Hi All

We can almost say that summer is here at last.  Although we have had some more rain and 1 or 2 storms, we have also had some beautiful days.  There are plenty of whales in False Bay and it’s an unbelievable sight to watch them lobtailing, breeching and just showing off.

This month we will endeavour to cover a few new subjects, which we hope, you will find interesting and worth reading.

On one of our recent Peninsula Tours, we came across a troop of chacma baboons.  They are only found in South Africa, and are the largest of the baboons.  A mature male measures 1,5m from head to tail and weighs up to 33kg, whereas the more slender female measures 1,1m and weighs about 15kg.  They live on grass, roots, fruits, nuts, invertebrates, small birds and mammals.  After a gestation period of approximately 187 days, females give birth to one baby only.  The chacma baboons do not have a definite breeding season and are sexually active throughout the year.  They can be very aggressive.  Guests are advised to stay in vehicles, roll down windows to take photographs.  If you stop for too long, this is what happens to your vehicle.

Other interesting news is that South Africa is home to the world’s largest individually timed cycle race, the world’s largest open water swim and the world’s largest ultra-marathon.

Did you know that since 1994, 500 homes have been built each day for the poor.  Hope they get all this done before the soccer world cup in 2010.  Imagine driving along the N2 and not see any “shacks”!!

As far as the wine industry is concerned, there are over 5 000 producers in South Africa and only 100 000 hectares under vineyards.  The local industry is small compared to giants such as France, Australia and California in the US.  We are competing very successfully on quality though.  There are a number of estates like Meerlust, Boschendal etc. that are literally centuries old, having been found in the 1600’s;  others like Kanonkop, Simonsig etc. are younger, but still have 50 – 100 years of top quality reputation behind them.

So, with summer here, we hope you have all made your holiday bookings to our beautiful Cape Town, and if you haven’t, be sure to think about it seriously.

Until next time, we bid you good bye