What a Year.

2012 saw the start of Kaapstad Motorcycle Adventure Tours 4th season of exciting tours in South Africa. Finishing off the old year with clients from the December 2011 Springbok tour at the tranquil Moholoholo Forest Camp where they were treated to a wonderful Honeymoon Special in the African bush. 

Back to Cape Town for the beginning of January and the first of a new tour we have introduced The Wild Hog Tour.  We had the pleasure of a couple who AJ has know for many many years and who ride Harley Davidsons back in the UK. An 8 day road trip took in the tar roads of the Garden Route in absolutely awesome weather. The couple enjoyed 7 days riding on Heritage Softails in some of the most beautiful towns along the route.  This tour drew lots of attention from the locals both in the towns and along the roads as they thundered through the Western Cape. Seen below enjoying the view just outside the Whaling town of Hermanus.

Happy clients heading home and already asking for a meeting to plan their next adventure with us it was time for some work/fun.......ok its all fun. Having known the guys down at Cape Town KTM AJ is sometimes treated to some special moments. Not least was the time he was asked to take the New 690 Enduro R Oryx
with Adventure Kit from Rally Raid UK .  After a great day riding the gravel roads surrounding Cape Town we are now discussing with Cape Town KTM a joint venture which may see a small fleet of these bikes being used for brand new tours up into Namibia....watch this space!!

February saw a last minute tour for a guy who has since become a great friend of ours. Trevor Collier had met AJ at several bike meetings in the UK and decided to head out to SA and the pair hit the road on a Springbok tour plus.  With two confident riders they were able to head off the normal route in several areas and go explore some new routes.  One of these routes was the road to De Hel.  Once one of South Africa's most remote settlements De Hel is 40 Km of very very hard riding conditions.You can read about Trevors adventure in Issue 4 of Overland Magazine.

Back in the uk the show season was starting to warm up and we were sorting out where we would be promoting this year.  May saw us at The BMF Show. Always a great show where we get to meet lots of old friends and clients and also special to us as its where we launched Kaapstad Motorcycle Adventure Tours. The weather wasn't great but as always we had a great time and we are looking forward to next year as the show will have a dedicated Adventure and Overland Touring section. 

AJ had an amazing time at the Horizons Unlimited meeting held at Ripley Derbyshire.  For the first time he was able to present here. whilst here he caught up with old friends from SA Fanny and Rupert who were on the UK leg over their Cape Town to Shanghai world motorcycle trip. Again a brand new look and feel for the show next year with details at http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/events/hubbuk/ . Kaapstadmat will for the first time be trading at the show. 

The final show of the year for us was The Adventure Travel Film Festival where we spent an awesome weekend with adventure travelers from all over the world. Seen here with Graham Field and the unmistakable Lois Pryce.

August saw a return visit to South Africa for meetings with South Africa National Parks and also to check out some of the Game Lodges we are using on our Winter (SA) tours. The lodge visits include testing the accommodation as well as the food and the game drives. This is not an easy job!!

So what do we have planned looking ahead???  Well we have just in the last 2 weeks introduced a brand new tour for August 2013. 7 day tour that starts in Johannesburg and travels south to the Battlegrounds of the Zulu and Boer Wars. The main historical part of this tour will be taken by one of South Africas top Battlefield Tour guides Nicki von der Heyde (BA FRGS) also on a motorcycle. We are doing this tour for a very special price as it is the first time we have done it. Details at http://www.kaapstadmat.com/assegai-tour.php  Cost of this tour......... £1675.00 instead of the published price of £2351.00  only 6 places left on this tour!!

We are also very happy to announce that in Feb 2014 we will be hosting a joint tour with Overland Magazine.  This is a one off tour that has been put together especially for the magazine and gives a great overview of life in South Africa. Details at http://overlandmag.com/explore/   We have already sold 3 places on this tour in the first week so if you are interested then do not delay. 

Finally we are hoping to have some very big news for the first part of 2013 which as yet we cant speak about but we promise you will be the first 4,514 people to know! :-)

With that it just leaves us to wish you all a very Adventurous New Year.  Hope to see you in The Rainbow Nation very soon.

Tanya and AJ  
http://www.kaapstadmat.com/