Another year has passed by and we are right in the middle of our summer heat. Reflecting back on 1998 I can say it was another successful year for African Bundu Safaris - simple reason - I am still in business and every safari & self-drive holiday has been as good, if not better than the previous one! I heard of a number of Tour Operators closing down last year and many had no work for months on hand - we were one of the lucky ones as every month we had some guests here in Southern Africa under our care and guidance. I was also lucky to have made so many new friends, not only from amongst my guests, but also at the various lodges, hotels or camps that hosted us - the more friends one has, the happier you are!!

I also became a Godfather this year - my brothers daughter, Erin, was baptised on the 31st January and so all the family met in Howick for the ceremony followed by a braai at Sean's farm. My sister, Gail, drove down from Kestell for the weekend, not only for Erins occassion but also to celebrate her 40th birthday - Happy Birthday Sis! It was a joyful Sunday get-to-gether again.

Didi and I have been having great fun in the swimming-pool on hot days and she has learnt a new trick - she likes chasing this plastic ball around the edge of the pool, and knows that she is not allowed to bite it - well, when I throw it to her, she tries to catch it in her teeth but with it being three times as big as her tennis ball she can't open her mouth wide enough, so she in fact hits the ball back to me with her mouth! Looks like a great soccer player of the future!! She has also learnt not to run outside of the front lawn into the street even if the gate is open - very clever dog!

Last month I mentioned about hotels, guesthouses and lodges and the system we Tour Operators use for booking guests into them, especially those on self-drive holidays. Another system that I use and has been highly successful during 1998 is to postion my clients with other larger safari companies that offer regular or large group safaris and tours - this is ideal and economical if there are only one or two people travelling and obviously cannot afford an exclusive safari. I do NOT mark the tariff up - so say for instance Karibu Safaris has a monthly safari from Johannesburg to Etosha Pan via the Okavango Delta and these are the places you want to visit - they will quote me say US$1200 for this trip - that is how much I will quote you as well. They will pay me a commission from that price - so whether you go direct to them or through me, the price is the same - the advantages of coming through me for any safari regardless if I personally run the safari or not are: (1) I will find a route or Tour Company that includes your interests or destinations, (2) I will find a safari within your budget, (3) you will travel with a reputable company who has a good record.

Now whilst there are hundreds of companies that offer tours or safaris in Southern Africa and they probably all profess to be "the best", "the oldest", "the first", "the original", "offering XYZ"....the real crunch comes down to their vehicles they use, the quality of their Guides and the accommodation establishments they use. All Guides in South Africa have to be examined and registered by Satour - there are certain standards that have to be met and then the years of experience will also govern the enjoyment and success of the trip. Some companies offer to cover half the country in a week and if this is what you want, compared to a more relaxed pace and superior standards, then we are willing to offer such trips. If you want the budget and very economically priced safaris, then we have such companies that offer such trips - but the cheaper it is, the more people in the vehicle and also less comforts are provided. We are happy to provide such services as well as the luxury services for the more discerning or upmarket guests. It is for fairly obvious reasons that we refrain from disclosing our different colleagues names until we have a financial commitment from our future guests. The same applies when we plan a self-drive holiday - until we have a financial commitment from our future guests, the exact route and accommodation establishments will not be divulged - we are very friendly, helpful, honest and obliging, but we are also in a business.

Pricing - if it is a tailor-made safari then I need some time to calculate your tariff, if it is a safari with another colleague - I can supply you with that tariff and itinerary, if it is a self-drive I can supply you some approx prices and ideas and then, the exact details after payment of our R300 booking/admin fee - this fee is very minimal but contributes to the hours of planning, telephone and fax calls it takes to compile it all for you. If you are shopping around and have e-mailed 10 or 20 other companies all with very impersonal letters, then I prefer to exchange a number of e-mails to ensure you that you are getting from me exactly what you want. I also love having replies to ALL e-mails that I send to you!!

Occassionaly I have a request from someone to "send me a brochure" - my normal reply is - "80% of my clients, find me via the Internet, and are more than happy with the information on my website and suitably impressed" - to keep my overheads low, I do NOT print fancy, expensive glossy brochures and do NOT post brochures to various corners of the globe - I have a very simple plain paper brochure which adorns the local tourist offices and are filled with all the information that is found on all my websites. Likewise, on my website is my telephone and fax number - I often am busy on the other telephone, or have popped out of the office for a short period, or am actually sleeping at home - so there is an answering machine on and luckily this accepts faxes as well. Sometime this year it is proposed to change the number to 572 4559, but no such date has been announced yet. If you are dialing from outside of South Africa, then first dial +27 31 (+ for your international call, the 27 for South Africa and 31 for Durban.) Please ensure you complete my enquiry form fully when submitting it - the more details I have of your request and planned holiday, the easier it is for me to give you what you expect.

We are having more and more requests for self-drive holidays - we will hire the car or camper for you and have it delivered either to your arrival airport or your first nights accommodation, we will plan the route with and for you, we'll book and pre-pay all the accommodation for you and we will give you a route description with ideas and attractions to be seen en-route - all this for a mere R300 fee! Obviously the car hire and accommodation costs have to be pre-paid to us with the booking fee. The most popular car to drive for a couple is a Group B car which we hire out at from R208 per day with unlimited kilometres, insurance, delivery, personal accident insurance, VAT all included. This Toyota Corrola is a 1.6 litre with air-conditioning, radio/tape and manual gear-change. All our cars are less than a year old so are in excellent condition. Accommodation costs start from R80 pppn, but average R180 pppn for a B&B - all depends on the exact location and dates. Why I am giving you these figures is so that you can work out a rough budget for a self-drive - if you can afford more, then tell me and I shall upgrade your accommodation and even the car if you wish. If you are a family of 4 or more, then I recommend either a Toyota Venture or a VW Microbus. Lots of foreigners do not know what a Venture looks like - I can e-mail you a photo of one!

We heard recently of a number of tragic happenings here in South Africa - I will briefly share them with you. One of the key political figures was assasinated recently near his home town of Richmond. This area has been a 'hotspot' for sometime and must be avoided. Since his death it has been quiet there, but the security measures have been drastically improved there. Our president still feels as though there is a 'third force' involved in a lot of the killings here in SA. Cape Town has been in the headlines over the past few months - "Pagad" whose members are mainly a few radical Moslems are creating problems with first the American-type of institutions or businesses and now recently with the police and then just last week was the tragic death of 4 occupants of a helicopter which was placing an air-conditioning unit on the roof of a tall building. The rotor hit a sign and plummeted to the ground in a ball of fire. A really terrible situation happened last week when 10 men robbed a large group of tourists who were visiting a township school. The bus driver and Tour Guide were assaulted before the tourists were robbed of money, jewellery and cameras. I have never taken tourists into townships and plan to stick to that situation - I have no belief in showing the richer people how the poorer folk live - there are many people with different opinions and reasons. Hijackings of cars is still a very 'popular' crime that takes place here in SA and this is the reason why I tell self-drive tourists to drive with all their doors locked and to especially keep their wits about them when driving in urban areas. Also, never stop to give anyone a lift!

Over the past month or so I have had contact with various friends - a past pupil suprised me again with a phonecall. Philip phoned me at 6am about 10 months ago from a Naval base near Cape Town to tell me he was there, and now he arrived in Durban to visit his family and phoned to fill me in on all his news - he is engaged! Congrats Philip and good to hear all your news. Piet and WP are a father and son team in the forthcoming Argus cycling marathon in Cape Town - they are training hard prior to their April race.

Liz is a friend who used to live in Luderitz, Namibia and now has moved to a small town called Aus - situated in the Namib desert - good to hear from you again Liz. Gillian is still as happy as every in England and writes such great newsy letters, as does my friend Colin in Cape Town who spent some great weeks game viewing and following historical interests including the Anglo-Boer and Zulu wars, plus the 1820 settlers. Carol, Ned and kids sent a great Xmas card and letter from Martinique, having crossed the Atlantic a few weeks ago in their yacht Plain Jane. I also hear occassionaly from an ex-pupil Malcolm who is living in the USA, Neil has returned from Saudi Arabia to study computers, Rene is jetting off to Seattle to also study having spent the last year in the UK and popping back to SA to visit family over Xmas, Louise has her friend Nerinda from Cape Town staying with her and there were plans to travel a bit of the UK and Europe, Kevin is with the Royal Navy waaayyy down south in the Antarctic, Larry and Beth have recently visited Yellowstone National Park, Alicia is staying in Durban for a while with her daughter whilst doing some secretarial work for judges and unfortunately had her car stolen the day after she arrived here but it was recovered by the police 3 days later with the radio and speakers missing and the gear-lock still in position! Glenn has finished school and studying light-current at the Technical College, whilst Jason is working for an electronics company as a technician, still to return to Tech to complete his diploma and Gordon is overseas in the UK hoping to get a job at one of the American summercamps soon. Karsten is another past pupil who phones me often and I joined him with his girlfriend, Angie, in their 1956 VW Beetle, plus his parents in their 1928 Ford to a veteran cars rally. It was great fun as we followed the intructions and route. We had to guess our average time before the start, that we would take to complete the route. Well, we were 72 seconds out once we arrived and were positioned 3rd - not really fair as the other cars had their speedometers working, ours didn't! The finish was the microlight club near Cato Ridge - and after a delicious breakfast, Angie and I both had a 15 minute flight in a microlight - really brought back some happy memories of my flying days in 1983.

Recently Alice and I were visited by Wendy from Mala Mala Game reserve - she brought some lovely photographs and explained in detail all the different facilities and services on offer at this luxury Private Game reserve, which has won many awards such as "Top Game Lodge in South Africa", "Best value for money in the World for properties over US$350 per room per night", "Top Hotel in Africa and the Middle East", "The Best Hotel in the World", "Best Small Hotel in the World", "Best Resort in the World" - all in the last 2 years from various institutions. The quality of the service is superb, the facilities are the best, the food is fantastic and the game-viewing is excellent with virtually the Big Five being guaranteed in your 2 or 3 night stay. There is also another new activity on offer at one of their other luxury camps in Botswana - cycling safaris - imagine riding a mountain bike amongst buffalo, elephant and even lions - luckily an armed ranger is with you to keep an eye on your safety.

Another excellent camp that we shall be using is the unique Jack's Camp - situated on the huge Makgadikgadi Pans in Botswana. If you want a luxurious and unusual experience, this fantastic camp is for you. You ride quad-bikes across the pans, meet the bushmen, explore the pans finding fossils and ancient tools, have gourmet meals and suprise incidents. Interested - contact us!

In Botswana we have a number of new, plus old popular luxury lodges in the Moremi, Okavango and Savuti that we have had excellent reports from - again, we are happy to include them in your itinerary.

The main tourist controlling body of South Africa, Satour has a new logo and so out goes the old Protea flower logo and incomes the new logo, which depicts the New South Africa image - nice, bright and exciting. There are Satour offices in various countries around the world, plus embassies or consulates where you can gain extra information about our beautiful country if you have not found enough on the Web.

During the February I have been having MAJOR problems with my internet server - their hard-drive crashed and a lot of emails disappeared. I am still having problems getting some e-mails in or out - if I do not reply within 48 hours, something has gone wrong - please contact me via : staff@tradepage.co.za

Tradepage is the company that hosts my webpage and will fax your e-mails to me - remember to tell them the e-mail is for me otherwise they might fax it to the wrong company!!

For the future, we have The Wrinklies driving up from Cape Town to Durban to attend a relatives wedding, Ruth and Matthew have their self-drive holiday all booked and planned for a few months time, Stephan and Mirjam arrive in Cape Town and spend the next 3 weeks slowly making their way to durban and then game viewing, Simon & Jane with their son will be driving through Botswana, Zimbabwe and then the Kruger area soon, and then I have an excellent birding safari booked for in a few months time into Zululand. I have Piero, Sandra, Vacca and Amitrand going on a camping safari into Mocambique plus Maurits and Luiz also on the same trip with my cousins company. I have another Tour Guide exam to pass at the begining of next month and I am sure will have many more bookings confirmed within the next month as we have many trips waiting confirmation and deposits from various clients who are still shopping around.

Well, that's all my news for now - I look forward to hearing from you soon - greater to even see you sooner!

All the best

Cheers