Western Cape day tours, wildlife & culture
| country: | South Africa |
| location: | Western Cape |
| departures: | This trip can be tailormade at a time to suit you and can be adapted to suit you budget, interests and requirement as necessary. |
| price: | From R1500 (1 day) excluding flights. See below for full details of trips and individual prices |
the amazing things you'll be doing
We offer you a wide range of Western Cape Day tours to discover the secrets of the marine realm around the South African coast.
South Africa has the privilege of being bathed by two currents - the warm Agulhas current on the eastern shores and the northbound cold Benguela current on the western shores. The beautiful city of Cape Town is where these currents collide, setting the scene for one of the world’s most fascinating marine regions and the base for our marine expeditions. It is this in-depth knowledge of the ocean that we want to share with you during these Western Cape day tours and we pride ourselves in the quality of our guides.
Our guides are all marine biologists or archaeologists with postgraduate degrees and currently affiliated to the University of Cape Town. All are trained by Prof. George Branch or Prof John Parkington and are experts in their field, passionate about what they do and have a broad general knowledge of not only the marine realm but also general conservation and social, historic and current issues that face this country. Our Western Cape day tours are offered in English and Spanish.
Where mountains & seas collide: On this journey we reveal the secrets of the Cape Peninsula coast, the famed Cape of Good Hope. We take you to the Dalebrook Marine Reserve on the False Bay coast, timed carefully with the tides so that you can leisurely encounter the fascinating life of the rocky shores creatures. From there we walk around the Kalk Bay harbour with its fleet of colourful wooden fishing vessels and travel the coastal road to the historic naval town of Simonstown and the African penguin colony at beautiful Boulders Beach. Then we journey past the small settlement of Smitswinkel Bay and on to the famed Cape Point National Park with ostrich, zebra, bontebok, eland and baboons.
From R1500 per person, including delicious picnic lunch, refreshments, entrance and guide fees and the use of our on-board library.
The wild west coast: The wild west coast of South Africa is an under-explored gem, the crown jewel being the West Coast National Park with the recently exposed ‘Eve’s footprints’ left by a lone figure 117 000 years ago. The reserve protects the azure waters of the Langebaan Lagoon and adjacent islands, haven to thousands of seabirds. The salt marshes are home to migrant wader species and in spring the strandveld bursts with carpets of flowers. We round the trip off with a very special encounter at the !Khwa ttu San Culture and Education Center where San guides will take you game tracking on ancient lands with views down to the ocean and the grand silhouette of Table Mountain.
From R1500 per person, including delicious picnic lunch, refreshments, entrance and guide fees and the use of our on-board library.
South Africa has the privilege of being bathed by two currents - the warm Agulhas current on the eastern shores and the northbound cold Benguela current on the western shores. The beautiful city of Cape Town is where these currents collide, setting the scene for one of the world’s most fascinating marine regions and the base for our marine expeditions. It is this in-depth knowledge of the ocean that we want to share with you during these Western Cape day tours and we pride ourselves in the quality of our guides.
Our guides are all marine biologists or archaeologists with postgraduate degrees and currently affiliated to the University of Cape Town. All are trained by Prof. George Branch or Prof John Parkington and are experts in their field, passionate about what they do and have a broad general knowledge of not only the marine realm but also general conservation and social, historic and current issues that face this country. Our Western Cape day tours are offered in English and Spanish.
western cape day tours
Where mountains & seas collide: On this journey we reveal the secrets of the Cape Peninsula coast, the famed Cape of Good Hope. We take you to the Dalebrook Marine Reserve on the False Bay coast, timed carefully with the tides so that you can leisurely encounter the fascinating life of the rocky shores creatures. From there we walk around the Kalk Bay harbour with its fleet of colourful wooden fishing vessels and travel the coastal road to the historic naval town of Simonstown and the African penguin colony at beautiful Boulders Beach. Then we journey past the small settlement of Smitswinkel Bay and on to the famed Cape Point National Park with ostrich, zebra, bontebok, eland and baboons. From R1500 per person, including delicious picnic lunch, refreshments, entrance and guide fees and the use of our on-board library.
The wild west coast: The wild west coast of South Africa is an under-explored gem, the crown jewel being the West Coast National Park with the recently exposed ‘Eve’s footprints’ left by a lone figure 117 000 years ago. The reserve protects the azure waters of the Langebaan Lagoon and adjacent islands, haven to thousands of seabirds. The salt marshes are home to migrant wader species and in spring the strandveld bursts with carpets of flowers. We round the trip off with a very special encounter at the !Khwa ttu San Culture and Education Center where San guides will take you game tracking on ancient lands with views down to the ocean and the grand silhouette of Table Mountain. From R1500 per person, including delicious picnic lunch, refreshments, entrance and guide fees and the use of our on-board library.
how this holiday makes a difference
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With our Western Cape day tours we aim to lead the way for marine tourism in South Africa, both the standards we set with our marine biologist guides and the care with which we look after our guests. Our guests are given a Traveller's Code of Conduct to guide them in sound environmental practices and culturally-appropriate behaviour.
Environmental projects: We provide a platform for the financial support of marine conservation projects through WWF-SA on our website and tours (no administration fee). We run the adopt-a-pelican project which raises funds for expensive tracking equipment. We support the South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative by educating guests on which fisheries are sustainable, buying ‘green’ seafood products and distributing SASSI cards to guests. Our birding operators donate to the Birdlife Save the Albatross campaign. We offer tag-and-release fishing charters and data is sent to the Oceanographic Research Institute. Community support: All our guides are biologists working on their post-graduate degrees. South Africa has limited financial assistance for students and this helps support their studies and allows them to develop new skills. We use a local company for the cleaning of our vehicles and local guards to watch our vehicles while walking. Our picnic baskets are from the Society for the Blind, our fabric is all sewn-to order by local seamstresses and we support local beadwork artists; not only does this create sustainable livelihoods but also increases awareness of the value of marine life. We include the history of our country as part of the tour with reference to specific places as we tour, even the difficult parts. We stop at road-side markets to allow our guests a chance to buy locally carved curios from sustainable raw materials and give guidance for appropriate practices e.g. bargaining, key phrases in Afrikaans & Xhosa, and we insist that sweets and money to beggars is inappropriate and carry food packs should guests feel they would like to help.  We support the !Khwa ttu San Cultural and Education Centre by exposing our guests to the issues faced by minority cultures and promoting their educational projects via our website. We support the Clanwilliam Living Landscapes Project by selling books from the ‘Follow the San’ series via our website and on the tours. The sale of the books (we take no profit) feeds funds back into the community project. We work with the Living Landscapes Project in communities needing alternative livelihoods as fish stocks diminish. This project trains members of the community with guiding skills for archaeological sites and various cultural landscapes. We train the guides with knowledge of the marine realm so they can offer coastal walking tours. Environmental practices: We practise the ‘take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but (gentle) footprints’ policy. Group size is limited to a maximum of 6 when we are walking in sensitive areas such as where birds are nesting or where trampling of marine life may occur. All light bulbs in our office are energy-saving, we use the internet & email to limit our paper use and run a strict recycling campaign (all food packaging is taken back to the office and recycled). The Western Cape has a severe water shortage and guests are educated on this as part of the tour. Our picnic food is locally produced and usually organically grown. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |