Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
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.
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
