Overland tour from Victoria Falls to Cape Town

Planet

Water: Before commencing one of our tours travellers are sent detailed pre-departure information which includes advice on using water sparingly. We recognise water to be one of the world's most precious commodities, particularly, in some of the areas this trip travels through. Due to the camping nature of this trip we carry a lot of our water for cooking, drinking and washing with us. Filling up heavy jerry cans, we find, helps focus the mind on the importance of water conservation!

We also encourage our travellers to bring reusable water bottles from home with them for the trip. These can be filled from the truck's water supplies. This helps to minimise the usage of plastic water bottles.

Waste: at the point of booking a tour with us, all our travellers receive detailed pre-departure information which contains a large section on travelling responsibly. This includes advice on minimising the amount of waste they create on the trip. This informs travellers on what they can do before they go, for example removing toiletries from unnecessary packaging and taking a reusable water bottle and gives advice on what they should do whilst on the tour, for example, disposing of litter appropriately.

All of this information on waste reduction is re-iterated at the pre-departure meeting at the start of the tour, with specific advice for the areas we visit on the tour. As a company we have a big commitment to reducing, reusing and recycling in our UK office. We are very aware of the environmental impact of our office in the UK, so we recycle and compost as much of our waste as possible. We try to reduce paper usage ,but when necessary we use recycled paper and stationery. Our brochure is available to view or download online and the paper version is printed on stock produced from sustainable sources and vegetable based inks.

People

Volunteering and Charity: As a company we support a number of charities and local projects across our area of operation. In Zimbabwe we provide financial and practical support to a Children's Home in Harare. One of the highlights, for us and them, of our support is that we run an event, fondly known by our crew as 'Kid's Week' in which we take, all the children and staff out on a day trip using our expedition trucks. Many of the children rarely leave the compound they live on so it is a big event for them. Our most recent event, in Dec 2018, involved taking 77 children and 11 staff out for a day to a local Lake and Bird Park. After an informative walk, talk and lunch the children had great fun on the bouncy castles we hired. We also bought all the children notebooks and coloring pencils and stocked the Home up with food before we left. In the past we have equipped the Home with a borehole; educational materials; mattresses; clothing and a variety of other items.

Friends and Neighbours: We encourage our travellers to spread their 'tourist dollar' by supporting local artisans and restaurants. We also purchase food locally, always endeavouring to buy from markets and roadside sellers if we can. We buy our tents locally in order to support the local economy and to reduce the environmental impact of international transportation. We visit a number of sites during the trip which employ local guides including the Okavango Delta, the Cheetah Park and Robben Island.