If you are thinking of taking a trip to Cape Town to catch a few World Cup 2010 Soccer Games don't be put off by stories of high priced hotel rooms. While the year started off with some Cape Town hotels asking exorbitant rates for rooms in June and July, common sense has now started to prevail. We have noticed a marked increase in the number of e-mails we get every day from hotels in Cape Town advertising rooms available over the World Cup Period. You can access these available rooms at reasonable rates on our hotel booking engine by clicking here.
World Cup 2010 schedule for Cape Town are as follows -
11 June - Uruguay vs France
14 June - Italy vs Paraguay
18 June - England vs Algeria
21 June - Portugal vs Korea
24 June - Cameroon vs Netherlands
29 June - 1st in Group H vs 2nd in Group G
3 July - Winner of match 51 vs Winner of match 52 (Quarter Final)
6 July - Winner of match 57 vs Winner of match 58 (Semi Final)
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
South Africa Hotels release more rooms for World Cup 2010
As we draw closer to June 6th and the start of World Cup 2010, South African hoteliers are looking at their occupancy levels during the games and are adjusting rates and availability accordingly. While you will still pay over the odds for a bed of any kind in South Africa during this time, the rates we are now seeing are not quite as high as they were! If you check out our online accommodation booking engine you can see availability and rates at a selection of hotels, guesthouses and B&B's throughout South Africa. Availability on our booking system is live and in real time so if you see something that fits your requirements best advice is to grab it now as it may not be available tomorrow !
Car Rentals are still showing available during World Cup and you can check South African Car Rental rates and availability by clicking here.
Click here to check availability at South African Hotels and Guesthouses
Check the match schedule for WC 2010 on the FIFA website here
Car Rentals are still showing available during World Cup and you can check South African Car Rental rates and availability by clicking here.
Click here to check availability at South African Hotels and Guesthouses
Check the match schedule for WC 2010 on the FIFA website here
Friday, March 19, 2010
Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe increase fees
Sorry folks, some of our safaris to Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe (including Victoria Falls) have increased in price recently. Here is why -
- The Botswana Government announced a 2% increase in VAT with effect from 1 April.
- The Zimbabwe National Parks Board has also increased Park fees, which affects the entry to the Rainforest at Victoria Falls and the sunset cruises on the Zambezi River.
- ACSA (Airports Company of South Africa) have increased airport taxes (ZA Tax).
- Zambian National Monuments have increased the entrance fees to the Falls on the Zambian side with immediate effect.
- National Heritage Conservation Commission (NHCC) in Zambia, have increased their fees with effect from 1 March.
Friday, March 5, 2010
New Airport for Durban
On 01 May 2010 the Durban's new King Shaka International Airport (KSIA) becomes operational for all Durban-bound air travel. The existing Durban International Airport will be decommissioned; although it may be used for a temporary period during the Soccer World Cup event if required. All flights into Durban up to and including Friday 30 April 2010 will operate from the current airport. From 01 May 2010, all flights will officially operate out of the new airport which is located approximately 35 kilometers north of the city centre.
Travelers will need to factor in extra time to get to and from the new KSIA and bear in mind that if you are travelling in one direction before 30 April and back after 01 May, that you may need a shuttle between the two airports.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Exit Row Seats on Kenya Airways
I have just returned from a trip to Tanzania. I flew via London connecting on to a Kenya Airways flight from Heathrow to Nairobi with a further connection on Precision Air from Nairobi to Kilimanjaro. I have to say that service on both airlines was good. Kenya Airways operate a 777 on the London route and have a seat back entertainment system in all seats in economy. There are about 8 channels with a good selection of movies. Food was edible and believe it or not you still get a free drink (or two if you are lucky!!). Nothing like a couple of cold Tusker's to kick off an East African safari...
At check in I inquired about the possibility of getting one of the elusive Exit Row seats. It seems that like many other carriers Kenya Airways now sell these seats. The fee is GBP50 each way (works out to be somewhere around $85). I guess this is not too bad considering that it is an 8 1/2 hour flight. However, there did not seem to be too much of an uptake on the offer with a number of Exit row seats remaining unsold (and unoccupied) when the doors closed. This worked to the advantage of those who had strategically seated themselves in aisle seats close to the exit row. As soon as the doors closed these eager travelers sprinted to take their pride of place in one of these coveted positions. So I guess if you are thinking of trying to nab an exit row seat on your next Kenya Airways flight you have two options.......pay your money or take your chances...
At check in I inquired about the possibility of getting one of the elusive Exit Row seats. It seems that like many other carriers Kenya Airways now sell these seats. The fee is GBP50 each way (works out to be somewhere around $85). I guess this is not too bad considering that it is an 8 1/2 hour flight. However, there did not seem to be too much of an uptake on the offer with a number of Exit row seats remaining unsold (and unoccupied) when the doors closed. This worked to the advantage of those who had strategically seated themselves in aisle seats close to the exit row. As soon as the doors closed these eager travelers sprinted to take their pride of place in one of these coveted positions. So I guess if you are thinking of trying to nab an exit row seat on your next Kenya Airways flight you have two options.......pay your money or take your chances...
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
SAA and Virgin America Sign Agreement
SAA and Virgin America have implemented an interline agreement offering seamless travel on the flights of each airline. The agreement will allow connecting passengers to purchase interline tickets for travel between the U.S. and South Africa via their travel agent. Both SAA and Virgin America will transfer baggage between connecting flights and to your final destination. Virgin America flies to New York, Washington DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Diego, Orange County and Las Vegas.
Since its launch in August 2007, Virgin America has captured a list of industry best-in-class awards, including most recently “Best Business/First Class” among domestic airlines in Condé Nast Traveler’s 2009 Business Travel Poll. The airline offers travelers low fares and high-tech features, including touch-screen seatback entertainment, standard power outlets near every seat and Gogo® In-flight Internet on every flight.
Click here to check availability and rates on SAA/Virgin America flights to Africa.
Since its launch in August 2007, Virgin America has captured a list of industry best-in-class awards, including most recently “Best Business/First Class” among domestic airlines in Condé Nast Traveler’s 2009 Business Travel Poll. The airline offers travelers low fares and high-tech features, including touch-screen seatback entertainment, standard power outlets near every seat and Gogo® In-flight Internet on every flight.
Click here to check availability and rates on SAA/Virgin America flights to Africa.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
September Migration and Game Report Masai Mara
Courtsey of Governor's Camp
The weather & the plains:
Whilst Kenya is going through a particularly bad drought this year, the Mara has at least had some relief. We have received localised afternoon rain showers, greening the parched grass that has been grazed and trodden down by the migration. Mostly the Southern and Western part of the Mara has benefitted from the rain, whilst northern areas towards the Aitong hills and beyond still remain fairly dry.
The new green growth has brought all the grazers together in large concentrations and the Musiara Marsh area around us is full of life. At the start of the migration into the Mara, the grass is long and the grazers move more or less in a particular order depending on how they evolved or developed. The bulk grazers (the zebras) and to some degree the wildebeest come in first, eating the larger leafy mass of the grass stem. They are then followed by the topi and gazelles who are more specific about what they eat, preferring the shorter sprigs at the base of the stem. In this way the animals compliment the other species instead of being in competition with each other.
The Marsh has started to fill up, much to the delight of the River frogs, Reed frogs and Guttural Toads who have added to the chorus of night sounds.
The Migration:
This month has seen large concentrations of wildebeest and gazelles mostly in the Musiara area, continuing down the Mara River to Paradise plains and over to look out hill. After some initial indecisiveness and a little rain, large herds of wildebeest have decided to spend considerable amount of time with us.
The Mara River runs North to South from its water shed the Mau Forest into the Serengeti, then deviates West into Lake Victoria which in total is a 395km journey. A large portion of the migration move westward towards the river in search of grazing, even though there is still grass where they have come from there is an unexplainable driving force to cross the river.
The viewing from the balloon has been exceptional this month as their flight path takes in the Mara River, the Olpunyata swamp and the Eluai plains in the Mara triangle. They have had great sightings of the migration, lion, leopard and the occasional rhino.
The main herds of zebras numbering somewhere in the region of 200 000 have remained mostly to the East of the reserve, with scattered herds along the river.
New arrivals:
During September we have been lucky enough to have seen the birth of a variety of species in the Mara. The zebras have their fuzzy brown foals, two topi calves have been seen up at the air strip following their mothers very cautiously, tiny piglets following the mother warthog in a train, tails high in the air and the gazelles who lay low, ears flat in the grass hiding from their predators.
We are still awaiting the ostrich chicks which, often hatch in large numbers as they have communal nests. Some of the eggs have however been targeted this season and eaten by lion and hyena.
There are a few hyena dens out on Paradise plains, one of which the pups have become very accustomed to the vehicle and come right up to investigate, sometimes chewing the tyres to see whether they are edible or not - no punctures yet!
The Cats:
The Marsh pride of lions have been spending their days under the shade of the trees around the Marsh, lying out on the grassed termite mounds or sleeping in the shade of our airplane on the airstrip! They have no need to move very far at all as the wildebeest have been in the area all month. The pride is doing very well and is stable with the two big boys ensuring the territory is safe from other males and the cubs nearing adulthood are secure. The younger members of the pride had an interesting encounter with a porcupine this month. After about half an hour of trying to discover whether the porcupine would make a decent meal the lions gave up and left the terrified porcupine to escape!
The Paradise pride are fat and happy too. With the arrival of 8 new cubs into the pride in August their numbers are increasing rapidly and with plenty of antelope coming down to the crossing area; they seem to be very content. Notch remains with his one son in the paradise pride; the two other sons have moved across the river and have been seen with other lionesses. The remaining two sons are still nomadic and have not been seen with females.
'Shakira' the female Cheetah and her 3 cubs are doing very well. Her cubs almost fully grown (20 months old) are learning very quickly and will soon leave their mother and forge their own way. As the cubs are females they will split after some time and become independent of each other, each having to raise a family alone.
'Malaika' the other female, Kikes daughter is in the area and has been seen less regularly...
The three Cheetah boys have been roaming the plains with their usual confidence as they have a strong coalition. They, like Shakira have to hunt daily as there are more mouths to feed and the success rate is not normally that high.
The mother Leopard 'Olive' out in the Talek river area has been seen most days. She has been bold enough to bring out her cubs which were born mid August from hiding and lead them to various resting and feeding spots along the river.
The young male leopard which has mostly been across the river in August whilst the river was low has been spotted a few times above the Little Governors crossing along the forest. He is a fairly relaxed young chap, posing perfectly on the fallen logs in the forest giving our guests some great sightings.
The leopardess that frequents the river line between the camps has been seen frequently as well as the odd sighting of the rather large male that resides near the rocks past the main crossing point.
We have had a couple of rare sightings of Caracal, once a mother with a cub. The cub was very curious and ran right to the vehicle and then returned to its shyer mother; an incredible sighting.
The Caracal is a smaller, tawny coloured cat with long tufts on its ears resembling a lynx.
Serval cats have been spotted periodically as well, a beautiful animal with extraordinary markings. It has long legs and large elongated ears aiding them in hunting birds and mice in the grass.
Elephants have been travelling longer distances in search of food as the grass has mostly been grazed and plants are less nutritious. We still recognise some of the characters that come through the camps, sometimes spending the whole night if they find a few trees worthy of their attention.
The elephant sightings this month have mostly been matriarchal herds with few bulls moving through the area.
On the whole, it has been an amazing month with the Mara continuing to support huge amounts of wildlife despite the droughts in Kenya.
On the community front we are delighted to announce that water was pumped to Aitong Primary School for the first time ever on the 16th of September. This was done thanks to a new windmill purchased by Mararianda Charitable Trust working in partnership with Governors Camp. We have also built a water distribution system at the school. This is a momentous moment for the school as previously the school had no running water and all water was collected by hand from a spring on site. If you would like to visit or get involved in any of our community projects whilst you are on safari with us then please let us know and we would be happy to arrange this.
TravelSpark.com offers great value safaris at Governors Camp in Kenya's Masai Mara.
Click here to contact us for more information
The weather & the plains:
Whilst Kenya is going through a particularly bad drought this year, the Mara has at least had some relief. We have received localised afternoon rain showers, greening the parched grass that has been grazed and trodden down by the migration. Mostly the Southern and Western part of the Mara has benefitted from the rain, whilst northern areas towards the Aitong hills and beyond still remain fairly dry.
The new green growth has brought all the grazers together in large concentrations and the Musiara Marsh area around us is full of life. At the start of the migration into the Mara, the grass is long and the grazers move more or less in a particular order depending on how they evolved or developed. The bulk grazers (the zebras) and to some degree the wildebeest come in first, eating the larger leafy mass of the grass stem. They are then followed by the topi and gazelles who are more specific about what they eat, preferring the shorter sprigs at the base of the stem. In this way the animals compliment the other species instead of being in competition with each other.
The Marsh has started to fill up, much to the delight of the River frogs, Reed frogs and Guttural Toads who have added to the chorus of night sounds.
The Migration:
This month has seen large concentrations of wildebeest and gazelles mostly in the Musiara area, continuing down the Mara River to Paradise plains and over to look out hill. After some initial indecisiveness and a little rain, large herds of wildebeest have decided to spend considerable amount of time with us.
The Mara River runs North to South from its water shed the Mau Forest into the Serengeti, then deviates West into Lake Victoria which in total is a 395km journey. A large portion of the migration move westward towards the river in search of grazing, even though there is still grass where they have come from there is an unexplainable driving force to cross the river.
The viewing from the balloon has been exceptional this month as their flight path takes in the Mara River, the Olpunyata swamp and the Eluai plains in the Mara triangle. They have had great sightings of the migration, lion, leopard and the occasional rhino.
The main herds of zebras numbering somewhere in the region of 200 000 have remained mostly to the East of the reserve, with scattered herds along the river.
New arrivals:
During September we have been lucky enough to have seen the birth of a variety of species in the Mara. The zebras have their fuzzy brown foals, two topi calves have been seen up at the air strip following their mothers very cautiously, tiny piglets following the mother warthog in a train, tails high in the air and the gazelles who lay low, ears flat in the grass hiding from their predators.
We are still awaiting the ostrich chicks which, often hatch in large numbers as they have communal nests. Some of the eggs have however been targeted this season and eaten by lion and hyena.
There are a few hyena dens out on Paradise plains, one of which the pups have become very accustomed to the vehicle and come right up to investigate, sometimes chewing the tyres to see whether they are edible or not - no punctures yet!
The Cats:
The Marsh pride of lions have been spending their days under the shade of the trees around the Marsh, lying out on the grassed termite mounds or sleeping in the shade of our airplane on the airstrip! They have no need to move very far at all as the wildebeest have been in the area all month. The pride is doing very well and is stable with the two big boys ensuring the territory is safe from other males and the cubs nearing adulthood are secure. The younger members of the pride had an interesting encounter with a porcupine this month. After about half an hour of trying to discover whether the porcupine would make a decent meal the lions gave up and left the terrified porcupine to escape!
The Paradise pride are fat and happy too. With the arrival of 8 new cubs into the pride in August their numbers are increasing rapidly and with plenty of antelope coming down to the crossing area; they seem to be very content. Notch remains with his one son in the paradise pride; the two other sons have moved across the river and have been seen with other lionesses. The remaining two sons are still nomadic and have not been seen with females.
'Shakira' the female Cheetah and her 3 cubs are doing very well. Her cubs almost fully grown (20 months old) are learning very quickly and will soon leave their mother and forge their own way. As the cubs are females they will split after some time and become independent of each other, each having to raise a family alone.
'Malaika' the other female, Kikes daughter is in the area and has been seen less regularly...
The three Cheetah boys have been roaming the plains with their usual confidence as they have a strong coalition. They, like Shakira have to hunt daily as there are more mouths to feed and the success rate is not normally that high.
The mother Leopard 'Olive' out in the Talek river area has been seen most days. She has been bold enough to bring out her cubs which were born mid August from hiding and lead them to various resting and feeding spots along the river.
The young male leopard which has mostly been across the river in August whilst the river was low has been spotted a few times above the Little Governors crossing along the forest. He is a fairly relaxed young chap, posing perfectly on the fallen logs in the forest giving our guests some great sightings.
The leopardess that frequents the river line between the camps has been seen frequently as well as the odd sighting of the rather large male that resides near the rocks past the main crossing point.
We have had a couple of rare sightings of Caracal, once a mother with a cub. The cub was very curious and ran right to the vehicle and then returned to its shyer mother; an incredible sighting.
The Caracal is a smaller, tawny coloured cat with long tufts on its ears resembling a lynx.
Serval cats have been spotted periodically as well, a beautiful animal with extraordinary markings. It has long legs and large elongated ears aiding them in hunting birds and mice in the grass.
Elephants have been travelling longer distances in search of food as the grass has mostly been grazed and plants are less nutritious. We still recognise some of the characters that come through the camps, sometimes spending the whole night if they find a few trees worthy of their attention.
The elephant sightings this month have mostly been matriarchal herds with few bulls moving through the area.
On the whole, it has been an amazing month with the Mara continuing to support huge amounts of wildlife despite the droughts in Kenya.
On the community front we are delighted to announce that water was pumped to Aitong Primary School for the first time ever on the 16th of September. This was done thanks to a new windmill purchased by Mararianda Charitable Trust working in partnership with Governors Camp. We have also built a water distribution system at the school. This is a momentous moment for the school as previously the school had no running water and all water was collected by hand from a spring on site. If you would like to visit or get involved in any of our community projects whilst you are on safari with us then please let us know and we would be happy to arrange this.
TravelSpark.com offers great value safaris at Governors Camp in Kenya's Masai Mara.
Click here to contact us for more information
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