seasonally flooded grassland. The inscribed World Heritage property encompasses an area of 2,023,590 ha with a buffer zone of 2,286,630 ha. The Okavango Delta is one of a very few large inland delta systems without an outlet to the sea, known as an endorheic delta, its waters drain instead into the desert sands of the Kalahari Basin. It is Africa’s third largest alluvial fan and the continent’s largest endorheic delta. Furthermore it is in a near pristine state being a largely untransformed wetland system. The biota has uniquely adapted their growth and reproductive behaviour, particularly the flooded grassland biota, to be timed with the arrival of floodwater in the dry, winter season of Botswana.

The geology of the area, a part of the African Rift Valley System, has resulted in the ‘capture’ of the Okavango River that has formed the Delta and its extensive waterways, swamps, flooded grasslands and floodplains. The Okavango River, at 1,500kms, is the third largest in southern Africa. The Delta’s dynamic geomorphological history has a major effect on the hydrology, determining water flow direction, inundation and dehydration of large areas within the Delta system. The site is an outstanding example of the interplay between climatic, geomorphological, hydrological, and biological processes that drive and shape the system and of the manner in which the Okavango Delta’s plants and animals have adapted their lifecycles to the annual cycle of rains and flooding. Subsurface precipitation of calcite and amorphous silica is an important process in creating islands and habitat gradients that support diverse terrestrial and aquatic biota within a wide range of ecological niches.  

Criterion (vii): Permanent crystal clear waters and dissolved nutrients transform the 

otherwise dry Kalahari Desert habitat into a scenic landscape of exceptional and rare beauty, and sustain an ecosystem of remarkable habitat and species diversity, thereby maintaining its 
ecological resilience and amazing natural phenomena. The annual flood-tide, which pulses 
through the wetland system every year, revitalizes ecosystems and is a critical life-force during 
the peak of the Botswana’s dry season (June/July). The Okavango Delta World Heritage 
property displays an extraordinary juxtaposition of a vibrant wetland in an arid landscape and the miraculous transformation of huge sandy, dry and brown depressions by winter season floods triggers spectacular wildlife displays: large herds of African Elephant, Buffalo, Red Lechwe, Zebra and other large animals splashing, playing, and drinking the clear waters of the Okavango having survived the dry autumn season or their weeks’ long migration across the Kalahari Desert.

Criterion (ix): The Okavango Delta World Heritage property is an outstanding example of the complexity, inter-dependence and interplay of climatic, geo-morphological, hydrological, and biological processes. The continuous transformation of geomorphic features such as islands, channels, river banks, flood plains, oxbow lakes and lagoons in turn influences the abiotic and biotic dynamics of the Delta including dryland grasslands and woodland habitats. The property exemplifies a number of ecological processes related to flood inundation, channelization, nutrient cycling and the associated biological processes of breeding, growth, migration, colonization and plant succession. These ecological processes provide a scientific benchmark to compare similar and human-impacted systems elsewhere and give insight into the long-term evolution of such wetland systems.

Criterion (x): The Okavango Delta World Heritage property sustains robust populations of some of the world’s most endangered large mammals such as Cheetah, white and black Rhinoceros, Wild Dog and Lion, all adapted to living in this wetland system. The Delta’s habitats are species rich with 1061 plants (belonging to 

134 families and 530 genera), 89 fish, 64 reptiles, 482 species of birds and 130 species of mammals. The natural habitats of the nominated area are diverse and include permanent and seasonal rivers and lagoons, permanent swamps, seasonal and occasionally flooded grasslands, riparian forest, dry deciduous woodlands, and island communities. Each of these habitats has a distinct species composition comprising all the major classes of aquatic organisms, reptiles, birds and mammals. The Okavango Delta is further recognized as an Important Bird Area, harbouring 24 species of globally threatened birds, including among others, six species of Vulture, the Southern Ground-Hornbill, Wattled Crane and Slaty Egret. Thirty-three species of water birds occur in the Okavango Delta in numbers that exceed 0.5% of their global or 
regional population. Finally Botswana supports the world’s largest population of elephants,
numbering around 130,000: the Okavango Delta is the core area for this species’ survival.

Integrity

The property covers most of the Delta, encompassing a vast area of over 2 millions ha of substantially undisturbed wetlands and seasonally flooded grasslands. It is of sufficient size to represent all of the delta’s main biophysical processes and features and support its communities of plant and animal species. Because of its vast size and difficult access the delta has never been subject to significant development and it remains in an almost pristine condition. Tourism to the inner Delta is limited to small, temporary tented camps with access by air. Facilities are carefully monitored for compliance with environmental standards and have minimal ecological impact. Most importantly, the source of the Okavango Delta’s waters in Angola and Namibia remain unaffected by any upstream dams or significant water abstraction and the three riparian states have established a protocol under the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) for the sustainable management of the entire river system. OKACOM has formally supported the inscription of the Okavango Delta on the World Heritage List. It is imperative that upstream environmental water flows 

remain unimpeded and that over abstraction of water, the building of dams and the development of agricultural irrigation systems do not impact on the sensitive hydrology of the property.

Concerns have been noted regarding fluctuating populations of large animals. Elephant numbers have been increasing whilst other species are reported as exhibiting significant declines. Data is variable, subject to different survey techniques and uncoordinated surveys undertaken by different institutions all contribute to an unclear picture of the Okavango Delta’s wildlife. Authorities have initiated efforts to establish a comprehensive and integrated wildlife monitoring system that can accurately track population size and trends for the entire property, however ongoing work is needed to realise this. Causes of decline are attributed to seasonal variability, poaching (for example of giraffe for meat) and veterinary cordon fencing used to manage animal sanitation and control the spread of disease between wildlife and domestic stock.

Mining activities including prospecting will not be permitted within the property. Furthermore
, potential impacts from mining including concessions in the buffer zone and outside the buffer zone need to be carefully monitored and managed to avoid direct and indirect impacts to the property, including water pollution. The State Party should also work with State Parties upstream from the Delta to monitor any potential impacts, including from potential diamond mining in Angola, which could impact water flow or water quality in the Delta.

Protection and management requirements

The Okavango Delta comprises a mosaic of protected lands. About 40% of the property is protected within the Moremi Game Reserve, and the remainder is composed of 18 Wildlife Management Areas and a Controlled Hunting Areas 

managed by community trusts or private tourism concession-holders. Legal protection is afforded through Botswana’s Wildlife Conservation and National Parks Act, 1992 and an associated Wildlife Conservation Policy. The Tribal Land Act of 1968 also applies to the property and the whole of the nominated area (and the buffer zone) is communally-owned Tribal Land under the control of the Tawana Land Board.

As noted above the underlying causes of wildlife population declines are not clear, but an imposed hunting ban will further strengthen conservation measures in the property. The State Party is encouraged to develop a coordinated and systematic wildlife monitoring programme to establish population baselines for key species and to track trends. Veterinary cordon fences are known to cause significant disruption to wildlife at individual, population and species levels. Most of the property’s core and buffer zones are free of veterinary cordon fencing and the location of site’s boundaries was guided by these considerations. However, the Southern Buffalo Fence defines the southern boundary of the World Heritage property and whilst damage has compromised its effectiveness in disease control, it acts as a locally known demarcation to stop cattle grazing within the property. The Northern Buffalo Fence, also within the alignment of the property buffer zone, is known to disrupt connectivity in particular for the region’s Roan and Sable Antelope populations. Veterinary fencing is recognised as a sensitive, multi-
dimensional issue. The State Party is encouraged to continue efforts to rationalize fencing, removing it when its effectiveness for disease control has become questionable or where more holistic approaches to animal sanitation and disease control are possible Ongoing vigilance is critical to ensure mining developments do not adversely impact the property. Past mining prospecting licences have been extinguished, and will not be renewed or extended. No extractive activity is undertaken in the property, and no new licenses will be issued within the property. The State Party should implement 

rigorous environmental impact assessment procedures for mining activities outside the property but which have the potential to negatively impact on its Outstanding Universal Value, to avoid such impacts.

The Delta has been inhabited for centuries by small numbers of indigenous people, living a hunter-gatherer existence with different groups adapting their cultural identity and lifestyle to the exploitation of particular resources (e.g. fishing or hunting). This form of low-level subsistence use has had no significant impact on the ecological integrity of the area, and today mixed settlements of indigenous peoples and later immigrants to the area are located around the fringes of the delta, mostly outside the boundaries of the property. Continued special attention is needed to reinforce the recognition of the cultural heritage of indigenous inhabitants of the Delta region. Ongoing efforts should focus upon sensitively accommodating traditional subsistence uses and access rights consistent with the protection of the property’s Outstanding Universal Value. Efforts should centre on ensuring that indigenous peoples living in the property are included in all communication about the World Heritage status of the property and its implications, that their views are respected and integrated into management planning and implementation, and that they have access to benefits stemming from tourism.

The State Party is encouraged to address a range of other protection and management issues to improve integrity. These include enhanced governance mechanisms to empower stakeholders in the management of the property; the development of a property specific management plan which harmonizes with planning in the wider landscape; ensuring adequate staffing and funding to build the capacity of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks; and programmes to strengthen the control and elimination of invasive alien species from theproperty.

Taken from who.unesco.org

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2013 - 2014 Trips

EXOTIC TOURS 2013-2014 Departures

*** Updated 25Apr
I will be out of town , leading Swiss Paris tour -
26Apr - 06May
22May - 01Jun

****

2013 - Confirmed Departures
2013 Trekking Trips

Contact Olevia Cheong
Organizer
(65) 8112 8393

Email  - olevia@gmail.com

2013
Date	Tour Code	Tour Name	Price	Remarks
17-23MAY	ETVS07	7D Vietnam & Sapa	$1,350	Min 4 to go
05-15JUN	ETIL11	11D Ladakh Overland	$2,350	Nett
05-17JUN	ETBP12	12D Brazil & Pantanal Photo Tour	$9,650	Nett (excl VISA)
07-16JUN	ETGE10	10D Greece	$3,050	+ Tax ($310)
12-26JUN	ETUT15	15D Uzbekistan & Tajikistan trekking	$3,650	Nett (incl Visa)
30JUN-12JUL	ETMN13	13D Mongolia Trekking & Nadaam Festival
11-14JUL	ETBR04	Bali – Alila Villas Free & Easy	$2,150	Nett
JUL		Bali Sanur Kite Festival (4D3N)		(Dates TBA)
03-10AUG	ETSA08	8D Sri Lanka Discovery
03-10AUG	ETBA08	8D Botswana Adventure
04-18SEP	ETUT15	15D Uzbekistan & Tajikistan Trekking	$3,650
10-21SEP	ETSB12	12D Sikkim & Bhutan Photo Tour	$4,450	Nett (India visa)
10-21SEP	ETST12	12D Sikkim & Dzongri Trek	$2,600	Nett
07-15SEP	ETIR08	8D Rinjani Trekking, & Gili Lombok	$	Group size - 12
20-29SEP	ETEP10	10D Egypt Photo Tour	$	Min – 4 to go
05-20OCT	ETMS16	16D Sikkim, Darjeeling & Kalimpong		Min – 4 ­to go
11-18OCT	ETNB08	8D Nepal & Bhutan	$3,250	Min – 4 to go
12-18OCT	ETMD07	7D Myanmar Discovery		Min- 4 to go
30OCT-	ETNE18	18D Everest Base Camp Trek	$3,100	Excl Visa
04-11NOV	ETSA08	8D Sri Lanka Discovery	$
DEC		India Rajasthan Glory
04-11DEC	ETNF08	8D Nepal	$1980	Excl Visa
2014
Mar		Nepal, Sikkim & Bhutan Paro Festival		NEW itinerary
APR		INDIA Kashmir in Spring
MAY		PERU
JUN 06		SOUTH AFRICA - 2/3 weeks	$5480	New itinerary